Comments on: I have this song in my head, and it cannot be exorcised until I hear it

I have this song in my head, and it cannot be exorcised until I hear it

KokuRyu — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:05:08 -0800

Call Me A Hole

I have this song in my head, and it cannot be exorcised until I hear it

By: Lemurrhea

Lemurrhea — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:21:06 -0800

Warning - I found that on my laptop it sounded terrible, that Reznor's voice had way too much reverb and it didn't work (also tinny), but when I tried it on my 10 year old 2.0 speakers it was amazing.

By: psoas

psoas — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:21:41 -0800

So that scene in The Kids Are All Right, where Annette Bening has just discovered in the bathroom that her partner has cheated on her with the landscaper and she has to go back to the dinner table where both of them are sitting (with her kids!) and she just smiles the tightest, most miserable smile while everyone's chatter around her just fades to a sonic blur? That's what this reminded me of.

By: clockzero

clockzero — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:26:55 -0800

This is somehow much darker than the NIN original.

By: Short Attention Sp

Short Attention Sp — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:28:04 -0800

I turned it on and then came here to snark. But I like it, God forgive me.

By: eyeballkid

eyeballkid — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:28:40 -0800

Always thought of NIN as a pop band. This isn't that far a stretch really.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:29:05 -0800

OMG! I'm nearly in tears I'm laughing so hard! This is brilliant. Thank you so much for posting!

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:36:14 -0800

That was fabulous. This now slips to second on my list of favorite NIN mash-ups.

By: Justinian

Justinian — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:40:42 -0800

oh fuck me

By: Justinian

Justinian — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:41:05 -0800

To elaborate: This is making my head explode.

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:44:40 -0800

Still my favorite NIN mashup: The Ghost That Feeds

By: mwhybark

mwhybark — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:46:52 -0800

OMG. Wife suggests the necessary corollary is "Head Like a Maybe", with Carly over NIN and appropriately pitch corrected. I am nearly certain I must hear that too.

By: threeants

threeants — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:59:25 -0800

I like it! Almost has sort of a New Radicals vibe.

By: phaedon

phaedon — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:01:39 -0800

I want to fuck you like an animal! So call me, maybe.

By: fuzzypantalones

fuzzypantalones — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:05:34 -0800

now i need this song exorcised out.

By: davebush

davebush — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:08:01 -0800

Halo 28

By: benito.strauss

benito.strauss — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:10:41 -0800

Because of a particular friend and the situations where we would hear NIN, I always thought of NIN as a kind of dance music, for particular values of "dance". So yeah, it makes sense to me.

By: kenko

kenko — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:24:13 -0800

Let's not forget about the Devo version!

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:27:01 -0800

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

By: 23skidoo

23skidoo — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:28:31 -0800

If they do a reboot of Pretty in Pink, this should play at the prom when Emma Stone chooses Justin Bieber instead of McLovin.

By: Exchequer

Exchequer — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:38:45 -0800

Heard it, hated it, EOM.

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:44:25 -0800

Lord help me, I love this.

By: Atom Eyes

Atom Eyes — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 19:47:11 -0800

If they do a reboot of Pretty in Pink... Pretty in Pink Hate Machine? Pretty Hate Machine in Pink?

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 20:35:37 -0800

This is an artifact from a world in which Skinny Puppy never existed but Nine Inch Nails did.

By: dephlogisticated

dephlogisticated — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 20:40:00 -0800

This is awful. It makes me feel dirty and used, and not in a good way. But yeah, NIN has always flirted with elements of pop. Only is basically an LCD Soundsystem dance hit from an alternate universe where James Murphy is a bitter depressive.

By: cortex

cortex — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 20:43:10 -0800

Pretty Under The Pink, they'd get Tori to make a cameo as a guidance counselor and Trent would just be hanging out in her office playing the descending line from the outro of Closer on a little toy Bosendorfer.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 20:50:15 -0800

It makes me feel dirty and used, and not in a good way. You know, as much as I love it, that's exactly my reaction to it, too. I had nearly that exact exchange with a friend in chat after I shared it. "I feel vaguely dirty after listening to it, like something was sullied inside me." Still, I've listened to it three times now. :P Only is basically an LCD Soundsystem dance hit from an alternate universe where James Murphy is a bitter depressive. All of With Teeth is shockingly accessable, nearly pop. I think it's a pretty brilliant return-from-silence album, is an excellent document of Trent getting sober and matters related to that, and some political content (which Trent was getting into more and more in those days).

