Holy crap. A lot has happened in the Toronto Independent Music Community since we last published a zine two years ago. Here’s a look at some highlights. We apologize in advance for forgetting  you.

Feb 2005 • Wavelength 250 festival features Final Fantasy, Jon-Rae & the River, Holy Fuck, The Blow, YACHT, The BackTheFuckUps, LAL, The World Provider, The Constantines, The Creeping Nobodies, Kids on TV and more. Venues: Cinecycle, Lee’s Palace, the Music Gallery and Sneaky’s. • Last issue of WL print zine published • Shameless Magazine launches issue three • Final Fantasy releases Has a Good Home on Blocks

March 2005 • Owen Pallett feuds with trip-hop diva Esthero on 20hz • Action Makes, No Dynamics, Ninja High School play a house party at Trevor Coleman’s place • Grasshopper re-releases 1992 demo Born Loser on vinyl • NHS 7” comes out on Tomlab • Great Lake Swimmers release Bodies and Minds • Republic of Safety release Passport at Stones Place • Final Blow Up party blows up at El Mo • Picastro release Metal Cares on Polyvinyl • Jonny Dovercourt’s last month booking Wavelength; includes Swedish indie heartthrob Jens Lekman

April 2005 • Ryan McLaren takes over booking Wavelength, initiating the “guest programmer” era  • StillePost.ca launches; 20hz.ca turns into cyber-dustbowl in the course of one entertaining afternoon • Aperture Enzyme DVD released • Weakerthans/Constantines Rolling Thunder Revue visits Toronto for a weekend at Lee’s • Lenin i Shumov EP released • Snowy Owl christen The Boat

May 2005 • Matt & Kat Collins get married; reception at Sneaky Dee’s • Over the Top Festival features Japanther, The Books, Mice Parade, Boom Bip, Chad vanGaalen, MC Paul Barman, From Fiction, Thunderbirds Are Now!, The Sourkeys and more • Blocks Recording Club releases discs by S.S. Cardiacs and The Barcelona Pavilion

June 2005 • Second and final Track & Field camping festival @ Tantramar Farm near Guelph; highlights include Jon-Rae around a campfire and getting shut down by the fuzz, Singing Saws in a field, Awesome’s mystical drones • Olympic Island Festival #1 with BSS, Modest Mouse, Metric • Somali-Canadian rapper K’Naan releases The Dusty Foot Philosopher • Jon-Rae & the River releases Old Songs For The New Town on Permafrost

July 2005 • More indie weddings! Magali “Phonemes” Meagher and Bob Wiseman get hitched • Laura Barrett’s “coming out party” at the “Weird” Al Yankovic tribute, also the first “In Search Of…” night at the Bagel • Hillside Festival: Arcade Fire triumphant

Aug 2005 • More love! Wavelength columnists Smokey Campbell and Pussy Powers (aka Dave Rodgers and Jen Verschraegen) tie the knot • Creative printers The Complaint Department part ways; mitosis later results in Trip Print Press and Standard Form • ‘50s dance night Goin’ Steady kicks off at the Boat; Dan Akyroyd and Ron Wood show up and act creepy • Murdered City Music Festival at the Ford Plant in Brantford features the Wooden Stars and Wolf Parade • Escape Goat Records’ With Friends Like These… Festival also features Wooden Stars, plus Final Fantasy and Ryan Stanley • No Dynamics CD release at Bagel/Tranzac

Sept 2005 • Dylan Reibling (Fake Prom) starts booking Wavelength; teaches us to love the “heavy music” • Ear to the Ground Festival scheduled for Exhibition Place collapses days before launch; many bands, agents and ticket-buyers furious; “organizer” Craig Logue goes into hiding; silver lining: Cadence Weapon plays Wavelength! • Jonny Dovercourt takes over as “interim director” of the Music Gallery • The Blankket plays in garbage on Spadina Ave. • Fembots release The City; The Deadly Snakes release Porcella; both on Paper Bag Records

Oct 2005 • First Extermination Music Night @ Don Valley Brickworks; people brave mortal injury to mosh to Anagram and Feuermusik in an abandoned factory • Halloween Wavelength features Mark Meeks’ zombie musical Rigor Mortis Got Me Down, plus Lullabye Arkestra and Robocopp • Constantines release LP 3, Tournament of Hearts • Broken Social Scene release LP 2, self-titled

Nov 2005 • Wavelength zine fundraiser @ Sneaky Dee’s and O’Grady’s, with The Meligrove Band, RYVYR, The Bicycles, Henri Faberge & the Adorables and more (yeah, we’re only spending that money just now) • Coach House Books’ Torontopian anthology uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto published  • Indie Rock Rave at the Boat features all night show with Ninja High School, Kids on TV, Woodhands and a million DJs • Burn Rome In A Dream call it quits; death rattle includes the Fuck Holding Pattern CD • Nathan Lawr releases Secret Carpentry

Dec 2005 • Teenage pop wunderkinds Spiral Beach play their first Wavelength, alongside turntablists InsideAMind and guitar/drums duo Thousand Dollar Wedding • Maggie MacDonald publishes sci-fi novel, Kill the Robot, on McGilligan Books • New Year’s Eve at the Boat features Kids on TV, Republic of Safety and Jon-Rae & the River

Jan 2006 • Laura Barrett and Final Fantasy duet on “Robot Ponies” at the Over the Top Festival pre-pre-launch at the Great Hall, also featuring Brooklyn’s Akron/Family and Great Lake Swimmers; Laura and stillepost-formed band Pyramid Culture play Wavelength with Mortimercy

