Battle Of The Bands - Round 10

What's that?  The urge for pulling hair, slapping and hand bags at dawn has returned?  Must be time for the fortnightly Battle Of The Bands in which fellow Glasgow blogger Kowalskiy and I face each other in the exalted arena of Top Trumps.  It all went down on Wednesday on Twitter, so if you like tension and tweets then have a read using the #battleofthebandsround10 hashtag.

In case you've forgotten, Round 9 saw things level out again at 4 wins a piece, and a draw in Round 1, meaning coming into Round 10 the scores on the doors were 5-5.  Helping me gain victory were lovely lasses TeenCanteen, whilst Kowalskiy had gone for solo star Arran Arctic.

Round 10 sees two brand new fighters step into the ring, as Kowalskiy and I choose two new bands and fight over their respective stats.  In team Scottish Fiction this time round is my favourite bearded singer songwriter... Shambles Miller!  Whilst across the ring stands The Winter Tradition.  Ready to fight?

Haud yer horse!  First up here's the standard reminder of the rules.  And our artists all important vital statistics.

Round 10 sees two brand new fighters step into the ring, as Kowalskiy and I choose two new bands and fight over their respective stats.  In team Scottish Fiction this time round is my favourite bearded singer songwriter... Shambles Miller!  Whilst across the ring stands The Winter Tradition.  Ready to fight?

Haud yer horse!  First up here's the standard reminder of the rules.  And our artists all important vital statistics.

The battle began with Kowalskiy plumping for SoundCloud Tracks, given that The Winter Tradition boys had what must have seemed like a healthy 19.  However bolsters by his latest song 'Chris Brown Is A C***' Shambles won the point for Team Scottish Fiction with a massive 23 SoundCloud Tracks.  0-1 to Scottish Fiction.

Make or break time as we all know the second point is all important.  Staying with online attributes, Kowalskiy chose Twitter Follow Ratio, and The Winter Traditions 1.58 over Shambles Miller's 1.22, means the point went their way.  Even stevens,

Tensions often run high during Battle Of The Bands, but none higher than this last round.  I was hoping David would chose either Average Age or Band Name Scrabble Score and lo' behold he went for the latter.  Confident that Shambles score of 23 would hold up, the crushing disappointment began to sink in when David revealed that The Winter Tradition had pipped us by two points.  TWO POINTS!

Which means the balance is now tipped 6-5 in Kowalskiy's favour.  Until next week of course!

The Winter Tradition released their latest single 'Tides And Telegrams' complete with epic windswept video.  It's taken from their début album 'Gradients', which is out now folks.  Go get it!



Our favourite bearded singer-songwriter Shambles Miller put out his official début single 'Confessions' earlier this year, which we loved, and hosts a weekly open mic night every Sunday at the Vespbar in Glasgow.

Battle Of The Bands - Round 9

The fortnightly bloodfest that is Battle Of The Bands moved to it's new home of Wednesday this week when David of Kowalskiy blog and I pitted our wits and musical knowledge against each other Top Trumps styleee.  The action all took place on Twitter so if you want a front row seat next time get following me there.

Going into Round 9 things stand at 5-4 to Kowalskiy, after his last round drubbing of me and my choice of Lovers Turn To Monsters, with the help of IndianRedLopez.  But regular followers of this feature will know that home advantage is crucial and with first pick back in my hands for Round 9, I'm confident of levelling the scores.  Before we get into the action, here's a timely reminder of the rules of play.  Ready?  GO!!!

 

















First up lets me the contenders.  Fighting for all that is right and just in the Scottish Fiction corner are all girl group TeenCanteen.  Whilst the shady Kowalskiy has recruited the lone assassin (or double agent?) Arran Arctic.

First pick in Round 9 was average age, and even though it's rude to ask a lady her age, I'd managed to establish that the TeenCanteen girls averaged out at 26.  However Arran Arctic sneaked the point for Kowalskiy by the smallest of margins, an extra year.  One point played, 1-0 to Kowalskiy.

