Nine Inch Nails
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Nine Inch Nails |
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| Years active | 1988 – present |
| Origin | Cleveland, Ohio, USA |
| Genre(s) | Industrial |
| Label(s) | Interscope Records |
| Members | Trent Reznor Aaron North Jeordie White Alessandro Cortini Alex Carapetis |
Nine Inch Nails (colloquially known as NIN) is a critically and commercially successful American band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988 by Trent Reznor.
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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." [1]
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. ¹.
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." [2]
NIN's songs cover a range of genres: "The Perfect Drug" has the flavor of drum and bass, "Down in It" seems influenced by early rap & hip-hop, "Happiness in Slavery" is in the vein of Skinny Puppy and Ministry, "The Frail" is a melancholy minimalist piano piece, and most of Pretty Hate Machine could be considered dark synth pop.
Albums
Pretty Hate Machine
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.
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. Rycodisc Records is planning to re-issue Pretty Hate Machine on November 22, 2005.
Broken
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
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
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.
"Starsuckers, 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 Kurt'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 resemblence 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 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
NIN's fifth major release, With Teeth (tentatively titled "Bleedthrough") (2005), 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 official NIN website 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, nin.com/with_teeth 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. MySpace NIN album streaming audio The vinyl and UK release release of With Teeth both featured an extra track, "Home", a leftover cut from the With Teeth recording sessions.
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, the group will go on tour in North America 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 will be remixing the "You Know What You Are?" for the soundtrack of the upcoming feature motion picture DOOM, based off of the popular video game that even Reznor was once addicted to.
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 FuseTV 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 nin.com.
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.
Discography
- Main article: Nine Inch Nails discography
Though Nine Inch Nails has been in existance 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.
Reznor's other works
Nine Inch Nails-mastermind Trent Reznor often performs work outside the context of Nine Inch Nails. More information on work credited to Reznor can be found in Trent Reznor's discography.
Music videos
| Song | Director | Released | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Down in It" | Eric Zimmerman & Benjamin Stokes | September 1989 | The birth of Nine Inch Nails' logo can be seen in the jacket that Trent Reznor is wearing |
| "Head Like a Hole" | Eric Zimmerman | March 1990 | the audio for this video is not the album version and in fact from the remix titled Head Like A Hole (Clay), found on the US Head Like A Hole single |
| "Sin" | Brett Turnbull | November 24, 1997 | never aired (an edited version appears on Halo 12, though the original video only became available through TVT's website and has yet to be officially released) |
| "Pinion" | Eric Goode & Serge Becker | February 1992 | The video of '"Pinion," though not the audio, was used for the introduction of MTV's Kennedy-hosted Alternative Nation. |
| "Wish" | Peter Christopherson | February 1992 | |
| "Help Me I Am In Hell" | Eric Goode & Serge Becker | November 24, 1997 | never aired (on Halo 12) |
| "Happiness in Slavery" | Jon Reiss | November 24, 1997 | never aired (on Halo 12) |
| "Gave Up" | Jon Reiss | November 24, 1997 | never aired (on Halo 12) |
| "Wish (live)" | Simon Maxwell | November 24, 1997 | aired on 120 minutes (also on Halo 12) |
| "March of the Pigs" | Peter Christopherson | March, 1994 | The released video was second attempt, after a more complex concept was abandoned. [3]. There is speculation that clips from the original shoot appear in Closure. |
| "Closer" | Mark Romanek | May 12, 1994 | two versions of video released (Original Version / Nothing Version) |
| "Burn" | Hank Corwin & Trent Reznor | August 24, 1994 | for Natural Born Killers |
| "Hurt (live)" | Simon Maxwell | March, 1995 | |
| "The Perfect Drug" | Mark Romanek | January 18, 1997 | for Lost Highway |
| "Eraser (live)" | Simon Maxwell | November 24, 1997 | never aired (on Halo 12) |
| "We're In This Together" | Mark Pellington | August 27, 1999 | two versions of video released (Short / Long) |
| "The Day The World Went Away" | Unknown | 1999 | never completed (original clips compiled with live video on Halo 17) |
| "Into the Void" | Walter Stern & Jeff Richter | January 14, 2000 | |
| "Starsuckers, Inc." | Robert Hales & Marilyn Manson | May 2, 2000 | edit of "Starfuckers, Inc." |
| "Deep" | Enda McCallion | August, 2001 | for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider |
| "The Hand That Feeds" | Rob Sheridan | March 17, 2005 | released on nin.com |
| "Only" | David Fincher | July 12, 2005 | 90-95% CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) |
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. In colloquial usage it is commonly referred to as, "the Broken Movie."
Future NIN releases
Reznor is not planning to release any remix albums for With Teeth. [4] (see: Fixed, Further Down the Spiral or Things Falling Apart) yet Reznor has been heard to comment in Kerrang magazine that he has enough material for a new release tentativly scheduled for spring 2006 featuring the tracks that were not on With Teeth.
A DVD version of Closure is forthcoming, pending the resolution of some legal troubles. (Rumor speculates this has to do with the possible inclusion of the Broken Movie, although this cannot be officially verified).
Reznor has indicated that he would like to release remastered surround sound editions of Pretty Hate Machine and The Fragile (nin.com access). However, the upcoming Rykodisc reissue of Pretty Hate Machine will not contain a surround sound mix (Toronto Sun interview).
