Idolator: Nme

Rivers Cuomo's "Let's Write A Sawng" Track Surprisingly Better Than Most Of "Red Album"

Anthony Miccio — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:30:00 EDT

The NME is awfully excited about the leaked Weezer track "Turnin' Turnin'," which appeared online without warning today. "The backdrop for the YouTube video shows the cover of the band's recent self-titled album, known as The Red Album, suggesting that the new song may be recent!" Yup, and if they'd checked out Rivers Cuomo's "Let's Write A Sawng" Web experiment, they'd know that "Turnin' Turnin'" is something he and his fan club have been working on for months. Almost as sad as the NME's lack of awareness is that the song, while lyrically thumbsucky ("You say I should go to school / hey man, back up, cuz you don't look so cool!"), is a hell of a lot more enjoyable than much of The Red Album. (Remember "Heart Songs?") Part of its appeal is that the opening arpeggios remind me of Rooney's "I'm Shakin'," a song from 2003 that I still can't believe wasn't written by Rivers and Co.

"Turnin' Turnin'":

"I'm Shakin'":

When I first heard "I'm Shakin'" on the radio in 2004, I assumed that Weezer's Make Believe sessions with Rick Rubin had gone so well, the band (or label) had decided to leak a song well before originally planned. So imagine my disappointment when we eventually were handed "Beverly Hills." Maybe Rivers will continue to use these amateur Desmond Children on The Yellow Album.

New Weezer Track Turnin' Turnin' [YouTube]
Unreleased Weezer Track Appears Online [NME]
Rooney - I'm Shakin' [YouTube]

The NME Awards USA Are Not Over For Some

Anthony Miccio — Fri, 16 May 2008 09:00:00 EDT

How could we allow this to happen in America? The Klaxons have been accused of keeping an award won by the Arctic Monkeys at the NME Awards USA last month. The Next Big Things behind "Fluorescent Adolescent" couldn't make it out to the LA event, so a Klaxon and Mark Ronson ambushed the stage when model Agyness Deyn announced the Monkeys had won Best "International" Album, swiping the trophy and shouting "We're up for it and we're having a laugh!" When I ask how could this happen in America, I'm not saying we don't allow people to jump the stage at award shows. I'm noting that an stateside award ceremony controversy involving Klaxons, Arctic Monkeys, Mark Ronson, and a model named Agyness Deyn obviously breaks the Third Amendment. Throw a Shawn Colvin or a Kanye in that mix, NME, or keep it on your damn island.

Arctic Monkeys, winners of the Best International Album at the NME Awards USA, are yet to get their trophy back from Klaxons.

The Sheffield band were unable to attend the Los Angeles ceremony last month, so Jamie Reynolds from Klaxons got up onstage and swiped Arctic Monkeys' award from model Agyness Deyn when it was handed out (pictured).

Alex Turner and co have yet to be handed their award, and Reynolds caused further confusion on the night (April 23) by jokingly telling NME.COM that Klaxons' 2007 debut album 'Myths Of The Near Future' deserved the prize more than 'Famous Worst Nightmare'.

"Are you telling me that their second album is better than our first?" he asked during an interview on the night.

No, we're telling you we don't care! Until a British act writes a hit ballad, they are not allowed to caper and cavort at award ceremonies on this side of the Atlantic (Franz Ferdinand are the exception that proves the rule). If you like, you may play a handful of industry-heavy live dates in major metropolitan areas, as a full-scale tour is rather tiring for you English scamps. But get that visa early. We're watching you.

Arctic Monkeys still missing their NME Award USA [NME]
John Ashcroft [YouTube]

"NME" Finds A Familiar Future

Anono-Critic — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:00:00 EDT

Once again, we present Rock-Critically Correct, a feature in which the most recent issues of Rolling Stone, Blender, Vibe, and Spin are given a once-over by a writer who's contributed to many
of those magazines, as well as a few others! In this installment, he looks at the new issue of the British indie bible NME:

This week, Your Boy assesses a publication that saw its first issue in 1952, and is thus much older than all but one assessed in this space; it's been an irreducible part of the pop music conversation since.

The New Music Express initially fulfilled for the United Kingdom the same function as Billboard in the U.S. until the early '60s, when British music took the rest of the world by storm and it was changed into a consumer publication. In terms of longevity and influence, NME can only be compared to Rolling Stone, but that's where the similarities begin and end. It remains a newspaper (a format RS forewent in the late '70s) and the fact that it can be effectively distributed throughout the UK every week reflects that the British Isles are easier to traverse than the United States: NME could thus report on events pertinent to its readership in a timely manner.

For three decades, NME competed fiercely with Melody Maker (est. 1926) and Sounds (est. 1971). In the second half of the 20th century, popular music was the UK's most consistently vital culture product, and this vigorous environment supported three weekly papers. But Sounds folded in 1991, and NME subsumed Melody Maker in 2000.

NME has long functioned in the U.S. as a crib sheet for terminally anglophilic music fans and as a pre-blog era example of how writers in their twenties can get comically overheated when they discover an exciting new band. More recently, its Web site has become renowned for running with every music-oriented rumor that emerges out of the murk, often without a shred of verification (in this, the site is kin to the English tabloid newspapers collectively known as Fleet Street). But in the UK, the paper is perennial: there is the Queen, Cliff Richard, lager, chip butties, and the New Music Express.

Your Boy purchased his first copy in 1989, decided he didn't like it, decamped for Q, and thus didn't purchase another issue until earlier this week. His efforts to decode NME's shifting priorities over six decades would not result in terribly reliable analysis, so he'll begin 'splainin' what he understands as the paper's traits from when he started started paying attention...

