Happy New Year to everyone in the Wavelength family! We hope 2012 has treated you well in its first three days of waddling through life. Sorry we've been silent over here; we're busy cooking up plans for TWELVE: the Wavelength 12th Anniversary Festival, which takes place Feb. 16-19th - the Family Day holiday weekend here in Ontario. We're set to announce the line-up next week. Watch this space on Jan. 10th, as we think this one will be extra special.

The other big news in Wavelength world is that Doc Pickles, our tireless, illustrious emcee and programmer, will be launching his own new music series, named Crosswires (after the XTC song, perhaps??), on Feb. 26th, a week after our Anniversary Fest. More than just a spin-off, Crosswires picks up where our original PWYC Sunday night series left off, creating a weekly home for the new and the unheralded. Here's what Doc has to say:

I have always been enamoured with the PWYC
formula, I really believe it levels the playing field and guarantees
the best possible good vibrations to the people who deserve it the
most. Keep your February 26 open, and every Sunday after that.

el Presidente Bowring at the Garrison used to be the booker at Sneaky
Dee's while we held court there every Sunday night with Wavelength, he
is a fine upstanding long-view positive-attitude hands-off
straight-shooter so needless to say when he moved on in life and
departed Dee's we at Wavelength were sad to see him go, and so were the fine folks at Trampoline Hall;
and when he opened the Garrison we were delighted to move Wavelength
there, and so was Trampoline Hall! But after ten years the Wavelength
formula had evolved, and the shows we were collectively interested in
staging had a different flavour than a weekly showcase, and so we wound
up the Sunday series after an astounding 10 years.

With that history, it's only fitting that Crosswires will commence at the Garrison
a week after the conclusion of Wavelength's 12th anniversary fest
(which spans the Family Day long weekend and concludes on Feb 19).

General Chaos will be experimenting with his visuals, Acacia "Don't Touch That Dial"
Christensen will be booking the between set DJ's and I will be
soliciting the community's advice to book the bands as well as bringing
my own twisted emcee duties to the night. We hope to aim high and keep
the key low, and help build a safe house for the neighbourhood to create
and create music, and poems, and music, and art, and music, and
performance, and music, and consume alcohol, and music, and to socialize
and fraternize, and to get inspired to create more music. Audience
members will be encouraged to start their own bands, and will be
encouraged to suggest acts that pique their ears and bump their gooses.
The shows can go on in the front room and involve sound poetry, the
shows can go on in the back room and feature lots of Fugazi, or twee, or
cardigan, or plaid.

Nobody is wrong, nobody loses. The only bad
music is the music the musician doesn't care about. Everybody has
something to say and should say it.