So we have arrived, at last, at the great battle of our time... well Round 7 of it anyway! A fortnight ago, this musical battle between myself and Neil from Scottish Fiction tipped back into Team Kowalskiy's favour with my narrow victory over Stanley Odd courtesy of Skye's finest The Dead Man's Waltz. You can read the blow-by-blow account of that duel over here. For this round though, it's the Fiction camp's turn to choose which of the vital stats we'll be slugging it out over. But I've got an ace up my sleeve...
Joining Team Kowalskiy this time 'round is Edinburgh trio Toy Machene. They're no strangers to the blog, and with their strong SoundCloud presence (including their entire debut album) and dare-I-say advancing years (as someone who's only 2 years off it, 30 is the new 20 though!), I was confident we'd have a fighting chance against whoever Neil had picked. Little did I know he'd picked the crème de la Croy, Campfires In Winter.
Here's a quick recap of the rules for those who don't have a clue what's going on. You can read them in full over here. This round, it was Neil's turn to choose which of the three attributes we'd be dueling with. For each of the three, the person with the highest value gets one point, with both getting a half-point in the event of a draw. Losers... get a big, fat ZERO! In the end, Neil went for Years Since Formation, Twitter Follow Ratio and Band Name Scrabble Score. As ever, all stats were correct at the time of battle, and were totted up before a last minute Twitter clean-up from those dedicated Toy Machene chaps.
Here's how they shaped up. Ding ding, Round 7...
And the winner of Round 7, and fair play to them, is... Team Scottish Fiction. It got off to a honking start for me given Toy Machene's new-kids-on-the-block status compared with Campfires In Winter's impressive 8 active years. And to be honest, it just got worse from then on. We were pipped on the Twitter Follow Ratio and Band Name Scrabble Score by pretty slim, but decisive all-the-same, margins.
So, by 3 points to 0, Team Kowalskiy go home with their tails between their legs, and Scottish Fiction have drawn the series yet again at 3 wins apiece... and one draw.
As is always the case, even more-so when I get beat, this isn't about me or Neil... it's all about the bands! So I'll start off with my boys. Like I said above, their debut album Welcome To Toyland is up on SoundCloud for your listening pleasure... and it is an absolute pleasure. In fact, I challenge you to name a funner, or more fun, album released this year. Their ode to Mr. Cruise in particular is top-notch!
And now, onto the victors. To think Campfires In Winter were firm favourites of mine... well, they still are actually. Earlier this year they let slip a trio of demos from their long-awaited debut album. It's only been 8 years in the making!
There are surprisingly few 'wimps' images on Google!
Hello there, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Boab, and I sing and play guitar in band called Campfires In Winter. Mr Kowalskiy has very kindly invited me into his domain as a guest host for his wonderful weekly notcast (a podcast without all the talking bits) to give you a little insight into what I've been enjoying over the last few weeks and months. So sit back and enjoy...
Pronto Mama – Love You
I reviewed their new EP for Peenko earlier this week, and said that this track was the best I've heard all year. I need say no more about it, it's just perfect.
Cherri Fosphate – Passion
We met the guys from Cherri Fosphate at goNORTH in Inverness the other week. I hadn't listened to them at all before but decided to go and see them at their showcase. They blew me away with their Jetpacks-esque guitar pop.
The Winter Tradition – San Diego
Another band I caught at GoNORTH this year. A strange one this because I'm not normally into this kinda stuff at all but this is a great tune.
So Many Animal Calls – Traps
Good friends of ours, but if I didn't like them I'd tell them they were shite. They're not and, as a result, played the main stage at Rock Ness last week. Then they killed it all over Scotland and in the Catty in Glasgow through the week there. This is their excellent latest single.
Profisee – Magikal (We Were Promised Jetpacks remix)
There's some pretty decent Scottish hip-hop around at the moment and Profisee is among my favourites. Magikal was already a cracking track but this remix has brought it into its own. Have a listen for yourself.