I was saving my tactical master-stroke to last, but it would only pay off is I could capture the all important second point.  Twitter Follow Ratio it was and luckily TeenCanteen's 1.27 pipped Arran Arctic's 0.92.  As always I consider anything over 1 worthy of winning, and so it proved!  1 point a piece!

For the deciding point then it was time for a return of the rule-bending Total attribute, where unlike the others the LOWEST score wins.  Given that this stat hasn't been used since Round 1, I was hopeful of catching Kowalskiy off guard.  And so it proved!  Over confident with his 27 SoundCloud tracks and his 8 years active service in the music biz, Arran Artic's total of 78.92 was far too high for TeenCanteen's low of 46.27.

Final point played, 2-1 to Scottish Fiction and TeenCanteen!

So tactics proved important over high scoring points, and the series is once again even at 5-5, and home advantage has still to be broken.  Let's have a gander at more than just our contenders vital stats.  Here's why David and I chose our relevant musicians.

TeenCanteen are a four piece all girl band who have flourished from the ashes of Futuristic Retro Champions.  They have caught many people's ears with their melodic surf-pop influenced tunes, including the wonderful 'How We Met (Cherry Pie)' and fantastic live performances.  The band next play at SWG3 on 1st December.



As you'll see from Arran Arctic's bandcard the singer-songwriter has been crafting music for 8 years now.  His latest album 'Like Lovers' is out now and is a very good listen.  It was preceded earlier this year by free download 'Covers', and if you like that, you'll not be disappointed by the album.  Check it our (and buy it) here.

Battle Of The Bands - Round 8

Before we get into the nasty and brutish business of Battle Of The Bands Top Trump style, it's announcement time!  The fortnightly duel between David of Kowalskiy and I shall be shimmying onto a Wednesday night from now on, so set your calendars accordingly!  As always you can follow the action on Twitter with #battleofthebands(insert round number accordingly).

Time for Round 8!  So far in the series, aside from a draw in the opening heat, home advantage has proved invaluable.  Essentially who ever has first pick of the stats, has borne out as the winner.  This was true in Round 7 where I led the way with the boys from Croy, Campfires In Winter as we took victory over David's choice Toy Machene.

 The ball is now back in the Kowalskiy camp as we enter into Round 8 at level pegging.  For those who haven't been keeping up with the rules, you can remind yourself here.  For those up to speed with everything... Let's battle!

In the Scottish Fiction corner you'll find someone who is quickly becoming our 'house band', given the amount of times he's featured on the show.  I make no apologies for it, 'cause his output is both vast and impressive.  It is the appropriately named for Halloweeen, Lovers Turn To Monsters. 

Once again David heads north in search of inspiration, and has plumped for Aberdeen band IndianRedLopez, who were responsible for one of my favourite albums last year, 'Empty Your Lungs And Breathe'.

The action kicked off with the Band Name Scrabble Score stat, and as you've probably figured out the band with a 'Z' in their name won that fight.  With a score of 27 IndianRedLopez trumped Lovers Turn To Monsters score of 23.  1-0 Kowalskiy.

Make or break time with the next pick, and David went for Twitter Follow Ratio, in honour of our battleground.  It was a close call and I thought LTTM's score of 1.15 would be enough to win, but sadly IndianRedLopez pipped us with a score of 1.23.  That brought the score to 2-0 and game to David.

Despite losing there's always the chance to save face with the last point.  That hope turned to despair as David chose Average Age.  As LLTM (a.k.a. Kyle said himself on Twitter, at least he has his youth...  David won the point with a score of 28.2 to 24, sealing a 3-0 win and a whitewash in round 8.

Scores on the doors are now 5-4 to David, but I've got home turf again in two weeks time so we'll see if I can level the scores.  Remember to follow us on Twitter to keep up with the action live as it unfolds.  My Twitter is here, whilst you'll find Kowalskiy here.  As always though, there's not really a winner or loser (that's what me and Kyle are telling ourselves anyway!) and it's about the two artists involved. 


