Slowfest, the annual mini-fest in celebration of music's softer side, is returning to Glasgow's Bar Bloc on Mon Dec 29. Which makes sense, given that the festival is an offshoot of the venue's weekly Slow Club residency. The event welcomes some of the rising stars of Scotland's music scene to deliver special, intimate acoustic sets - find out more about the acts confirmed so far (and what they sound like with the amps on) below.
Paws
An unlikely headliner for Slowfest, this noisy, grungy trio have spent some of this year touring the States with We Are Scientists (at one point getting into a bit of a stooshie with Morrissey). They're playing a freebie gig at Bloc on Tue Dec 9 and at Kid Canaveral's Christmas Baubles in Edinburgh on Sat Dec 13, if you want to see them in all their raucous glory.
So Many Animal Calls
Describing themselves as a 'Glasgow failpop quartet', SMAC have a typically Scottish miserablist outlook in common with Frightened Rabbit and The Twilight Sad, though their spikier outbursts put them in a league with the more American-influenced sounds of Biffy Clyro and Twin Atlantic. Once again, you can catch them in all their finery at Bloc on Tue Dec 2, or at Nice'n'Sleazy on Tue Dec 9.
Algernon Doll
Initially just the stage name of lead singer Ewan Grant (pictured above), Algernon Doll has swollen to a three-piece to capture the sound of Elliot Smith-meets-lo-fi 90s grunge for third album 'Omphalic' (with a Sub Poppy fuzz courtesy of a mastering process 'specifically for wax by Bob Weston of Shellac').
Carnivores
If headliners Paws seem oddly suited for an acoustic-only set, booking Carnivores seems positively perverse. The trio capture the angry-yet-intricate structures of Tool-influenced underground rock bands of the early-mid noughties - think Biffy, Reuben or Sucioperro. They play Glasgow's Falt 0/1 on Thu Dec 4.
TeenCanteen
Edinburgh four-piece beloved of The Vaselines' Eugene Kelly whose earnest pop melodies bring to mind a slightly edgier Belle and Sebastian. Catch them on home turf (at Edinburgh's Central Hall) as part of the Christmas Songwriters' Club on Sat Dec 20.