Ghost Lake – Late Spring Morning
The list so far has been pretty Glasgow-centric (with a wee dash of Edinburgh thrown in). That's only because I chose the songs by making a longlist of tracks from all over Scotland and eenie-meenie-ing it all down to the final five above. However, this track is one I had picked out at the start as a definite for inclusion, and is our only offering here from outside of Scotland. It comes from a Swede named Henric Wallmark (aka Ghost Lake). I've chosen this not only because he's a Swede with an absolutely fantastic first name which brings back many childhood memories, but because it's a very beautiful and delicate piece of music, and is a lovely way to end our wee podcast-without-all-the-talking-bits. Thanks very much for listening, and many thanks to Mr Kowalskiy for asking me to pick a few tracks for him this week. Boab. xx
In a chance to the scheduled notcast, you've got me again to babble my way through my new favourites on SoundCloud. Next Sunday though, once the GoNess/RockNorth musical happenings are out of the way, we'll have that special guest notcaster. Still, there's plenty of great tracks here to keep you entertained. First up, a new track (with the longest, most-hyphenated title imaginable) from those lads in The Beautiful Lies recorded specially for Scottish Fiction.
How's that to kick things off?! Let's follow that up with a track from one of my favourite EPs of the year so far. Will there be a more fun release this year than the debut from Edinburgh's Toy Machene? Is that sentence even grammatically good? Don't know, don't care. Here's their eponymous tale of unrequited, possibly cougar-related, love.
Right, here's another question... is there a better indie label in our fair land than Armellodie? The answer is... maybe, possibly yes. But if that is the case, our paths have not crossed yet. With a series of gigs on the horizon, they'll be all like 'in your face' in the coming months. Here's one of their finest rosterees with one of their finest tracks.
All relaxed? Good stuff. Here's the next one from Dirty Keys. It's an unmastered version of one of the tracks from their upcoming album The End And The Exit. I've heard it and it's gonna knock your socks off. With any luck, there'll be more on that in due course!
Penultimate one then. Great to have some new material from Edinburgh School For The Deaf. God help those little blighters, cos this is a delight to the ears. I have absolutely no idea what she's saying though...
And so, we come to the end. Hope you've enjoyed this week's tracks. Next week we will have that guest notcaster. My lips are sealed as to who it shall be though. Changing the subject quickly... here's one of Campfires In Winter's brilliant new tracks. Enjoy!
The Second Year of Free EPs starts here... a half hour late! Ah well, hopefully you'll agree it's worth the wait. Once again, I've pestered five of the country's best up-and-coming bands for a track, and they've come up trumps again this month. You know the drill by now, but if not, click the cover art to get your free download. Here's the five brilliant bands on KEP#13...
1. Echo Arcadia - Lucinda (Room Demo) (An exclusive bedroom recording of their debut EP track. Prepare to be blown away!)
"Lucinda is a song that has rather deep personal meaning to me, it's about the moment I realised that I didn't need a religion to have faith. It forms part of our 'Broken Chapters' EP, with the songs on it carving a journey of events through my life." if that floats your boat, 'Broken Chapters' is available on iTunes etc" - Leigh Moyes (Echo Arcadia)
2. Verse Metrics - Oscillations (These guys have only gone and given me half of their upcoming single to give away!)
"This is one of the tracks from our second release, the double-A-side "Sleep &Wakefulness". The idea with these tracks was to layer several guitar parts and have them recurring on a loop for part of the song, as we did with Horoscopes on our first EP, then write everything else starting from the loop and see where it took us. I think Robin lost a few years of his life mixing it! Official launch night is Tue 19th July where we're playing at King Tut's Summer Nights - should be a great night with Found, Bermuda and Cancel The Astronauts also on the bill." - Bob Dick (Verse Metrics)
3. Letters - Flash! Lights (demo) (The original demo to their amazing new, also free, single!)
"Just as a wee disclaimer, I don't like to think of myself as a whiner or some attention seeking faux manic depressive. But if I'm being completely honest, Flash! lights is about everything that's wrong with me. Anger management, impatience, drive, fear of under achievement, letting go of the past and feeling completely dwarfed by the possibilities of time. It's not exactly original source material but we always try to write things that have been said or done to death and put our own sound and lyrical style to it. We recorded it with one of our good mates and producer extraordinaire Stephen Watkins in the presence of Tom Nicol and Fiona McNab (the other two brains of TAPE) up in Aviemore and the chorus reminds me of standing in front of a microphone that looked out through a massive bay window on to the Cairngorms. I was extremely hungover after hitting it HARD with Kerr the night before when we went to see 'The Last Battle', which is probably why the vocals are so husky. The big sound we normally go for probably doesn't come through in this demo as much as it does in the mastered single version (available for free at www.wewriteletters.co.uk/music) but I remember the first time Stephen played the demo back to me and I had that oxymoronic feeling of being joyously sad when I heard the chorus the first time. Same feeling I got when Georgie played her cello line to the intro and that part of the song." - Mikey Ferguson (Letters)
4. Campfires In Winter - Before The Owl Will Fly (One of three new 'very, very rough demos' from Boab et al.)
"To put it simply, this song is about the death of someone close to you. However, the lyrics approach it in a more optimistic direction, looking to find the positives that came from knowing that person and the influence they had on you. It wasn't written specifically about any one person in my life, but it has been influenced by a few people I've known. My intention was to write something which pretty much anyone can listen to and apply to their own experiences. Hopefully people can connect to it in some way." - Boab Canavan (Campfires In Winter)
5. Daniel and the Lions - Of The Times (We'll end this month with a great wee demo from the man that brought us Dalyrimple Goes Wrong.)
