|
Nine Inch Nails Information
|
|
'Nine Inch Nails' (abbreviated as 'NIN' and typeset as 'NIИ') is a critically and commercially successful American band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988 by Trent Reznor.
Etymology
Reznor describes the meaning behind the name Nine Inch Nails:
:I don't know if you've ever tried to think of band names, but usually you think you have a great one and you look at it the next day and it's stupid. I had about 200 of those. Nine Inch Nails lasted the two week test, looked great in print, and could be abbreviated easily. It really doesn't have any literal meaning. It seemed kind of frightening. [In his best he-man voice] Tough and manly! It's a curse trying to come up with band names."
The Nine Inch Nails logo (the letters "NiN" with the second "N" reversed, looking similar to "NIИ") was inspired by the typography of the album cover for Talking Heads' album Remain in Light. .
Genre
NIN's sound has variously been described as alternative, electronica, heavy metal, rock, synth pop, or, most commonly, industrial or industrial rock. Regarding his music being categorized as industrial, Reznor said in a 1994 Axcess magazine interview:
What was originally called industrial music was about 20 years ago Throbbing Gristle and Test Dept. We have very little to do with it other than there is noise in my music and there is noise in theirs. I'm working in the context of a pop song structure whereas those bands didn't. And because someone didn't come up with a new name that separates those two somewhat unrelated genres, it tends to irritate all the old school fans waving their flags of alternativeness and obscurity. So, I'd say I've borrowed from certain styles and bands like that."
NIN's songs cover a range of genres: "The Perfect Drug" has the flavor of drum and bass, "Down in It" influenced by early Skinny Puppy, "Happiness in Slavery" is tinged with industrial metal in the vein of Ministry, "The Frail" is a melancholy minimalist piano piece, and most of Pretty Hate Machine could be considered dark synth pop in the style of Depeche Mode.
Albums
Pretty Hate Machine (Halo 2)
NIN's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), largely consists of studio versions of demo recordings (released later unofficially as Purest Feeling.) This was also NIN's first collaboration with producer Mark 'Flood' Ellis. It went triple platinum in the U.S. and produced the singles "Head Like a Hole," "Down in It" and "Sin". Music videos were made for all three tracks, but the one for "Sin" was not released to the public until 1997, with the release of Closure. "Something I Can Never Have" also appeared in an edited form on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack.
In the credits of Pretty Hate Machine, Trent Reznor thanks British Horror/Fantasy writer Clive Barker for inspiration towards the stirring sound the album portrays.
As of August 19, 2005, the ownership rights to Pretty Hate Machine were put up for auction by TVT Records, compliments of Prudential Securities Financial Services. Pretty Hate Machine is part of an overall biddable package that also includes the rights to the Television's Greatest Hits compilations and the Mortal Kombat movie soundtracks. In addition, the highest bidder will be able to collect a percentage on future sales of Nine Inch Nails' other TVT-related releases, including Broken, Fixed, The Downward Spiral and Further Down the Spiral. Rykodisc re-issued Pretty Hate Machine on November 22, 2005. Rykodisc wanted to release a Deluxe Edition of the album, similar in concept to the Deluxe Edition of The Downward Spiral, however Reznor was not willing to produce it without payment.
Broken (Halo 5)
NIN's second major release was Broken (1992), an EP of six tracks plus two bonus tracks. It was originally released in a fold-out format, containing the first six tracks on a regular CD and an additional three-inch minidisc with the remaining bonus tracks. It was later released as one CD, with the bonus songs as "hidden" tracks 98 and 99. The song "Wish", aided by the video directed by Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson of Coil, won a Grammy in the "metal" category. Jon Reiss directed a music video for "Happiness in Slavery," which was almost universally banned due to its graphic content. The video depicts performance artist Bob Flanagan strapping himself to a machine that subsequently pleasures, tortures and kills him. A video for "Pinion" aired twice on MTV before being banned for its objectionable content, although images from it did become a fixture in the opening title sequence of the MTV show Alternative Nation. A full length video informally called The Broken Movie was also made by Sleazy, but has not seen an official release. The Broken Movie, as of 2005, can only be found on bootleg. Broken was followed by the remix EP Fixed.
The Downward Spiral (Halo 8)
NIN's second full album and third major release was The Downward Spiral (1994). This was NIN's second collaboration with Mark 'Flood' Ellis. It went quadruple platinum and is often considered by critics to be NIN's best work. Two singles, "March of the Pigs" and "Closer", were released, and two additional tracks, "Hurt" and "Piggy", were sent to radio without a single release. Music videos were made for "March of the Pigs", "Closer", live footage of "Eraser" (which would never receive airtime) , and "Hurt". The edited MTV version of "Closer" became very successful. The video for "Closer" (directed by Mark Romanek) , in many ways, set a standard for Nine Inch Nails videos with its eerie images of pigs' heads and S&M paraphernalia. The album's final track, "Hurt", would enjoy success once again when it was covered, with slight alterations to the lyrics, by Johnny Cash in 2003.