Let's start with Scottish Fiction favourite Lovers Turn To Monsters, a.k.a. Kyle Wood, who is a lo-fi singer AND songwriter (not singer-songwriter!).  His simple (not a bad thing) style of recording and writing, means his Bandcamp is filled with hordes of songs, amongst which there are plenty of gems.  His latest offering is a collection of tracks on an EP entitled 'This Horror Movie Is A Metaphor For Puberty'.  Check out the track below and keep an eye on the blog for some more stuff from Kyle soon!


David's winners (a meaningless term surely!) were of course IndianRedLopez.  Last year's 'Empty Your Lungs And Breath' was a cracker of a debut, and earlier this year they contributed a track to our Hidden Tracks feature.  New song 'Break Us Both' is a great indicator of things still to come!

Battle Of The Bands - Round 7

It's my favourite thing to do on the Scottish Fiction blog... beating Kowalskiy in our fortnightly duel Battle Of The Bands!  It's not always such a forgone conclusion though, and in the words of The Rolling Stones, "you can't always get what you want".  So with things tipped slightly in David's favour following his victory in Round 6, we marched on confidently to try and bring things back to an even keel.

And what better way to do it than bringing on board, the bearded battalion, something to put some fire in the Scottish Fiction camp, the creme de la Croy (sorry David had to steal that pun!)...  Campfires In Winter.

Just look at those stats.  With an array like that it should be impossible to lose!  As David had first dibs last time out, it's my turn to choose the categories.  If you didn't follow events on Twitter, then let me guide you through proceedings, blow by blow.  Before that though, here's David's choice this week; Toy Machene.

Ding!  The bell goes and it's into battle, Top Trumps style.  Given that the Campfires lads have been musical pals now for 8 years, I pulled out the strongest stat first, going for Years Since Formation.  With a mighty 8 to Toy Machene's 2, it was 1-0 to Scottish Fiction.

The second point in a best of three game is crucial, so given lead singer Boab's penchant for tweeting, I went with Twitter Follow Ratio as my next pick.  Campfires In Winter boasted a healthy 1.36 over Toy Machene's meagre 0.32.  2-0 Scottish Fiction, and game to me.

But why leave it at that.  Why not rub the salt right in the wounds?  After all, all's fair in love and Top Trumps!  So for the final pick, I plumped for Band Name Scrabble Score, and as I'm sure you can tell from the bandcards above, 29 pips 20, meaning a full 3-0 victory for Scottish Fiction and Campfires In Winter.


Of course, you all know that my gloating is superficial, and that as always it's all about the bands.  David and I will be back in a fortnight's time with our silly rivalry and a fresh set of Scottish artists to battle it out for Round 8.  Until then I leave you with this week's competitors.

Toy Machene were an unknown entity until David unveiled them as his choice this week.  The three piece from Edinburgh make fun indie pop music, and have a début album 'Welcome To Toyland' out now.



I'm big fans of Campfires In Winter, and having now met the lads on numerous occasion can confirm they are lovely chaps to boot.  There's promises of new material soon, which is great news as their alt-indie sound is brawsome.  Check out their most recent set of demo's on Bandcamp.

Battle Of The Bands - Round 6

Ding dong!  Round 6 of Battle Of The Bands was all over Twitter this afternoon, albeit slightly latter than originally planned!  David was foaming at the mouth and I was growling like a grizzly as we pitted our Scottish musical knowledge against each other Top Trumps style.

You should all know the rules by now, but if you don't... then here's a handy link to remind you.  Last time out it was the slimmest of victories for camp Scottish Fiction, with the help of the definitive article I, along with The State Broadcasters, edged victory with a superior Band Name Scrabble Score.  Missed that epic clash?  Then have a peak here and get up to date with what's been happening.

All up to date?  Good.  It's now time for Round 6 of Battle Of The Bands, where David has first pick this time.  His choice of band... The Dead Man's Waltz.

Formidable opponents I'm sure you'll agree. Which means of course that I had to pull out the stops to beat them, and helping me to do that is... Stanley Odd.

