Win tickets to Hinterland 2010

Hinterland returns to Glasgow for a second year next month, bringing with it a slew of hotly tipped bands from near and far.

Taking place across six city centre venues, the mini-festival is the latest to take on the 'Camden Crawl' format, and it takes place on 3 April from 5pm 'til 3am.

The line-up so far: Mystery Jets, British Sea Power, Joe Goddard (Hot Chip) DJ set, Friendly Fires DJ set, Jeffrey Lewis, Hot Club de Paris, Wave Pictures, Greco-Roman Soundsystem, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaur, Fenech Soler, Johnny Foreigner, Bleech, Make Sparks, The French Wives, Little Yellow Ukuleles, Ambulances, Pulled Apart By Horses, Panda Su, The Boy Who Trapped the Sun, Midnight Lion, The Darien Venture, The Kays Lavelle, Kitty the Lion, Cooly G, Eclair-Fifi and Konx Om Pax.

Early bird tickets have sold out, but we have two pairs of tickets to give away.

To enter this competition, answer the following question:

How many of the bands playing this year's Hinterland have been interviewed on this blog?

- 2
- 4
- 6
- 8

(Hint: see the list, below right)

Send your answer to online@scotsman.com with the subject 'Hinterland'.

Editorial: The tipping point

If you're an avid consumer of music journalism you could be forgiven at this time of year for picturing every blogger and critic to look like John McCririck.

OK, maybe they don't look like the Ascot-frequenting eccentric, but they're all having a go at being excitable tipsters.

Perhaps the most high profile formcard for the year ahead is the BBC's Sound of 2010, which today crowned Ellie Goulding as the artist primed for stardom. Having already vented about the selection process behind their shortlist, I'll refrain from any more cynicism now, but the comment from Drunk Country on our original editorial is worth a read.

Over the festive period a few of our writers offered their own Scottish tips for 2010, but we have refrained from compiling a thorough run-down or poll of the most exciting acts of the moment.

Why? Because that's essentially what we've been doing for the past year anyway. The bands and artists we have profiled have been emergent by definition, the vast majority of them unsigned. If 2009 was the year of their formation, or the year they started gigging or self-released an EP, perhaps 2010 is the year they'll 'make it' - and I'll let you be the judge of what 'making it' entails.

Some of our choices from the class of 2009 - Withered Hand, North Atlantic Oscillation, There Will Be Fireworks, Copy Haho, Panda Su, to name a select few - are already growing their audience beyond the cosy confines of the Scottish scene. Others will undoubtedly come to nothing and fade back into obscurity. As any pundit will tell you though, that's the risk you take in this game.

But like everyone else, we can't resist the appeal of the crystal ball, so I'll add a few more new names that have recently appeared as blips on our collective radar:

Django Django
Nomogram
The Last Battle
Midnight Lion
miaoux miaoux
Three Blind Wolves (Ross Clark's renamed band)

Who are you tipping for 2010? Do you actually look like John McCririck? Let us know...

Ryan Drever: My tip for 2010

Midnight Lion, a duo comprised of former Drive-by Argument men, Stewart Brock and Lewis Gardiner, unleashed a few home-recorded tracks just a couple of months ago and already, people (particularly industry folks) are practically soiling themselves with excitement.

Taking a darker approach to electronic pop music, these two have managed to create a spacious yet slick sound, all from the confines of Gardiner's bedroom, and with a neat bit of radio play, a growing online fanbase and rabid industry attention, this looks like it could very well be one of next year's success stories.