I have this song in my head, and it cannot be exorcised until I hear it
March 4, 2013 6:05 PM   Subscribe

 
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.
posted by Lemurrhea at 6:21 PM on March 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


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.
posted by psoas at 6:21 PM on March 4, 2013


This is somehow much darker than the NIN original.
posted by clockzero at 6:26 PM on March 4, 2013 [2 favorites]


I turned it on and then came here to snark. But I like it, God forgive me.
posted by Short Attention Sp at 6:28 PM on March 4, 2013 [2 favorites]


Always thought of NIN as a pop band. This isn't that far a stretch really.
posted by eyeballkid at 6:28 PM on March 4, 2013 [6 favorites]


OMG! I'm nearly in tears I'm laughing so hard!

This is brilliant. Thank you so much for posting!
posted by hippybear at 6:29 PM on March 4, 2013 [2 favorites]




oh fuck me
posted by Justinian at 6:40 PM on March 4, 2013


To elaborate: This is making my head explode.
posted by Justinian at 6:41 PM on March 4, 2013


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.
posted by mwhybark at 6:46 PM on March 4, 2013 [14 favorites]


I like it! Almost has sort of a New Radicals vibe.
posted by threeants at 6:59 PM on March 4, 2013


I want to fuck you like an animal! So call me, maybe.
posted by phaedon at 7:01 PM on March 4, 2013 [22 favorites]


now i need this song exorcised out.
posted by fuzzypantalones at 7:05 PM on March 4, 2013


Halo 28
posted by davebush at 7:08 PM on March 4, 2013 [3 favorites]


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.
posted by benito.strauss at 7:10 PM on March 4, 2013


Let's not forget about the Devo version!
posted by kenko at 7:24 PM on March 4, 2013 [5 favorites]


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.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:27 PM on March 4, 2013 [3 favorites]


Heard it, hated it, EOM.
posted by Exchequer at 7:38 PM on March 4, 2013


Lord help me, I love this.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:44 PM on March 4, 2013


If they do a reboot of Pretty in Pink...

Pretty in Pink Hate Machine?
Pretty Hate Machine in Pink?
posted by Atom Eyes at 7:47 PM on March 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


This is an artifact from a world in which Skinny Puppy never existed but Nine Inch Nails did.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:35 PM on March 4, 2013 [2 favorites]


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.
posted by dephlogisticated at 8:40 PM on March 4, 2013 [2 favorites]


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.
posted by cortex at 8:43 PM on March 4, 2013 [5 favorites]


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).
posted by hippybear at 8:50 PM on March 4, 2013 [2 favorites]


That is flat out awesome.
posted by Artw at 8:54 PM on March 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


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.
posted by mantecol at 9:18 PM on March 4, 2013


Call Me So Horny?
posted by threeants at 9:30 PM on March 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


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.
posted by brennen at 9:39 PM on March 4, 2013 [9 favorites]


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.
posted by mhum at 10:00 PM on March 4, 2013 [1 favorite]


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.
posted by asterix at 10:15 PM on March 4, 2013


Pretty fragging amusing indeed. Dunno how I missed it (other than I barely use Facebook).
posted by Samizdata at 10:38 PM on March 4, 2013


Surprisingly Smiths-y, e.g. "How Soon Is Now?"
posted by dhartung at 12:06 AM on March 5, 2013


This is the first mashup I've heard that impressed me more than the Madonna/Carcass one.
posted by the duck by the oboe at 12:22 AM on March 5, 2013


I am genuinely shocked that some people apparently believe that NIN is not pop?
posted by speicus at 12:34 AM on March 5, 2013


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??
posted by Skygazer at 4:33 AM on March 5, 2013


Currently experiencing the worst case of musical whiplash since Paul Anka covered "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
posted by penguinicity at 5:35 AM on March 5, 2013 [3 favorites]


Thankful that I'm not too cool to have heard the Jepsen song. This is great! Well done.
posted by Legomancer at 5:44 AM on March 5, 2013


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.
posted by psoas at 6:29 AM on March 5, 2013 [1 favorite]




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.
posted by cortex at 6:56 AM on March 5, 2013 [11 favorites]


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.
posted by Foosnark at 6:59 AM on March 5, 2013


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*
posted by Skygazer at 7:05 AM on March 5, 2013


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.
posted by Fraxas at 7:40 AM on March 5, 2013 [4 favorites]


I guess this makes more sense now.
posted by VTX at 8:34 AM on March 5, 2013 [1 favorite]


As it turns out, Smells Like Teen Spirit actually plays perfectly over the Jackson's version of Rockin' Robin.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 8:39 AM on March 5, 2013 [2 favorites]


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.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:14 AM on March 5, 2013


This is amazing.
posted by Lutoslawski at 11:28 AM on March 5, 2013


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...
posted by benito.strauss at 12:16 PM on March 5, 2013 [4 favorites]


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.
posted by nrobertson at 12:27 PM on March 5, 2013


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.
posted by Lemurrhea at 1:30 PM on March 5, 2013


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.
posted by crush-onastick at 2:41 PM on March 5, 2013 [1 favorite]


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.
posted by hippybear at 6:23 PM on March 5, 2013 [4 favorites]


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.
posted by harriet vane at 1:11 AM on March 6, 2013


Heh. Worrying if something might be "pop" seems like such a ridiculously adolescent waste of time to me now.
posted by Artw at 5:58 AM on March 6, 2013 [1 favorite]


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.)
posted by benito.strauss at 11:36 AM on March 6, 2013


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.
posted by cortex at 11:55 AM on March 6, 2013 [2 favorites]


Listen to anything from Pretty Hate Machine, and then listen to this, and then consider what the term "industrial" means.
posted by Navelgazer at 10:55 PM on March 6, 2013


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.
posted by benito.strauss at 12:16 AM on March 7, 2013




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. (!!!!!)
posted by Sys Rq at 4:41 PM on March 9, 2013 [2 favorites]


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.
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:06 PM on March 10, 2013


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.
posted by hippybear at 10:10 PM on March 10, 2013


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.
posted by harriet vane at 1:41 AM on March 14, 2013


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