Nine Inch Nails
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Image:Nine Inch Nails Logo.png
<tr style="text-align: center;"><td colspan="3">Image:Ninmarch06.jpg Nine Inch Nails in 2006 (Photo: Tamar Levine) </td></tr>
l-r: Jeordie White, Josh Freese, Trent Reznor, Alessandro Cortini, Aaron North | ||
|---|---|---|
| Background information
<tr><td>Origin</td><td colspan="2">Image:Flag of the United States.svg Cleveland, Ohio, USA</td></tr><tr><td>Genre(s)</td><td colspan="2">Alternative rock |
- "NIN" redirects here. For other uses please see Nin.
Nine Inch Nails (abbreviated as NIN or NIИ) is an American band formed in Cleveland, Ohio circa 1988 by Trent Reznor, who is the only consistent member. As producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of NIN and remains solely responsible for the musical direction of the band.<ref name="AMG">Huey, Steve. Nine Inch Nails. All Music Guide. Retrieved on 2006-11-24.</ref> As a result, Nine Inch Nails lyrics are largely concerned with dark explorations of the self, and gaps between major releases are extended by Reznor's battles with writer's block and other personal issues.<ref>Trent Reznor. Alternative Press (January 1998), archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2006-11-29.</ref> After recording a new album, NIN usually undertakes a concert tour and Reznor assembles a live band to accompany him, which changes at his whim: this is considered a separate entity from Nine Inch Nails in the recording studio.<ref>Reimink, Troy (2006-02-17). Changes in Songs. Grand Rapids Press, archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2006-11-30.</ref>
Underground music audiences warmly received the band's early activity, and Nine Inch Nails went on to produce several highly influential releases in the 1990s to international acclaim. Media coverage of the band reached a peak in 1997, when Time magazine named Reznor one of the year's twenty-five most influential people.<ref>Trent Reznor - Industrial Rocker. Time (April 1997), archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2006-10-22.</ref> The band has also achieved peer approval: David Bowie named Nine Inch Nails one of "the Immortals" in Rolling Stone's list of the greatest artists of all time,<ref>The Immortals. Rolling Stone. Retrieved on 2006-10-22.</ref> and NIN has received 9 Grammy award nominations to date (winning the "Best Metal Performance" category in 1992 and 1995).<ref name = "Grammy Winners">Grammy Winners. The Recording Academy. Retrieved on 2006-10-22.</ref> The band have sold over 20 million records, and continue to record as well as tour worldwide.<ref name = "E! Online">Amter, Charlie (2005-05-27). Reznor Bails on MTV, Nails Manager. E! Online. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.</ref>
Contents |
[edit] Musical characteristics
Variously, Nine Inch Nails has been categorized as rock, electronica, heavy metal, alternative, or, most commonly, industrial rock. This latter categorization upset industrial music 'purists', most of whom disdained the application of the term to what could be regarded as pop songs. Reznor has never referred to his music as industrial but admits to borrowing techniques from such bands as Throbbing Gristle and Test Dept.<ref name="Axcess Magazine" /> Despite the disparity between those artists initially operating under the term 'industrial' and NIN itself, it has become common in journalistic descriptions of Reznor's body of work to describe it as such. In actuality, the band's output has covered a wide range of genres: "The Perfect Drug" has the flavor of drum and bass, "Down in It" was influenced by early Skinny Puppy (particularly their song "Dig It"),<ref>An Interview with Trent Reznor. Spin (March 1996), archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2006-10-22.</ref> "Happiness in Slavery" is tinged with industrial metal in the vein of Ministry, "The Frail" is a melancholy piano piece, and most of Pretty Hate Machine could be described as dark electronic pop.
While it displays uncommonly versatile sonic design and composition for a rock band, certain techniques and styles are found throughout NIN's catalog. Extreme dynamics are staples of songs like "Wish" (sample ) and "The Day the World Went Away" (sample ), which quickly change from pianissimo to fortissimo and back again; these end with a loud climax followed by an abrupt stop, rather than by fading out or letting the final note resonate. Reznor's singing follows a similar pattern, moving from whispers to screams with facility. The band's music also has distinct rhythmic features, occasionally favoring odd time signatures, abrupt time signature changes and jarring cross-rhythms (examples of which can be found in songs like "March of the Pigs," "La Mer" and "The Collector").
