Nine Inch Nails 2013 Tour Doc: Part 1 of X

Good God, I might have to get whatever shittiest nose-bleed, oxygen-depleting seat might still be available:

The Day of Full Highly Anticipated Album Streams

News broke early this morning that Nine Inch Nails' Hesitation Marks had started streaming in full on iTunes. Click here for the link.

Eight hours later, I came home from work and found out Fader is streaming White Poppy's debut self-titled LP, and Blind Horses, another Vancouver act, are streaming their debut LP Avail via Bandcamp.

Unfortunately, the first real chance I'll have to listen to any of these, I'll probably be hungover.

"The Pyrotechnics of Sound and Scare Tactics"

Trent Reznor on Nine Inch Nails' upcoming new album Hesitation Marks:

"I don't think it’s a gentle record. I do think it's more subversive in how it gets you. It's not about everything being at 11 and the pyrotechnics of sound and scare tactics, which I've definitely used in the past. But it doesn't feel like the middle-aged, I've-given-up record either."

"The pyrotechnics of sound and scare tactics." Describing music in those terms is one of those things I've never thought of before but makes total sense when I hear them; I can imagine exactly what Reznor's talking about. Don't you love those second-hand "Eureka!" moments when someone else articulates something so lucidly that you can't?

Click here to read Reznor's full interview with The New York Times.

Nirvana - "Turnaround" (Devo Cover)

After hearing Nirvana's awesome cover of Devo's awesome song "Turnaround," I reeaally want to hear Nine Inch Nails take a go at it. From Nirvana's 1992 Australian and Japanese tour-only Hormoaning EP (DGC/Geffen Records):

Gary Numan - "Metal"; Nine Inch Nails - "Metal"

Today's Halloween song is "Metal" by Gary Numan, from his 1979 third album The Pleasure Principle:



I'm also re-posting Nine Inch Nails' cover of "Metal" because it is honest to God one of the best covers I've ever heard:

Jack White Covers U2

How did I miss Jack White's cover of U2's "Love Is Blindness"? It's been streaming for sixteen days. I never even knew the man was a fan, although it kind of makes sense, considering Jack's and the Edge's involvement in the 2009 guitar-doc It Might Get Loud. As you will see by following the link to Jack's version of the song, this post also concerns Nine Inch Nails, Killers and Patti Smith fans.

Like Nine Inch Nails?

Like free stuff in general? If you answered yes to either question, download How to Destroy Angels' free self-titled EP straight from the band's website.

How to Destroy Angels is Nine Inch Nails-founder/front man Trent Reznor, his wife Mariqueen Maandig and British composer and producer Atticus Ross. How to Destroy Angels (The Null Corporation, 2010) is the band's first official release.

Imagine a less ferocious Nine Inch Nails with lo-fi female vocals. Those are about the extents of the differences between How to Destroy Angels and Nine Inch Nails. The bands' similarities include the sounds of industrial grinding on "Parasite," the glitchy electronic effects on "BBB" and "The Believer" and the very precise drumming best demonstrated on "Parasite" and "Fur Lined." How to Destroy Angels also exudes a dark ambience, such as with the sparse piano line of "A Drowning" which sounds almost identical to the one that forms the backbone of With Teeth closer "Right Where it Belongs." Maandig even sings like Trent Reznor, most notably on "The Believers," with her disturbed, hushed vocals and equally despairing lyrics.

Given the myriad similarities between How to Destroy Angels' debut EP and Nine Inch Nails' overall discography, How to Destroy Angels is sure to please most Nine Inch Nails fans or at least satiate them until Trent Reznor formally releases new music under his Nine Inch Nails moniker.