Nine Inch Nails releases

found cortini's public profile when I was searching out of curiosity -- looks like someone is a kevin drumm subscriber :)
https://bandcamp.com/alessandrocortini

I think there's been at least one other more dismissive comment of Bandcamp he made a couple of years back, but I sure do wonder about him really not wanting to grant the idea that people can be directly paid for their work. Which may be an exaggeration but I almost think nearly all of this is him wanting a middleman. At the least, he was direct about not wanting to be his own marketer.

Yeah, it's pretty clear he's still feeling burned by the Saul Williams album numbers and how many people opted in to pay

I think the elephant in the room here is that the audience willing to associate their credit card info with the purchase of an album titled The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! is, by definition, self-limiting.

BUT THE ART

It's kinda weird, it does seem to be the moment of his life more than anything -- even more than The Fragile tours, as he talked about in the Marchese interview -- where he had to deal with the fact that just because he's popular doesn't mean he could snap his fingers and make something happen.

I'm just saying, I can imagine more than one NIN fan going "Oh Trent is involved in this Saul Williams album? Awesome, let me check it out... 'The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of WHAT NUH-UH NOPE SORRY DUDE"

Retitle it A Journey To Liberation and see what happens to the numbers; I bet they'd go up

they'd probably go up in 2017 just due to people being more used to paying for things online than they were a decade ago

I'd imagine a not-trivial number of people who downloaded it for free would probably have paid if they could've just stuck $5 into the CD drive

also Trent Reznor producing some unknown's rap album is exactly the sort of thing you'd think NiN fans would be curious about but not necessarily want to pay money for. he should try it with one of his own albums.

"Hi I'm Trent Reznor and here is my unknown rap album."

his previous album was produced by rick rubin!

but yeah, not a household name

The phenomenon of La Croix suddenly being a nationwide thing sill baffles and amazes me.

Topo Chico or go home.

home is where you keep your la croix stash

Props for trying out a different vocal style I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeJ_DzRJUI4

Nice beat, mind.

6 tracks on the new album strikes me as a little stingy.

Though only £2.99 on iTunes so I'll shut up.

oh i thought this was going to be another ep but apparently it's 30 minutes long?

this song sounds p cool and different for him while also feeling kinda related to "the perfect drug"

Musically I'd link it to "A Copy of a"

At first I thought one of the synths was a saxophone and was shocked at the new direction. It's not bad. I bought the last two EPs, and would buy this one, but a) I don't have a turntable and the presence of a totally useless audio format in my house annoys me on principle, plus the shipping is like $10 on a $20 item, and b) the NIN webstore doesn't take Paypal.

feels influenced by Blackstar? I think there's both sax + synths that sound very close to sax. reminiscent of The Perfect Drug too yeah which is interesting considering how much he's said he hates that song (don't understand why since it's one of his best)

apparently this is indeed a proper album and what the third EP from the planned trilogy turned into

At first I thought one of the synths was a saxophone and was shocked at the new direction

it's almost certainly a distorted sax? i think?

Maybe two saxes, to my ears, or a sax and trumpet. Does sound like Bowie. Also sounds very '90s. Like, 1997.

lol totally. this could've come off the Lost Highway soundtrack.

Bit of a Dead Can Dance feel to the vocals.

http://www.nin.com/tickets2018/

COLD AND BLACK AND INFINITE – NORTH AMERICA 2018
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN

TICKETS FOR COLD AND BLACK AND INFINITE NORTH AMERICA 2018 WILL GO ON SALE MAY 19 EXCLUSIVELY AT THE PHYSICAL WORLD PRESALE
*DENVER MAY 20

WHAT? WHY? PHYSICAL WORLD PRESALE?
THE PROMISE OF A WORLD MADE BETTER BY COMPUTERS AND ONLINE CONNECTIVITY HAS FAILED US IN MANY WAYS, PARTICULARLY WHEN IT COMES TO TICKETING. EVERYTHING ABOUT THE PROCESS SUCKS AND EVERYONE LOSES EXCEPT THE RESELLER. WE’VE DECIDED TO TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAT WILL ALSO LIKELY SUCK, BUT IN A DIFFERENT WAY. WE’RE HOPING MANY OF YOU WILL BE HAPPY WITH THE RESULTS, WHILE SOME MAY DO WHAT THEY ALWAYS DO AND BITCH ABOUT IT.

HERE’S HOW IT WORKS:
YOU (AN ACTUAL HUMAN BEING) SHOW UP AT THE BOX OFFICE, INTERACT WITH THE TICKET SELLER (ANOTHER ACTUAL HUMAN BEING) AND PURCHASE UP TO FOUR TICKETS THAT WILL ACTUALLY BE HANDED TO YOU ON THE SPOT. THE TICKETS WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE ONLINE OR ANYWHERE ELSE BEFORE OR DURING THAT DAY. ALL SEATS (INCLUDING THE BEST SEATS) WILL BE AVAILABLE FIRST COME, FIRST SERVE. YOU MAY ACTUALLY ENCOUNTER OTHER ACTUAL HUMAN BEINGS WITH SIMILAR INTERESTS LIKELY WEARING BLACK CLOTHING DURING THE PROCESS AND POTENTIALLY INTERACT WITH THEM. THE EXPERIENCE HAS THE POTENTIAL* TO BE ENJOYABLE. NINE INCH NAILS HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER, LIVING LIFE TO THE FULLEST AND GOOD TIMES.**

ANY REMAINING TICKETS WILL BE SOLD AT A LATER DATE.