It seemed that in the late '80s, NME's brain trust was keen on "the vanguard" of whichever moment pop music found itself. Being that this was the Thatcher/Major era, there was a keen sense of opposition to established rock stars amongst young turks (the term "rockism" had been coined by various English writers a few years earlier), and so idioms like the English version of indiepop, acid/house/rave, shoegaze, and goddamn grebo music were all championed by writers and editors who were probably just out of university and thus eager to demonstrate their spittle-flecked, quasi-socialist solidarity with this revolutionary musical movement or that.

But then came the Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. Here was a genuine mass "youf" movement, one that briefly seemed to wash away Sting and Dire Straits forever. Then came Nirvana and Pearl Jam, of whom NME could pretend the same. Then, almost as a gift from the gods for English guys who might have regretted advocating American bands that could seem like Boston and Bob Seger with more distortion, came the big summer of 1995.

Blur vs. Oasis was a great story for the British media: its emphasis on the clash of Northern and Southern cultures in Britain made YB think how fun it would have been if Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Talking Heads sustained a red state and blue state-based war of words. England seemed like the center of the universe for NME and its readership, and them with no dog in that hunt would be forgiven for thinking that the paper's cheerleading gave off a whiff of nativism. By the time the dust settled, NME looked up to notice that Tony Blair was now Prime Minister, and railing against the canon seemed out of step with Cool Britannia. If rooting for the Spice Girls would be out of the question, then promoting the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim would do. NME would now, as English folks might say, be "havin' it."

By 2001, NME had recovered from its Britpop binge and found another movement it could go bananas for. The Real Rock bands! The Strokes! The White Stripes! The Hives! That really rather shitty Australian band the Vines! The paper's advocacy of these artists reflected two essential truths about NME in the last 20 years:

1. When NME gets in the tank for an artist, said artist will be covered with all the thoughtful restraint of a St. Bernard slobbering all over a giggling kindergartner.

2. NME will tip its hat to dance music and hip-hop, but nothing will ever replace guitar bands in its heart; that archetype, after all, is the greatest gift British culture has given the world in the past 50 years.

The Strokes in particular have been key to NME: they could have been made up over the phone by a couple of British rock writers dreaming up a perfect "New York Guitar Band," and NME has since idealized Williamsburg, Brooklyn (the neighborhood's rise as a hipster paradise is contiguous with that of Julian Casabalancas and his four fine feathered friends). And the two English acts that NME has championed most fervently over the past five years, the Libertines and Arctic Monkeys, are more or less homegrown iterations of the Strokes.

And so Your Boy comes to the April 26, 2008 edition of NME. There ain't much to it. Nearly a third of its 66 pages is devoted to ads for festivals and concert venues: YB thinks it would be wonderful if major music publications in the US could subsist on such ad revenue. The front-of-book section evokes NME.com by making hay with what's evidently the first interview with Paramore since its frontgal wrote a blog post that shook the world and the fact that "Noel and Liam Refuse To Drink Together." The "Live" section reveals that Staff Writer Mark Beaumont can travel through time to the year 2012, since he reviews a Muse concert at the Royal Albert Hall that's dated "Saturday, May 12." Similarly, Alan Woodhouse's review of a Hard Fi/Carbon Silicon gig near Nashville is datelined "Sunday, April 12."

The issue is devoted to, as per its big cover line, "The Future 50: The bands, artists and innovators driving music forward." Editor Conor McNicholas declares in his editor's letter that "the dominant of skinny-jean, vest-wearing jangly indie boys is coming to end," and that it's time for something new. YB wonders if Mr. McNicholas will be putting his money where his mouth is when, say, a new Interpol album is at the ready.

The entire feature well is devoted to the "Future 50." The list begins with stage-garb and prop designers Nova Dando and Petra Storrs, and whizzes through Spank Rock at 45, perpetual recipient of English-pop-writer-affection Mike Skinner at 37, the guitar-band-subsidizing Canadian government at 19, Canadian cover duo the Crystal Castles (who appear on the issue's cover) at 10, and the inevitable Alex Turner, Damon Albarn, Radiohead, and M.I.A. at 9, 8, 3 and 2, respectively.

NME's pick for the individual who is pushing popular music forward is... Dave Sitek. Why? He's a member of TV on the Radio and the producer of Scarlett Johansson's new album Anywhere I Lay My Head, which is comprised of songs by bobo fave Tom Waits, and the Foals' Antidotes. Anything else, NME scribe identified as "GC" who may be Assistant Gig Guide Editor Greg Cochrane? Well, he lives in Brooklyn ("currently the creative centre of the universe; home to the most exciting bands and artists on the planet right now, all making intellectual music that values creativity over celebrity," drools Cochrane), thinks most current pop music sucks, and describes his production aesthetic is reached by "sitting in my underwear, doing bong hits.'"

NME thinks this guy is pushing music forward more than any individual on Earth? Of course they do!

Morrissey won a court apology from Word Magazine ...

Anthony Miccio — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:45:00 EDT

Morrissey won a court apology from Word Magazine for suggesting that the author of "Asian Rut" was a racist and a hypocrite. His case against the NME's similar accusations is still pending. Sez Mozz: "Word Magazine made the mistake of repeating [the NME's] allegations, which they now accept are false and, as a result, have apologised in Open Court. I will now continue to pursue my legal action against the NME and its editor until they do the same." [BBC]

So that NME bit on Amy Winehouse maybe guest-starring ...