"'Of the Times' is a demo from what's going to be an EP from my band - Daniel and the Lions. It's all still in the pipeline, but will be released eventually. I'm pretty crappy at plugs, but I think as Matthew (Loch Awe) says, "Here is some music, I hope you like it. You can get more, for free, at www.dalyrimplegoeswrong.bandcamp.com..." - Daniel Parry (Daniel and the Lions)
Get your grubby mitts on the EP now for free over on my bandcamp page, along with all those from the last 12 months!
Next month there'll be more of the same, five great free tracks from Scotland's finest! As always, if any bands out there who fancy making my life that wee bit easier and want to volunteer a track for one of these EPs, then send me a wee email too and see if it tickles my fancy. Enjoy!
As a wee incentive and/or memento of what is sure to be a great night, I've teamed up with Define Pop to bring you an extra special free Kowalskiy EP featuring a handful of the acts taking part. Some bands regretfully had to said no, some never bothered their backsides replying and some I simply never had time to get in touch with (apologies!). Some though, said yes, which is just as well really, or there would be no free EP! So a huge thank you to the six bands mentioned above, and again below, for contributing. For your free download, just click the cover art and enjoy!
Tracklisting
1. Tango In The Attic - Off To
2. Little Yellow Ukuleles - Lost at Sea (acoustic)
3. I Build Collapsible Mountains - Rails
4. Aspen Tide - Colours
5. So Many Animal Calls - We Sleep Back To Back (acoustic)
6. Campfires In Winter - Cardboard Ships (acoustic)
The second-from-last wee beauty on there from So Many Animal Calls was recorded this week specially for this EP. Cheers guys!
Those three bearded fellas above are Glasgow 3-piece Campfires In Winter. Regular readers of the Peenko blog may recognise them as one third of the first Peenko vs. Aye Tunes line-up, and also Boab (on the left), from his '62 Word Review'. At the end of July they released their brilliant debut EP "Cardboard Ships" for free before embarking on an intimate 'Flat Tour'.
For the lowdown on the band, what they have in store for the future, and their disturbing findings during their recent tour, read on...
Kowalskiy: Who are Campfires in Winter? Campfires In Winter: We are Scott, Wullie and Boab. And for the next few months we'll also have Denny from Macabre Scene with us too filling in on drums until we get someone permanent.
Kowalskiy: How did the band get together, and what's the story behind the name? Campfires In Winter: We came about as the result of a failed experiment by a 3rd year Standard Grade chemistry class in St Maurice's High, Cumbernauld. One young Dexter tried to perform a litmus paper test and BAM! We appeared instead. It's a common occurence if the pH of a solution is perfectly neutral.
We actually used to have another name but it was crap and a bit juvenile. You could tell it was a couple of 15 year olds that had come with it 'cos it sounded 'cool'. Anyway, it was getting to the point where every time we told someone about us they went ''aww, so you're a metal/emo/screamo band then?''. So we changed it. There were a number of ideas but I really like the image that Campfires In Winter conjures in my head. The rest of the guys liked it too so it stuck.
Kowalskiy: How would you describe 'your sound'? Campfires In Winter: Oooh a tough one. Some noisy bits, some quiet bits, wee twinkly bits on the piano but a strong sense of melody always takes precedence. We always get Twilight Sad comparisons but I think that's mainly because of the similar accent (understandable, seeing they come from about a mile down the road from us) and loud, expansive guitars, which we were doing before any of us had even heard of them.
Kowalskiy: Who/what/where are your main influences?
Wullie: Main influences for me would be bands like Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Explosions In The Sky, Frightened Rabbit, Arab Strap, Remember Remember and just general experiences that happen to me in every day life.
Scott: I've grown up listening to a lot of Coldplay but Sigur Ros are probably the main influence for me.
Boab: Probably Mogwai, GY!BE, Frightened Rabbit, Idlewild, Broken Social Scene, Daniel Johnston and Radiohead for me.