The Downward Spiral was followed by the remix EP Further Down the Spiral, which featured a collaboration with electronic music pioneer Aphex Twin and new guitar parts being lent by Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro. A remastered version of The Downward Spiral was released on November 23, 2004, with an accompanying CD of B-sides and rarities. The remastered recording was also released as a two-sided DualDisc. The Deluxe Edition of the remaster features multichannel and stereo SACD versions of the album as well as a remastered standard CD layer on the first disc, and stereo SACD and standard CD layers on the second. The DualDisc contains a remastered CD-Audio on one side and features a DVD-Audio format side containing High Resolution Stereo and 5.1 Surround mixes of the entire album with expanded album art, a discography, and Music Videos "Closer" (stereo and surround) , "March of the Pigs", and "Hurt (Live)".
The Fragile (Halo 14)
NIN's fourth major release was the two-disc album The Fragile (1999). It produced three singles, one released in the US ("The Day the World Went Away") , one in the UK ("We're In This Together") released as a 3 part single, and one in Japan and Australia ("Into The Void") . Music videos for "We're In This Together", "Into The Void" and "Starfuckers, Inc." (retitled as "Starsuckers, Inc.") were aired in the US.
"Starfuckers, Inc." was a vicious mockery of Reznor's former friend and protégé , Marilyn Manson. Several vocal takes were chopped up and spliced together as a not-so-subtle jab at Manson's usual inability to sing well enough to capture his vocals in a single take. The lyrics satirized Manson as being vain and insincere. The recording ended with a clip from a KISS concert”Manson repeatedly professed to be "the KISS of the Nineties." Some of the lyrics in the song (You're so vain/I'll bet you think this song is about you/Don't you? don't you?) come from the Carly Simon song "You're So Vain." While NIN was on tour, Reznor would snidely introduce the song as being "about a friend of mine." During one such performance in New York, Reznor subtly changed the lyrics of one part of the song ("How did you think we'd get by without you?" became "How did we ever get by without you?") , then put the song on hold halfway through as he was joined on stage by a surprise guest ” Manson himself. The two duetted the rest of the song, with Manson putting his arm around Reznor at one point, then they finished the show with Manson's hit "The Beautiful People." This event ” featured as an easter egg on the And All That Could Have Been DVD ” seemed to mark an end to their feud as Manson went on to appear in the "Starsuckers, Inc." video, but, for reasons unclear, the feud was resumed and Manson and Reznor are no longer on speaking terms.
However, in the "Starsuckers Inc." video, there is a clear stab at Courtney Love, widow of Kurt Cobain. In 1994 shortly after Cobain's death, the two had become romantically involved with each other for a period of about 6 months. After their relationship ended, Trent claimed that she was shallow, vain, and too into her image. By paying close attention to "Starsuckers Inc.," one will notice that the woman Trent dunks in the carnival, bears a striking resemblance to Courtney Love off of the album Live Through This, complete with dress, tiara, and lipstick.
In interviews prior to the album's completion, Reznor said he was considering organizing the tracks such that one disc would contain all instrumentals and the other the songs with lyrics. These plans changed when Bob Ezrin (producer of Pink Floyd's The Wall, a two-disc album often seen as a predecessor of The Fragile) suggested an arrangement of tracks that would strengthen the "four corners of the album"”namely the beginnings and ends of each of the two discs. Ezrin is credited in the liner notes as having "provided final continuity and flow."
'Into The Void' was used in the soundtrack for the film 'Final Destination'.
'The Mark Has Been Made' was used as the recurring theme music for the film 'Man on Fire'.
The Fragile was followed by the remix album Things Falling Apart. The Fragility Tour was recorded and released on CD and DVD as And All That Could Have Been. A special edition came with a companion disc called Still, featuring acoustic re-recordings of songs from across NIN's career, along with several new songs. Still is regarded as a classic among fans, and there was much speculation prior to the release of With Teeth in 2005 that the album would take a form similar to Still. Three videos for Still were released on NIN's official website.