Feb 2006 • Wavelength 300 festival features The Hylozoists, Picastro, Ohbijou, Ninja High School, Anagram, The Bicycles, Castlemusic and more. Venues: The Speakeasy (RIP), The Boat, the Music Gallery, Sneaky’s   • Inaugural Wavelength Panel Discussion at the Speakeasy as part of WL300, features topics, “What is ‘indie’?”, “Torontopia vs. Dystopia” and “Where do we go from here?” • Sloan “tribute” at the Boat features Laura Barrett and The Chris Murphys: declared “effrontery” by bloggers at theratio.org • Keith Hamilton (Pitter Patter Nights) books Wavelength • Femme Generation releases Brothers & Sisters, Alone We Explode on Permafrost

March 2006 • Bad Bands Revolution manifesto championing amateur music posted on stillepost by Kat “Handkerchief” Collins; CD “release” @ The Boat • Queen West bar The Social cancels Aporia Records’ CMW showcase at the last minute; Lily and Jose from By Divine Right reschedule the show at their house • Glissandro 70 CD release with rare concert at Tranzac; audience amazed that Craig and Sandro can do it all live • From Fiction release Bloodwork on Last Gang • Tokyo Police Club play Wavelength pre-blog-buzz
 
April 2006 • First ALL CAPS! show at Tranzac with Ninja High School, No Dynamics, Republic of Safety and Hank, recorded for broadcast on Brave New Waves • Final Fantasy releases He Poos Clouds with “The Man Show” at the Music Gallery • Wavelength and Images Festival co-presentation features Deep Dark United, Singing Saw Shadow Show and the Still Camera Film Festival • Poor Pilgrim weekly series begins @ the Press Club

May 2006 • Over the Top Festival features Dirty Projectors, Chad VanGaalen, the Nihilist Spasm Band, Grizzly Bear, Ris Paul Ric, The Bicycles and more • Republic of Safety release Vacation EP on Ta-Da! • Wavelength and artist Brian Joseph Davis co-present the Yesterduh closing party @ Mercer Union, featuring a rare performance by a cappella dance cover band Vigilante Justice

June 2006 • Kevin Parnell starts booking Wavelength; the avant-garde rejoices • Creeping Nobodies release Sound of Joy • From Fiction call it quits, way too soon • Matt Blair and Kate Carraway’s Strong Words Anthology Vol. 1 released @ Gladstone • soundaXis Festival finds links between new music and architecture

July 2006 • Wavelength introduces Toronto to Montreal’s Think About Life • Jamaica to Toronto: Soul, Funk and Reggae 1967-1974 compilation released with original vocalists performng at Harbourfront Centre; audience in tears • Hillside Festival features Feist, The Constantines, The Blow, C’Mon and more • Jon-Rae releases Knows What You Need on vinyl • Kevin Parnell’s play Session Players staged at Victory Café with local musical guests

Aug 2006 • First-ever Bummer in the Summer Festival at the Tranzac, a psych/experimental bonanza with Oneida, MV & EE & the Bummer Road, Dollarama, Disguises, Ghostlight and more • ALL CAPS! all day show @ Dufferin Grove Park; little kids dance to I Can Put My Arm Back On You Can’t, The Diableros, Stop Die Resuscitate and more • Fake Prom: “Welcome to the Jungle” @ Lee’s Palace • Extermination Music Night II @ “Bun Master” in the Junction features Feuermusik Big Band, Castlemusic, Rosazia, Anagram and some amazing artwork • Wavelength & Harbourfront co-present Chicago’s Volcano! with a Singing Saw/Polmo Polpo mash-up as part of Indie Unlimited festival • The Hidden Cameras release Awoo on Arts & Crafts • Feuermusik release Goodbye, Lucille • Sneaky Dee’s renovates upstairs, removes the pool table • Wavelength moves to The Boat for one night, features sound poet Christian Bök

Sept 2006 • Final Fantasy wins inaugural Polaris Prize for He Poos Clouds; Blocks Recording Club goes on week-long bender • Music Gallery launches X Avant festival with Tony Conrad, Dirty Projectors, OM, Joe McPhee and Jan Jelinek • Vfest semi-debacle; Flaming Lips set cut off • Wavelength has slam poets perform • Nuit Blanche “all night contemporary art thing” shows Toronto how to loosen up and whack each other with plastic gym balls

Oct 2006 • Montreal goes Toronto: Lullabye Arkestra, Eric Chenaux, Sandro Perri release CDs on Constellation Records • Unknown Unknown all night party @ Don Valley Brickworks features rockers vs ravers; violent Missile Command set sparks controvery on Stille Post • Born Ruffians EP released on Warp/XL (not bad, boys!) • Joanna Newsom plays Toronto for the first time @ The Mod Club • Fucked Up release Hidden World over four days of shows • Creeping Nobodies/Anagram split 12” released • Halloween Wavelength features The Bar Mitzvah Brothers and Pyramid Culture • Singer Nirmala Basnayake leaves controller.controllercertain

Nov 2006 • uTOpia II book (The State of the Arts: Living With Culture in Toronto) launched • Trevor books WL, disembarks the Boat • Jon-Rae releases Knows What You Need CD on Baudelaire • ALL CAPS! finds a home @ Whippersnapper Gallery, first show features Ryan Driver, Matias and ETAOIN SHRDLU • Blocks R.C. show at Toronto Public Library introduces North York to Torontopia

Dec 2006 • Liz from Picastro has baby! • Doc Pickles resigns as Wavelength MC to focus on Your Band Sucks and his new baby; Spencer Butt of The Secret Handsnakes takes over hosting duties

Jan 2007 • Trip Print Press begins to design/print Wavelength monthly flyers • CBC Radio cancels Brave New Waves after 23 years; start your letter-writing campaign now!

Feb 2007 • Do Make Say Think releases LP #5, You, You’re a History in Rust on Constellation Feb 26 • Wavelength 350!