On each album since Broken, Reznor has included at least one piece built around an instrumental ostinato. These tracks tend to begin moderately quiet and slowly crescendo into a climax of noise and distortion. "Help Me I Am In Hell," "Eraser," "The Way Out Is Through" and "Beside You in Time", all of which are typically accompanied by a video segment when performed live, fit into this category. Similarly, some NIN albums contain a repeating motif that reappears multiple times in different songs and contexts (i.e., on a different musical instrument, with a transposed harmony or in an altered tempo). These reoccurring melodies can be found on albums such as The Downward Spiral, The Fragile and With Teeth.
Reznor also has an affinity for dissonance in his compositions, often created with chromatic melody and/or harmony. Perhaps the most famous use of this technique is in the song "Closer" (sample ), where Reznor adds a four-note synthesizer riff featuring an augmented interval after the first chorus. He concludes the song with a heavily chromatic piano motif, the same that recurs on the title track of The Downward Spiral. "Hurt" (sample ), from the same album, features a highly dissonant tritone in the verses, a B5(#11), which is emphasized when Reznor sings the eleventh on the word "I" every time the B/F dyad is played. In other cases, Reznor resorts to pure atonality, either by using oddly tuned instruments (as in tracks such as "Leaving Hope" and "The New Flesh") or literal noise in the song's arrangement ("Happiness In Slavery", "Mr. Self Destruct" and "The Wretched" being prime examples).
[edit] Discography
Nine Inch Nails has existed for over 18 years, but so far only issued five major albums consisting of new and unique material. However, each of the five albums is accompanied by numerous satellite releases, including remix albums, singles with extensive b-sides, and tour documentaries. Indeed, each primary release is seen as the center of an associated era, in which the secondary releases are vitally important to understanding the artistic whole. This is underscored by the use of halos, a sequential numbering system applied to every NIN release, which carries the implicit message that each is an equally-weighted component of the catalog, regardless of format. In addition to these releases, NIN has performed on numerous soundtracks and remixes of other artists (see: Other works).
[edit] History
Several rumors have persisted about the origins of the name "Nine Inch Nails"; one being that Reznor was inspired by the story that Jesus Christ was crucified with nine-inch long spikes. Others claimed that Reznor was inspired by the sight of nine-inch fingernails on Freddy Krueger.<ref>Klosterman, Chuck. Arriving late to the Nine Inch Nails party. Spin (March 1992), archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2006-11-01.</ref> Reznor asserts that he coined the name partly because it "abbreviated easily", rather than for "any literal meaning".<ref name="Axcess Magazine">Talking About Nothing with Trent Reznor. Axcess (1994), archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2006-10-22.</ref> The Nine Inch Nails logo (which consists of the letters "NIN" set inside a border with the second "N" reversed, i.e., "NIИ") was inspired by Tibor Kalman's typography on the Talking Heads album cover for Remain in Light and appeared in the video for NIN's first single, "Down in It".<ref>Reznor, Trent (2004-07-21). Response from Trent. NIN.com. Retrieved on 2006-10-22.</ref>
Early ambitions for NIN were modest: Reznor initially hoped to release one 12 inch single in Europe and then disband the group. At that time, Reznor was employed as a programmer (though some sources claim he was a janitor)<ref name="AMG" /> by Bart Koster, owner of Right Track Studios in Cleveland. Reznor asked if he could record his demo recordings at night during unused studio time, free of charge; Koster agreed, remarking that it cost him "just a little wear on [his] tape heads."<ref>The Music of Rage. People (1995-02-06), archived at the Unofficial NIN homepage. Retrieved on 2006-11-29.</ref> Some of these demos, the earliest NIN recordings, were unofficially released as Purest Feeling. Several labels responded favorably, and Reznor chose to sign with TVT Records, a decision he would soon regret (see: Corporate entanglements).