Awards
RIAA Certifications
- Pretty Hate Machine - Triple platinum (May, 2003)
- Broken - Gold (1992)
- The Downward Spiral - Quadruple platinum (October, 1998)
- Further Down the Spiral - Gold (June, 1996)
- The Fragile - Double platinum (January, 2000)
- With Teeth - Gold (July, 2005)
Grammy Awards
- "Wish" - Best Metal Performance, 1993
- "Happiness in Slavery" - Best Metal Performance, 1996 (from Woodstock '94 compilation album)
Members
Trent Reznor is the only constant member of the band; he assembles various producers, engineers and musicians to assist him in creating new songs, though Reznor writes all of the lyrics himself and is in sole control of the direction of the band.
Similarly, Reznor assembles a live backing band for each NIN tour. Aside from Reznor himself (vocals, guitar, synthesizer), musicians in live incarnations of NIN have been:
Hate '90 Tour (1990)
- Richard Patrick - Guitar
- Jeff Ward - Drums (beginning of tour)
- Chris Vrenna - Drums (remainder of tour)
- James Woolley - Synthesizer
Self Destruct Tours (1994 - 1995)
- Robin Finck - Guitar, Keyboard
- Danny Lohner - Bass, Guitar, Keyboard
- Chris Vrenna - Drums
- James Woolley - Synthesizer (1994)
- Charlie Clouser - Synthesizer (1995)
Outside Tour with David Bowie (September - October, 1995)
- Robin Finck - Guitar, Synthesizer
- Danny Lohner - Bass, Guitar, Synthesizer
- Chris Vrenna - Drums
- Charlie Clouser - Synthesizer, Drums
Fragility Tours (1999 - 2000)
- Robin Finck - Guitar, Synthesizer
- Danny Lohner - Bass, Guitar, Synthesizer
- Jerome Dillon - Drums
- Charlie Clouser - Synthesizer, Theremin
With Teeth Tour (March - November 2005)
- Aaron North - Guitar
- Jeordie White - Bass, Guitar
- Alessandro Cortini - Synthesizer, Guitar, Bass
- Jerome Dillon - Drums (March-October 2005)
- Josh Freese - Drums (October 4-5, 2005)
- Alex Carapetis - Drums (October 7, 2005-onwards)
Trivia
In their early days, NIN used Phantasy as a practice space and it was home for several of their first concerts.
Director Tony Scott has used Nine Inch Nails music in two of his films to date. The Fan featured a clip from "The Art of Self Destruction, Part One" from Further Down the Spiral. Man on Fire featured clips from six Nine Inch Nails songs: "The Art of Self Destruction, Part One", "Self Destruction, Part Two", and "The Downward Spiral (the bottom)" from Further Down the Spiral; "The Mark Has Been Made" and "The Great Below" from The Fragile; and "The Wretched" from The Fragile. Reznor himself received a "Music Consultant" credit on the film.
The credit sequence for the David Fincher film Seven uses the NIN song "Closer (precursor)". Surprisingly, this was done without seeking permission, though NIN is credited in the end credits for the song.
The entire 2005 U.S. Club tour sold out in under 10 minutes, with tickets selling on eBay and other sources for more than $200.
To date, Trent Reznor claims he has no tattoos of any kind. However, he had both of his ears pierced and had his septum pierced briefly. He stated, "... it was a nightmare whenever I had a cold!"
While obviously not limiting himself to Apple Computers, Reznor does own a PC (mostly for gaming, among many other things), although he exclusively prefers an Apple. Reznor was relatively new to PC games: he's a die-hard Mac man. "I was never aware of what was going on in the PC world until someone showed me Castle Wolfenstein 3D," he admits. "I'd never gone near a PC; that's a bad word around the studio. We're all Mac people, since most of the music software is written for Mac. But when I saw Wolfenstein I went out and bought whatever it was at the time, 386, 486, and we got hooked. The sense of being immersed in the game really struck a chord with me. And when we were rehearsing for the downward spiral tour, Doom came out, and I was like, 'Oh my god.' So now every six months a major [PC] upgrade goes on around here."
Trent is obsessed when it comes to video games. During tours the band would sometimes be deathmatching on Quake in a makeshift LAN or Trent would be playing anything he would get his hands on in a dressing room or bus, whether it was a Super Nintendo or a Sega Genesis. Trent also plays Counter-Strike: Source competitevely in the Cyberathlete Amateur League. In Rolling Stone Magazine, Trent admitted that he often played the game Halo when he should have been writing or recording songs.
Trent Reznor is a sci-fi and horror fanatic, often sampling movie sound bytes for his music, including THX 1138 and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, among countless others. Among many books that he has read, The Lathe of Heaven is one of his personal favorites and is thought to be an indirect inspiration for some of the songs on With Teeth. The horror film classic The Exorcist has "...ruined my childhood," he says. "It was the ultimate scare thing because it couldn't easily be disproved." He also loved the TV show Six Million Dollar Man, "probably because I wasn't the biggest kid in the class and I wasn't the athletic superstar football player. I always thought he was cool. The day the Bionic Woman died on The Six Million Dollar Man, that was a tearful day in our household." He considers this. "When I think back, I had a degree of feeling mildly depressed; of melancholiness."
Tori Amos's song "Caught a Lite Sneeze" features the lyrics "made my own pretty hate machine," Precious Things includes the line "with their nine-inch nails...," and "Professional Widow" repeats the word, "Starfuckers," which Reznor proceeded to write a song about. Reznor also sings with Amos on the song "Past the Mission", from her album Under the Pink, and Amos sometimes performs the Nine Inch Nails track "Hurt" live in concert.
See also
External links
- nin.com — Official Nine Inch Nails website
- Official NIN MySpace
- nin.com resources page — Official site's links to unofficial NIN fan and information sites on the web. Includes general, news, information, discussion, creative, and archival categories.
- The NIN Collector — Pictorial archive of official NIN releases, including foreign and rare discs
- Seething Animosity — Archive and reviews of bootleg & other NIN releases
