But it's very AWESOME
February 3, 2014 5:57 PM   Subscribe

 
The fragile ego, somewhat damaged?
posted by davebush at 6:14 PM on February 3, 2014


Amusingly, it's patterned after "Copy of a" which already beat our parodist to the punch:

I am just a copy of a copy of a copy
Everything I say has come before
Assembled into something into something into something
I am never certain anymore I am just a shadow of a shadow of a shadow
Always trying to catch up with my self
I am just an echo of an echo of an echo

posted by pwnguin at 6:14 PM on February 3, 2014 [15 favorites]




Germs!
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 6:34 PM on February 3, 2014 [4 favorites]


Hesitation Marks is growing on me. I like the jaunty upbeat ones!
posted by Artw at 6:35 PM on February 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


I think his voice sounds like Trent Reznor's which is why he can make that claim.
posted by Metro Gnome at 6:38 PM on February 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


*WEIRD* GUITAR
posted by Artw at 6:39 PM on February 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


To be fair, it should have been "This is a Nine Inch Nails song". These days I know Trent more for his soundtrack work (The Social Network, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and his more experimental music (How to Destroy Angels).

But I did laugh at "WEIRD GUITAR".
posted by mmoncur at 6:43 PM on February 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I like all the stuff he does, but his soundtrack work really sticks out. And I saw How to Destroy Angels at Coachella this summer and they kicked major ass. Ridiculously good live show.
posted by pwally at 6:48 PM on February 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


Sometimes listening to the soundtrack and Ghosts stuff I get the feeling he really just wants to jack in the insane rock stardom thing and be Aphex Twin instead, and who wouldn't?
posted by Artw at 6:56 PM on February 3, 2014 [6 favorites]


Where's the drop?
posted by fungible at 7:08 PM on February 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


On the right youtube suggested I listen to "Red" by King Crimson. You should do that if it asks you.
posted by Teakettle at 7:31 PM on February 3, 2014 [6 favorites]


Hah, I liked this. Especially because it clearly came from a place of love.

lovingsnarkness. that's what 2014's going to be all about. YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST
posted by threeants at 7:33 PM on February 3, 2014


Where's the drop?

Here.
posted by empath at 7:45 PM on February 3, 2014 [9 favorites]


Where's the drop?

Here.


Oh god, thank you for saving me from forgetting that that exists.
posted by threeants at 7:46 PM on February 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


Did you guys hear that new Red Hot Chili Peppers track?
posted by Atom Eyes at 8:04 PM on February 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


Definitely from a place of love. Similar

I was absolutely obsessed with NIN and owned every "Halo" and downloaded every bootleg MP3 ever at 28.8K, up through The Downward Spiral. I never got much into The Fragile when it came out a quarter generation later, which seemed like an eternity and at my age it was. I like a few songs since.

My all-time favorite songs would be Wish, Gave Up, Down in It (fucking depressing garrr), Head Like a Hole, March of the Pigs, Ruiner ("version" mix by Charlie Clouser ideally) and Heresy. OK "Closer" was badass but the "Closer to God" remake was fucking brutal, did I just say that? BRUTAL, LIKE THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO BRUTAL

Everything else I pretty much loved too, I would listen to their albums start to finish always, all the fucking time, and they're the only band where I basically have all of their lyrics memorized through several releases and yet I've never seen them live. The metal scene swept me in during my wait for The Fragile...they are not at all the same but NIN fans should still check out Dark Tranquillity (particularly "Damage Done" and "Haven", try this Format C: for Cortex motherfuckin' shit since it has the words "Format C: for Cortex" in it and is awesome) and earlyish In Flames, along with Misery Loves Company, At the Gates, SoilWork, uber-glorious Opeth and Amorphis...and while I never was much into hardcore true-to-god "industrial" I always got something like a NIN fix from his synth-pop inspirations like Tears for Fears, and Gravity Kills and KMFDM give me a good catchy-industrialcore-whatever fix.

So that's my "all about me" contribution. Your mission is to tell me what songs to listen to now in a post 1993 NIN world, whether NIN, related, or not at all. I no longer give albums teh opportuniteh to grow on me like I used to :[
posted by lordaych at 8:46 PM on February 3, 2014 [4 favorites]


I noticed in the YouTube comments (I know) someone said this was representative of the post-TDS era. I realize that the only song I've heard much of at all in recent years, like the last 6 years, is "The Hand that Feeds" because it's in Rock Band. So yeah, this reminds me of that song, and is similar to the others but they don't have the same sort of pacing bouncing on your toes cadence and dancing is not a forethought or afterthought or consideration in anything up through TDS, IMHO. Moshing, yes
posted by lordaych at 8:57 PM on February 3, 2014


Yep, that's a Trent Reznor song.
posted by jb at 9:01 PM on February 3, 2014


If you yearn for more 90's/00's alt-rock parody, I suggest a call to the Fountains of Wayne Hotline.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:07 PM on February 3, 2014 [1 favorite]


lordaych: I'm that one weirdo who liked The Fragile and thought it was better than everything NIN did before or since. "With Teeth" is when I stopped being a NIN fan. But I really was into Broken/Fixed and Downward Spiral at the time.


