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November 7, 2007

NME Cool List 2007

NME's Cool List: The only such ranking we know will be a Shit List before we even look at it. To refresh your memory, last year the Brit rag pronounced Gossip girl Beth Ditto to be the coolest rocker in all the land. And the year before that, it was Arctic Monkey Alex Turner. It's a precise set of criteria and formulas the editorial staff works through to generate these lists, of course, and though the Brit rag may indeed be most qualified to give such honors, it's fun of us Yanks to read the list and say ... who? Here's the test: If you can identify this year's Cool King, you probably live across the pond.


[photo via jim's dinner club]

The top 10:

10 Keith Richards
09 Beth Ditto
08 Amy Winehouse
07 Kate Nash
06 Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys)
05 Lethal Bizzle
04 Ryan Jarman (The Cribs)
03 Lovefoxxx (CSS)
02 Jamie Reynolds (Klaxons)
01 Frank Carter (Gallows)
Burn, Ditto drops to nine. Maybe posing naked on the mag's cover isn't all that cool after all. And yet Keith Richards continues to roll. Up 16 points! If only Kanye had snorted his dad's ashes and appeared Pirates Of The Carribean 3.

As for the champ: Frank Carter's the tattooed vocalist for the Epitaph punk band Gallows. They aren't bad, but Frank's already gone on record (in NME) as saying the band won't last past '09. The lesson? As always, short shelf-life = instant cool.

There's no way NME will abstain from posting the rest of the top 50 whenever it's ready. But it'd be a lot cooler if they did.

Posted at 2:33 PM in




18 Comments

I thought that was Thom Yorke.

Posted by: Neezer at 11/07/07 4:03 PM | Reply
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I thought that was Thom Yorke.
Posted by: Neezer at November 7, 2007 4:03 PM

Posted by: Beth Ditto at 11/07/07 4:47 PM | Reply
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Sterogum, you are truely the coolest of all, with your bashing of things that are "trendy", The Killers, coldplay, and most mainstream. You guys are really, really, something else.

Posted by: Brian at 11/07/07 4:54 PM | Reply
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There are not enough people from Sweden on this list yes?

Posted by: Bjorn at 11/07/07 5:10 PM | Reply
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stereogum barely bashes anything

if you want bashing go to idolator

Posted by: kevin at 11/07/07 5:13 PM | Reply
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There are not enough people from Sweden on this list yes?
Posted by: Bjorn at November 7, 2007 5:10 PM

Agreed. Ha ha :) Where's The Knife?

And I have to say, I might not agree with everyone on the list, but at least it's not predictable like most US rags (Bruce Springsteen, Billie Joe Armstrong, Jack White....)

Posted by: ric at 11/07/07 5:18 PM | Reply
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So what I glean from this is that we'll all care about Gallows next year and be making fun of ourselves for liking them by 09'?
Wino shouldn't be on the list period because drug abuse only makes you cooler when it DOESN'T make you less hot.

Posted by: SuperUnison at 11/07/07 5:20 PM | Reply
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i've heard of two people on that list

Posted by: seth at 11/07/07 5:51 PM | Reply
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KLAXONS!!!!!!


CSS WAS SO LAST YEAR.

Posted by: adrienne at 11/07/07 8:21 PM | Reply
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^If CSS are so last year, shouldn't that apply to Klaxons as well...?

And Brandon Flowers' mustache is #13 on the list. That should ruffle some feathers around here.

Posted by: danielle at 11/07/07 9:12 PM | Reply
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lethal bizzie? whozat? wuzzat? just makes me think of that show the Young Ones with the punk guy, Viv Bastard or whatever

Posted by: kingoffresno at 11/08/07 12:46 AM | Reply
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what a load of fucking bollocks

Posted by: kino at 11/08/07 1:39 AM | Reply
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That's not Thom Yorke. By the sound of Frank's voice, that guy could EAT Thom Yorke.

Posted by: PH at 11/08/07 2:45 AM | Reply
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the bashing doesnt happen in the editorial, it's all in the comments

Posted by: obla at 11/08/07 6:10 AM | Reply
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who?

Posted by: annie onymous at 11/08/07 8:44 AM | Reply
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Damn, NME is soooo not in my cool list.

Posted by: ET at 11/08/07 10:55 AM | Reply
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I hope people figured out that Beth Ditto is a total joke. Ditto parades to be over weight and be proud of it. If you are over weight, you are unhealthy. By promoting the idea that it is completely okay to not take care of yourself, and being okay with that, you will suffer the consequence of not only being over weight, but even the potential of greater danger; such as heart failure. I don't care if you are fat. The superficial aesthetic of it doesn't bother me. Recommending that someone should not take care of themselves and be okay with it is the problem. It has nothing to do with physical proportion. It'd be the same case if you were 6.2 and weighed 90 pounds.

Posted by: James at 11/11/07 4:02 PM | Reply
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nme sucks,uk sucks
why have you even got an article on it
losers

Posted by: uk resident at 01/13/08 10:02 AM | Reply
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