Nine Inch Nails with teeth is 10

Ten years ago yesterday, Nine Inch Nails released With Teeth. While it's not my favourite NIN album (come on, how many artists could produce an absolute masterpiece like The Downward Spiral, much less surpass it?) it does have some standout tracks.

Trent does tend to oscillate from the quiet and introspective to the angry and aggressive. With Teeth definitely trends towards the angry and aggressive. It's a side of the project that I certainly appreciate.
"Only" is one of the best, most finely crafted pop tunes ever and a personal favourite of mine.

So cast your mind back to 2005 and enjoy the three singles a few other cool tunes from With Teeth.

"Only"

"The Hand That Feeds"

"Every Day Is Exactly The Same"

"You Know What You Are?"

"Getting Smaller"

Pic from Amazon.

Nine Inch Nails ignite the ACC in Toronto

I had never seen Nine Inch Nails live before their October 4th show at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto for their Tension 2013 tour in support of the Hesitation Marks album.

Overall: really good show. Certainly not great, not amazing, but good. Maybe it's my fault for not being as into Trent's more recent albums, but I found the show a little too "mid-tempo". Lots of slower songs and not as much of the manic anger I expected from a Nine Inch Nails show. At one point during the main set, I thought to myself, "...And Trent Reznor slips quietly into middle age..." Couldn't quite wrap my head around the back-up singers thing either.

The highlights of the setlist for me were "March of the Pigs" which appeared early in the set, "Wish", "Only", "The Hand That Feeds" and "Head Like A Hole" from the end of the main set. I also enjoyed "Survivalism", "Came Back Haunted" from Hesitation Marks, "Somewhat Damaged", and the last song of the encore, "Hurt". Overall, too much mellow stuff (never thought I'd say that about a NIN show), too much from Hesitation Marks and a way-too mellow encore. I wish I had as much fun as the guys standing behind me, singing out every word to every song.

The sound was amazing and Trent's vocals were great throughout. He put together a really good band for this tour and they played impecably. The light show was pretty cool too, with pods of lights over each band member for the first few tunes. Then a wall of mesh/lights descended between the audience and the band, displaying cool lighting effects including a nice 3D cubes effect. Top notch show from a light and sound perspective.

All in all, glad I saw them live, but I won't rush out to see them again.

And of course, now for some tunes:

Pictures in this post are mine. Happy for a big damn zoom to reach in from the nosebleeds!

Two more new Nine Inch Nails songs from Hesitation Marks

As is the trend these days, Nine Inch Nails is releasing a bunch of tunes (4 so far) from their forthcoming September 3 release Hesitation Marks. I posted "Came Back Haunted" and "Copy of A" previously. Here are the energetic and up-tempo "Everything" and the intense "Find My Way".

They're, like, taped off the radio. How retro.

I am seriously looking forward to their show in Toronto on October 4.

New Nine Inch Nails tune Copy of A

Nine Inch Nails new album Hesitation Marks is out September 3. We've heard "Came Back Haunted" and now we get to hear "Copy of A". I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the album and to finally getting to see NIN live.

Seizure inducing video from Nine Inch Nails

So that Trent Reznor, he's pretty reliable. He said there will be new Nine Inch Nails music and he's got Hesitation Marks coming out on September 3. He let us preview (prelisten?) the track "Came Back Haunted" a little while back. He's even going on tour again. Now he's released a video for "Came Back Haunted" that was directed by David Lynch.

Check it out below. There's an epilepsy association warning because it could trigger seizures. Yikes!

Next time, I'd suggest that they turn on that "image stabilization" feature. The pictures will be clearer that way.

New Nine Inch Nails!

Last November, Trent Reznor said that there would be new Nine Inch Nails music and that they might even tour again. Then, about a week ago, he announced that he'd completed a "fucking great" new album with Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder. Now we get to hear a song.

The tune is "Came Back Haunted", the album is called Hesitation Marks and it will be out September 3.

What can I say about this tune, besides it is what it says on the tin. It's definitely a Nine Inch Nails song. Sounds pretty fucking great.

Since I never saw this band back in the day, they might actually get me to go to another stadium show. As long as the tickets aren't at Rolling Stones price levels. They've got tour deets here. They'll be playing the ACC on October 4.

Classic New Year's Eve song

Back in the day, I used to frequent the Phoenix Concert Theatre for their Saturday-night, live-to-air dance party with the late Martin Streek. I even went there for New Year's Eve one year.

With it being the 90's and with it being the Phoenix and with it being a CFNY/EDGE 102 night, the midnight song just had to be "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails.

New Nine Inch Nails in the works

Trent Reznor decided to stop touring Nine Inch Nails a few years back. He never said that Nine Inch Nails was no more and there would never be any new NIN music. Recently, Trent mentioned that there is new NIN music in the works. ""Yeah, there will be new music … Stay tuned." he said. He might even tour again.

What better excuse to put up a favourites post on the greatness of Nine Inch Nails.

Here are some favourites:

"Closer" will always bring back memories of Saturday nights at the Phoenix. Good times!

And I absolutely loved it when they played this remix.

NIN's cover of the Adam Ant track "Physical (You're So)" from Broken.

"Wish"

"Gave Up"

Speaking of covers, here's NIN doing Joy Division's "Dead Souls".

Here's a live version of "Hurt", originally on The Downward Spiral. Yup, that's the same song that Johnny Cash later covered.

For his more recent stuff, I really enjoyed "Only" from With Teeth.

And here's the all time classic "Head Like A Hole" from Pretty Hate Machine.

Of course, this just scratches the surface of an awesome artist. Looking forward to the new Nine Inch Nails music when it comes out.