By: Artw

Artw — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 20:54:41 -0800

That is flat out awesome.

By: mantecol

mantecol — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 21:18:57 -0800

Every band on the planet is now combing through their catalogue for a song that mixes well with Call Me Maybe, so they can get it on iTunes before some random internet person releases it. Three's a crowd; two dozen Call Me Maybe mashups is a party. Just you wait.

By: threeants

threeants — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 21:30:00 -0800

Call Me So Horny?

By: brennen

brennen — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 21:39:23 -0800

But yeah, NIN has always flirted with elements of pop I remember when we all started listening to NIN in maybe the 7th or 8th grade and were like holy shit this music is fucking intense. A decade or so passed, and I thought ok, I should revisit this. Reznor wasn't "flirting with" dancy pop music. NIN just straight up is dancy pop music.

By: mhum

mhum — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:00:11 -0800

mantecol: Every band on the planet is now combing through their catalogue for a song that mixes well with Call Me Maybe Tell R. Kelly to stop looking. It's already been found.

By: asterix

asterix — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:15:49 -0800

This is brilliant; I've listened to it at least 5 times today. It's also blowing up my friendslist on Facebook and has probably been shared there more than anything else I've seen.

By: Samizdata

Samizdata — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:38:49 -0800

Pretty fragging amusing indeed. Dunno how I missed it (other than I barely use Facebook).

By: dhartung

dhartung — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:06:34 -0800

Surprisingly Smiths-y, e.g. "How Soon Is Now?"

By: the duck by the oboe

the duck by the oboe — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:22:33 -0800

This is the first mashup I've heard that impressed me more than the Madonna/Carcass one.

By: speicus

speicus — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:34:17 -0800

I am genuinely shocked that some people apparently believe that NIN is not pop?

By: Skygazer

Skygazer — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 04:33:25 -0800

You really have to know the Jepsen song really really well for this to have the intended effect, and since I've avoided that pap like the plague, I'm not decoding this correctly, and don't think this is any big deal, and just makes me appreciate Reznor's vocal performance more and wonder how the heck you guys who're getting the proper buzz from this managed to listen to the Jepsen song so much... You guys just listen to crap radio all day, or what??

By: penguinicity

penguinicity — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 05:35:06 -0800

Currently experiencing the worst case of musical whiplash since Paul Anka covered "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

By: Legomancer

Legomancer — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 05:44:56 -0800

Thankful that I'm not too cool to have heard the Jepsen song. This is great! Well done.

By: psoas

psoas — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 06:29:28 -0800

You guys just listen to crap radio all day, or what?? No need to be so rude. It's a song that permeated pretty far into the culture in North America (and at least New Zealand too, where I first heard it): parties, public events, etc. Listening the the radio isn't how most of us encounter music these days.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 06:32:09 -0800

For those needing to get this out of their head now.

By: cortex

cortex — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 06:56:38 -0800

You guys just listen to crap radio all day, or what? Culture's a thing. Hiding from it in a cave is another thing. They're both okay things if one or the other is the kind of thing you're into.

By: Foosnark

Foosnark — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 06:59:46 -0800

This is an artifact from a world in which Skinny Puppy never existed but Nine Inch Nails did. Thanks a lot, I'm going to have nightmares about that.

By: Skygazer

Skygazer — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 07:05:40 -0800

Oh, I kid I kid....because I luv...hugs etc... I'm just wondering mostly how I dodged that Carly Rae Jepsen earwig so far. *Knock on wood*

By: Fraxas

Fraxas — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 07:40:45 -0800

Call Me Maybe, as has been beanplated many times before, is pretty much a perfect pop hit: in time, in mood, in style, and in brazen commercial appeal. It's worth listening to from a detached perspective as well as from a bopping-shamelessly-along-with-the-radio one. In these ways it is very similar to NIN's best material.

