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.