[edit] Pretty Hate Machine era (1988-1991)
Released in 1989, Pretty Hate Machine primarily consists of the Purest Feeling demos written, arranged, and performed by Trent Reznor with added studio production. This marked Reznor's first collaborations with Adrian Sherwood (who produced "Down in It" in London, England without even having met Reznor face-to-face)<ref>Getting Down in It. Alternative Press (March 1990), archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2006-10-30.</ref> and Mark 'Flood' Ellis. Flood's production would appear on each major NIN release up to and including The Downward Spiral, and Sherwood has done remixes for the band as lately as 2000. The songs on Pretty Hate Machine feature catchy melodies set against dark, introspective lyrics; Reznor proclaimed this combination "a sincere statement" of "what was in [his] head at the time."<ref>Martin, Steve. Nine Inch Nails. Thrasher (1990), archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2006-10-30.</ref> In the album's liner notes, Reznor thanks Horror fiction writer Clive Barker for inspiration.
Spending two years on the album charts, Pretty Hate Machine became one of the first independently released records to go platinum.<ref name="AMG" /> The album eventually sold over three million copies in the US.<ref name="RIAA.com">Gold and Platinum database. Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved on 2006-10-22.</ref> It produced the singles "Down in It", "Head Like a Hole" and "Sin". Music videos were made for all three tracks, but the "Sin" video was not released until 1997 on Closure (albeit in edited form). The album brought NIN an underground following and Reznor soon toured North America opening for Jesus and Mary Chain and Peter Murphy.<ref name="AMG" /> This tour continued through the first Lollapalooza festival in 1991, where Nine Inch Nails "stole the show" from headliners Jane's Addiction, despite numerous equipment problems. After receiving a disastrous European reception opening for Guns 'n Roses, NIN returned to America amidst pressure from TVT to produce a more commercial follow-up to Pretty Hate Machine; to avoid this, Reznor recorded in secret under assumed names.<ref>Nine Inch Nails. Musician (March 1994), archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2006-12-02.</ref>
[edit] Broken era (1992-1993)
The fruit of Reznor's disillusionment with his record label and culmination of the band's harsh, aggressive live sound, Broken was released in 1992 and took the form of an EP of six songs plus two bonus tracks. Broken went platinum in the US<ref name="RIAA.com" /> and was originally packaged in a fold-out digipak, containing the six tracks on a regular CD and an additional three-inch mini CD with the two remaining songs. After Reznor discovered that some unscrupulous record store owners were removing the mini CD and selling it separately, Broken was re-released as one CD, with the bonus songs "hidden" on tracks 98 and 99, respectively. In the liner notes, Reznor credits his band from the early-'90s NIN tours as an influence on the guitar-based sound of Broken.
The song "Wish", which was featured in a video directed by Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson of Coil, won a Grammy Award in the "Best Metal Performance" category in 1992.<ref name="Grammy Winners" /> A music video for "Happiness in Slavery," which was almost universally banned for its graphic nature, depicts performance artist Bob Flanagan lying naked on a machine that subsequently pleasures, tortures and then kills him. The band's live recording of the same song at Woodstock '94 won another Grammy award for Best Metal Performance in 1995.<ref name="Grammy Winners" /> A video for "Pinion" aired twice on MTV before being banned for objectionable content, although images from it did become a fixture in the opening title sequence of the MTV show Alternative Nation. Christopherson and Reznor collaborated on a longform music video (informally called The Broken Movie), incorporating more gruesome footage linking these three clips, but it has never been officially released. Videos for "Help Me I Am In Hell", "Gave Up" (filmed at Le Pig Studio in Los Angeles, California, site of the Charles Manson murders, where Reznor recorded The Downward Spiral) and a 1995 live performance of "Wish" were made separately. Broken was followed by the remix EP Fixed in late 1992. Rather than tour for either EP, Reznor retreated to the studio and began work on a full-length follow-up.
