Eric Pollard explains two of his most distinct traits.

Stage name: The moniker came to Pollard when he and a friend started commenting on all the then-prominent music acts with "wolf" in their name (Wolfmother, Wolf Parade, Yelawolf). His friend told him, "You're the actual wolf," and the rest is history.

Red glasses: Pollard picked up his first pair of cherry-tinted, custom-made, nonprescription glasses at a gift shop in Duluth's Canal Park to impress a girl. The girl didn't stick around, but the glasses did, in large part thanks to Low bandleader Alan Sparhawk after Pollard performed with the band at a Pitchfork music party in Austin. "Everybody was commenting on them I guess, and Al said, 'You gotta keep wearing them,' " said Pollard, who now sells his own batch of eyewear at his merch table. "You'd be surprised how many I sell," he confided.

Chris Riemenschneider