2005 is a bittersweet year for Wavelength, as it marks the end of an era: The ‘zine ceases publication on WL’s fifth anniversary. Financial challenges and volunteer burnout are contributing factors to retiring the ‘zine, but so is the relentless rise of the Internet and social media. Yet, the inimitable WL band interview continues to be published online on wavelengthtoronto[dot]com.
The fifth-anniversary party (WL 250, Feb. 10-13) includes an artist exchange with Portland, Oregon: The Blow, YACHT, and Thanksgiving fly in to perform at venues including Cinecycle, the Music Gallery and Sneaky Dee’s, while the Constantines headline a sold-out Lee’s Palace. Lullabye Arkestra become the WL anniversary “house band,” also marking the anniversary of band couple Justin Small and Katia Taylor meeting at WL in 2001, and they play every year for the next four years. The festival (and WL’s first era) concludes with an epic set of Toronto song covers played by all-star live karaoke band the BackTheFuckUps.
Meanwhile in the rest of the city, the Stillepost message board is created by community members who mutiny from 20hz after the site is sold to someone that wants to monetize it. Stillepost becomes a hub for more DIY organizing in the local music community, and becomes the only way to find out about underground events like Extermination Music Night, a guerrilla art party in the then-abandoned Don Valley Brick Works. Wavelength is included in uTOpia: Towards a New Toronto, a book anthology published that fall on Coach House Books.
Memorable shows:
- Swedish indie-pop star Jens Lekman graces us with his presence, while fighting off a nasty cold (WL 254, March 13 @ SD)
- Metalcore band Cancer Bats make the downstairs light fixtures swing at Sneaky Dee’s (WL 255, March 20 @ SD)
- Then-teenaged Edmonton rapper Cadence Weapon joins a bill headlined by Australian singer/songwriter and Arts & Crafts signee New Buffalo; Cadence is a last-minute addition as Ear to the Ground, the festival he was supposed to play at Exhibition Place, gets fully cancelled before the gates open (WL 281, Sept. 18 @ SD)
- Cadence Weapon returns to keep the teen vibes going, playing alongside neo-new wavers Spiral Beach, a band of Toronto high schoolers featuring future members of Moon King, Doldrums, Rapport, Austra, and Crasher (WL 292, Dec. 4 @ SD)