Monday, January 26, 2009

NME Awards: 2010 Brit Awards shortlists announced

The Shockwaves-sponsored NME Awards shortlist sponsored by Shockwaves (you know the one: 'st-st-st-studioline by laurie-elle...') has been released, and the very headline just screams how different and alternative from mainstream prize givings these are:

Oasis, Alex Turner, Killers: Shockwaves NME Awards 2009 nominations

Here's the shortlistings in full, complete with the sponsors names:

The 2009 nominations are:

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

Best International Band supported by 4music
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 supported by Bench
Glasvegas
Late Of The Pier
MGMT
Vampire Weekend
White Lies

Best Live Band supported by Red Stripe
The Killers
Kings Of Leon
Muse
Oasis
Radiohead

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

Best Track supported by NME Radio
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 supported by NME TV
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

I suppose, to be fair, the inclusion of Coldplay only on a 'worst' list might at least allow some orientation as to which shortlist is the alternative one. But Noel Gallagher "best dressed"? How would that even get past the judges?

And while it's nice to see a 'best website' award, isn't the shortlist an indication of the weakness of the category? Bebo versus Facebook? If you're going to throw it open to such wide consideration, shouldn't Google at least be in the line-up?

The lack of a best DJ (as in radio) award seems to be a bit of an oversight, as well: who cares if NME readers like the Mighty Boosh; isn't the person who slips them fresh music into their ears more, you know, significant? It's like Gardeners World trying to find out their readers' favourite pasty and forgetting to ask about favourite pansy.


10 comments:

Anonymous said...

people voted for the nominations, so it's the readerships choice. dont really see your point about the dj thing either. how would that make sense when nme has a radio station to promote. durr.

Anonymous said...

Good to see Fleet Foxes, TV on the Radio, Deerhunter and Elbow doing so well there.

A film award, a tv award, a hero award, a villain award, a best dressed award, a worst dressed award, a sexiest male award and a sexiest female award but no radio awards. What a joke.

Still, one of Crystal Castles, Ladyhawke, Laura Marling, the drummer in Glasvegas and her out of The Ting Tings. Five woman! NME really showing their diverse tastes. Of course, there's ten if you take these five spread across ALL OF THE ACTUAL MUSIC CATEGORIES and add them to the equal number of five "sexiest" women.

Anonymous said...

Actaully, sorry. I just realised that I came across as absolutely hypocritical there by listing four nearly completely male bands (Deerhunter have Whitney Petty). When I wrote the first sentence I was naming obvious omissions that other publications have mentioned (and perhaps that shows the NME isn't alone though I believe they are the worse than most). If asked personally, I would also have mentioned, that in 2008, I enjoyed Beach House, Portishead, Manda Rin, Little Boots, The Lovely Eggs, High Places and Sons & Daughters (just off the top of my head). Not sure why I'm defending myself (I'm male btw) but I felt I shouldn't leave the comment too open to people spotting my own hypocrisy.

Anonymous said...

dude, the nominations are voted for by the public!

Anonymous said...

I don't think that's a bad list of nominations to be honest apart from all the Oasis, and like everyone has said it's the readers who keep voting for them, not the magazine. But no Kaiser Chiefs, no Razorlight, no Coldplay, no Kooks. Surely that can only be a good thing.

Anonymous said...

'Best New Band supported by Bench' has a ring to it. I'd like to think that sponsorship deal was originally meant for the Solo category, but was changed when NME invited nominations for 'Best Solo Artist supported by Bench' and most readers put forward their local tramp.

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

@anonymous #1:
Aha. So they're not asking people what radio station they listen to because it might harm their radio interests?

It's lucky there isn't an NME TV, or an NME.com, otherwise there couldn't be a best TV programme or best website category.

Simon Hayes Budgen said...

@1.18 anon
I suppose when you look at the dreck that hasn't made it on to shortlists, it's slightly encouraging - although, personally, I don't really see too much distance between The Killers and Razorlight; same thing with differently haired chests.

And true, somehow readers votes led to these lists being drawn up - which might explain why the NME keeps running such lumpen cover stories.

Olive said...

although, personally, I don't really see too much distance between The Killers and Razorlight; same thing with differently haired chests.

Of course there's a difference. You can forgive someone for owning a copy of Hot Fuss.

Anonymous said...

I am so sick of Alexa Chung.

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