AV Club chats with Reznor about the now-completed retirement of Nine Inch Nails, a miniature retrospective of twenty years spent giving atheist nihilism and social paranoia a voice. A NIN postmortem.
This is the end of an era for me. Spacekat gave me a copy of The Downward Spiral to play Summer ping pong to in the garage back in ‘94. My initial humouring, “ummm, that’s great” eventually blossomed into a full-blown theological crisis that fundamentally altered my way-of-being-and-knowing/thinking. Is there a word for that? My dharma?
Anyway, I was watching for it and NINJA didn’t come to the West! Oh well, I’m okay with life not being fair these days.
Reznor says he ended the band because it was easy for him to succeed at, and at this point in his career he’s chasing failure. I love it. He’s always a step ahead, showing me the way.
I’m looking at law office jobs, just to see what I can pick up on the road to school. I’ve also been looking at more jobs at the CBC, etc.
Ever notice how everything requires a field-specific degree and five years experience? Wow, just: Wow. I was almost a Chartered Accountant, I was a software engineer at a billion dollar multinational, and I’m not even qualified to be a fucking secretary.
Completely ridiculous. Looks like I have to get a job bussing tables.
Requires a degree in hospitality or related field and 5 years restaurant experience.
A free demo EP dropped yesterday for the Nine Inch Nails farewell tour featuring Jane’s Addiction, “NINJA”.
Street Sweeper is also along for the ride. That’s “Clap for the Killers” [mp3], track three.
As with all Null Corporation-affiliated digital releases it’s best if you get the Apple lossless files. They’re DRM free and each track has artwork and lyrics embedded and is richly tagged. Now that’s digital delivery!
Psst — if you need multiple copies of the album, like mp3s for your blog and m4as for your iPod, just use Gmail’s “+” notation and you can have as many free copies as you like.
ARGs done right are amazing, they’ll win you fans for life. I’d like to work with 42 Entertainment one day, they’re the masters of the state of the art.
About a month ago I fired up Guitar Hero II to rock some MCR. Just before the opening licks of Teenagers my 360 bluescreenedred ringed. For the second time.
I got the replacement console today and started futzing with Rock Band — they’ve added an in-game music store: FINALLY.
And they have a new NIN track pack, which includes Burn from NBK.
The kid in that vid, young Mickey, looks familiar…
I’ve now paid Microsoft for one Elite and owned three. Once the warranty on my original runs out I won’t be replacing it. Contrast with the NES which is still propelling Mario along his sine wave jumps two decades after release.
I’ve been a NIN fan for about 15 years. Reznor gave me a big wake-up call back in Catholic school, and was huge for me all through high school and uni. Especially the original Happiness in Slaveryvideo with Bob Flanagan (NSFW), especially seeing the tour in support of The Fragile (after which I taught myself The Frail on piano), but especially — especially — The Downward Spiral.
Reznor music’s been a source of musing and philosophy and solace and raw sexual power, simultaneously the soundtrack to my best memories and my worst. With the right kind of mind in the right kind of environment with the right kind of people it’s fucking transcendent. I owe NIN a personal debt, moreso even than Tupac.
I’m going to invest 100% of my remaining funds in floor tickets, flights, hotels, whatever necessary as soon as dates are announced. Who’s in?
Don’t open your eyes — you won’t like what you see.
The devils of Truth steal the souls of the Free.
Don’t open your eyes, take it from me:
I have found,
You can find, Happiness in Slavery.
Slave screams!
He spends his life learning conformity.
Slave screams!
He claims he has his own identity.
Slave screams!
He’s going to cause the system to fall.
Slave screams!
But he’s glad to be chained to that wall.
Don’t open your eyes — you won’t like what you see.
The Blind have been blessed with security.
Don’t open your eyes, take it from me:
I have found,
You can find, Happiness in Slavery.
Employment is a collective action problem: That’s why unions rule.
New Years day is one of those border times. The combined psychic weight of our planet-wide slacking and recovery gives the day a ruddy, lazy quality — even if you yourself are up and about normally.
I pay close attention to the albums I listen to New Years day. I try to enjoy complete albums that reinforce my worldview, to start the year with a reminder of what I hold dear. Here are the five I started this year with, in order.
1. Warren Zevon, Warren Zevon (1976)
My current favorite album. Warren Zevon wrote track seven, Mohammed’s Radio, in one manic all-night session after he failed to meet Hunter Thompson at a costume party one Aspen Hallowe’en, inspired by one of the guests’ costumes:
When I sit down with my screenplays and start writing scenes I often put a single track on loop that conveys the feeling of the sequence to me (and then I usually write it into the script, even though you’re not supposed to). As it repeats and repeats and repeats and repeats I get the nuance and rhythm and try to write something that hits the same emotional note.
The indie script I’m working on is action-oriented and Mohammed’s Radio is the track I looped for the relaxed, vaguely menacing opening sequence.
2. Pink Floyd, The Wall (1979)
The classic isolation concept album, Dr. Z clued me onto this one back in ‘06. It took over my brain so quickly, with such resonance, that I used it in therapy in ‘08.
Partially responsible for me flaming out of accounting, The Wall literally changed my life. Ahh, the corporate drone mentality: Stress, drugs, and rock & roll. I wish I missed it.
3. Sublime, 40 Oz. to Freedom (1996)
Soulful, heroin-fueled surf-reggae punk music from Brad Nowell, the second most influential rock musician of the 90s after Cobain (I’ve never been a Nirvana guy). Someone also once called Sublime “the second most important reggae act” after Bob Marley. That’s good for a best double-finish award.
Life is too short, so love the one you got…
4. Nine Inch Nails, The Downward Spiral (1994)
The first time I heard this album was Summer 1994 and I thought it was catchy. It took until 1996 for it to really set my brain on fire.
An all-time favorite. Perennial.
5. Marilyn Manson, Portrait of an American Family (1994)
I learned the word “cunt” from this album, Manson’s best. His albums until 2007’s Eat Me, Drink Me were successful variations on Portrait.
I learned the more complicated and interesting pejorative “cuntfucker” from Cake and Sodomy. Great workout music.
