NME tours are always a great way to catch tonnes of great new music, and this year’s NME tour is no different, though some of the bands on the 2010 tour have taken longer to appear than in previous years, with The Maccabees now on their second album and Bombay Bicycle Club having been around for over five years.

The Drums were typically energetic to open things up, however didn’t offer much more than when we saw them support Delphic the other week. Their Beach Boys / Cure combo looks like it could well be the anthems of the summer for some.

Second on were London’s Big Pink, fresh from supporting Muse at the end of last year. Whilst I’m sure they’re perfectly competent, their My Bloody Valentine-esque stuff is really not my cup of tea. However, they seemed to suit the Bristol Academy’s setting much more than the O2 arena, this time not hidden behind such a thick wall of smoke. Coming on in just her underwear, their drummer Akiko provided the pounding to accompny Milo Cordell’s beats. Dominoes had everyone’s arms in the air, jumping and chanting along – if only all their songs were as hit-single worthy and not buried away under such thick layers.

Bombay Bicycle Club were the reason we were at the O2 Academy – having recorded been around for half a decade already, recording their album in between A Level exams and having won the prestigious V Festival opening slot, it was time to see if live they could translate the success of their 2009 debut “I had the blues but I shook them loose”. Ambling on stage decidedly unassumingly, they had the benefit of a crowd who knew every word, and were willing to forget that its Sunday night and acting like it was the party to end all parties.

Though their set was very lively, many of their songs have quite a sense of melancholy about them – the sound of 1,200 people all chanting “I’m not home / I’m not home / I’m not ho-ome” was quite something. Closing the set with “What If”, lead singer Jack Steadman dedicated it to “anyone who’s feeling lonely today”. Whilst technically speaking they were playing in a support role to The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club showed that their years of hard work has done them well, strong pretenders to the crownd, and hopefully future NME tour headliners.

With that, roadies swarmed on the stage revealing The Maccabees backdrop, and before we knew it they arrived, looking rather shocked at the number of people stood cheering for them. Opening with “William Powers”, they set a scintilating pace, having the whole buidling dancing, only pausing for the slower, more Valentines-suitable Toothpaste Kisses. Closing out with the fantastic trio of “No kind words”, “Bag of bones” and “Love you better”, they showed that whilst it’s been six years in the making, they are more than worthy headliners.

After the jump: Photos and the Maccabees setlist.
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Making the two hour trek from Bristol from London has to be worth it on the whole, so when MTV gave us the chance to check out three of 2010’s hottest bands we jumped at the chance, and happily embarked on the trek to Dingwalls in Camden last night.

Opening up was London’s very own Death Metal Disco Scene, a sort of Yeah Yeah Yeahs lite. Having already achieved some pretty impressive official remixes for the likes of Bat for Lashes, Lily Allen and Kylie Minogue, we had high hopes for what was one of the band’s first live shows. Sporting some questionable Jeggings, lead singer Scorch Shepherd is like Karen O if she was a bit calmer and not quite as derranged. A pretty amazing cover of Whitney Houston’s “Wanna dance with Somebody” was a highlight of the set midway through, all stripped back and xx like, before they amped it back up to finish with futuristic dancefloor filler 21st Century. Good, strong songs for an opening band – definately ones I’ll be watching closely in 2010 as they grow.

Next up was The Drums (interview here, pictured right), currently making a stir in most people’s “ones to watch in 2010″ lists, they claimed in this week’s NME that they only make music with themselves in mind, not anyone else. However tonight they quite happily pleased the small but sold out crowd with their Beach Boys / Cure combination of sounds. Reminiscent of stellastarr* fronted by Kenneth from 30 Rock, they may have peaked a bit too early with a frantic, tambourine infused “All End in Tears” which resulted in the demolition of much of their drums’ mikes. The rest of the set was solid, fun, summery stuff that will have girls swooning and guys smiling.