[edit] The Downward Spiral era (1994-1998)
NIN's second full album and third major release was The Downward Spiral, released in 1994. Most of The Downward Spiral was mix engineered by Alan Moulder, who would take on more extensive production duties for subsequent NIN albums. Two singles, "March of the Pigs" and "Closer", were released from this quadruple-platinum<ref name="RIAA.com" /> album, and two additional tracks, "Hurt" and "Piggy", were issued to radio without a commercial single release. The "Closer" promo (directed by Mark Romanek), in many ways, set a standard for Nine Inch Nails videos with its eerie images of pigs' heads and BDSM paraphernalia. MTV made significant edits to the video for objectionable content, but broadcast the edited version frequently, and a similarly censored radio edit received extensive airtime. "Hurt", which closes The Downward Spiral, enjoyed renewed success when it was covered by Johnny Cash in 2003 (appearing in another Romanek video). David Bowie sang a duet of "Hurt" with Reznor on the Dissonance concert tour in 1995. This and other performances from the marathon Self Destruct tour were documented on the double-VHS set Closure. The NIN live band also made appearances in performance videos for "Hurt" and "Eraser", which were not issued to MTV, as well as "March of the Pigs" (re-recorded in-studio with one camera in a single take).
After The Downward Spiral, Reznor produced a remix album entitled Further Down the Spiral, the only non-major NIN release to be certified gold in the US.<ref name="RIAA.com" /> It featured contributions from electronic music pioneer Aphex Twin and Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro. There are two versions of Further Down the Spiral, both featuring exclusive content. A tenth-anniversary Downward Spiral was released on November 23, 2004 in a "Deluxe Edition" package, including a bonus second disc of b-sides, demos, and other non-album tracks. This edition features multichannel and stereo SACD mixes 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 disc. The remastered recording was also released concurrently as a two-sided DualDisc.
Inspired by late-1970s rock albums Low and The Wall, The Downward Spiral features a wide range of textures and moods that served to illustrate the mental progress of a central character. Widely regarded as NIN's most influential magnum opus, The Downward Spiral marked a high point for the band, which reached its widest ever mainstream audience with a mud-drenched performance at Woodstock '94, broadcast on Pay-Per-View and seen in as many as 24 million homes.<ref>Umstead, R. Thomas. Feedback Muddy. Multichannel News (1994-08-22), archived at Highbeam Research. Retrieved on 2006-11-29.</ref> The end of NIN's first decade was characterized by a very long tour in support of The Downward Spiral followed by an even-longer period of relative silence.
[edit] The Fragile era (1999-2002)
Nine Inch Nails released a double CD entitled The Fragile in 1999. On the heels of NIN's previous successes, a generous amount of media hype surrounded The Fragile before its release. After many delays, it finally debuted on top of the Billboard 200, selling 228,000 copies in one week and receiving generally favorable reviews. Without promotion from Interscope Records, however, it slipped out of the charts soon afterwards, and Reznor was forced to pay for the subsequent North American tour out of his own pocket.<ref>Soeder, John. Rock's Outlook Bleak, But This Nail Won't Bend. Cleveland.com (2000-04-09), archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2006-10-28.</ref> Spin hailed it as 'album of the year'<ref>Kaufman, Gil. Rock Radio Pumps Up Volume. Sonicnet News (1999-12-02), archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2006-10-28.</ref> and the RIAA certified The Fragile double platinum.<ref name="RIAA.com" /> NIN released three singles in different territories from the album: "The Day the World Went Away" in North America, "We're In This Together" (released as a three-part CD single) in the EU and Japan, and an EP for "Into the Void" in Australia. MTV aired music videos for "We're In This Together", "Into the Void", and "Starfuckers, Inc." (retitled "Starsuckers, Inc.") in the US.
Dense in musical texture and lyrically sparse, Reznor initially considered organizing The Fragile such that one disc would contain nothing but instrumentals and songs with lyrics on the other. These plans changed when producer Bob Ezrin was consulted on the track-listing. Ezrin suggested an arrangement of songs that would strengthen their "final continuity and flow", which he is credited for providing in the Fragile liner notes. In advance of the album's release, fans speculated that the song "Starfuckers, Inc." was intended to be a parody of Reznor's former friend and protégé, Marilyn Manson. According to this view, the lyrics satirized Manson as being vain and insincere.<ref>Kaufman, Gil. Provocative, Pounding New NIN Songs.... Sonicnet News (1999-07-14), archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2006-10-28.</ref> Manson and Reznor soon put aside their differences: Manson co-directed and appeared in the music video for "Starsuckers, Inc." and performed the song alongside NIN at Madison Square Gardens in 2000.
