Making sure your band kicks ass often has to do with knowing the right people. Just ask Zeus.

Only a year old, the Toronto quartet is already affiliated with some powerful Jedi in the city’s indie-rock scene, which you’ll note if you attend the final night of their month-long residence at the Dakota Tavern this coming Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. Along with the Golden Dogs, Jay Ferguson of Canadian rock icons Sloan will be on hand to jam with the band.

Add the fact that you’ve got Broken Social Scenester Jason Collett in your corner as a co-manger and you can consider yourself a well-heeled indie-rock newbie.

“We’re a new band and we couldn’t ask for a better crew backing us up,” says Zeus keyboardist and singer Carlin Nicholson, during a phone call on a break from helping Collett record his upcoming album.

“The residence has been amazing. We weren’t sure how these Wednesdays at the Dakota were going to go at first, but they’ve really been ramping up as the weeks have gone by. It’s small and the place will fill up so if you are going, get your hand stamped early and then hit the Lakeview Lunch or something to kill some time before the set.”

The lads are no strangers to rocking out in the T-dot; Zeus is just the latest musical incarnation of what started as a radio-surfing friendship between Nicholson and guitarist Mike O’Brien in 1996. Since then, the pair has added to their resume under various handles such as the 6ixty 8ights and Paso Mino, and has worked with the Golden Dogs and Major Grange among others in some capacity.

But the beginning of notoriety, Nicholson says, came when Zeus supported ex-Local Rabbit Peter Elkas at a Rivoli gig last August. Collett took the band under his wing shortly after.

Following the addition of drummer Rob Drake and co-vocalist Neil Quin in September of that year, Zeus has since released Sounds Like Zeus, an upbeat 5-song EP under label Arts & Crafts (available at Soundscapes and iTunes). Keep your ears open for a fuzz-heavy bad-assified cover of Genesis’ That’s All.

“That was Jason’s idea,” Nicholson laughs. “But we had a bit of a history with it. Back in the ’90s, Mike and I used to go back and forth along the dial, and (Genesis lead singer) Phil (Collins) just seemed to annihilate everybody else. So, yeah, we put super-fuzz on it and people really seem to be digging it.”

No future plans to include the cover on the full-length release slated for February, however. In the meantime, Zeus is gearing up for a cross-Canada tour starting in late September.

“We’re really excited,” Nicholson says. “Now that we’ve got a little bit of notoriety, we’ve got to go the distance.”