David choose Band Name Scrabble Score to kick things off, a wise choice on his part with a 'W' and 'Z' propping up his score to 30.  With Stanley Odd only scoring half of that, first blood in Round 6 went to David.


The next choice was SoundCloud Tracks.  Yay!  Stanley Odd have 28 tracks to The Dead Man's Waltz's 14, which ensured that things would go to the final statistic.


And it was a close a call as last round, as David picked Twitter Follow Ratio.  David and The Dead Man's Waltz pipped Stanley Odd and I with a superior Follow Ratio, 1.05 to 0.87.

So once again home advantage is crucial as David takes a slender one point lead into Round 7 which will be next week.  You can follow our banter and jousting on Twitter with #battleofthebandsround7 in a fortnight's time.  As always though the real focus is on the bands.

The Dead Man's Waltz are new to me, but David sold them as to me as Skye's answer to Beirut.  Which is a pretty good description!  Check out recent single Emmeline below.

Leading the way for Scottish hip-hop were my 6-piece Stanley Odd.  Their album 'Reject' dropped two weeks ago and is full of insightful lyrics and excellent beats.  Check out lead single from the album, 'Killergram'.

Battle Of The Bands - Round 5

Aaaaaaaand we are back!  Over the past month both David of Kowalskiy and I have been skiving off on holiday*, meaning it's round 5 of our Battle Of The Bands has been brewing nicely in the background.  Round 4 saw David take a one point lead over us, having recruited We Are The Physics who wipe the floor with my choice, Michael Cassidy.  Fear not Mr Cassidy, I shall avenge thee!

* Huge congratulations to David and his finance who got engaged on their holiday!

I was back in the driving seat with first pick in Round 5, and I plan to use that advantage to even up the scores overall.  As always, should you need a quick reminder of the rules look no further.

Joining the Scottish Fiction camp this week are The State Broadcasters fresh from their live session on the show, and with a brand new album about to drop on Monday.  The six piece band have been plying their musical trade for 8 years now, and with a mighty Scrabble score of 28 and an impressive 13 tracks nestled on their SoundCloud page I've got every reason to be confident.  My chosen categories then as you may have guessed are; SoundCloud Tracks, Years Since Formation and Band Name Scrabble Score.  The real test is though how they measure up against Kowalskiy's choice.

Cor blimey!  Another band with a new album out on Monday, it's Cancel The Astronauts!  And it's now time to tot up the scores and to the victor giveth the spoils!

SoundCloud Tracks - David get's off to a good start as Cancel The Astronauts have a career spanning 28 tracks on their SoundCloud page, which pretty much wipes the floor with The State Broadcasters 13.  So much for that one...  1-0 to Kowalskiy.

Years Since Formation - Huzzah!  They may have 28 tracks on their SoundCloud page, but they've been accumulated over 5 years, compared with the 8 years my choice The State Broadcasters have been plugging away for.  1-1 with all to play for.

Band Name Scrabble Score - And it's down to the wire!  It's a close one, but the cunning use of the definitive article means The State Broadcasters pip Cancel The Astronauts on the Scrabble board with 28 points to 26.  2-1 to Scottish Fiction, and victory!

Which as I intended, bring the Battle Of The Bands series back to 3-3.  There'll be the chance for one of us to retake the lead in a fortnights time with Round 6.  Until then, here's why David and I chose our respective artists.

The State Broadcasters were recently live in the Pulse studio on our Scottish Fiction radio show, and coupled with sneak preview listens of their forthcoming album 'Ghosts We Must Carry', I've grown rather fond of them.  Their gentle indie-folk has the means to warm the cockles of hearts and minds, and I highly recommend you buy their album when it's released via Olive Grove Records on Monday.  Head on over to their Bandcamp page where you can do so, and also pick up some free stuff, including 'Kittiwake' which is streaming below.


Also with a new album out on Monday is Cancel The Astronauts.  'Animal Love Match' is a fabulous record, so much so that I've said so right here.  Sadly their launch night for the album, due to be held at Sneaky Pete's has had to be cancelled, however we may have some exciting news relating to live shows and the band coming very soon (I've said too much!).  Check out 'Making Dynamite' from the album below.