Maura Johnston — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:45:00 EDT

So that NME bit on Amy Winehouse maybe guest-starring on Doctor Who was apparently the tabloid's attempt at an April Fool's joke, although you'd think that the editors over there would have had their annual "fake story" quota fulfilled by their constant attempts to stoke the "Led Zeppelin reunion tour" fire. Anyway, feel free to post about any notable April Fool's attempts by other bands or sites in this particular thread, since I usually just spend April 1 hoping for the Internet's day to end so people can go back to being inadvertently unfunny instead of trying really, really hard at "humor."

"NME" Still Trying To Make Up For That "Led Zeppelin Playing Bonnaroo" Gaffe

Maura Johnston — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Back when the Bonnaroo lineup was announced, the NME plastered its Web site with announcements that Led Zeppelin would be playing the Tennessee festival—an announcement that was occasioned by the press release noting that the all-female Zep tribute band Lez Zeppelin was on the bill. Such are the perils of being the world's fastest music news service, right? Well, the breathless British tabloid is still convinced that the band will, in fact, play again, despite Robert Plant reportedly turning down a huge reunion-tour payday. And it's not afraid to take out-of-context quotes from a Led Zeppelin story running in its sister publication Uncut and place them in front of fun-house mirrors for not one story, but two, in order to prove its point.

First, the John Paul Jones statement that occasioned the headline "Led Zeppelin may release new album":

Asked specifically about the possibility of a new album, he said, "I'm not sure. I'm not too certain about anything right at the moment. I've got no idea what's going to happen. But I'd certainly like to play with Jimmy [Page] again."

Wow, NME! You're right, they may release a new album. And hey, I'd certainly like to go on a date with Prince that ends in a show of his—and now that I've said that, I can also, by your logic, go around telling my friends that said date may happen! Optimism reigns!

Then there's the story headlined "Robert Plant: 'Led Zeppelin May Play Live Again'," which pulls these quotes from the Uncut piece:

"Hopefully, one day, we could do it again for another really, really good reason," he said. "Because there's unfinished business, definitely.

"I don't think there's any need for it to be finished. As long as he's [guitarist Jimmy Page] got a bit of creative electricity going through his nut, then there's going to be something to do sometime.

"It's just in what form and how much of a compromise it would be to the real root of what we had as Zeppelin. Everybody wants to have some fun."

Including the editors of the NME, who are no doubt popping champagne corks in honor of the traffic that they're getting from their teasing headlines showing up on Google News. Yay, journa... oh, forget it.

Led Zeppelin may release new album [NME]
Robert Plant: "Led Zeppelin May Play Live Again" [NME]
[Photo: Getty]

"NME" Attempts To Establish Its Brand In US By Piggybacking Off Other Brands

Maura Johnston — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:30:22 EDT

The NME—which has taken to branding itself as "The World's Fastest Music News Service," which I guess is their way of sidestepping allegations about its accuracy—will hold the American version of its Shockwaves Awards on April 23 in Los Angeles, and you aren't invited. But don't worry! You can stream the whole thing on MySpace, thanks to one of those partnership deals that press releases trumpet as "exclusive" and jaded eyes read as "last-ditch attempts to make people on this side of the pond care about a brand that doesn't really mean much to them unless they're really into overly breathless prose and/or Billy Childish."

And there are more:

• Best Video is sponsored by Heavy.com—"one of the web's leading consumer video companies and the leader for 18-34 year old males," which means I guess that you can expect to see lots of boobs in the nominees;

• Best New American Alternative/Indie Band is sponsored by Yahoo! Music; and

• American Alternative/Indie Album of the Year is sponsored by Entertainment Weekly's Web site, because there's no better way to establish your brand in a new country than to hitch it to that of a competitor that's had deathwatch rumors swirling around it for the better part of the past few years.

Nominations are open now, although for some reason a) the NME wants your street address to let you through to registration and b) you have to click through 18 pages in order to nominate an entire slate. So I guess this is going to be another awards show whose nominees are decided by hapless interns working in service of their image-conscious bosses, right?

Earlier: NME To Bring Its Incessant Arctic Monkeys Longing To The US

Can The NME Survive Until Its Next Scheduled Awards Show?

Jess Harvell — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:45:00 EDT

Thanks to its zombie-like grip on a dwindling but loyal number of British indie schmindies, U.K. tabloidstitution the New Musical Express has yet to be shuttered, despite those three words that everyone in the publishing world just loooooves to hear: "steadily declining sales." In fact, sales for the latter half of 2007 were apparently "the lowest ever" because British whiteys can now get 'round the clock updates on their favorite British whiteys (who can play guitar) for free anywhere there's decent Wi-Fi. But the occasion of the NME's august uh 56th birthday has sent the yearly crop of rose-colored doommongers onto the blogs and into broadsheets to fret over its imminent demise, but the folks at the NME insist they can keep the pulped-wood version rolling off the presses until the damn Blur reunion or the brandy-fueled Gallagher brothers incest scandal finally breaks.

The current NME weekly is, admittedly, a much calmer chameleon than during its punky, druggy peak. Packed with soundbites, gossip and promotional branding, it can read like a trainer-bra version of Heat magazine. But a residual fondness remains. Hearing reports of falling sales is like hearing that a cruel but brilliant uncle has been taken ill.

And yet, according to its publishers IPC, the veteran music rag is in rude health. Last week's awards show earned their biggest TV audience so far on Channel 4. Next month, NME launches an American awards show and tour, with a radio channel due by the summer. Even with falling sales, IPC claims that the magazine remains "the heart of the brand" and still its most profitable element...