With Teeth (Halo 19)
NIN's fifth major release, With Teeth (tentatively titled Bleedthrough), was written and recorded following Reznor's painful battle with alcoholism and substance abuse. The album involved the collaboration of the Foo Fighter's Dave Grohl (ex-Nirvana) playing live drums, replacing the drum machines used on most Nine Inch Nails releases. The music video for the first single, "The Hand that Feeds" premiered on the rather than on the traditional music video channel. The album was leaked prior to its official release on May 3, 2005 on both CD and DualDisc formats. Though the package for the album lacks the typical liner notes, features access to download a digital PDF poster full of stylized artwork and lyrics. "The Hand that Feeds" was also released as a Garageband multitrack file so that it could be remixed by anyone with access to the program. The band also allowed the entire album to be listened to in streaming audio at MySpace beginning April 27, 2005. The vinyl, Japanese, Australian & UK release of With Teeth all featured an extra track, "Home", a leftover cut from the With Teeth recording sessions.
Along with the standard edition and "Limited Tour Edition", a DualDisc version is available, which features With Teeth in stereo and 5.1 surround sound, DVDA stereo and surround playback, a Dolby Digital stereo and surround mix, the music video for "The Hand That Feeds", an interactive discography, and a slideshow of NIN-related images.
Nine Inch Nails dropped out of the 2005 MTV Movie Awards show because of a disagreement with MTV over the use of an unaltered image of George W. Bush as a backdrop to the band's performance of "The Hand that Feeds," which includes such lyrics as:
:What if this whole crusade's a charade
:And behind it all there's a price to be paid
:For the blood on which we dine
:Justified in the name of the holy and the divine
"Apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me," Trent Reznor said.
They were replaced on the show by the Foo Fighters.
In fall 2005, Nine Inch Nails launched a North American tour supported by Queens of the Stone Age, as well as Autolux for the first half of the tour followed by Death from Above 1979 during the second half.
Clint Mansell remixed "You Know What You Are?" for the soundtrack of the feature motion picture DOOM, based on the popular video game.
The second single for this album, released in mid-July, was "Only." A video for "Only" was completed around May. It was created using primarily computer-generated imagery, and directed by David Fincher. It debuted on July 11th on Fuse and can been seen on the band's official website. The third single, "Every Day Is Exactly the Same" has not yet had a release date slated.
Trent Reznor released the source files for "The Hand That Feeds" and "Only" to allow his fans to remix his songs in something of a contest. They are in various file formats, including Garageband and ACID formats. The files can be found on .
In the months following the release of With Teeth, two new Nine Inch Nails songs surfaced: "Non-Entity" recorded live at the ReactNow! Hurricane Katrina benefit concert. "Not So Pretty Now" has appeared on the setlist of a few recent Nine Inch Nails live shows, but has not yet seen a studio recording release.
On November 10, 2005, the Los Angeles, California radio station KROQ announced that the group will perform at the sixteenth annual of the Acoustic Christmas on December 10th of the same year. It will be the first time the band would ever peform at KROQ concerts.
Nine Inch Nails was nominated for Best Modern Rock Artist and Best Modern Rock Song ("The Hand that Feeds") at the 2005 Billboard Music Awards, but lost out to popular Pop-Punk group Green Day in both categories. The band, although, is nominated for a 2005 Grammy Award.
Discography
Though Nine Inch Nails has been in existence for over 16 years, it has only produced four proper full-length albums: Pretty Hate Machine, The Downward Spiral, The Fragile, and With Teeth, with an average of five years between each album. With the inclusion of the important Broken EP, Nine Inch Nails' primary releases are:
# Pretty Hate Machine (1989)
# Broken (1992)
# The Downward Spiral (1994)
# The Fragile (1999)
# With Teeth (2005)
The seeming sparseness of this discography belies the extent of NIN's work, as each main release serves as a center to numerous satellite releases, including remix albums, singles with extensive collections of b-sides, and tour documentaries. Indeed, each primary release is seen as the center of an associated era, in which the secondary releases are viewed as vitally important to understanding of the artistic whole. This feeling is enhanced by Nine Inch Nails' adoption of halo numbers to number each release, regardless of format. This sequential system carries the implicit message that every NIN release, from albums to singles, is an equally-important part of NIN's catalog.
In addition to official releases, NIN has performed work on numerous soundtracks and remixes.
Broken, the unreleased short film directed by Peter Christopherson, contains the videos for "Pinion", "Wish" and "Happiness in Slavery". It also features a video for the song "Help Me I Am in Hell", and a different video for the song "Gave Up" than what appears on Closure, set to scenes within the film. It is commonly referred to as "the Broken Movie."
Members
Trent Reznor is the only constant member of the band, writing all of the lyrics himself and maintaining sole control of the direction of the band. While recording, Reznor assembles various producers, engineers and musicians to assist him in creating new songs.
|
