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The NME Awards Nominations Are Out

Oasis may have released yet another decaffeinated version of their original, now apparently outlawed, brew last year, but that hasn`t stopped their fans from riding the buzz of their latest sugar pill.  Yes, the somewhat mouldy Mancs picked up an unbelievable seven nominations for this year`s NME Awards last night - however, with a tantalising nod for `Worst Band` it`s clear not everyone is still enamoured with the Gallagher brothers.

Elsewhere, the nominations look like a who`s who of the NME front cover over the past year including two shouts for Crystal Castles who`s Alice Glass picked up the much-derided number one spot in last year`s `cool list` and various recognition for the work of Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys and The Last Shadow Puppets.

This year`s `Godlike Genius` award, nominated by the magazine, goes deservedly to The Cure for over three decades of fine music, horrendously-applied make-up and disguising cosummate happiness as acute misery.

Best British Band
Bloc Party
The Last Shadow Puppets
Muse
Oasis
Radiohead

Best International Band
Crystal Castles
The Killers
Kings Of Leon
MGMT
Vampire Weekend

Best Solo Artist
Ladyhawke
Laura Marling
Lightspeed Champion
Jay-Z
Pete Doherty

Best New Band
Glasvegas
Late Of The Pier
MGMT
Vampire Weekend
White Lies

Best Live Band
The Killers
Kings Of Leon
Muse
Oasis
Radiohead

Best Album
Bloc Party – `Intimacy`
Glasvegas – `Glasvegas`
The Killers – `Day & Age`
Kings Of Leon – `Only By The Night`
Oasis – `Dig Out Your Soul`

Best Track
Kings Of Leon – `Sex On Fire`
The Last Shadow Puppets – `The Age Of The Understatement`
MGMT – `Time To Pretend`
The Ting Tings – `That`s Not My Name`
Vampire Weekend – `A-Punk`

Best Video
The Last Shadow Puppets – `My Mistakes Were Made For You`
Late Of The Pier – `Heartbreak`
Oasis – `The Shock Of The Lightning`
Radiohead – `House Of Cards`
Vampire Weekend – `A-Punk`

Best Live Event
Glastonbury
Isle Of Wight
Reading and Leeds
T In The Park
V Festival

Best TV Show
Gavin & Stacey
The IT Crowd
The Mighty Boosh
Never Mind The Buzzcocks
Skins

Best Film
The Dark Knight
Juno
Quantum Of Solace
Twilight
Wall-E

Best Dancefloor Filler
Bloc Party – `Mercury`
Crystal Castles – `Courtship Dating`
Dizzee Rascal & Calvin Harris – `Dance Wiv Me`
Friendly Fires – `Paris`
Late Of The Pier – `Bathroom Gurgle`

Best DVD
Arctic Monkeys – `At The Apollo`
Foo Fighters – `Live At Wembley Stadium`
Kaiser Chiefs – `Live At Elland Road`
Muse – `HAARP`
The Rolling Stones – `Shine A Light`

Hero Of The Year
Alex Turner
Barack Obama
Brandon Flowers
Noel Fielding
Noel Gallagher

Villain Of The Year
Amy Winehouse
George Bush
Gordon Brown
John McCain
Pete Doherty

Best Dressed
Alex Turner
Alexa Chung
Brandon Flowers
Noel Fielding
Noel Gallagher

Worst Dressed
Amy Winehouse
Brandon Flowers
Johnny Borrell
Katy Perry
Pete Doherty

Worst Album
Britney Spears – `Circus`
Coldplay – `Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends`
Jonas Brothers – `A Little Bit Longer`
Razorlight – `Slipway Fires`
Scouting For Girls – `Scouting For Girls`

Worst Band
Fall Out Boy
Jonas Brothers
Oasis
Scouting for Girls
Tokio Hotel

Sexiest Male
Carl Barat
Keith Murray
Matt Bellamy
Miles Kane
Pete Doherty

Sexiest Female
Alison Mosshart
Hayley Williams
Kate Jackson
Lykke Li
Stephanie Dosen

Best Website
Bebo
Facebook
Last FM
MySpace
YouTube

Best Venue
Brixton Academy
Manchester Apollo
London Astoria
Glasgow Barrowlands
London O2 Arena

Best Album Artwork
The Cure – `4:13 Dream`
Guillemots – `Red`
The Killers – `Day & Age`
Muse – `HAARP`
We Are Scientists – `Brain Thrust Mastery`

Best Band Blog
Foals
Lightspeed Champion
Little Boots
Noel Gallagher/Oasis
Radiohead

Godlike Genius
The Cure

Richard Brown (View Original Article)

 

Reading and Leeds Festival line up announced

The line up for the Reading and Leeds festivals were announced yesterday (March 31st) and the full line up (so far) is:

