NME Awards USA Winners Announced

NME 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