IPC has responded to NME's poor circulation figures by announcing yet another revamp. But perhaps it is simply wrong to interpret poor sales as a crisis in this post-print age. Even if its weekly cousin loses readers, the magazine's online presence continues to expand, recently surpassing the monthly benchmark of two million "unique users". Pat Long insists that NME deserves credit as a pioneer of blogs, online news and web videos.

"The future will see more focus on that content being sold to third parties with the magazine used more as a focus to hold the different brand platforms together," Long predicts. "The problem is it's difficult to talk about things like brand platforms without imagining Nick Kent somewhere, sobbing."

Well obviously. But hey, at least that means the other 300,000 words could once again be taken up by nostalgia-addled, aging punks (and music crits) kvetching about the good ol' days and things being too "corporate" and the kids and their soulless social networks. Cuz, you know, without the U.K.'s bizarre fixation on the NME's supposed golden age, this would have been a five paragraph item that could be summed up with the title "print pub goes online to survive." (We can debate its "pioneer status" another day.) How come no American music critics write weepy daily paper paeans to personal hero John Leland every time Spin changes hands?

They Think It's All Over For The NME [Times Online]

NME To Bring Its Incessant Arctic Monkeys Lauding To The US

Maura Johnston — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:20:20 EST

Hot on the heels of its Alex Turner-loving, George Bush-hating awards show last week, the NME has decided that it's going to bring a version of the NME Awards to the United States, and that said awards will be "in recognition of great American alternative talent past, present and future." The voting process—which is going on right now, and which will allow the magazine to harvest even more e-mail addresses in its attempt to become a force in the American "alternative/independent" music scene, even though the precise definition of that slashed term is still a bit dodgy thanks in part to the past few years' watercolor-like runniness between "indie" and music that is actually, y'know, independent—will culminate in a private ceremony held in Los Angeles next month. (What, you thought that voting would get you in? Silly kids! That's not how pseudo-event-styled democracy works!) The full list of categories that you can nominate artists for, after you offer up your name, address, year of birth, and blood type to the mag's publishers, is after the jump.

Alternative/Independent Band Of The Year
Best Alternative/independent Solo Artist
Best Alternative/Independent Track.
Best New Alternative/Independent Solo Artist
Best International Alt/Indie Band
Best International Alt/Indie Solo Artist
Best International Alt/Indie Live Act
Best International Alt/Indie Album
Best International Alt/Indie Track
Best New International Alt/Indie New Band
Best New International Alt/Indie Solo Artist
Best New International Alt/Indie Live Act

You can also probably guess that since overly wordy Brit Kate Nash is on the "NME Awards Tour" that's currently winding around America, she'll be up for at least two of those "international" awards. Or all of them! She has a band backing her, right?

NME Awards USA 2008 [NME.com]
[Photo: AP]

The NME Shockwaves Awards: Those Brits Sure Do Like The Arctic Monkeys

Maura Johnston — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 15:35:10 EST

The only awards show anywhere that could pit Hero Of The Year Pete Doherty against Villain Of The Year George W. Bush: The NME Shockwaves Awards, the 55-year-old ceremony that honors the breathless British tabloid's favorite—and least favorite—artists and albums. The Arctic Monkeys came up as the big winners this time out, winning Best Band, Best Video, and Best Track (but losing Best Album to the Klaxons); also the Manic Street Preachers were awarded the Godlike Genius Award, which will no doubt get some old-school Britpop fans out of the messageboard woodwork. Of course, the NME being "cheeky" means that there were some least-faves as well, and among them are Worst Band recipients the Hoosiers (who I keep thinking are "the Hooters") and the Worst Dressed honoree Amy Winehouse. Full list of winners after the jump. [NME]

Best British Band: Arctic Monkeys
Best International Band: The Killers
Best Solo Artist: Kate Nash
Best New Band: The Enemy
Best Live Band: Muse
Best Album: Klaxons, Myths Of The Near Future
Best Track: Arctic Monkeys, 'Fluorescent Adolescent'
Best Video: Arctic Monkeys, 'Teddy Picker'
Best Music DVD: Nirvana, Unplugged In New York
Best Live Event: Carling Weekend: Reading And Leeds Festivals
Best TV Show: The Mighty Boosh
Best Radio Show: Zane Lowe (Radio 1)
Best Film: Control
Best Web Site: Facebook
Best Venue: Wembley Stadium
Hero Of The Year: Pete Doherty
Villain Of The Year: George Bush
Best Dressed: Noel Fielding
Worst Dressed: Amy Winehouse
Worst Album: Britney Spears, Blackout
Worst Band: The Hoosiers
Sexiest Man: Noel Fielding
Sexiest Woman: Kylie Minogue
Godlike Genius: Manic Street Preachers
Philip Hall Radar Award: Glasvegas
John Peel Award for Musical Innovation: Radiohead
Best Dancefloor Filler: The Wombats 'Let's Dance to Joy Division'
Best Album Artwork: The Good The Bad And The Queen
Best Band Blog: Radiohead (www.radiohead.com/deadairspace)
Best Music Blog: The Modern Age (www.themodernage.org)

Is The "Surprise" Bonnaroo Headliner Going To Be All That Surprising?

