It's an exciting time at NME.COM this week as we unveil a new, better website for you to enjoy. Apologies in advance for the inevitable teething troubles this may (or may not - all good so far, touch wood) cause.

If you've noticed the design changes and numerous new features - we genuinely hope you like them and find them useful.

The thinking behind the changes is simple. We're creating more content than ever, every day now. From breaking music news, features and blog opinion pieces, to video interviews and photo galleries of the bands we love... there's tons more to dig into.

We're doing way more than just music news. NME.COM is now the best place to find out about new tours and get tickets before they sell out.

To compliment our own music reviews, we're bringing you the Rough Trade store's album recommendations every day as we know that loving the best new LPs is far from dead.

The new 'Editor's Picks' and 'Most Popular' sections should help you find the current highlights on the site at any given time.

To top off all the new content we've also given NME.COM a bit of a facelift. Hopefully you'll find the cleaner design and refreshed fonts easier to navigate and better-looking.

It's you the reader who makes this website what it is - all 4.5 million of you every month (a million more than this time last year) - so please comment below with any thoughts, suggestions or howling criticisms (though praise is welcome too, you know. We're human and need to be loved just like everybody else does, as someone - was it Calvin Harris? - once said).

Thanks for making NME.COM what it is.

David
Editor, NME.COM

It's hard to summarise what makes you love a band. But a soul-gripping part of the magic comes from discovering them as a raw and wide-eyed teenager. When I was 13, way back in 1991, I stumbled across Jane's Addiction and I've been hooked on their other-world-envoking dark art ever since.

Last night the band shook the foundations of London's Centro club at a majestic, intimate show for just 200-or-so lucky fans. This was a million miles from the shiny chrome expanses of the O2 Arena, where the L.A misfits had just completed two nights with Nine Inch Nails. I'd flown out especially to see them play Bilbao festival last weekend, where Perry Farrell howled at the midnight moon high in the Spanish hills, but this was something else.

In the tiny club fire-breathing strippers writhe on the bar and glide on swings inches above the crowd. Wall-filling porn images are projected behind the band. The bar staff spray their soda guns into the air, soaking the audience who fling themselves around in a sweaty whirlpool of grins and clashing bodies. The music is seismic. Gigs simply don't come much better. They can't.

Of course the backdrop to all this only heightens the meaning of it all. The fact that the punk-rock warhorses who formed in the 1980s are still alive after several brain-frying decades of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll is astonishing enough.
But after such an acrimonious and final split in 1991, to be reformed and on tour together in 2009 is a preacher-blanching miracle. A couple of years ago you'd have got better odds on a cat building a rocket and flying to the moon.

To have them back is a crazy privilege.

As we waited for the band I met a guy who had flown back from a holiday in Italy (where, no shit, he'd only just arrived) to queue in the street from noon to get tickets. Jane's Addiction inspire devotion every bit as strong as the obsessive state they're named after.

Performed live last night, 'Mountain Song', 'One Percent', 'Whores', 'Ted, Just Admit It' and 'Ain't No Right' are soaring, heady rides, infused with voodoo sexuality as snake-hipped bar-dancers thrust balls of fire into the air.

This was a no-rules, whistle-stop party with no place for the tender, reflective beauty of classic tracks such as 'Three Days', 'Jane Says' and 'Classic Girl'. The setlist -

'Up The Beach'
'Whores'
'One Percent'
'Ain't No Right'
'Ted, Just Admit It'
'Mountain Song'
'Been Caught Stealing'
'Had A Dad'
'Summertime Rolls'

Perry Farrell throws himself around the stage as the banshee, fearless-and-funny ("I want everyone to go home and kiss a pussy tonight. Say Perry sent you."), lithe, skate-punk frontman.
Eric Avery is the man-mountain bass-player, deceptively melodious and emotive in contrast to his rock-solid, one-man-army 'don't even think about fucking with me' stance and laser-eyed, thousand-yard stare.

Dave Navarro's guitar is whirling, dangerous like an 'axe' should be, and as ever, skillful-beyond-human-comprehension. Electricity and showmanship personified, he smiles when a fan throws him a cigarette and plays on with it lit between his lips.