Finally, after a stage set-up that would make most Health and Safety inspectors weep with the number of cables lying around, Delphic ambled on stage at 10:30, launching into an accomplished set. I first caught them last October in Southampton, and since then things have got pretty massive for the Manchester quartet (they topped our poll of bands to watch in 2010 – interview here). Chattier than Southampton, they coped surprisingly well when their mixer fell off the stage at the start of Submission, leading to jokes about “you won’t catch this on MTV!”. Polished, well rehearsed and owners of some pretty great songs for 2010, the only downside was that they were perhaps a bit too polished and perfect, a bit sterile. However, that didn’t stop us enjoying the light show (thankfully toned down a bit from the blinding Southampton set), and a band clearly at the top of their game. Urgent, pleading for your attention many of their songs fit perfectly into the uncertain 2010 landscape, and judging by the two shows of theirs that I’ve caught they are clearly a force to be reckoned with, and undoubtably one of 2010’s brightest stars.

MP3: Death Metal Disco Scene – 21

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MP3: The Drums – Let’s Go Surfing

MP3: Delphic – Counterpoint

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MP3: Delphic – This Momentary (Golden Bug remix)

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Coming in at position 9 on TGTF’s “10 for 2010″, chirpy New York-based band the Drums make another appearance here with the new promo video for their latest single, ‘I Felt Stupid’. Shot in black and white, the video compares two seemingly disparate worlds of track and field and live performance; in fact, the two are quite similar if you consider how competitive and physically demanding both are as evidenced in the video.

I bet it’ll have you going “ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaa” as the song enters your head and refuses to leave. And you won’t feel stupid at all for it, I promise.

The Drums’ releases can be purchased from Moshi Moshi Records.

The Drums finished 9th in our “10 of 2010″, and we got lead singer Jonathan Pierce to answer a few quick questions…

Congratulations on finishing ninth in our 10 of 2010 awards… sorry we don’t have a trophy or anything to give you. I’m sure you’ve probably won plenty of awards – what’s your most treasured one and why?
Thank you for putting us on the list! I think our most treasured reward is seeing a member of The Smiths at our first ever show in Manchester, dancing along.

What’s been your highlight of 2009? What about your lowlight?
Highlight : Writing the last song on our album in a cabin in Woodstock. Knowing it was the last track and we could not if we tried write anymore for the full length. It was perfect to us.
Lowlight : I currently have a broken rib, due to a fight I had with my brother. That is keeping me somewhat handicapped.

Likewise, what are you most excited about for 2010?
Traveling the world, playing shows.

What music / artists are you really excited to be hearing in 2010? What sort of stuff are you enjoying listening to at the moment?
We are interested in seeing what The Young Friends will do. They are currently on our Holiday Records label. The songs they are making are close to, if not, perfect.
I am always listening to Orange Juice and The Shangri-las.

How do you like to describe your music? I’ve been reading so many descriptions of your music and comparisons (from the Beach Boys to New Order) I’d love to know what you think your music sounds like / who you’d compare your sounds to.
I think the most important thing to us is that we are a pop band. We make pop music. Sometimes I leans towards the 60’s girl groups, and sometimes it leans more Factory. I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s just sincere pop music. We just love beautiful short songs with perfect sad melodies.

You’re gonna be spending much of February over here – what do you love (or hate) about coming to the UK for shows?
So far, the UK has been very good to us. We are excited and happy to return with a bunch of new songs.

Before you go on stage do you have any weird and wonderful rituals?
We just drink and do push-ups.

What would be a cool location you’d like to do a gig at?
The Auto Mechanic High School Auditorium in Williamsburg. We WILL make it happen someday.

Finally, what TV, films and books are you really enjoying at the moment?
Getting into David Lynch’s Twin Peaks DVDs for TV.
Getting into John Cassevettes box set for films..
Getting into TIME/LIFE Great Photographers for books.

A couple of weeks back, we asked you to vote for your top 10 artists for 2010. We had almost 600 votes, and we’re now going to countdown the top 10 over the next 10 days, finishing with our number 1 on 10th December at midday. Today, at number 9, are New York City-based The Drums, who we first introduced back in September…

Some have dubbed ‘Let’s Go Surfing’, the first single from this Brooklyn by way of sunny Florida band, as “the most infectious whistling since Peter Bjorn and John“. I wrote about the song and its frenetic video in September.