Maura Johnston — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 14:15:27 EST

So NME's Web site is announcing one of the Bonnaroo headliners at midnight EST, and according to their claims said headliner is going to be surprising! After yesterday's torrent of riddles and the fact that every clue could be guessed semi-correctly by plugging in the name of any band that appeals to liberal-arts college students—from Dispatch to Metallica to Panda Bear to Hall and Oates—the only "surprise" headliner I can think of at this point is the original lineup of Color Me Badd. Of course, this is the NME we're talking about, so that surprise will probably wind up being a reuniting relic. Only in this case it'll be Menswe@r. [NME / Bonnaroo '06 photo via AP]

"NME" Makes Some Noise For The Klaxons

jharv — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:00:55 EST

Thumbing their nose at British legends, Canadian upstarts, and America in general, the NME has named the clattering debut from dance-rockers the Klaxons as the best album of the year and the band's "Golden Skans" as the year's best single. (But don't worry, because Radiohead and the Arcade Fire both find their way into the Top 5.) The tabloid's picks for its 50 favorite albums and 50 favorite songs are after the jump, but first our thoughts on a publication that really liked the nu-rave.

THE GOOD: Les Savy Fav's Lets Stay Friends, an unexpected comeback from a favorite band that I initially filed away as "pleasantly non-embarassing" but that sounds better with every spin, makes a surprising (but not undeserved) appearance at No. 5.
THE BAD: Even accounting for my age and citizenship, the singles list is something of a foreign language. Totally willing to give it a fair shake, of course, but given the NME's blog-shaming track record for mercurial hype and band names like the "Ting Tings," I feel more comfortable than usual with my cranky suspicions.
THE WHAAAA? "Umbrella" is once again a rock mag's only cop to radio pop (as defined in the U.S.) or R&B (unless you count Ms. Winehouse). Did everyone just raise the white flag during its reign of terror earlier in the year?

TOP ALBUMS
50 Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
49 Interpol - Our Love TO Admire
48 The View - Hats Off To The Buskers
47 Enter Shikari - Take To The Skies
46 Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly Angry Mob
45 !!! - Myth Takes
44 Gruff Ryhs - Candylion
43 Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence Patience and Grace
42 Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
41 Menomena - Friend and Foe
40 EL-P - I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
39 Jeffery Lewis - 12 Crass Songs
38 Justice - [that cross symbol thingee]
37 Jamie T - Panic Prevention
36 Holy Fuck - s/t
35 Super Furry Animals - Hey Venus!
34 New Young Pony Club - Fantastic Playroom
33 Simian Mobile Disco - Attack Decay Sustain Release
32 Grinderman - s/t
31 The Pigeon Detectives - Wait For Me
30 QOTSA - Era Vulgaris
29 Lethal Bizzle - Back To Bizznizz
28 Bright Eyes - Cassadaga
27 The Horrors - Strange House
26 Kate Nash - Made of Bricks
25 The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls In America
24 The Maccabees - Colour It In
23 Maps - We Can Create
22 Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil
21 The Enemy - We'll Live and Die In These Towns
20 Bloc Party - A Weekend In The City
19 Richard Hawley - Lady's Bridge
18 The Good, The Bad & The Queen
17 Future of The Left - Curses
16 The Coral - Roots and Echoes
15 The White Stripes - Icky Thump
14 Babyshambles - Shotter's Nation
13 PJ Harvey - White Chalk
12 The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
11 LCD Soundsytem - Sound Of Silver
10 Battles - Mirrored
9 The Cribs - Man's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever
8 Biffy Clyro - Puzzle
7 MIA - Kala
6 Kings of Leon - Because Of The Times
5 Les Savy Fav - Let's Stay Friends
4 Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
3 Radiohead - In Rainbows
2 Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare
1 Klaxons - Myths of The Near Future

TOP TRACKS
50 Biffy Clyro - Living Is A problem Because Everything Dies
49 Los Campesinos! - You! Me! Dancing!
48 QOTSA - Sick, Sick, Sick
47 Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
46 Richard Hawley - Tonight The Streets Are Ours
45 Black Lips - Bad Kids
44 CSS - Off The Hook
43 Kate Nash - Foundations
42 The Enemy - It's Not OK
41 MIA - Boyz
40 The Horrors - She Is The New Thing
39 Late of The Pier - Bathroom Gurgle
38 Lightspeed Champion - Galaxy Of The Lost
37 The White Stripes - Icky Thump
36 The Hives - Tick Tick Boom
35 Bloc Party - The Prayer
34 XX Teens - Darlin'
33 Cold War Kids - Hang Me Out To Dry
32 Those Dancing Days - Those Dancing Days
31 Gallows - Abandon Ship
30 Does It Offend You, Yeah? - Let's Make Out
29 Jarvis - Don't Let Him Waste Your Time
28 Björk Earth Intruders
27 Howling Bells - Low Happening
26 Arcade Fire - Keep The Car Running
25 Kings of Leon - Charmer
24 The Gossip - Standing In The Way of Control
23 Justice - D.A.N.C.E.
22 Klaxons - It's Not Over Yet
21 SFA - Run Away
20 Dizzee Rascal - Sirens
19 Santogold - LES Artistes
18 Hadouken! - That Boy That Girl
17 MIA - Jimmy
16 Arctic Monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent
15 Battles - Atlas
14 Black Lips - O Katrina!
13 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
12 Foals - Hummer
11 Grinderman - No Pussy Blues
10 LCD Soundsystem - North American Scum
9 Arcade Fire - Intervention
8 Foals - Mathletics
7 Arctic Monkeys - Brianstorm
6 The Ting Tings - That's Not My Name
5 Rihanna - Umbrella
4 The Teenagers - Homecoming
3 The Cribs - Men's Needs
2 Glasvegas - Daddy's Gone
1 Klaxons - Golden Skans

[HT: I Love Music Year-End Critics' Polls '07 thread]

Morrissey To NME: Racism Is "Beyond Common Sense" (Also, You Suck Now)

jharv — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 10:30:34 EST

Well, the NME learned a valuable lesson this week: Never corner Morrissey, because he'll put you on blast with a volubility that shames just about anyone you currently have on staff. Responding to the accusation that statements he made during a recent interview were racist and in addition to the lawsuit he's reportedly bringing against the tabloid, Morrissey has penned a withering 1,800-word NME take down for The Guardian that's mostly designed to clear his name, but also turns out to be one of the more eloquent summations of the rag's post-'90s/Britpop irrelevance.