And the ever-smiling drummer - beneath the images of dildos and pouting porn stars Stephen Perkins unrelentingly drives the carnival along with tribal, pounding, skull-juddering percussion.

As an aside, I remember him playing on kitchen pots and pans in the bands' 'Something Shocking' video (a 12-minute long VHS tape as I recall, in which Dave shows off his party trick of stunning his pet eel with a blow to the head) and rushing off to try and do the same 16 years ago. To stand barely 4 metres away and watch him at work as beer flies and crowd-surfer after crowd-surfer crashes overheard is another level.

Tell me to 'get a room' if you like, but everyone deserves to suck in a show like this at some point in their short mortal span. Music exists to provide these moments of freedom. If you were there, at any of the shows from the past few weeks, or just want to reminisce about the band's music and tumultuous career, post comments below...

Seriously, it was amazing.

NB: NME.COM will have a video interview and extensive live footage from the show coming soon. Keep your eyes peeled...

It's usually the domain of NME's man-about-town Radar section editor Jaimie Hodgson to highlight the best new bands that are teetering with what physicians call 'potential energy' and on the brink of doing great things.

But I thought I'd pick out 6 that I've been enjoying as it feels like there are such rich pickings currently. The ultra-scenesters reading this will no doubt point out that some of the bands below are old hat, having played to 11 people in a Hoxton basement in January. But fuck them. It's been a drab day and if someone reading this comes away with just one new track they love, then I can go home happy.

First up, Golden Silvers. NME favourites and supports to Blur at Hyde Park on the Thursday (ok, the cat may already be out of the bag on this one if 55,000 gig-goers have already seen them live) their debut album 'True Romance' is astonishing.

Golden Silvers - 'True Romance (No.9 Blues)':

Wolf Gang, aka Max Elligott, has just dropped out of the London School Of Economics (hell, it was good enough for Mick Jagger) and plays live across a series of dates in London in July. His Levi's Ones To Watch show also boasts the excellent Everything Everything and Post War Years.

Listen to Wolf Gang's 'Pieces Of You' and the incredible 'Night Flying' here - he doesn't have any videos yet, from what I can see, so here's a clip of Post War Years and a free Wolf Gang download in the mean time.

Post War Years - 'Whole World On Its Head':

Chew Lips also play at the Levi's 5 Night Revue shows this week. Unlucky if you missed them. Console yourself with the video to electro-pop-meets-Yeah-Yeah-Yeahs masterpiece 'Solo' or grab a Lovebox festival ticket for next weekend when they support Simian Mobile Disco, Duran Duran and N.E.R.D in Victoria Park.

You can also download a free Chew Lips remix here.

Chew Lips - 'Solo' (audio only):

Finally, Neon Gold Records' Yes Giantess make blissed-out synth-pop with a twist and will be at Latitude festival this month before supporting the by now well-established Little Boots on her American summer tour.

Yes Giantess don't have a video yet, so to sign off here's a track from Ungdomskulen, simply because not enough people that I talk to seem to have heard the ballsy Norwegian Viking-rock trio or seen their pounding live show which I guarantee, will make you grin from ear to ear.

Ungdomskulen - 'Spartacus' (audio only):

Let me know what you think of the bands by commenting below - or if you've got other new bands to recommend, post links to their MySpace...

A great new film comes out on August 7 this year, called Beautiful Losers. It's a documentary about growing up, creativity, freedom, expression and 'do it yourself' culture. And it's one of those films that makes you sit up, pay attention and really think about your life and what you want you from from it.

Go and see it. And when you leave the cinema I guarantee you'll want to paint something, learn an instrument, hang out with your best friends - the ones that really know you and love you - or take on that slightly insane idea that's been bubbling away at the back of your brain for months.

The film is about a group of underground, kooky, self-empowering artists who create amazing art. You may not know their names, but you'll know - and recognise - their work.

I'm guessing that for the vast majority of people reading this, the subjects of the film could walk past you in the street and you would have no idea of who they were. They look like you and me. They ARE like you and me, of course - the difference being that were you to Google their names, instead of some hackneyed Facebook profile, tons of mind-blowing art, groundbreaking movies and skateboarding exploits comes up.

