Entering The Garrison just after 9 p.m. on Saturday night, a line of potential concert goers were informed that the Yamantaka//Sonic Titan gig was definitely going to sell out - it was just a matter of when. Despite sheets of ice covering sidewalks and brutal January winds, the hype surrounding Y//ST combined with a solid line up of lo-fi openers had made the show a hit.

Montreal's Thee Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra chose not to allow media cameras into their Lee's Palace show on Friday — a questionable decision given that, as I predicted, many fans successfully smuggled in cameras, but not a particularly surprising one. Silver Mt. Zion is an offshoot of notoriously media unfriendly Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

The worst part about the photo ban is that I can't show you the first thing fans saw upon entering: a framed, up-side-down photo of Stephen Harper mounted above the stage (I must say, Harper looks better inverted than right side up).

Cass McCombs' show at the Garrison this Friday night was a treat for all those in attendance. The opener, Frank Fairfield — a violin and banjo-toting songwriter from California — set the stage with whimsical, southern-style tunes that had the crowd tapping their feet and clapping along with the occasional "Yip!" hollered into the night.

The Neighbourhood Mixtape is a collection of newly-released songs by Toronto musicians. The mixtape is meant to celebrate Toronto's music culture and provide a forum to listen to and discover new local music.

Every Sunday, I post a five-track mixtape (along with my own mini-reflections for each track) that you can download or stream as a soundtrack for the week.

What can I say that a Tool fan doesn't already know about their epic live shows? Even if Maynard Keenan claimed the band was a "little rusty," you would have never known it as they took the ACC with full force last night.

They kicked off their set promptly at 9:05pm to a packed and amped crowd after openers Intronaut warmed everyone up with their fast and heavy riffs. Starting off hard and fast, they played "Hooker with a Penis," off of their critically acclaimed album from 1996, Ænima. Maynard's voice still has enviable range — one minute he's almost lulling you with and almost soothing monotone, and the next he's jolting you with his frantic screams into the mic.

Almost two years ago, Toronto's music community shed a collective tear when Wavelength held its final weekly concert at the Garrison. Launched in 1999, the series had held five hundred weekly concerts. And while Wavelength has gone on to bigger and better things as an annual festival, a void has remained in this city's Sunday night music schedule. Thankfully that's about to change. In a story first picked up by the Grid's Stuart Berman, a new weekly series is set to launch this February.