1
It’s just a month since the release of their second album, ‘Konk’, in April this year, and The Kooks are already thinking ahead to a third. In News this week we speak to Luke Pritchard backstage at Radio 1’s Big Weekend and find out how the frontman’s love of eclectic, world music is inspiring him to write new songs.
2
Alt-princess Scarlett Johansson charts her extraordinary journey from Hollywood starlet to indie icon in the pages of NME this week. Her album of Tom Waits covers, inspired by her travels with her Waits-worshipping father, was released on May 19 in the UK.
Pic: Dean Chalkley
3
While recording her debut album in the wilds of Louisiana, Hollywood alt-princess Scarlett Johansson experimented with recording owl noises and spinning dog bowls full of water. Read the full bizarre story in this week’s NME, dated May 24.
Pic: Dean Chalkley
4
Emo heroes Paramore are reviewed in the mag’s Live! section this week. Cancelled dates and "internal issues" have led fans to fear for the Tennessee quartet’s future. Did their Glasgow Academy show do anything to assuage those fears?
Pic: Drew Farrell
5
The NME Gallery picture in this week’s issue, on sale across the UK today, shows that the (old) boys are back in town as Paul Weller teams up with Noel Gallagher on a new single, ‘Echoes Round The Sun’. We caught up with the boys for this quick picture on the video shoot.
Pic: Lawrence Watson
6
Radio 1’s Big Weekend is reviewed in full – from Madonna through to Foals, Kooks and a suitably frantic Gallows, in NME’s Live section. Read our extensive report in the issue, out across the UK today.
7
Italians Do It Better – the ultra-hip underground label, is introduced along with some of their bands, including electro-pop duo Glass Candy (pictured), by NME’s Sam Richards. Read this week’s issue for the low-down on the label that’s made disco sexy again.
Pic: Tom Oxley
8
Glorious folk architects Noah And The Whale also grace NME’s Radar pages this week. The band are headed up by tune-writing frontman Charlie Fink, his drumming brother Doug, violinist Tom Fiddle and bass and glockenspiel player Urby Whale, a former child actor who once shared screen time with Catherine Zeta-Jones. Get the full story in the issue.
Pic: Sam Jones
9
LA foursome, the electro-punk noise innovators, HEALTH, are in this week’s Radar as one of THE bands to keep an ear out for. Get the lowdown on their self-titled debut album, out next month, in the new issue of NME, out today.
Pic: Ed Miles
10
This week’s Radar introduces new bedroom-based recording sensation Get Well Soon, aka 25-year-old, Berlin-based, cello-drums-guitar and piano playing entrepreneur Konstantin Gropper. His sensational debut ‘Rest Now, Weary Head! You Will Get Well Soon’ hits British shelves in June.
Pic: Ed Miles
11
Dizzee Rascal talks through the bands and artists that he’s hooked on – from Snoop Dogg through to Guns N’ Roses. Read the interview in the issue of NME, dated May 24, in shops across the UK today.
Pic: Andy Fallon