Reznor followed The Fragile with another remix album, Things Falling Apart. The Fragility concert tour in support of The Fragile was recorded and released on CD, DVD and VHS in 2002 as And All that Could Have Been. A deluxe edition of the live CD came with a companion disc entitled Still, featuring stripped-down re-interpretations of songs from the band's entire career along with several new pieces of music. Some of Still originated in Reznor's unreleased score for Mark Romanek's film One Hour Photo.<ref>Reznor, Trent (2004-05-07). Response from Trent. NIN.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-02.</ref> Three videos for Still were released on the official NIN website.
[edit] With Teeth era (2003-2006)
NIN's fifth major release, With Teeth, was written and recorded following Reznor's battle with alcoholism and substance abuse.<ref name="SMH">Roberts, Jo (2005-08-05). Hammer Time Over. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.</ref> With Teeth, which leaked prior to its official release date of 3 May, 2005, contains guest appearances by Dave Grohl on drums and live percussion. The music video for the first single, "The Hand that Feeds", premiered on the NIN website rather than on a traditional music video channel. Though the package for the album lacks typical liner notes, the album website (free registration required) features access to a digital PDF poster full of stylized artwork and lyrics. The entire album was made available in streaming audio on the band's official MySpace page in advance of its release date.<ref>Smaller Bands: Web Propels Music Sales. NPR.org (2005-05-01). Retrieved on 2006-10-22.</ref> Japanese, Australian & EU releases of the album all feature an extra track from the With Teeth recording sessions, "Home" (also found on the album's vinyl configuration). The "Limited Tour Edition" of these releases and the North American DualDisc versions feature DVD-Audio components, including the standard album in advanced-resolution stereo and 5.1 surround sound, the music video for "The Hand that Feeds", an interactive discography, and additional artwork.
The second single for this album, released in mid-July 2005, was "Only." David Fincher directed a video for "Only" using primarily computer-generated imagery; it debuted July 11 on Fuse. The third single from With Teeth, "Every Day Is Exactly the Same", was released in April 2006, but a planned music video was scrapped in the post-production stage.<ref>EDIETS Video.... The NIN Hotline (2006-04-13). Retrieved on 2006-11-28.</ref> In April of 2005, Trent Reznor released the source files for "The Hand that Feeds" in GarageBand format and allowed his fans to remix it. This release spawned an unofficial remix contest, in which over 500 fan remixes were submitted. In response to this successful experiment, Reznor released the source files for "Only" in a wider range of formats, including ProTools and ACID Pro. Fans were also invited to access the official 'ninremixes' Myspace Page to upload their remixes, vote for their favorites, and comment about them in a blog.
In autumn 2005, Nine Inch Nails launched a North American arena tour supported by Queens of the Stone Age, as well as Autolux for the first half of the tour and Death from Above 1979 for the second half. Other opening acts on this tour included Saul Williams, a spoken-word performer with hip-hop elements to his live act, and dance-rockers Moving Units. To conclude the With Teeth era of the band, NIN did a special tour of US amphitheaters in the summer of 2006. Joining them were Bauhaus, TV On the Radio (only for the first half of the tour, as Peaches and her band The Herms played on the latter half). In September 2006, Nine Inch Nails' official website released a promotional video for a release entitled "Nine Inch Nails Live: Beside You in Time" that is to be available in 3 formats: DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray. The portion of the tour with Saul Williams (i.e., the latter part of spring 2006) will be documented on Beside You in Time, which is due to be released in early 2007.<ref>Nine Inch Nails: Current. NIN.com (2006-09-23). Retrieved on 2006-09-24.</ref>
[edit] Other works
Trent Reznor often performs work outside the context of Nine Inch Nails, notably producing the soundtrack albums for Natural Born Killers and Lost Highway as well as creating all of the in-game sounds for the first-person shooter game Quake. He has also remixed a number of songs by other artists, only a few of which are credited to NIN. More information on work created by Reznor alone can be found in his discography.