Battle Of The Bands - Round 4

If you follow either Kowalskiy or I on Twitter then this evening you may have seen your feed filled with school ground posturing and some numbers being flung around like a rag doll.  This can only mean it's Battle Of The Bands Round 4!

As always, a quick recap of round 3, in which Randolph's Leap aided me in a whitewash drubbing of David from Kowalskiy, who had on his side DOLFiNZ.  This levelled the scores off at a nail bitingly close 2-2 heading into round 4.  For a whole synopsis direct your eyes here.

As per our rules which have been carved into stone somewhere in a Glasgow cave, as I had first picks last time out, this week it's David's turns to take those all important first picks.  Here's how things transpired.

This week I've recruited Paisley crooner Michael Cassidy on board to help me try and secure a lead over David.  He is currently hitting all the right notes, with rave reviews of his first headline gig at King Tut's, an appearance at the Boardmasters festival over the weekend, and recently winning the Gerry Rafferty Songwriting Prize.  Kowalskiy's picks were, Twitter Follow Ratio, Band Name Scrabble Score and Years Since Formation.  As you can see from the above bandcard, I felt that gave us a fair shout at picking up some points.  Or so I thought...

Staying within his day time profession, David chose Glasgow four piece We Are The Physics to battle his corner.  (I don't know if the band are actually physicists.  In fact I suspect they are actually evil doctors).  Comparing the chosen statistics looks something like this:

Twitter Follow Ratio

Michael Cassidy - 1.15      vs.       We Are The Physics - 6.61

Band Name Scrabble Score

Michael Cassidy - 27       vs.       We Are The Physics - 31

Years Since Formation

Michael Cassidy - 5       vs.       We Are The Physics - 8

Which means, it's 0-3 to David for round 4, and 2-3 overall in the Battle Of The Bands.  Grrrr....

There's going to be an extended wait for round 5, due to other commitments for both David and I, however as the old saying goes, revenge is a dish best served cold.


Michael Cassidy's profile has never been higher.  He recently played a sell out headline show a King Tuts, and during the summer has played countless festivals.  His brand of songwriting has also seen him win the inagural Gerry Rafferty Songwriting Prize, a fitting tribute from one of Paisley's finest sons.  With his debut album edging closer and closer to a release date, his stock can only continue to rise.



We Are The Physics are a 4 piece alternative group from Glasgow, who have had two crackin' singles out recently, the fabulously catchy 'Goran Ivanisevic' and 'Applied Robotics'.  Check them out!

Battle Of The Bands - Round 3

With last fortnight's shameful defeat to Kowalskiy (sorry Brazil Exists, we tried!) in the Battle Of The Bands round 2, there is a lot riding on tonight's duel.  Win, and bring the scores level to 2 a piece.  Lose, and fall behind 3-1, with the next round in Kowalskiy's back garden.  No, its clear that only victory will suffice tonight!

Before we dive into the heat of battle, here's a quick recap of the rules:

Each blogger choose a Scottish band/artist
Bloggers take alternative turns to choose three categories (We have first pick in this round)
Highest score wins the point, except 'Total' where the lowest wins.
Best of three points, with the winner taking the spoils
Categories include 'Number Of Members', 'Years Since Formation', SoundCloud Tracks', Twitter Follow Ratio', 'Scrabble Score', 'Average Age' and 'Total'
For a full and detailed account of the rules, look no further.

This week I've gone for 8-piece folksters Randolph's Leap while David has gone north in search of success and chosen DOLFiNZ.  Have a quick comparison of the stats above, and read on to witness the whooping of Kowalskiy!

It would have been folly of me not to utilise Randolph's Leap behemoth size, in terms of band members that is, so my first pick was 'Total Band Members'.  As DOLFiNZ are a duo, that was 1-0 to me.

With a career spanning five years, and a rather prolific output, I was pinning my hopes on the 20 tracks nestling in Randolph's Leap's SoundCloud account to win my second point.  It was a close call granted as DOLFiNZ have an impressive 11 tracks.  Good David, but not good enough!