The NME have, in the past, offered me their "Godlike Genius Award" and I had politely refused. With the Tim Jonze inteview, the Award was offered once again, this time with the added request that I headline their forthcoming awards concert at the O2 Arena, and once again I declined it. This is nothing personal against the NME, although the distressing article would suggest the editor took it as such. My own view is that award ceremonies in pop music are dreadful to witness and are simply a way of the industry warning the artist "see how much you need us" - and, yes, the 'new' NME is very much integrated into the industry, whereas, deep in the magazine's empirical history, the New Musical Express was a propelling force that answered to no one. It led the way by the quality of its writers - Paul Morley, Julie Burchill, Paul du Noyer, Charles Shaar Murray, Nick Kent, Ian Penman, Miles - who would write more words than the articles demanded, and whose views saved some of us, and who pulled us all away from the electrifying boredom of everything and anything that represented the industry. As a consequence the chanting believers of the NME could not bear to miss a single issue; the torrential fluency of its writers left almost no space between words, and the NME became a culture in itself, whereas Melody Maker or Sounds just didn't.

Into the 90s, the NME's discernment and polish became faded nobility, and there it died - but better dead than worn away. The wit imitated by the 90s understudies of Morley and Burchill assumed nastiness to be greatness, and were thus rewarded. But nastiness isn't wit and no writers from the 90s NME survive. Even with sarcasm, irony and innuendo there is an art, of sorts. Now deep in the bosom of time, it is the greatness of the NME's history on which the 'new' NME assumes its relevance.

Wow, he could almost be talking about...blog backlash. Moz also rather mercilessly ridicules his interviewer, Tim Jonze, wondering how anyone writing for a British music magazine could not be familiar with the work of David Bowie, mocking his grasp of the interview process, and questioning how Jonze could be "prepared to attack and argue the point" over immigration in Britain, the alleged statements which initially sparked the "racism" accusations, without a basic grounding in British socio-political/geographic history. (Then he goes on to tell us that he enjoys books and music by a lot of people of varying ethnicities and whatnot.) Morrissey and his management stand by their claim that the entire interview was twisted for sensationalistic effect by Jonze and NME editor Conor McNicholas, while Jonze wrote his own response for the Guardian last week where he claimed that "every single quote attributed to Morrissey is 100% correct, there was no provocation at all, and Morrissey was given a chance to apologise or clarify his views with a second telephone interview." However it will all play out with the lawyers, an incensed Morrissey is our entertainment gain, and he's definitely won this round in the ongoing saucy war of words.

I Abhor Racism And Apologise - For Speaking To The NME [Guardian]

Thanks to AnnaGawan for pointing out that ...

mjohnston — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:52:43 EDT

Thanks to AnnaGawan for pointing out that the British gossip list Popbitch is now retracting yesterday's rumor about NME going Web-only: "Yesterday we reported a rumour that the print version of the NME was to close. We have been assured by NME, and accept, that any such rumour is entirely false and there is no such plan in place or in contemplation. We apologise to the publishers of the NME for this inaccuracy." They have not retracted the item about Steven Tyler's pedicure, however. (At least not yet.) [Popbitch]

Is "NME" Going To Abandon Its Print Edition?

mjohnston — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:30:39 EDT

Tucked below the "Steven Tyler wears beige Crocs and has painted toenails" item in today's issue of the British gossip e-rag Popbitch was this nugget: "Rumours abound that the print version of the NME is to be closed, leaving the 55-year-old music paper as a web-only operation." Oh, realllllly? Well, given that the cover of the current issue is at left, maybe moving to an online-only perch would at least help the British rag stay a little more abreast of today's music. But will a Web-based NME carry the same clout that the print edition does? Some recent anecdotal evidence suggests that it might not, as the Popbitch item goes on to point out.

"Time for NME.com to launch some more eye-catching stunts like their campaign to "right a historic wrong" by getting the Sex Pistols' re-released God Save the Queen to number one. It entered the charts at... number 42."

No. 42? In a country where the reissue of Phil Collins' "In The Air Tonight" entered the charts at No. 16 a few weeks back? Oh, my. Printing magazines may be expensive, but surely that cost is minimal when you think about the price paid by losing your cred.

Popbitch [Official site]

NME to not-really-Meg White-tape-crazed bloggers: ...

mjohnston — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 13:23:50 EDT

NME to not-really-Meg White-tape-crazed bloggers: "Tut tut, you people are so gullible. And now, it's time for another item on the Razorlight frontman's horrible body odor!" [NME]

Beth Ditto: Really Only Hates A Small Minority Of Gay Men

jharv — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 12:13:03 EDT

In an interview with The Advocate, Beth Ditto says her rad-lib queer credentials make her a lesser-of-two-evils voter, with the attendant "George Bush is an illegal-immigrant-raping super-Nazi with a fire-spurting devil's head on his cock" quote that will be making the blog rounds today. But I'm more interested in her specious "correction" of the flap that bubbled up after her nekkid NME cover and its attendant interview:

Although, since this interview is for The Advocate, I have to ask about your recent comments to the British magazine NME where you blamed gay men for perpetuating the "size zero." What kind of reaction did you get to that?

