Wait, we stopped being cool? Regardless, NME‘s press release does a good job explaining the reasoning behind this list from their 8/2 issue, so I’m going to quote at length:
As the USA steals itself for a new president this year, it seems the country is also undergoing something of a musical revolution. In its latest issue “We [Love] USA” iconic British music magazine NME, celebrates the 25 American acts who are whipping up a storm on both sides of the Atlantic — signalling the re-birth of the US music scene!
Alex Miller, New Bands Editor for NME said: “Right now I can barely go a day without coming across a new genius band from the States. While the art scene of Brooklyn or the punks of LA are keeping the underground fascinating, the ceaseless ambitions of Lil Wayne and the Kings Of Leon are making the Chili Pepper and Fiddy Cent clichés of the mainstream redundant. If only it wasn’t so bloody hard to get a green card!”
As you can tell by the cover, Vampire Weekend (just back from Cape Cod) are signaling the rebirth of the US music scene, as are the aforementioned Lil Wayne and Kings Of Leon. The rest:
01 Vampire Weekend
02 Lil Wayne
03 Glass Candy
04 Kings Of Leon
05 MGMT
06 Spank Rock
07 TV On The Radio
08 Boy Crisis
09 Black Kids
10 Holy Ghost Revival
11 The Hold Steady
12 Fleet Foxes
13 Amazing Baby
14 Jay Reatard
15 HEALTH
16 The Cool Kids
17 Black Lips
18 Yo Majesty
19 White Denim
20 Telepathe
21 Iglu and Hartly
22 Chester French
23 Girl Talk
24 TheDeathSet
25 Grace Jones
See, pugs or no pugs, Black Kids are still making America cool. And Fleet Foxes are making it happen even if some of our readers think they sound like other folks’s folk. With a list of this sort, it’s surprising No Age, Yeasayer, High Places, or the Vivian Girls didn’t make a showing … but Grace Jones did? Note: If I need Iglu and Hartly to make the US of A cool again, I’d rather be square. Get more info about the print version of the Americana issue here.
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The swedish are the new cool. ;)
So I’ve heard!
glass candy has been saving me daily for about two years.
but i mean fergie is american and im pretty sure she is slowly going to consume the whole world in a thin veil of meth, pee, and wigger speak. we must stay vigilant.
glass candy has been saving me daily for about two years.
but i mean fergie is american and im pretty sure she is slowly going to consume the whole world in a thin veil of meth, pee, and wigger speak. we must stay vigilant and make it up to the rest of the world somehow.
We’re cool again, fuck you. And I say that as a gay American. haha
For all the haters, the 90′s are over , ok? stop listen to your corporated “alternative” radio, yeah, Kurt Cobain rules! This is 2008!
Cool list!
Okay I love Grace Jones and all, but I seriously don’t get her being on this list. She was born in Jamaica and now lives in France. What’s American about that? She may have been the toast of New York in the 70s, but if that’s the case then she’s been making American music cool for the last 30 years…
Honestly, America is cool, England is cool. Fuck NME & fuck this list. End of story.
Along the lines of what Cyrus said, if these comments are representative of the prevailing mindsets of their respective countrymen, I’m amazed that either country is capable of creating any sort of music at all, since it seems that residents of both the U.S. and the U.K. would be too busy typing xenophobic slurs and spouting out ill-informed nationalistic nonsense to actually accomplish anything worthwhile.
Along the lines of what Cyrus said, if these comments are representative of the prevailing mindsets of their respective countrymen, I’m amazed that either country is capable of creating any sort of music at all, since it seems that residents of both the U.S. and the U.K. would be too busy typing xenophobic slurs and spouting out ill-informed nationalistic nonsense to actually accomplish anything worthwhile
I ate an apple today
an apple sounds just about nice right now
Seriously. England. Hey.
America has always given you “Cool”.
You guys have given us (North America) alot of stuff. An insane unbelievable legacy in the last 50-odd years that makes up for your lack of contributions throughout the last 400 years. The Germans and Italians really cleaned up those last few centuries.. The French too. But the last 50 years really do make up. We owe you big. Thank you.
But, England, except for The Clash, The Specials, Portishead, Tricky, and one or two others, you guys owe “cool” to the Americans. Right? Even Miles Davis, who invented it:) fucked off to Paris, not London, to be smoky and jazzed and heroin and beat philosophy and shit.
UK bands’ drawbacks are that you guys are all a little wanky and lack that swagger, that legend, that pixie dust that makes a band like KOL mythical. And the point is, NOT the Spinal Tap kind. Stop caring so much:)
The UK is such a small island that it’s hard for you guys not to care so much about all your rock n’ roll heritage. It’s such a small island that it’s hard for all the bands not to care so much about all the little things they do.