You might recall last fortnight, I lost 0-3 with David taking a clean sweep.  So now was the time to really twist the knife in.  And so for the final category I chose 'Twitter Follow Ratio', bumped up to an impressive 6.18 due to Randolph's Leap chronic anti social followings on Twitter!

Huzzah!  A clean sweep and the round goes to Scottish Fiction, tying the overall score at 2-2.  We'll do it all again in two weeks time, but as ever here's the low down on both bands.

Randolph's Leap have been busy over the past few months with appearances at T In The Park, Away Game, and King Tut's Summer Nights.  All very much deserved indeed, and they have put out a collection of their tunes so far on the 'Introducing... Randolph's Leap' album available at independent record stores and here.  We are huge fans of their quirky and humorous indie-folk music, and urge you to check them out!


In David's corner were Aberdeen duo DOLFiNZ.  We are also big fans of them, with their brand of lo-fi punk inspired alt-rock grabbing your attention and shaking it.  Recently they toured with PAWS and have also featured on a Song, By Toad Records split 12".  Exciting times!  More recently they also contributed a track to our EP Treasure Hunt!  Go find it here!

Battle Of The Bands - Round 2

Two week's ago Scottish music saw the biggest, baddest, roughest brawl that it has even witness.  It was round one of Battle Of The Bands, David from Kowalskiy and I's fortnightly duel where we pit our music prowess against each other, with the help of our chosen artist, Top Trump style.

For a blow by blow account of the last outing, have a read here.  The short version is that despite the best effort of both sides, David with the help of French Wives, me with the assistance of Seams, came up as equals, meaning round two begins with both camps on level scores.

If you're a stickler for the rules then jog your memory right here.  The most important things to recall however are that as I picked first last week, David has first dibs this time out.  And he's going to need it, as this week I've recruited the finest geography students Stirling has ever produced.  Confirming, once and for all, the existence of the world's 5th largest country, backing up Scottish Fiction against David and his recruit, The Pictish Trail, are... Brazil Exists!

As mentioned, David had first picks this week, meaning he choose our three competing attributes.  Secretly I was hoping the combo of a 'Z' and 'X' would serve well in the Scrabble Score stakes, and felt that with a healthy five members and five SoundCloud tracks we should be able to compete there too.  From the band card above you can see our weakness was Twitter Follow Ratio, and with a youthful exuberance meaning an average age of 20, if David plumped for a more experienced (read auld fart) artist then we'd be knackered.

Well, what do you suppose happened then?  Clearly valuing age over the letters present in a band's name, David plumped firstly for Average Age, following up with Twitter Follow Ratio and completing his clean sweep of the points with Years Since Formation.  As you can see from the above band cards, David wins each point, meaning that after last week's stalemate, first blood goes to Kowalskiy.

I'd like to say he was very humble in his victory, but that would be lying.  All that I will warn, is that Scottish Fiction will be back in a fortnight's time.

Of course as aside from David and I's growing rivalry, the real focus as always is our chosen musicians.  Having had the pleasure of seeing Brazil Exists supporting Frightened Rabbit a few months ago in Dunoon, I was again wowed by their live performance on Thursday 12th where they opened the King Tut's Summer Nights.  They have a very Frabbit-esqe sound, no surprise given the links to Andy of Frabbit who took producer credits on their EP 'The Hermit'.  That very same EP can be found online at iTunes.



David's choice then was the excellent The Pictish Trail, a.k.a. Johnny Lynch.  A man who is a revered figure in Scottish music, responsible for Fence Records, a wealth of recording himself, and a new EP on the way in the shape of 'The Summer Is Empty Of Idiots'.  Check out all the vital stats as well as how to get ahold of the new EP right here.

Battle Of The Bands - Round 1

Ding ding!  After a few days of geeky trash talk our new joint feature with David from the excellent Kowalskiy blog got under way tonight.  As you may recall David and myself will be sparring it up every two weeks in a Top Trump duel via the interweb world of Twitter.  Instead of comparing 1970's Dutch footballers we shall be using the vital statistics of Scottish bands to try and outwit each other.  For those who want a recap on the rules of this musical melee then take a peek here.  For those who are all about the blood lust then keep reading! 