In 2000, the record company Vitamin Records (unaffiliated with either Nothing or Interscope) released a CD called Radiant Decay (subtitled "A Tribute to Nine Inch Nails"), featuring remixes of various NIN songs by different artists. The same company was also responsible for releasing The String Quartet Tribute to Nine Inch Nails, performed by Eric Gorfain's group The Section, The Piano Tribute to Nine Inch Nails,<ref>Piano Tribute to Nine Inch Nails. Vitamin Records (2005-02-15). Retrieved on 2006-11-28.</ref> and The String Quartet Tribute to Nine Inch Nails' "Pretty Hate Machine".<ref>String Quartet Tribute to Nine Inch Nails' "Pretty Hate Machine". Vitamin Records (2005-04-19). Retrieved on 2006-11-28.</ref>
NIN has recorded songs especially for film soundtracks, including a cover of Joy Division's "Dead Souls" for The Crow, "Burn" and a reworked version of "Something I Can Never Have" for Natural Born Killers, "The Perfect Drug" for Lost Highway, and "Deep" for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Other NIN songs have appeared in edited forms as part of the score to many films: portions of the "Gave Up" (Fixed remix) appear in Young Americans, and "Closer (Precursor)" opens the film Se7en.<ref>Fletcher, Alex (1997-07-03). NIN Discography. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.</ref> For the film DOOM, Clint Mansell (who also composed the score) remixed "You Know What You Are?"
[edit] Corporate entanglements
Reznor was involved in a much-publicized feud with TVT Records, the first record label to sign NIN. He successfully sued to leave the label, but not without begrudgingly allowing them a percentage of all his future songwriting royalties. In reaction to TVT's artistic meddling, Reznor began releasing NIN albums on his own Nothing Records imprint. Years later, Reznor sued his former friend and manager John Malm, Jr., co-founder of Nothing, for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.<ref>NIN's Reznor: I Was Duped By Manager. Associated Press (2005-05-17), archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2006-11-29.</ref> Their relationship was formally severed in a New York courtroom, with all claims awarded to Reznor (a sum in excess of three million dollars).<ref name = "E! Online" />
Nine Inch Nails dropped out of the 2005 MTV Movie Awards show because of a disagreement with the network 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
On May 26, 2005, Reznor wrote "apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me" on the NIN website. MTV replied that they respected Reznor's point of view, but were "uncomfortable" with the performance being "built around partisan political statements." A performance by the Foo Fighters replaced NIN's time slot on the show.<ref name = "E! Online" />
The ownership rights to Pretty Hate Machine were put on auction by TVT in 2005 at the behest of Prudential Securities bankruptcy proceedings. They offered the album as part of an overall biddable package that also included the rights to the Television's Greatest Hits compilations and the Mortal Kombat movie soundtracks. In addition, the highest bidder was offered a percentage of future sales in all of Nine Inch Nails' TVT-related releases. Rykodisc, who did not win the auction but were able to license the rights from Prudential, re-issued Pretty Hate Machine on November 22, 2005.<ref>Rykodisk to reissue Pretty Hate Machine *updated*. The NIN Hotline (2005-10-27). Retrieved on 2006-11-28.</ref> They also reissued the vinyl edition of the album and the "Head Like a Hole" CD single on January 31, 2006. Ryko wanted to release a deluxe edition of the album, similar in concept to The Downward Spiral tenth anniversary edition; however, Reznor was not willing to produce it without payment.<ref name = "Toronto Sun">Ladouceur, Liisa (2005-11-08). Reznor Grits His Teeth. The Toronto Sun. Retrieved on 2006-10-22.</ref>
On October 24, 2006, after being alerted by a fan website, Reznor issued a cease and desist to Fox News for using three songs from The Fragile on air without permission. The songs ("La Mer", "The Great Below" and "The Mark Has Been Made") appeared in an episode of War Stories with Oliver North detailing the battle of Iwo Jima.<ref>Fox News, War Stories, and Nine Inch Nails (2006-10-23). Retrieved on 2006-11-29.</ref> A post appeared on Reznor's blog, which read: "thanks for the Fox News heads-up. A cease and desist has been issued. FUCK Fox Fucking News."<ref>Reznor Issues Cease and Desist (2006-10-25). Retrieved on 2006-11-28.</ref> Little else is known about the case.