So with that, um... try Prometheus Burning maybe? I recommend Beyond Repair as a starting point, then maybe Plague Called HuMANity and/or Kill It With Fire. (Here's Some Things Are Meant to Stay Broken from Beyond Repair, and Blackmagick Tongue from Plague Called HuMANity.)

Another possibility is Angelspit. Start with Hideous and Perfect, then Hello My Name Is and maybe back to Krankhaus (which is less evenly good). (Here's Sleep Now and Ditch the Rest.)
posted by Foosnark at 9:09 PM on February 3, 2014 [4 favorites]


This is a Fritz Lang Film: Tangential NIN ephemeral secret.

Fritz Lang's Metropolis with The Fragile for soundtrack //
After the credits and right before the opening scene there is a title screen that says, "The Mediator between the head and hands must be the heart!" Start 'The Fragile: Left' exactly when this title screen opens after the credits. You'll know if the sync is correct because the beats will line up with the opening animation of the Metropolis logo.

This is as close as youtube gets to it. Not bad, but not nearly as phenomenal as making it happen organically.
Orders of magnitude better than Moroder's interpretation of Metropolis.

posted by isopraxis at 9:53 PM on February 3, 2014 [7 favorites]


That's really quite cool, isopraxis, and reminds me of something which, while not specifically about NIN, is about Radiohead (contemporaries of NIN in many ways, I think) and Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

Back in 2006 I spent several nights editing Metropolis in Windows Movie Maker (What? It was all I had!) and setting the whole film to tracks from Radiohead's ouvre. Up to King of Limbs, I think that was all I had on file.

I even added it to Google Video, you know, back when that was a thing. I called it Kid M. I had this grand desire that I could somehow get someone on BoingBoing to talk about but I had no idea how to promote that or anything so I just let it die. Oh yeah, I added it to The Pirate Bay too, I think. But I'm not going to check there,

It's been YEARS since I've thought about that.

*does some Google searching*

o_0

Well. Apparently somebody uploaded it to Youtube. So there you go, a poorly edited, probably cliche Radiohead+Metropolis thing, all 2 hours in glorious 360p.
posted by Doleful Creature at 11:07 PM on February 3, 2014 [3 favorites]


This is a Fritz Lang Film: Tangential NIN ephemeral secret.

I hope you're not lying to me.
posted by Mezentian at 11:12 PM on February 3, 2014


missed
the
part
where
trent
starts
SCREAMING
posted by obiwanwasabi at 12:21 AM on February 4, 2014 [4 favorites]


That was surprisingly good. And a perfect parody.

"I'm that one weirdo who liked The Fragile and thought it was better than everything NIN did before or since. 'With Teeth' is when I stopped being a NIN fan. But I really was into Broken/Fixed and Downward Spiral at the time."

For me, NiN's apogee was reached with Broken and Fixed (and I think I prefer Fixed), and Downward Spiral was the last album I loved. So we're pretty similar, I think.

Which includes liking Angelspit. I haven't heard Hideous and Perfect or Hello My Name Is. I only have three albums: Blood Death Ivory, Krankhaus, and Nurse Grenade. But from those are a few tracks I listen to quite often: Skinny Little Bitch, Juicy, 100% (110% Fucked Mix), Wreak Havoc, and Ikon's Psychic Vampire (Angelspit Remix). I especially like the last two. If you have recommendations for more music like these, I'd appreciate it.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:26 AM on February 4, 2014 [1 favorite]


Oh, I like Ditch The Rest.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 2:35 AM on February 4, 2014


For me, NiN's apogee was reached with Broken and Fixed (and I think I prefer Fixed),

You are both right and wrong. I enjoyed The Fraglie (a lot), and even ... with teeth.

Which includes liking Angelspit.

Well, that's straight outta random.
posted by Mezentian at 3:10 AM on February 4, 2014


Harsh but fair. And I say that as a NIN fan.
posted by Decani at 4:43 AM on February 4, 2014 [2 favorites]


My favorite Angelspit is still Vena Cava, which captures their early aesthetic nicely.