Reading: Friday August 22, Leeds: Saturday August 23

Main Stage

Rage Against The Machine

Queens Of The Stone Age
The Fratellis
The Enemy
Biffy Clyro
Serj Tankian
Dizzee Rascal
Taking Back Sunday
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly
Anti-Flag

NME/Radio 1 Stage

Babyshambles
The Wombats
Vampire Weekend
MGMT

Reading: Saturday August 23, Leeds: Sunday August 24

Main Stage

The Killers

Bloc Party
The Raconteurs
Editors
We Are Scientists
Dirty Pretty Things
The Subways

NME/Radio 1 Stage

Manic Street Preachers
Bullet For My Valentine
Justice
Foals

Reading: Sunday August 24, Leeds: Friday August 23

Main Stage

Metallica

Tenacious D
Slipknot
Feeder
Avenged Sevenfold
Dropkick Murphys

NME/Radio 1 Stage

The Cribs
Conor Oberst
Pendulum

Nick Foster (View Original Article)

 

We Are Scientists Are Crap?

Following their debut album 'With Love and Squalor's success, We Are Scientists release an odds 'n' sods collection entitled 'Crap Attack' through Virgin on November 6th.

The CD contains their cover of Sigur Rós' 'Hoppipolla', Art Brut's 'Bang Bang Rock & Roll' and a host of other B-sides and remixes.

The DVD features videos for all 12 tracks on 'Love and Squalor', a full gig from the Shepherd's Bush Empire and a commentary from the band.

Wow! Is that a package or is that a package?

Richard Brown (View Original Article)

 

We Are Scientists in Reissue U-Turn Shocker!

Here`s some great news for anyone sick of the current vogue (Kaiser Chiefs, Editors, Maximo Park, Boy Kill Boy et al) for re-releasing early singles, We Are Scientists have decided against a mooted re-release of `The Great Escape` (a number 37 hit last October).

Chris Cain says on the band`s website, "We were feeling more and more queazy about a second re-release (the `Nobody Move` re-release having been our last single), cuz re-releases are dumb."

CDX think this is great news and hopefully an end to these dodgy tactics employed by record companies to re-promote albums which have already sold well. It should also benefit the band by putting pressure on them to record a swift follow up to their debut, thus capitalising on a fanbase who still remember who they are and haven`t moved on (yes, The Killers, you might want to think about that).

We Are Scientists have also revealed that they`ll be touring the USA this autumn in a triple header with Art Brut and The Spinto Band.

Richard Brown (View Original Article)

 

Album Reviews

Brain Thrust Mastery

The opening line of 'Ghouls' "We all recognize, that I'm the problem here." might be the band's way of telling us something. The American three piece (soon to be a two piece if the rumors of drummer and backing vocalist Michael Tapper leaving the band have any merit) are back with another, as they put it, album full of "rock music of the thoughtful, sometimes epic, often loud, vaguely danceable, implicitly humanist variety". They can say whatever they like about the album but it doesn't change the fact that it should lose 6 of the tracks and become an EP.

After the promising first couple of songs the album dives into drivel that doesn't sound any different to the dozens of "emo/punk/indie" bands that get pushed out by record company's trying to cash in on a sound that either worked for the band once or worked for another band and the record executive said "Hey, Let's do what they did!". 'Brain Thrust Mastery' was really a let down since I was a fan of their first major label release 'With Love and Squalor'. I will give the guys that they have skills and they know how to put out an album for people that love cheesy pop and pine for the days when Duran Duran were on the airwaves (I swear 'Lethal Enforcer' is a cover!). And that still doesn't mean I have to like it...Simon Le Bon and John Taylor did it better. The few moments in the album where I thought to myself " I like this." were not because I was enjoying the musical "mastery" of 'We Are Scientists' (see what I did there?). It was because the songs all make me think of other bands. Bands that did what 'We Are Scientists' are trying to do but did it better. If I want a 'James' or 'Morrissey-esque' track, I will listen to 'James' or 'Morrissey'...and I do.

'Brain Thrust Mastery' is not a bad album, it just isn't a good one either. We Are Scientists may have had more practice and a bigger studio budget but they fail to match the success of their first album and if they plan on making it past a third album they should think about making music that sets them apart from the pack instead of trying to channel hit makers of the past.

Phil Russell (View Original Article)

 

Single Reviews

Chick Lit

In the post-Does It Offend You, Yeah? landscape, bands such as We Are Scientists have to work extra hard to convince the kids of their credentials, especially when their name is no longer as 'wacky' as it once seemed to be. 'Chick Lit' is a strongly-produced mix of guitars, synths and bread n butter indie pop, but sounds too forced to genuinely excite anyone other than dyed-in-the-wool fans.

