NME Awards USA Winners Announced

News > Apr 24 2008

By Cam LindsayNME brought its always amusing, always completely inebriated NME Awards to the U.S. last night for a special American version in the long-running music mag’s attempt to build a bigger audience.

With performances by a newly-reunited (again) Jane’s Addiction and Evan Dando’s Lemonheads, who was given the "Classic LP” award for the recently reissued 1992 bubble-grunge opus It’s A Shame About Ray, there was enough Americana floating around to convince anyone that NME is indeed breaking away from its usual Anglo-obsessed hype mongering.

Questionable choices plagued the inaugural event as they dished out "best” awards to the likes of Foo Fighters (Best Album), the Killers (Best Track for their b-side comp’s duet with Lou Reed?), the Strokes’ guitarist (Best Solo Artist), and My Chemical Romance (Best Live Band). Of course, this is coming from the "most respected music weekly in the world,” which prides itself on giving "its readers the most exciting, most authoritative coverage of the very best in contemporary music.”

A number of video interviews conducted by NME can be viewed here.

Here is the rundown of winners and nominees per category:

Best Band  Winners: The Killers 
Nominees: Kings Of Leon, My Chemical Romance, The White Stripes, Foo Fighters

Best Solo Artist  Winner: Albert Hammond, Jr. 
Nominees: Cat Power, Ryan Adams, Andrew Bird, Beck

Best Live Band  Winner: My Chemical Romance Nominees: Kings of Leon, The Killers, Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters

Best Album  Winner: Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace - Foo Fighters 
Nominees: Sawdust - The Killers, Because of the Times - Kings of Leon, Girls and Boys of America- The Hold Steady, Icky Thump - The White Stripes

Best New Band  Winners: Vampire Weekend 
Nominees: Black Kids, MGMT, Band Of Horses, Paramore

Best New Solo Artist  Winner: Mark Ronson 
Nominees: Sam Sparro, Santogold, Cass McCombs, Seasick Steve

Best New Live Act  Winners: Vampire Weekend 
Nominees: Black Kids, Band Of Horses, Santogold, MGMT

Best International Band  Winners: Arcade Fire 
Nominees: Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Radiohead, Oasis

Best International Solo Artist  Winner: Kate Nash 
Nominees: Feist, MIA, Jamie T, Amy Winehouse

Best International Live Act  Winners: Arcade Fire 
Nominees:Arctic Monkeys, The Cribs, Kaiser Chiefs, Muse

Best International Album  Winners: Favourite Worst Nightmare - Arctic Monkeys 
Nominees: Neon Bible - Arcade Fire, Shotter's Nation - Babyshambles, Myths of the Near Future - Klaxons, In Rainbows - Radiohead

Best International Track  Winner: "Golden Skans" - Klaxons 
Nominees: "Teddy Picker" - Arctic Monkeys, "Intervention" - Arcade Fire, "Flux" - Bloc Party, "Foundations" - Kate Nash

Best New International Band  Winners: Klaxons 
Nominees: The Enemy, Foals, The Wombats, The Last Shadow Puppets

Best New International Solo Artist Winner: Kate Nash 
Nominees: Duffy, Lily Allen, Lightspeed Champion, Jack Penate

Best New International Live Act  Winners: Klaxons 
Nominees: CSS, The Wombats, Foals, The Pigeon Detectives

Best Track Winners: "Tranquilize" - The Killers 
Nominees: "The Pretender" - Foo Fighters, "All My Friends" - LCD Soundsystem, "Teenagers" - My Chemical Romance, "Icky Thump" - The White Stripes

Voted by NME  Breakthrough Artist: Santogold 

Breakthrough Track: MGMT: "Time To Pretend" 

Classic LP: Lemonheads: It's A Shame About Ray 

Inspiration Award: Mick Jones

Best Video  Winner: "D.A.N.C.E." - Justice 
Nominees: "Fluorescent Adolescent" - Arctic Monkeys, "Long Road to Ruin" - Foo Fighters, "Tranquilize" - The Killers, "Lord Don't Slow Me Down" - Oasis

Best TV Show  Winner: Heroes 
Nominees: Grey's Anatomy, Lost, The Mighty Boosh, The Office: An American Workplace

Best Film  Winner: Juno 
Nominees: Control, No Country for Old Men, The Simpsons Movie, There Will Be Blood

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