New Yorkers We Are Scientists are set for the big time having been selected for the coveted NME Awards tour alongside Arctic Monkeys and Maximo Park. But on February 3 they are taking a day off to play their own headline show in Preston.

They're the latest rock band who are better known in the UK than in their native US, thanks to Steve Lamacq championing them on his Radio 1 show after first spotting them at the infamous South By South West music festival last year.

Their debut album With Love And Squalor, featuring what the band describe as "music of the thoughtful, sometimes epic, often loud, vaguely danceable, implicitly humanist variety", has been acclaimed by the rock press.

American music lovers are starting to sit up and take notice now as well, after the band appeared on David Letterman's TV show alongside Jim Carrey.

After the NME Awards dates and the 53 Degrees gig, they will join The Kaiser Chiefs for a major European tour.

We Are Scientists play 53 Degrees in Preston on Friday, February 3. Tickets are £8.50.