[edit] Future releases
Reznor is currently finishing the follow-up album to With Teeth and oversees his official fan club, The Spiral (registration required). In an interview with Kerrang!, Reznor said that he expected to have enough material for a new release tentatively scheduled for 2007, featuring tracks that were completed for but not released on With Teeth and new material written during that album's accompanying tour.<ref>New NIN Album Next Year?. Kerrang! (2005-07-06). Retrieved on 2006-10-22.</ref> In the months following the release of With Teeth, two new Nine Inch Nails songs surfaced: "Non-Entity" (first perfomed by Reznor solo at the ReactNow! Hurricane Katrina benefit concert) and "Not So Pretty Now", both of which have appeared on the set-lists of a few recent NIN live shows. Reznor has stated that these songs were outtakes from the With Teeth sessions, and studio recordings may see future release.
On the official fan club website in early 2006, Reznor made a comment to the effect that the new record marked a "shift in direction" and that it "doesn't sound like With Teeth". Subsequent tour merchandise featured overt references to the United States Military, which appear incongruous with the previous tour's artwork, but "reflect future directions" according to Reznor. Then, near the end of the 2006 tour, Reznor confirmed that his plan was to return to the studio for a while, release new material in 2007, and tour again in support of this.<ref>New Nine Inch Nails in the Works?. Blabbermouth.net (2006-09-06). Retrieved on 2006-10-22.</ref> A two-month European tour has been scheduled for early 2007, with more dates expected to be added "through Summer" in other territories. Reznor's most recent updates on the Spiral indicate that the next NIN record will again be co-produced with Alan Moulder, finished in January and released in April of 2007.
A deluxe DVD version of Closure (with over 90 minutes of bonus content) is also forthcoming, but has already been delayed for several years. The finished product is now in the hands of Interscope, and they were last reported to be finishing the interactive menu artwork.<ref>Closer to Closure?. The NIN Hotline (2005-12-12). Retrieved on 2006-11-28.</ref> Reznor has stated that he would like to release remastered surround sound editions of Pretty Hate Machine, Broken/Fixed and The Fragile akin to the Downward Spiral tenth anniversary re-release;<ref>Reznor, Trent (2004-12-03). Responses from Trent. NIN.com. Retrieved on 2006-11-28.</ref> however, the recent Rykodisc reissue of Pretty Hate Machine did not contain a surround mix or any remastered audio.<ref name = "Toronto Sun" />
[edit] Band members
When not directly involved with recording new material, Nine Inch Nails' lineup tends to change drastically between major tours. Aside from Trent Reznor remaining on lead vocals, nothing about the live band has stayed constant since its inception. Reznor cited the long gestation period between studio albums as part of the reason for these changes.<ref>Trent Reznor Talks to Ian Camfield. XFM Radio (2005-07-22), archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2006-10-24.</ref> NIN's most recent incarnation features Aaron North on guitar, Jeordie White and Alessandro Cortini on multiple instruments, and Josh Freese on drums.
[edit] Popular culture
The term "nine inch nails" has been used in various cultural references, and as an otherwise unlikely phrase it is usually in reference or tribute to the band. Examples include the work of musicians such as Tori Amos and Eminem, video games such as Quake (for which members of Nine Inch Nails produced the soundtrack), and movies such as The Machinist.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
[edit] Official sites
- nin.com - the official website
- The Spiral - the official Nine Inch Nails fan club
- Nine Inch Nails at MySpace
[edit] Major fan sites
- The NIN Hotline — a regularly updated website that provides NIN related news
[edit] Other
cs:Nine Inch Nails de:Nine Inch Nails es:Nine Inch Nails et:Nine Inch Nails fa:ناین اینچ نیلز fr:Nine Inch Nails gl:Nine Inch Nails is:Nine Inch Nails it:Nine Inch Nails lt:Nine Inch Nails nl:Nine Inch Nails ja:ナイン・インチ・ネイルズ hu:Nine Inch Nails pl:Nine Inch Nails pt:Nine Inch Nails ro:Nine Inch Nails ru:Nine Inch Nails simple:Nine Inch Nails fi:Nine Inch Nails sv:Nine Inch Nails