Whilst I had confidence I knew I'd need to enlist help.  And in our corner I had the help of none other than Dundee five piece Seams.  I had the home advantage which means that I had control of the picks.  Remember our categories are Number Of Members, Years Active, Soundcloud Tracks, Twitter Follow Ratio, Band Name Scrabble Score, Average Age and Total.

Playing the opening gambit I went with what would appear a respectable Twitter Follow Ratio.  Following that we played the Number Of Members attribute before ending with a tactical decision to go for the Total attribute, where of course the lowest score wins.  Backing up Kowalskiy were Glasgow's indie-popsters French Wives.  Here's how they score up:

In case mathematics isn't you're strong suit, then the scoring went as such.  Kowalskiy took the first point, French Wives boosting a higher Twitter Follow Ratio.  The second point was split 50/50 with both bands comprised of five people.  That meant it all rested on the final roll of the dice.  Luckily, thanks to their sickeningly young Average Age and a pish poor Band Name Scrabble Score, my plucky band of Dundonians Seams rescued the point for Total score and ensured a draw of 1.5 points each.

I'll admit that I'm slightly disappointed that I didn't make more of the home advantage in this first round of the Battle Of The Bands.  But, equally I'm sure that Kowalskiy now realises that he isn't going to get things his own way!  Our next battle will be in a fortnight.  You can keep up to date with all our baiting on Twitter.

Despite our juvenile banter, the real focus is of course on the bands.  First up is our choice, Seams!

The gals and girls had this to say when we asked them how it felt to have drawn with French Wives in the opening heat of Battle Of The Bands.  "It's pretty cool to be a part of this new feature!  And to draw with French Wives is awesome!  We've supported them a few times in the past and they are just amazing."

We've featured them on the radio show before, and they have had the honour of being played on BBC Introducing by Ally McCrae, showing that it's not just us that like them!  Their debut EP 'Colours & Maps' is well worth investing in, which you can do here.  Looking forward to more new material from them, hopefully sooner than later!



And to prove we will never be sore losers, French Wives released their debut album, 'Dream Of The Inbetween' earlier this year, which you can get right here.  It's a cracking album and the band represent a stellar choice by Mr Kowalskiy.

Battle Of The Bands

Bigger than Drago vs. Balboa.  More intellectual than Deep Blue vs Garry Kasparov.  Iller than Biggie vs. 2Pac.  You ain't never seen brawling like this before!

It's the Battle Of The Bands... blog style!

In the red corner, weighing in at 140lbs, the man, the mystery, the Nuclear Knockout.. Kowalskiiiiiyyyy!  And in the blue corner, tipping the scales at... more than he cares to share... his finger's always on the Pulse, the Barrhead Bruiser... Scottisshhh Fiiiiictonnn!

A week tomorrow, that's Tuesday 3rd July for you calendarphobes out there, David of the ridiculously good Kowalskiy blog and I shall be going head to head in the historic and sacred battle ground that is... Top Trumps.

Here's the all important rules of play:

Each bandcard contains 6 attributes as shown above.  As you can see we've whittle up the above AWESOME example for demostration purposes.

Every fortnight, David and I will pick an artist who we think are simply the bees knees and we'll fill out our bandcards.  We then pick 3 attributes (first dibs alternates each month) and whoever has the highest wins the point.

For the total attribute, the winning condition is always the lowest.   So there will have to be some sort of strategy and a lot more gambling involved in this than you thought!

One point is awarded for each attribute won, and a half-point is awarded to both players in the result of a draw.  The winner is the person who has the most points after each attribute has been compared and points have been toted up.

The winner shall retain bragging rights until the next heat.

No kicking, scratching and/or pulling of hair.

What history shall come to know as the 'Slaughter Of The Kowal' begins on the 3rd of July.  Are you ready?