Oh, and a bit more on topic is the 90's R&B parody Title of the Song, which is every Boyz II Men (and Boyz II Men wannabe) song.
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:41 AM on February 4, 2014


also the best NIN album is Pretty Hate Machine
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:44 AM on February 4, 2014 [4 favorites]


Testify, Pope Guilty.
posted by Mezentian at 5:53 AM on February 4, 2014 [1 favorite]


/isn't sure if Broken/Fixed counts as an album.
posted by Artw at 7:14 AM on February 4, 2014


Broken was an EP, but it's thirty minutes long and feels like a fully-formed work and an album to me, if a bit short. Fixed is all remixes of Broken, of course, but they're really, really good remixes and I listened to Fixed more total hours than anything else by Nine Inch Nails, which is saying something. Thirlwell's remix of Wish, Fist Fuck, is one of the best things ever in the universe and I can listen to it over and over and over (and I am right now, very loudly).

Pretty Hate Machine is quite good, but I wonder how much people's love for it is influenced by it being the first album and by when they heard it? Like, when they were younger, maybe?

I was an adult, about 26. I listened to it a lot over the subsequent years, but I felt like Trent's music gained depth (not lyrically, but musically) over the following six years, reaching what I think was his peak with Downward Spiral. PHM has a purity, but it also leans more heavily toward the adolescent and pop than his later stuff does.

BTW, I bought Prometheus Burning's Plague Called HuMANity on Bandcamp and like it quite a bit. Also got ahold of Angelspit's Hello My Name Is and Hideous and Perfect. Like them both.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 8:07 AM on February 4, 2014


I don't think Reznor has ever leaned against being adolescent - if anything all the "Grrr! Serial killers" stuff ramping up makes it worse. At any rate, though I like Downward Spiral I find it way more embarrassing to listen to than Pretty Hate Machine.
posted by Artw at 8:14 AM on February 4, 2014


this is my current fave NIN remixy type thing
posted by Lucinda at 8:36 AM on February 4, 2014


Pretty Hate Machine is great, but The Downward Spiral was AWESOME. You know... like this video says.

"...and doesn't it make you feel better?" *creepy piano*
posted by Decani at 9:18 AM on February 4, 2014 [1 favorite]


It's alluded to, but would've liked to see a more explicit lampooning of the 90's alt dynamics aesthetic.

quiet quiet LOUD LOUD quiet quiet LOUD LOUD LOUD

(Pixies -> Nirvana/NIN/etc)
posted by faceattack at 12:28 PM on February 4, 2014


Also, another fun habit of Trent's that you can insert anywhere and make it sound NIN-ish: singing major 3rds over minor tonalities. He's the king of that!
posted by faceattack at 12:29 PM on February 4, 2014 [1 favorite]


Pretty Hate Machine is great, but The Downward Spiral was AWESOME.

I was going to mention how that comment dates you to being 16-20 when TDS came out, but I see that ain't true.

I still think TDS is the weakest album, but that the songs are (mostly) great. It's just not something I warmed to after PHM and Broken. Now, I loved The Fragile from the get-go.
posted by Mezentian at 2:47 AM on February 6, 2014


I never actually heard much NIN until a few years ago- I got into industrial via aggrotech and futurepop and sort of started working backward. (Lately, I've been obsessing over SPK, Test Dept, and Nitzer Ebb.) Most of the TDS and later stuff is just more rock than I want in my industrial.
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:48 AM on February 6, 2014


"I was going to mention how that comment dates you to being 16-20 when TDS came out, but I see that ain't true."

No, I listened to NIN right from when PHM was released. I was guessing that those who don't like TDS so much were fans before it and were reacting to how it had wide popularity. As someone much older, I was already pretty indifferent to that sort of thing (not that I'm totally immune even now — it does still bother me when something I like that's niche becomes mainstream).

I prefer TDS to PHM. PHM is just a bit too pop for me and I like the harder edge to TDS. Of course, that's why I think that Broken and Fixed are the best.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 3:58 AM on February 6, 2014


obsessing over SPK, Test Dept, and Nitzer Ebb

If you skip the techno era Test Dept you will be a happier person.
Not many industrial bands use the Welsh Coal Miner's choir, but when they do its awesome.
(And check out Manufacture too. At least the first LP).
posted by Mezentian at 4:14 AM on February 6, 2014


I was guessing that those who don't like TDS so much were fans before it and were reacting to how it had wide popularity.

You have me pegged.
I was iffy on March Of The Pigs, and I still think Johnny Cash OWNS Hurt.

Of course, that's why I think that Broken and Fixed are the best.

Broken I love, Fixed I have never warmed to.
posted by Mezentian at 4:17 AM on February 6, 2014


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