While much of the city was getting ready to celebrate (or was already in the throes of) St. Patrick's Day, Low were on hand at the Great Hall to provide a necessary alternative to wandering around Parkdale in the cold with temporary tattoos of shamrocks and leprechauns on one's face. The long-running Duluth, MN group exist almost entirely in their own genre, defying any musical trends in favour of gradual refinement nearly as slow as the average tempos of their songs.

Despite what Kevin Parker, frontman and songwriter for much-hyped quintet Tame Impala, might say, he and his Australian compatriots are no strangers to Toronto.

Maybe it was discreet sarcasm, but in a rare moment of crowd interaction at the Kool Haus on Saturday night, the laconic Parker quickly apologized for it having been so long since they'd last graced a Toronto stage - despite their last show here having taken place less than five months ago at the Phoenix.

After having occupied the downstairs Black Box Theatre for a raucous Doldrums-led dance party the night prior, Wavelength brought the party upstairs into the main room of the Great Hall for the third night of Wavelength 13. There was a logical structure to the selection of the five bands on the bill, but it was tough to argue against the sheer amount diversity between them as being the evening's defining aspect.

Wavelength Music Festival 13 preview

Thirteen doesn't always have to constitute bad luck. Making a good case for the opposite, tonight marks the official start of Wavelength THIRTEEN, 2013's installment of the local collective's annual music and arts festival. It's four days of celebrating the bounty of bands worth checking out all over our fine city, curated by our favourite weekly-turned-sporadic music series.

Wednesday night's Walkmen and Father John Misty double-bill at the newly renovated Danforth Music Hall made sense in a lot of ways. Both bands offer a distinct, if somewhat monochromatic style (this isn't a bad thing) that harkens back to influences not heard enough in general music trends of the last decade or so.

For a lot of folks, Sloan's 1994 album Twice Removed is a watershed moment in the Toronto-via-Halifax band's history. For a group who would become beloved for their jaunty, infectious take on Beatles-esque pop, their career had begun a few years prior with a debut LP, Smeared, that took the best elements of the sounds du jour - namely shoegaze and Sonic Youth-inspired noise-rock - filtered through the innate pop sensibilities of four distinct songwriters.

Seeing the potential of the band at the forefront of the Halifax scene, at the time deemed the "new Seattle" following that city's grunge boom of the early '90s, Geffen Records had signed the band on an international deal for the follow-up to Smeared, as well as giving their debut it's first American release.