By: VTX

VTX — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 08:34:43 -0800

I guess this makes more sense now.

By: Bunny Ultramod

Bunny Ultramod — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 08:39:08 -0800

As it turns out, Smells Like Teen Spirit actually plays perfectly over the Jackson's version of Rockin' Robin.

By: MCMikeNamara

MCMikeNamara — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 11:14:32 -0800

So the only thing I don't like about this is that the viral phenomenon of Call Me Maybe was first in May of last year, and, if memory serves, hit 'peak popularity' sometime after that. And yet somehow this did not exist until yesterday? Internet, you meet my needs but sometimes it takes you longer than I'd expect.

By: Lutoslawski

Lutoslawski — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 11:28:33 -0800

This is amazing.

By: benito.strauss

benito.strauss — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:16:28 -0800

Carly Rae Jepsen:

As an artist who believes in equality for all people, I will not be participating in the Boy Scouts of America Jamboree this summer...

By: nrobertson

nrobertson — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 12:27:56 -0800

Saw this last night on Kottke and I love love love it. I may have found my new annoying ringtone. As a postscript, some of NIN's catalog is certainly very poppy and some of it just... isn't. Take a listen to The Downward Spiral and The Fragile.

By: Lemurrhea

Lemurrhea — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:30:39 -0800

Just saw that, benito.strauss and was coming to post it. Here's the Globe & Mail on it. Apparently Train urged them to reconsider...but will still go. Jepsen is pretty awesome, it seems. Although still when I wandered over to her concert last year at Ottawa's, Jazzfest, I wasn't that impressed. Oh well.

By: crush-onastick

crush-onastick — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:41:01 -0800

This is great! It's like Chicago Cabal Karaoke! (TINCC) I still wish someone would mash up Goyte's Someone That I Used to Know with Austra's Beat and the Pulse. I'm just saying it again, so that maybe it will enter the collective conscious and happen.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 18:23:53 -0800

some of NIN's catalog is certainly very poppy and some of it just... isn't. Take a listen to The Downward Spiral and The Fragile. The Fragile is hands down my favorite NIN album, and is easily on the list of my favorite albums ever (not a tiny list, but not a large one). The use of leitmotif on that album is insane, with phrases being used once fast in the guitar, then later much slower in the bass, then as part of the vocal in yet another song... I've longed for nearly 2 decades now for a score for that album just so I could actually study how it's all woven together. Anyway, as an album, it's a lot more pop than not, I would say. The 5.1 version of The Fragile is actually complete, apparently, and if Trent & Co. could stop getting so distracted with things like that other band and stuff, they'd get the packaging wrapped up and I would have it in my hands. I suspect that spreading the music across a surround environment will help me pick out a lot of the elements much more easily. Also exciting is the announcement that NIN will be touring from later in 2013 and well into 2014. "The lineup will include Reznor, Eric Avery of Jane's Addiction, Adrian Belew of King Crimson, and Josh Eustis of Telefon Tel Aviv, as well as previous NIN collaborators Alessandro Cortini and Ilan Rubin." NIN Live is like nothing else. I recommend the experience.

By: harriet vane

harriet vane — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 01:11:14 -0800

Two things: 1. has anyone made the reverse mashup yet, with whatserface over the top of Head Like A Hole? 2. what changed between the release of Pretty Hate Machine and now? Because at the time it seemed so intense and aggressive and industrial, and now it seems light and poppy. I've only been listening to fairly standard indie rock/pop and digging through the early 20th century, nothing esoteric or dark, but my Overton window has evidently shifted.

By: Artw

Artw — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 05:58:50 -0800

Heh. Worrying if something might be "pop" seems like such a ridiculously adolescent waste of time to me now.

By: benito.strauss

benito.strauss — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:36:47 -0800

what changed between the release of Pretty Hate Machine and now? That's what I think is interesting. In my limited experience, everything ends up as dance music. There's one effect of exposure, where we can get used to anything. There's another effect where "dance music" and "pop music" are dismissed by a lot of people, and so poppy-dancey elements are glossed over. Over time people start to recognize them. (That's the "everything was always dance music" philosophy.)