Richard Brown (View Original Article)

 

After Hours

Starting with an organ solo? Cutting to acoustic guitar? Christ! It's 'Faith' by George Michael!! No, it's the return of We Are Scientists a band who appear to have picked up a few tips on songwriting between their first and second albums. 'After Hours' is a layered, Interpol-on-uppers composition with allusions to classic 70's stadium rock. This is what every Killers fan wants their band to sound like - it's not too late to switch you know.

Richard Brown (View Original Article)

 

Nobody Move, Nobody Gets Hurt (Re-issue)

It's the re release of W.A.S. debut single and for once it's a re release that's justified.They welcome you to "use my body" over a rhythm that recalls the great Teardrop Explodes. Excellent.

Nick Foster (View Original Article)

 

Great Escape

I can`t believe it. This song could be brilliant, I say could because the chorus lets it down so much it`s actually quite sad. Lets go through the checklist. Catchy hook CHECK, shout-y vocal with a bit of a distortion on CHECK, tight upbeat drums CHECK, chorus that makes you want to rush to the next verse and wish the term bridge didnt exist CHECK. Think I`m going to rewrite the lyrics to "I`ve got a great idea, im just going to sing the next bit and forget about what I was going to do right now".

Richard Brown (View Original Article)

 

Live Reviews

We Are Scientists

For many bands, decent banter between songs at their gigs is a bonus and certainly not to be expected - it's one thing to sit and craft a clever lyric, but a witty, off-the-cuff comment is a much trickier proposition.

Not for We Are Scientists though, you get the impression that the banter is their raison d'etre - just check out their website for agony uncle advice, an alternative Queen's speech and other comedic delights. Between songs tonight there's no topic too fanciful - Keith Murray and Chris Cain's double act encompasses water beds, the support act's lawn mowing services and much in between. You'd almost be forgiven for not noticing there's a drummer and keyboard player on stage.

I've often wondered why the same playfulness can't be found in their songs. I'm not saying they don't have some enjoyable tracks in their arsenal - the sell-out crowd's singing, shouting and bouncing showed they have plenty of those. It's just that their clowning around masks the songs' often quite downbeat subject matter.

Not that the songs' subject matter is of much concern in a live setting when it's wrapped in crowd-pleasing, begging-to-be-pogoed-to indie rock. The hits from the first album generated the most commotion, especially 'It's A Hit', 'Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt' and 'Cash Cow'. Of the new tunes, 'After Hours' saw one of the support band, Oxford Collapse, joining them on guitar and 'Lethal Enforcer' stood out with it's killer chorus.

Last time I saw the Scientists the encore was an impassioned karaoke singalong to the Boys 2 Men, er, classic 'End Of The Road'. This time they played it reasonably straight and fired off an aggressive 'The Great Escape' to send the crowd bouncing off into the night.

Photo by Michelle Owen

Chris Unitt (View Original Article)

 

We Are Scientists / The Blood Arm

The Blood Arm may have initially risen to fame in the UK by being Franz Ferdinand`s favourite band but, boy, can they speak for themselves, particularly lead singer Nathaniel Fregoso who rocks the mic like a trash-talking evangelist. Before `Mass Murder` he singles out one girl named Sarah and declares that he`d travelled the world just to see her tonight. Yeah, I`ll bet he says that to all the girls.

Musically, their sound is considerably more poppy than a name like `The Blood Arm` should allow with infectious piano-led grooves and jolly drums on offer. By the time they`ve reached set closer `I Love You But I Don`t Need You` - via an energetic rendition of latest single `Suspicious Character` - the audience is in no doubt that they`ve seen a band that should reach indie`s A list sooner rather than later. Even if their lead singer is as likely to preach a sermon as he is to jump from the top of a speaker into the balcony...which he does tonight, last seen moseying off in the direction of drugs.

Now, when a band begin their set with a cover of `Against All Odds` you`d probably swear you`ve gone to see the X-Factor tour, but that`s how We Are Scientists have chosen to begin tonight. It`s a pretty awful start but thankfully the band do improve - slightly.

The between song banter actually provides a lot of the entertainment tonight. We learn, among other things that one of the band celebrated his 21st birthday in Aberdeen by playing a gig in Kef. Yes, they seem like the kind of guys you`d like to go for a beer with.

It`s a real shame then, that their set just sounds like I`m listening to the same Bloc Party b-side for an hour with occasional leaps into (whisper it) Emo. The audience around me seem similarly non-plussed, only causing a stir for the rather limp renditions of previous singles `Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt` and `The Great Escape`. By the time they reach their much-talked about second cover of the night - Boyz II Men`s `End of the Road` sung by drummer Michael Tapper - it`s one goofy leap too far.

An average gig from an average band.

Richard Brown (View Original Article)

 

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