Wavelength Music Arts Projects is an organization founded in 2000 by Jonny Dovercourt, Duncan MacDonell (Doc Pickles), and Derek Westerholm. It was founded on the basis that many others would share their enthusiasm for independent music from Toronto

Toronto

Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The concept evolved from an open-table meeting of musicians and enthusiasts on September 11, 1999, this then developed into a weekly Sunday showcase and annual festival.

The first instalment of the music series took place February 13, 2000 at Ted’s Wrecking Yard, featuring Toronto legends Mean Red Spiders

Mean Red Spiders

Mean Red Spiders are a Canadian alternative rock band formed in Toronto, Canada in September 1993. Mean Red Spiders' music is largely guitar-based indie rock influenced by psychedelic music. Their music makes extensive use of distortion, digital keyboard loops, recorded voice samples, and effects...

 and Neck. Wavelength became well known as a hotbed for Toronto’s creative music community and featured breakout shows by such notable Canadian bands Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed in 1999 by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Most of its members currently play in various other groups and solo projects, mainly based around the city of Toronto...

 and The Constantines

The Constantines

-History:The band was formed by Steve Lambke, Bryan Webb, Doug MacGregor, and Dallas Wehrle in 1999, following the break-up of Webb and MacGregor's emotional hardcore band Shoulder...

. During Wavelength’s second month Canadian artist Michael Snow

Michael Snow

Michael Snow, CC is a Canadian artist working in painting, sculpture, video, films, photography, holography, drawing, books and music.-Life:...

 personally screened his legendary 1967 piece "Wavelength" before his performance at Ted’s Wrecking Yard. Wavelength moved to Sneaky Dee's

Sneaky Dee's

Sneaky Dee's is a bar on the south-east corner of the College and Bathurst intersection in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its original location was on Bloor Street west of Bathurst, but it moved to its present location in 1990....

 in 2002, finally moving to the Garrison in 2009 to complete the run of the Sunday showcases at exactly 500, 10 years to the date of the series’ launch.

Artists representing a wide range of genres have performed at Wavelength ranging from Feist, The Constantines

The Constantines

-History:The band was formed by Steve Lambke, Bryan Webb, Doug MacGregor, and Dallas Wehrle in 1999, following the break-up of Webb and MacGregor's emotional hardcore band Shoulder...

, Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene

Broken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock band, a musical collective including as few as six and as many as nineteen members, formed in 1999 by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. Most of its members currently play in various other groups and solo projects, mainly based around the city of Toronto...

, Peaches

Peaches (musician)

Merrill Beth Nisker , better known by her stage name Peaches, is a Canadian electronic musician and performance artist who lives in Berlin, Germany. Her songs are noted for disregarding traditional gender norms and their use of sexually explicit lyrics...

, Ghost Bees

Ghost Bees

Tasseomancy is a band from Toronto, Ontario, originally spawned in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Formed by and centered around twin sisters Sari and Romy Lightman, the project started life underthe monicker Ghost Bees...

, Exhaust

Exhaust (band)

Exhaust is a bass clarinet, drum and tape trio from Montreal that started in the mid-90s. The bands members are Aidan Girt , Gordon Krieger and Mike Zabitsky . Their debut album was a self-released 7" cassette entitled 230596. Their first release on Constellation Records was in 1998 . It was...

, Do Make Say Think

Do Make Say Think

Do Make Say Think is a Canadian instrumental post-rock band from Toronto, Ontario. Their music combines jazz style drums, distorted guitars and wind instruments, as well as a prominent use of the bass guitar.-Biography:...

, Ethiopian

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

 saxophonist Getatchew Mekurya

Getatchew Mekurya

Getatchew Mekurya is an Ethiopian jazz saxophonist.-Early career:Mekurya began his musical studies on traditional Ethiopian instruments such as the krar and the masenqo, and later moved on to the saxophone and clarinet. Upon reaching adolescence, he began his professional career in 1949 as a part...

, Sook-Yin Lee

Sook-Yin Lee

Sook-Yin Lee is a Canadian musician, filmmaker, actress and media personality.-Background:Lee grew up in a Vancouver suburb, the second-oldest daughter of immigrants. She was raised as a devout Roman Catholic. Her father was a post-World War II orphan from Hong Kong, her mother an escapee from...

, and Canadian hip hop artist Cadence Weapon

Cadence Weapon

Cadence Weapon is the stage name of Rollie Pemberton, a Canadian rapper.-Biography:Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, his father was Teddy Pemberton, a pioneering hip hop DJ on CJSR-FM, and his grandfather was Rollie Miles, a football player for the Edmonton Eskimos...

. During its first decade, more than 1100 bands have played Wavelength.

Wavelength is currently programmed by Jonny Dovercourt, Duncan MacDonell, Ryan McLaren, and Kevin Parnell and continues to present music events in and around Toronto.