Fuck it. Stop giving a shit so much. Let go. Stop being so watchful and uptight about it. Help let the UK let go!
It could be revolutionary again if you do.
you all fucking suck.
I second that! America this, Britain that…….this whole debate is hilarious! My advice: Get over yourselves
I second that! America this, Britain that…I find this whole debate hilarious!
don’t we all have something better to do?
Despite the fact that TheDeathSet rose to fame in Baltimore (REPRESENT!), isn’t one of them Australian? Does that count?
Either way they still rule.
Hey guys, I just can’t understand how the debate on this ended up being so lame after just 2 comments :
“the U.S. is better, hey you, brit mother fucker”
“no the UK is way better, you, bloody yank”
Wow, that’s low. Now I’m glad you mention Dylan, because he actually liked a lot England, he borrowed the melody for Bob Dylan’s Dream to Martin Carthy, one of the many actors of the British Folk scene which Dylan visited in the early 60s. That’s also from him that Paul Simon “stole” the melody for his version of Scarborough fair (http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608003029/Martin-Carthy.html). And I won’t event mention Davy Graham, the inventor of DADGAd tuning or Bert Jansch of whom Neil Young said he was the Jimi Hendrix of acoustic guitar.
NME sucks bad, but all of you guys arguing on whose the coolest just have an IQ lower than you shoe size, as Kevin Smith would put it.
and today lemons!
i just bought every album on that list. i never heard of any of them but now i’m cool as hell. so eat it liberal-hipster jerk offs.
now i’m off not to listen to any of it and instead put on master of puppets.
What a joke! Who cares what country your favourite music comes from? We all come from the same planet don’t we? and to be honest, earth music sucks, it’s all about the Neptune scene at the moment.
you can hear every single one of the bands in the article at http://www.nme.com/blogs
vampire weekend rule. where’s grizzly bear though?
nme tipped me off to amazing baby who are great
Nobody in UK likes Grizzly Bear. It’s weird but true.
The only bad thing about UK music is the NME. They’re talking about US music as if they never put Panic At The Disco on the cover.
I bet Thom, Jonny, Phil, Colin and Ed would disagree.
Lists are lame sauce. People that need lists or magazines or previews/reviews to get new music are moldy sauce. We live in an era where you can find ur own music easily. DO IT!
Cool? Americans? Ha Ha Ha!!!
where’s big business?
Dear Stereogum,
Thanks for posting this entry about NME.. You have once again reminded me why I hate NME.
Sincerely,
Mur
Lil Wayne? Seriously?
What’s with all the British Bashing?
They’re giving Americans a compliment after all?
I don’t know.
Music isn’t about who’s better, because everyone has different thoughts and so no one would ever come to a conclusion on who’s better.
I like some American Indie, in fact, some of my favorite bands are there.
There are also some pretty great British Indie bands.
However, my heart lies in the Canadian Indie scene.
I may just be bias because I’m Canadian, but seriously, check out ANYTHING from the arts&crafts label.
BUY MORE! BUY MORE! BUY MORE!
Things that are most likely true:
-There’s lots of good music made all over the place; America, Europe, Scandinavia (especially), Australia.
-There’s a huuuuuge about of shitty music made everywhere, NO ONE is off the hook on that one.
-The more popular a band is (chart-wise) does usually correlate with how bad they are (cuz mainstream, at least in America, is usually derivative boring pop/rap/watered down rock shit.)
-HOWEVER, bands do not get worse when they gain recognition and press, but perhaps their fan-base does.
-Arguing over any bands in a blog comments section is pointless and arbitrary, cuz no one cares about your taste in music but you. Do you really need it justified?!?!
-Most comments on a blog are made by people who can’t form logical thoughts, arguments, or opinions, so why even entertain them?
Things that may or may not be true, but I think they are:
-The uk music scene is, has been, and will most likely continue to be cooler than the US, simply because its smaller, and seems less controlled by boring derivative middle of the road corporate bullshit pop record companies.
-ALSO, I would also go as far as to say that the overall taste level of brits and Europeans is faaaar more progressive and open than the overall taste level of the american audience.
-That’s not to say there aren’t cool people in the US who like cool music.
-However, an unfortunately high percentage of those people also happen to be whiny douchebags who make inane comments on brooklyn vegan.
-Brooklyn really needs to get the fuck over itself. my god, w-burg is such a shithole.
how bout this to continue the thread..
Hey England, go fuck yourselves!
hah!
“This isn’t English music, this is American music”-Bob Dylan
English music talks about life. American music celebrates it.
this list is pretty biased, theres plenty of bands that belong there that i dont see and i only dig less than half of these artists. and Vampire Weekend, no. 1? jeez..
Stereogum – It may be time to turn off the comments. We’re rotting our brains.
yeah why is Health on the poll and not No Age? I love health but really?
white denim!!!!!!