Kowalskiy: You recently released your debut Cardboard Ships EP for free over on bandcamp. What's the story behind the EP? Campfires In Winter: We started recording the songs without any real purpose, just for stuff to put on the MySpace etc really. After a while we thought it would be nice to put out an EP rather than just have some songs recorded for no real purpose. We decided to do a limited edition handmade release to go with it (available from www.campfiresinwinter.com)
Kowalskiy: To plug it further, you embarked on a "Flat Tour". What was the thinking behind that? and mentioning no names (unless you want to) what was the strangest/most disturbing thing you saw? Campfires In Winter: Sean McCann (http://www.lug-s.com/) suggested one night that we should do a tour of people's flats/houses and we loved the idea. So we asked a few pals if they were up for having us round, they said aye and that was that. I think the strangest/most disturbing thing we saw were the large number of books on Satanism in Sean's. Oh, wait!! There were also those pictures of Lloyd Peenko from way back in the day. Those photos were by far the most disturbing things we saw. We now have a photo of a younger Lloyd that we can use as blackmail material...wonder if he'd let us send it to you...?
Kowalskiy: I'm sure he'd be fine with that! We all need some blackmail material..... So, what would be your ideal gig?
Wullie: I'd love to do a gig at Glencoe or at the foot of Ben Nevis but I also wouldn't mind a shot at the Barras with Mogwai, GY!BE, Explosions In The Sky, RM Hubbert, theapplesofenergy, faoilteach mor and Boards Of Canada, taking place over the course a few days with an art/photography/film exhibition running alongside.
Scott: My ideal gig would be in a massive underpass with hunners of echo and hunners of people. I can't think of anyone who's ever done that before so would love to show folk how it's done.
Boab: My ideal gig would be with Mogwai and Radiohead. The stage would be a bouncy castle and all the bands would have to bounce whilst playing or they wouldn't be paid. Thom Yorke would be dressed as a clown and would hand out balloon animals all day, then he would finish the day off by fighting with Stuart Braithewaite. They would only be allowed one weapon each, and that weapon would be a balloon sword. Kowalskiy: What can we expect from Campfires in Winter in the future? Campfires In Winter: A few more gigs this year where we'll be back doing our full-on, non-acoustic, eyebrow-singingly loud stuff. We had plans for a joint tour with Macabre Scene this year but it had to be shelved when our drummer left so hopefully we'll get that sorted for next year instead. And an album next year too hopefully. And loads more gigs.
Kowalskiy: Lastly, what's been the highlight of being in Campfires in Winter to date?
Wullie: My favourite part was the Flat Tour which gave us an idea of what it would be like to be playing every night on a full tour. Scott: My highlight so far has been the last few months as a three-piece finishing the EP and doing the Flat Tour. It feels as though we've gelled more as a band and establishing ourselves a bit more. It feels weird going back to having four members but in a way seems like being a three-piece has made us better as a band.
Boab: Since the others have mentioned the Flat Tour, I'll go with my next top highlight which was playing the Podcart's 1st Birthday in February. Our old drummer badly let us down by leaving two days before the gig so we decided to make do without a bassist and Wullie would fill in on percussion by playing a dinner table whilst using a cardboard box as a kick drum. We had played using this setup once before a few years ago but this time we only had one rehearsal and I was bricking it in case we were shite. It ended up being one of the best gigs we've played. The place was rammed, the crowd were really responsive and got right into it, and we had a great laugh. Cracking night.
Speaking of Glasgow Podcart's 1st Birthday bash, you can download Campfires In Winter's set that night for free here, and once again, you can get your hands on a free download of their "Cardboard Ships" EP here.
By now I'm sure you're all aware of the wee shindig at The Captain's Rest on Friday night. If not, then here's the gist....
Scottish music bloggers Peenko and Aye Tunes have teamed and persuaded three of Scotland's finest up-and-coming bands to play for them for the inaugural Peenko vs. Aye Tunes gig. On the bill are Campfires In Winter, Mitchell Museum and headliners Kid Canaveral.
Tickets are £4 in advance (you may need to be quick though) or £5 on the door.
Head over to Aye Tunes for some info on how you can get your hands on some freebies from the three bands in question.
Kowalskiy is taking an indefinite break from blogging.
David
Kowalskiy's Free EP Download...
Battle Of The Bands... Scores after round 11
A well-earned 'away' draw between my boys The Mouse That Ate The Cat and Neil's Where We lay Our Heads means that going into 2013, Team Kowalskiy has a one-point lead!
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