I got a little bit of a reaction. Although I think what's so funny to me — not "funny ha ha," but "funny strange" is that comment was paraphrased to the max. I know that in America not that many people are familiar with the NME, but everyone in Britain knows that the NME is the enemy. There's a reason why it's called "the N-M-E."

Its coverage is known to be sensationalistic.

Absolutely sensationalistic. Absolutely known for paraphrasing. What I said - and you can still disagree - it was in a list of things that I thought could be blamed [for the size zero] before women were blamed. Like I said, I'm a radical feminist, and first and foremost, I'm a woman. That's something I'm perceived as by the whole world, and I get the options handed down to me that are handed down because I'm a woman. I didn't create those standards that I'm supposed to adhere to — those were created for me, and it started before I was born.

That being said, it was a list of things, and half of the list was left out. I mean, one of the things I said which was a very specific thing was gay men in the fashion industry are responsible, not gay men as a whole. But I think it was good, at least, because it got people talking about shit. I don't blame any one thing, and I would never say "Gay men are to blame for the size zero." That's absolute bullshit, there's lots of things to blame.

Well it's nice to know she's now only blaming a miniscule cross-section of gay men, rather than simply blasting the fashion industry as a whole, for fostering fucked-up body issues. Progress! While I have no doubt that Beth likely was misrepresented by the hacks at the NME, and while I'm sure not all gay men in the fashion industry have womens' best interests at heart, it still feels like an oddly absolutist stance. At least she's not trying to pretend she never said anything of the sort, no sir. Right?

But if the NME is so known for paraphrasing, misquoting, taking things out of context, and otherwise mangling words for their own "sensationalistic" ends, didn't Ditto feel any qualms about helping them pander so darn sensationalistically with a nudie cover and an interview that she had to know, based on the above comments, would be manipulated and misrepresented? Or did she only decide/realize the NME was a buncha big meanies after the Internet blowback? Or is she just an attention whore? (I know my pick.) I'm also pretty sure my honorary vagina shriveled up and fell off when I read someone who rolls around with Perez Hilton repeatedly referring to herself as a "radical queer" with (presumably) a straight face. (No pun intended.) Oh the immigrant-raping/devil-cock quote was a paraphrase, but I was totally only saying what she really meant.

Beth Ditto [The Advocate via Gigwise]

A slow news day has the NME cooking up disaster ...

jharv — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 15:40:43 EDT

A slow news day has the NME cooking up disaster scare stories, with quotes from scientific experts and everything, about cataclysmic earthquakes that could maybe, someday, possibly strike the Coachella Valley. Even though one hasn't hit for 300 years. My God, can you imagine if it happened by some infinitesimal chance during the festival? The loss to the music-blog community would be astronomical. [NME]

The NME goes from hyping bands to hyping ...

mjohnston — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 12:41:35 EDT

The NME goes from hyping bands to hyping ... computer worms? Happily, this so-called "MP3 eating computer virus" is turning out to be as blown out of proportion as Enter Shikari's popularity. [No Rock And Roll Fun]

Beth Ditto Poses Nude on the Cover of NME, Internet Readies Seventh-Grade Fat Jokes

idolguest2 — Thu, 31 May 2007 12:05:10 EDT

As you may have heard, Gossip singer Beth Ditto has displayed the majesty that her momma gave her on the cover of the NME this week. So wait, a few years ago, nudie shots of Ditto were confined to the lesbian sex mag On Our Backs and now she's being anointed the "Queen of Cool" by the U.K.'s most toilet paper-worthy tabloid while wearing nothing but painted-on kisses? Did we miss a meeting?

In America, where we saw the Gossip play one of the best shows of '06 to a half-empty club, Ditto is free from having to think about how she is viewed by large groups of the unwashed when she strips down to her underwear as if she was at an Olympia house party after Ladyfest. In England, the Gossip is turning out to be a regular little rock phenomenon, and so Ditto finds herself with the option of posing in the raw, back fat and all, on the cover of the country's most well-known (if little respected) music weekly. Ideally right-thinkin' folks should be thrilled by this turn of events, given the increasingly pneumatic norm of sexiness being peddled by pop culture, a kind of uniform female beauty that would bring a tear to Henry Ford's eye. Yet there's a weird and sordid "two steps back" feeling about it all, as if Ditto stuffing her junk in society's face has been instantaneously co-opted by a magazine getting off on the freakshow factor—copies to be sold, controversy to be manufactured, or hell, the creation of a potential new trend! Nu-fat? Fat-rock? They'll think of something—of an outspoken "big girl" who happens to be the frontwoman of a band on the rise.

But maybe more worrying than who's zooming who on the exploitation front is the incoherent and kinda pathetic way that post-riot grrl Ditto flip-flops in the accompanying interview about the complicity of the fashion industry and the media in fostering eating disorders, impossible beauty standards, and all sorts of other bad shit. Not to sound all nostalgic for the black and white ideologies of the pre-Misshapes days, but does someone wanna photocopy their old Bikini Kill zines and FedEx them to England? Meanwhile, at least until this particular blip in the media cycle fizzles out, we can, uh, look forward to lengthy and pointless comments box/message board debates about whether being fat is a "choice" and what constitutes being "unhealthy," endless junior high zingers, and the sinking feeling that, no matter where you come down on this "issue," hardcore feminism is a weird 20th-century aberration we'll someday tell our confused grandchildren about.