Commenting on this was SO 10 days ago.
but seriously, can we get back to how telepathe ruins every otherwise-good show they are part of? i saw them with panther in austin back in march — panther killed it, and telepathe sucked every ounce of energy out of the room with their total bulls**t act. hate to say it — but i really think they are talentless
*sorry if this posted twice*
Bowl Chet.
god, am I the only person on earth who thinks Vampire Weekend is horrible?
this list is missing 3 things….
JONAS BROTHERS!
wait… no
heres what the article should have read like,
http://junkmedia.org/index.php?b=1
i hate it how Britain is represented by Oasis, i am british and i definatley prefer american “indie” music, there is so much shit being played on british radio stations.
and you’re a cock if you read NME
hahaha this article isn’t about britain Vs the U.S, why are you geebags even arguing over it? hardcore with the keyboard much?
i’m irish and neutral and i do believe both countries both make such good music (and bollox music too) with so many different genres and styles to be taken into consideration. it’s impossible express an unbiased opinion on a nation if it’s just on the basis of a recommendation on a band that someone else is telling you to listen to.
and plus, canadian music is totally where it’s at, at the mo
go listen to U2 or the cranberries you ginger twat.
Why are you spending so much time talking about a dead magazine’s point of view? Surely the fact that your commenting on this dead blog is proof that you have all no idea. Cut out the crap and go download stuff from nodata and bolchas gratis… wise up and shut up… listen to music not journalists.
There’s always good and bad bands in both countries all the time of course. But these lists are good to kick up some debate. Still, it’s an odd list isn’t it? #1 and #2 seem especially out of place when considering the lower half of the list.
I wrote about this article too if anyone cares to check it out: http://www.zoom-in.com/blogs/music-audio/is-american-music-reigning-supreme-again/
Fuck you, UK. What have you done in the past year?
I don’t think the NME writers actually listen to music.
Has Telepathe really put out a record? or Amazing Baby? or Boy Crisis? Whoever wrote this is tracking Top8 placement, not music. If the NME had gone as far as to get their passports stamped, they would see how weak these bands are live.
Where are Beach House? Ponytail? Yeasayer? Where are White Magic, Chairlift, The Fiery Furnaces, Atlas Sound? Animal Collective and Black Dice? Grizzly Bear, Ariel Pink, YACHT, Hercules & Love Affair?
NME must stand for ‘No-Music Extravaganza’. (No wonder the music business is going down, when bands who have NO PRODUCT are the ones getting written up. Betcha they have more press photos than songs.)
-America
there is nothing new here… these are just bands with annoying singers, copying bands who are copying bands with annoying singers…. ermmm rappers too evidently, can we have some new music that IS actually 100% original?
Edwyn Collins save us….
I’m amused by how everyone is missing the point – the bands they mentioned just sound like a lot of the stuff Britain had in the late 80′s early 90′s. America is just catching up -(as seems to be their fate of late, while the rest of the world develops decent gadgets, mobiles, games consoles, fashion, music etc they are stuck in a time warp) and people from Britain who were too young to remember it like the American sound cos they think it’s ‘new’. In about ten years they will be releasing stuff that vaguely sounds like the Arctic Monkeys thinking it’s new and cool. Oh dear. As for our the usual responses from the Americans above let me enlighten you – dentists – I’ve yet to meet a non-celebrity American with decent teeth (you Americans need to travel more, that cliche is incredibly dated – and as far as British people speaking German if it weren’t for your *ahem* help in WW II – I put it to you that there might have been a distinct possibility you’d have been speaking German yourselves had Britain not won out against other European countries in the battle for gaining more land for it’s ne’er do wells and heathens to bung over the pond way back when proper Americans wore headdresses and lived in wigwams. There’s an irony there but I won’t confuse y’all.These appear to be the arguments Americans always come up with followed by a jolly round of ‘USA, USA, USA’ The only decent thing about America is that it’s so cheap to buy stuff there for overseas visitors. Due to the embarrassingly weak dollar. Wake up America, your hey day in being the envy of everyone else was in the 50′s and 60′s – this is now well and truly dead. Along with your music……….
Come on.. The killers is like the worst sounding band of all time.. They play like shit live.. Give me KOL!!!!!
lol at telepathe. stop.
also glass candy at three? WTF. that is the kind of music that would make it big in the UK. i like glass candy but c’mon now. A keyboard and spandex. i could be in that band i don’t play an instrument.
so funny how everybody made this into a US vs UK comparison in rock music. Even going as far back as the Beatles & The Rolling Stones. And just like the british to name drop Beatles & Stones and not mention the two only brititsh bands that mattered, fuckin Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Same thing with the americans and Dylan.
Brazilian Girls!!!!!