MP3: The Drums – Let’s Go Surfing

Coming up for the band next: a 7″ inch vinyl single release for ‘I Feel Stupid’ (backed by ‘Down by the Water’) to drop on 7 December. The ‘I Feel Stupid’ A-side is firmly positioned in the BBC 6music ‘A’ playlist and despite the gaiety of the guitars, the vocals are post-punk with a whiff of Talk Talk. ‘Down by the Water’, in contrast, feels like the perfect soundtrack to late-night snogging in the back of the cinema.

With a 7-song EP follow-up called ‘Summertime’ released on 12 October on the Moshi Moshi label (who put out early records by Hot Chip, Florence and the Machine, and Friendly Fires) and a forthcoming full-length scheduled to be out sometime next year, they’re set to take the world by storm with the simplicity of their feel-good pop that will make you smile ear to ear. But lest you think these are simple-minded American boys looking for the next big (ocean) wave to catch, the band are quick to dismiss their early label of ’surf pop’ for their intention to sound like great ’50s-’60s pop as if recorded by a Factory Records band. Pretty ambitious, huh?

From all accounts, the quartet – led by Jonathan Pierce (vocals) and Jacob Graham (guitar) – are quite humble in their aspirations for 2010, wishing for lots of traveling to places they haven’t been yet for gigs and maybe a call from American late night telly institution Saturday Night Live to play for Lorne Michaels and crew. And if they live up the hype that’s been following them around for the second half of 2009, I think they have a very good shot at both. Good luck boys.

You will be able to catch the Drums on the line-up for the NME Shockwaves Awards Tour in February 2010 (tickets available now through Seetickets). You can also snag their releases for stocking fillers at Moshi Moshi Records’s online store.

If you haven’t heard the sunniest thing to come from America’s East Coast in some time, here’s something special to add some light to the drabness that is the last day of November. Brooklyn-based the Drums have been one of the many “to light up my life” so to speak as of late with the seaside treat ‘Let’s Go Surfing’. I wrote about the song and its video, oddly shot in the nighttime, in September. Go on, grab it for your mp3 player and keep the summer going all through this winter.

MP3: The Drums – Let’s Go Surfing

‘Summertime’, a 7-song EP by the Drums, was released on 12 October on the Moshi Moshi label and can be purchased at Moshi Moshi Records’s online store. ‘I Feel Stupid’ (backed by ‘Down by the Water’) will be released on 7″ vinyl on 7 December.

The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club, the Big Pink, and the Drums have been named for the lineup of the Shockwaves NME Awards Tour 2010. The tour runs for a little over a fortnight in February, starting in Newcastle on 4 February 2010.

NME.com reports that general tickets go on sale at 9 AM GMT on Friday 13 November, but it appears that presale tickets are already available through Seetickets. The tour will call at:

Thursday 4th February 2010 – Newcastle O2 Academy
Friday 5th February 2010 – Glasgow Barrowland
Saturday 6th February 2010 – Manchester Academy
Sunday 7th February 2010 – Leeds O2 Academy
Tuesday 9th February 2010 – Nottingham Rock City
Wednesday 10th February 2010 - Norwich UEA
Thursday 11th February 2010 – Birmingham O2 Academy
Saturday 13th February 2010 – Cardiff University
Sunday 14th February 2010 – Bristol O2 Academy
Monday 15th February 2010 – Brighton Dome
Tuesday 16th February 2010 – Bournemouth O2 Academy
Thursday 18th February 2010 – Portsmouth Pyramids Centre
Friday 19th February 2010 – Cambridge Corn Exchange
Saturday 20th February 2010 – Brixton O2 Academy

The Drums are a Brooklyn-based band that plays decidedly Californian-y jangly guitar rock that is more Beach Boys than the ‘post-punk’ label on their MySpace suggests. They’re a new favourite of Steve Lamacq’s and maybe they’ll be one to you also.

Have a watch of their lo-fi video for ‘Let’s Go Surfing’, which inexplicably is filmed in the dark and belies the song’s sunniness. If you like watching cute American guys in blue jeans running around in the dark, this one’s for you.

The Drums’ ‘Summertime’ EP will be released by Moshi Moshi Records on 12 October in the UK. It appears that their American release on Twentyseven label is now sold out – rats!