By: cortex

cortex — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:55:03 -0800

Heh, I remember being introduce to NIN via Pretty Hate Machine like the day before my sophomore year of high school as "hey this is some neat techno music" and being like, huh, I don't know what to make of this exactly but okay, and then like two days later some guy is like "do you listen to techno" and I was all "I guess I like Nine Inch Nails" and he was all THAT'S NOT TECHNO, THAT'S DANCE MUSIC.

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 12:06:37 -0800

My own high school experience with NIN was listening to it a lot as a freshman/sophomore in high school. The summer after my sophomore year, I went to this math/science/computer camp thing, and struck up a conversation with some kid in a big army coat about Pretty Hate Machine. He got really derisive, though, saying, "I USED to like Nine Inch Nails, but then they put out The Downward Spiral, and it was such a sellout album, with all these soft quiet songs like Closer.. and A Warm Place... They kinda suck now." Looking back, it was kind of a standard fifteen-year-old boilerplate attempt to come off as worldly-cool about music, but at the time, I was fairly intimidated, like, "Oh SHIT, maybe this music that I thought was really rad and dark is actually RIDICULOUS?" Which: it was, a little! Just not in the way I was worried it might be at the time. Anyway, then me and that dude somehow switched to talking about They Might Be Giants instead and both of us really liked John Henry so HEY I GUESS I KIND OF MADE A FRIEND which is actually pretty impressive given that in high school I had the conversational skills of a Speak 'N' Spell stuffed into a pillow

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 22:55:31 -0800

Listen to anything from Pretty Hate Machine, and then listen to this, and then consider what the term "industrial" means.

By: benito.strauss

benito.strauss — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 00:16:44 -0800

Listen to anything from Pretty Hate Machine, and then listen to this That was very nice, thanks for dropping it here. Though it did feel like it was posted with a bit of a challenge, kind of like "Here, try dancing to this!". And now I'm curious to do so.

By: joshwa

joshwa — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 12:11:25 -0800

Much more apropos a mashup than you might think! From a discussion with the mix engineer on Call Me Maybe:

"My background in industrial music definitely helped in achieving this. I was trying to get the same feel in 'Call Me Maybe' as in a Nine Inch Nails song, making sure it had a pop sensibility, but with people not even noticing how aggressive the kick drum is.

(hat tip to this reddit comment)

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 16:41:04 -0800

From a discussion with the mix engineer on Call Me Maybe: Just so we're all clear, that's Dave 'Rave' Ogilvie of Skinny Puppy. (!!!!!)

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 19:06:52 -0800

I actually didn't like NIN when they were super-popular (if it wasn't hardcore punk I didn't give a shit) and didn't start listening to them until, what, last year? I started getting into industrial music around 2009 or so and realized last year that I ought to, at some point, make more of an effort to check out both the mainstreamy stuff from the 90's and the original 70's and 80's stuff like TG and CV, since the vast majority of what I was listening to was modern EBM. Turns out I really, really like Pretty Hate Machine (it reminds me so much of Skinny Puppy with a more synthpop aesthetic) and find the rest of the albums hit or miss. I really hope Trent revisits Year Zero; I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and the ARG aspects of it, and was excited by talk of a TV show or movie, but then the whole thing just sort of vanished after the final site (which I have opinions about!) was uncovered.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 22:10:41 -0800

I really hope Trent revisits Year Zero; I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and the ARG aspects of it, and was excited by talk of a TV show or movie, but then the whole thing just sort of vanished after the final site (which I have opinions about!) was uncovered. As of Nov 2012, the Year Zero series was "in a holding state", but Trent seems resolved to push it forward to completion at some point.

By: harriet vane

harriet vane — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 01:41:03 -0800

Clarification: I enjoy pop and pop-like stuff, and always knew that Pretty Hate Machine was borrowing tropes from industrial rather than really being part of it. I just think it's interesting how our perspective on music shifts over time. To me it's the same as how a lot of 70s and 80s movies feel very slow to me now (Raiders of the Lost Ark, for example), even though my enjoyment of my favourites hasn't diminished during that shift. It's just that I've become acclimatised to a faster editing style.