"NME" Suffering From Slow-News-Day Woes, Too

mjohnston — Mon, 14 May 2007 17:45:56 EDT

Little did the editor who assigned this story know that she'd inadvertently inspired Fatboy Slim's next Spike Jonze-directed video, about a community activist (played by Christopher Walken) who tries to mastermind a protest against explosive-dumping in his neighborhood, only to be blasted into space for a five-minute gravity-defying dance routine.

Explosives to be stored near Kylie and Fatboy Slim? [NME]

Anatomy Of A (New) Rave: Breaking Down The "NME"'s Breathlessness

mjohnston — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 15:25:49 EST

Last week, the NME ran a 1,300-word, margin-busting review of Myths Of The Near Future, the first album by "new rave" standard-bearers Klaxons. If you've ever wondered just how the overheated British bible maintains its status as an innovator in pumping up bands until they're ready to pop, this Alex Miller write-up—which gave the album a 9 out of 10—is a pretty good primer; not only does it name-drop Damon Albarn, Aleister Crowley, and Buzz Aldrin, it tells both history and trustafarians to fuck off.

After the jump, we pick out the crucial ingredients from the NME's cauldron of day-glo hype.

THE DEMOLISHING OF THE TREND THAT THE NME LET LOOSE IN THE FIRST PLACE
"Klaxons? They're just a bunch of new rave scenesters, right? Wrong. When new rave's legacy has become little more than a serotonin drought in the brains of its disciples, 'Myths Of The Near Future' will remain one of the most dynamic, intense and totally lunatic pop records of the early 21st century."

THE DISMISSAL OF THE PAST (BEFORE A BUNCH OF NAME-DROPS)
"Fuck genres, fuck trends, fuck history, this band are only concerned with reshaping guitar music... forever."

THE "WAIT, WE THOUGHT YOU SAID 'FUCK HISTORY'" MOMENT
"One moment Klaxons are lending their blood-boiling guitars and serotonin-chugging sirens to Grace's pure pop '90s dance smash 'Not Over Yet', the next drawing a burning line in the sky between Nostradamus, Dizzee Rascal and Sex Pistols on the psycho-apocalyptic 'Four Horsemen Of 2012'."

THE BREATHLESS COMPARISON TO MYTHICAL FIGURES, LIKE UNICORNS AND THE ARCTIC MONKEYS
"Today this country is blessed with many poets of the mundane, from Arctic Monkeys to The View to The Twang, but Klaxons are different - self-styled prophets of the insane. Magic, the Cyclops, ecstasy, Buzz Aldrin, sunken cities, hypnosis, Aleister Crowley, unicorns and time-travel... These are the things which concern this record. "

THE SHOEHORNED-IN STROKES NAME-DROP
"Whether Klaxons will reshape our world into a fluorescent myth-tropolis as successfully as The Strokes turned the mono-tune remains to be seen, but their debut has the anatomy necessary to change the course of a generation."

THE REVIEW-CLOSING BENEDICTION
"Somewhere in between this life and the next, from the scattered shards of the past and of the future, Klaxons have built a magical and dangerous world all of their own and now, by the grace of God, it is ours as well."

THE "WE'RE SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS RECORD, WE CAN'T EVEN GET ITS NAME RIGHT" FAUX PAS
Myths Of The Future? There's a word missing there, guys. But we understand if your copyeditor's eyes were crossing by that point.

Reviews: Klaxons: Myths Of The Future [NME, via I Love Music]

"NME" Year-End List: Someone Out There Still Believes In The Strokes

mjohnston — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 09:51:07 EST

The NME best-of-06 list is out, and if you're the one person who didn't think the Arctic Monkeys would hit No. 1, well, aren't you a sucker. The top 10 (via I Love Music):

10 My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade
9 Kasabian - Empire
8 The Strokes - First Impressions of Earth
7 The Long Blondes - Someone To Drive You Home
6 Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
5 CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy
4 Hot Chip - The Warning
3 Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
2 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
1 Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

Oh, NME! Your Kasabian-boosting is just so cute. We're still not buying it on this side of the pond, though.

NME [nme.com]

NME To Decorate Shiny Brown Turd's Store With Glittery Superlatives

mjohnston — Thu, 16 Nov 2006 12:25:34 EST

Hypetastic British magazine NME has inked a content partnership with Microsoft's Zune Marketplace, allowing the few people who were able to install their software to peruse NME-curated playlists and material from the archives. Our daily glances at the NME have raised one question for us: Will this lead to next-Brit-things like the Fratellis, who don't currently have a record out in the States, having their material available at Zune's store? And if not, well, what's the point of this partnership, exactly—making sure that every Suede album in the shop has breathless prose attached?

NME to provide branded content for Microsoft's Zune [New Media Age]
Earlier: Zune's Love Of Indie Rock May Not Be About The Music

Where Do We Enlist?

Brian Raftery — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 13:47:45 EDT

We haven't been this excited about a musical conflict since Another Bad Creation tried to school Kris Kross!

MP3: My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade [Resonatormag]

In Related News, A Rapper Acknowledges He May Be A Bit Showy

Brian Raftery — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 09:41:35 EDT

From today's NME:

"Disco legend admits drug use" [NME.COM]