So who are they? Well, Mike Mills has designed album covers for Sonic Youth, The Beastie Boys, Beck and Air, amongst others. You may know his Pulp music video too. Harmony Korine wrote Larry Clark's seminal movie 'Kids' and directed the bizarre and ultra-real 'Gummo'. Shepherd Fairey is behind all of those 'Obey' stickers and posters you may have seen plastered on street corners. Oh - and he made the iconic Obama 'Hope' poster that greased the wheels of getting that new guy in the White House. And that's to name just three of the bunch.

With roots embedded in skate, punk-rock and grafitti, these American counter-culture kids 'made good' reach young hearts and minds like a raging virus. The ad bucks were never going to be far behind, but they've stayed impressively true to their original visions.

Check out the trailer below and go see the film. Then do that stuff you've been meaning to do for ages. Learn to skateboard or fly a giant kite. Paint something. Make something for someone. Buy a guitar and write a song. Do something you love. Today.

Beautiful Losers movie trailer:

There's a red phone in the corner of the NME office that - a bit like The Batphone - only rings on very special occasions.

And ring it did, when our reporter at New Zealand's Big Day Out festival first heard the Arctic Monkeys play new track 'Crying Lightning' for the first time, way back in January.

Sadly, no one answered (all asleep - time difference, you see) so it's up to me to tell you about the track, now that it's online and available on iTunes as of this week.

Taken from the forthcoming album 'Humbug' (out August 24), it's certainly not as dark or pounding as the rumour mill might have had us believe. It's already being compared to some of the tracks on the flipside of the 'Teddy Picker' EP.

And with multiple references to sweets and confectionery treats, the 'Crying Lightning' lyrics certainly fit with the album title.

"Outside the cafe by the cracker factory, you were practicing a magic trick. And my thoughts got rude, as you talked and chewed on the last of your pick and mix", sings Turner in a low, pensive voice, continuing "Said, 'You're mistaken if you're thinking that I haven't been caught cold before,' as you bit into your strawberry lace. And then a flip in your attention, in the form of a gobstopper, is all you have left and it was going to waste."

Parts of the track are ever-so slightly reminiscent of The Doors. The swirling rhythm, slide guitar, haunting wind sound and Alex Turner ominously singing 'strange and deranged' aren't a million miles from Jim Morrison territory - not that the two songs/bands could ever be mistaken.

But the real winner is the chorus. The vocals soar and the track takes off with a surge of emotion, lifted further by the beautiful wailing of 'Crying Lightning' over and over.

What it all means, who knows. But it sure makes you want to hear the rest of the album right away.

Grab it from iTunes now, then let me know what you think below.

Arctic Monkeys - 'Crying Lightning' single artwork:

When he's not spying on swans or stroking badgers, it seems that BBC host Chris Packham's been slipping The Smiths' song titles into his presenting patter on TV's Springwatch (nope - us neither) show. And if that wasn't reason enough to like the guy, apparently he does it just to annoy Bill Oddie.

Which is a pretty good reason to do just about anything.

Watch the compilation video below, with clips snatched from across the series, and see how many you can spot. There are 32 included, with the answers posted if you scroll down.

The Answers:

1. Hand In Glove
2. What Difference Does It Make
3. Handsome Devil
4. Frankly Mr Shankly
5. You Just Haven't Earned It Yet Baby
6. Vicar In A Tutu
7. Bigmouth Strikes Again
8. The Queen Is Dead
9. Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before
10. Still Ill
11. Sweet And Tender Hooligan
12. Oscillate Wildly
13. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
14. This Charming Man
15. Ask
16. Well I Wonder
17. Asleep
18. Cemetery Gates
19. Nowhere Fast
20. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
21. Fantastic Bird (Morrissey song)
22. Unloveable
23. Sheila Take A Bow
24. I Know It's Over
25. William, It Was Really Nothing,
26. I Started Something I Couldn't Finish
27. Paint a Vulgar Picture
28. These Things Take Time
29. Headmaster Ritual
30. Is It Really So Strange?
31. Girlfriend in a Coma (by Kate)
32. Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

Feel free to post any Smiths/Springwatch related pun-based song titles below. I proffer 'This Charming Water Boatman' and 'Girlfriend In A Cormorant' to start things off. Surely you can do better...