NME Awards Make Wednesday Bloody Terrif

As if I needed anything besides the sudden appearance of tart-voiced Roman god Billy Corgan three blocks from my house (See: Pumpkins to Smash on Hollywood Sidewalk), this Wednesday is making my week look even brighter with a new swarm of very notable and high-five-worthy bands and musicians travelling from all points abroad and coagulating within a 15-minute drive of me. I’m beginning to feel like I’m in the musician version of an Axe commercial.

British music outlet NME Monday announced the first-ever U.S.-based NME Awards, set for Wednesday, April 23, at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. Among the names gracing the establishment will be word slurrer, guitar banger and one of my personal heroes, Mick Jones. The former Clash front man and Libertines producer will be accepting the Inspiration Award, which I can’t imagine is for anything other than being entirely too awesome. Other artists making noise onstage will include Does It Offend You, Yeah? and this year’s winner of the Godlike Genius award, Jane’s Addiction, which is such a random choice I’m forced to wonder if real opinions went into award selection. Congrats to them, at least, for creating the theme song that spearheaded every dose of my 2007 Entourage intake.

More information on the upcoming event is posted on NME’s award site, with live streaming of the awards themselves available from the magazine’s Myspace page. Assuming tickets are well outside of my accountant’s imagination, I will put aside for one night my disdain for anything related to Myspace, and join the legions of in-touch hipsters taking advantage of the streaming yummy goodness. Cheers, mate.