*NOT GUARANTEED
**NOT ENTIRELY TRUE

(dunno why Denver is up there, that's just one of many cities)

nin at radio city? i may actually buy a ticket tomorrow

Cold and Black and Infinite kind of a self parodying tour name.

NINE INCH NAILS HAS ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER, LIVING LIFE TO THE FULLEST AND GOOD TIMES

if u say so buddy

did you just reiterate the ** joke

New EP is very good. Varied. Some real noisy punky shit, some moody instrumentals, including another track with horns called "Play the Goddamned Part." I'm amusing myself imagining that the title was just Trent's grumpy advice to the musicians in the studio.

Tragic I couldn't get tix to their London shows this weekend. Just tragic.

this is prob the best thing they've put out since year zero imo

Quite enjoying this

it's very good, super cohesive and beautifully paced

All 3 EPs would fit comfortably onto a single CD. I'm just saying.

Have you ever had an acquaintance you knew back in school, a decent bloke but ultimately not someone you wanted to hang with? Then you ran into them years later and found they had done cool things with their life. That's this new EP to me. I haven't even heard NiN since "The Downward Spiral" and, while I always thought they were ok, I was never into their work.

I'm with Brad - "Bad Witch" is easily the most interesting thing Trent has ever done. Definitely inspired by Bowie's "Blackstar" - which is great in my book.

If Trent keeps going in this direction, he'll wind up like Scott Walker. Bring it on.

It's my favourite release by them since Downward Spiral and I've heard everything in between, for whatever that's worth.

Good new interview here:

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/trent-reznor-nine-inch-nails-atticus-ross-bad-witch-vegas-698419/

Finally did catch up with all the recent EPs the other week. Bad Witch really is quite remarkable.

can I just say I've always dug the way this dude's done that funk hiccupping vocal style on tracks that absolutely do not call for it

Mmmmm...can't STOP! ahhh...me, UH, I'm not

http://thequietus.com/articles/25050-nine-inch-nails-trent-reznor-interview-bad-witch

Doran - that was a great interview. My favorite line is when he said "the Spotify front end feels “more like a shopping mall record shop than a Rough Trade or an Amoeba. It’s not a place where people who love music are encouraging the deep dive into origins and history”."

In another interview, he had this gem which sums of my feelings exactly:
Rolling Stone: I did an interview once with a famous rapper before his record came out, and I asked him what he wanted it to be. He kept saying, “I want it to be what the fans want.”

TR: There’s probably nothing wrong with that if that’s what you want to do. But to me it feels like the difference between an entertainer and an artist, and I really quantify those things in my head. There are pop stars I don’t feel angry about. I don’t like what they do, but I feel like they’re an entertainer. But don’t confuse that with – and I’m saying this to sound pretentious – the artist that is actually trying to make art that may or may not intersect with commerce. Having a roster of songs that songwriters have written for you and showing up for a vocal session a couple of times and a photo session for your album that someone else designed. That, to me, feels like an entertainer.

this whole EP trilogy has been his best work in a long long time, since at least Year Zero as Brad said or maybe even The Fragile

great interviews too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qnvf861FG8U

they finally did The Perfect Drug live!

!!!

Ending sequence down to a tee. (shame abt the 'without you' screaming audience member)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQBmALfSFEU

I'm really digging this not just because it's great, or because I like both NIN and Watchmen, but also because I feel it strongly shares some vibes with PWEI's Defcon one.

Ok, that's aces. Bring on the triple LP soundtrack!

I honestly can't remember the last time I listened to "The Downward Spiral," but putting it on yesterday I was reminded of just how aggressive and abrasive and weird (and ott/stupid, but so what) much of it is. I seem to recall thinking that at the time, too, even though my listening habits had more than prepared me for music like that. But listening in 2019, I was trying to put myself in the shoes (ears?) of someone who came to it in the wake of the alt-rock revolution. Nirvana is one thing, but that's easy listening compared to some of this (expertly engineered) in-the-red digital noise. Even some metal fans I imagine might have been take aback, right? This album is just much more confrontational than any other mainstream music of its period, imo.

It really started with Broken/Fixed for me, PHM was a lot of fun, almost disco in places then hearing Broken made me realise how far past the PHM sound he had pushed things.

Oh, for sure. I bought Broken the day it came out, with the little bonus 3" CD. It's super aggressive as well, but I don't know how many people actually bought/heard that before "Downward Spiral" was released.

I kind of knew something was up, I caught them in a little club in Glasgow on the latter stages of the PHM tour and it was super aggro, I don't think they played anything from Broken but they were telegraphing the songs in such a way that when Broken came out it made a lot of sense.