Live music picks for MONDAY OCTOBER 8 through SATURDAY OCTOBER 13, 2012.

MONDAY OCTOBER 8 / NEIL HALSTEAD / DAKOTA TAVERN / 249 OSSINGTON / $22.50 - $25 / 19+

As a founding member of Slowdive and current member of Mojave 3, Neil Halstead has become one of Britain's most respected and renowned artists. Since 2002, he's released three solo albums, including Palindrome Hunches, which came out in September. If you're a fan of sweet and sorrowful indie rock, this will be right up your alley--it won't exactly get your feet tapping, but it's hauntingly beautiful stuff. Jim Hanft and Samantha Yonack will open.

TUESDAY OCTOBER 9 / THE SOFT PACK / THE GARRISON / 1197 DUNDAS W / $13 / 19+

When The Soft Pack first came together in 2007, they were known as The Muslims. This went over about as well as you'd expect. After that initial misstep, the band hit the ground running and has garnered considerable critical acclaim for their lively stage presence and their two albums. The most recent one, Strapped, was released a couple of weeks ago, and it confirmed that the Soft Pack is definitely a band on the rise.

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 10 / FRIGHTENED RABBIT / THE MOD CLUB / 722 COLLEGE / $26.88 / 19+

In the music business, if you want to make an impression, sometimes you need to go that extra mile and make yourself stand out from other bands. When Scottish indie rockers Frightened Rabbit were first starting out, frontman Scott Hutchison would send out bags of biscuits with the band's demos. It's a trite story, but it apparently worked, as the band has quietly made quite a name for themselves over the last few years. After opening for Death Cab for Cutie last year, the band has set out on their own headlining tour of North America, and they're well worth your time.

FRIDAY OCTOBER 12 / HEY OCEAN! / THE GREAT HALL / 1087 QUEEN W / $15 - $18 / 19+

In my opinion, if you're only able to check out one show this week, this one's gotta be it. After seeing Hey Ocean! at last month's Festival Music House, I truly believe that they're one of the finest bands that I've ever had the pleasure of seeing live. Their unique brand of indie-pop is fun and frantic, and their stage presence is unparalleled. Seriously, you're in for a treat if you go to one of their shows, and for less than 20 bucks, it's one hell of a bargain. And at the risk of sounding creepy, I've developed the world's biggest crush on Ashleigh Ball, who could be the most beautiful frontwoman since Emily Haines.

SATURDAY OCTOBER 13 / BEACH HOUSE / THE KOOL HAUS / 132 QUEENS QUAY / $31.75 / ALL AGES

Baltimore dream-pop duo Beach House released their fourth album, Bloom, back in May, and it confirmed what most of us already knew: Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally are truly the real deal. It continued the duo's trend of composing slow, melancholy songs combined with Legrand's haunting lyrics. If you're not familiar with their work (and at this point, most of you probably are), you really owe it to yourself to check it out. Poor Moon will offer support.

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Photo of Hey Ocean! courtesy of John Biehler on Flickr