Listening Post

Don't say I don't ever do you any favors.

Here's Nine Inch Nails' entire set from the Fuji Rocks Festival over the weekend in Japan.

And it is fucking awesome.

Any band that can start with a brand new song almost no one has heard yet -- Copy Of A -- and basically have you clamoring for every single note and word is truly at the top of their game.

Listening Post: Friday Bonus Edition

Trent Reznor.

David Lynch.

Brand new.

Came Back Haunted

Listening Post

When it comes to interesting musical projects, ex-drummers for Nine Inch Nails have pretty much everybody beat. Josh Freese has worked with artist after arrist and his solo stuff is fantastic. Chris Vrenna created the great Tweaker and a couple of months ago was playing with Clint Mansell live, and then there's this: Jerome Dillon's criminally underappreciated solo band, Nearly.

Nearly released a record back in 2005 that's still one of my favorites of the last decade, the kind of thing I go back to again and again. Last night one of the NIN fan accounts tweeted out a link to a Soundcloud sampling of Nearly's stuff that includes an outtake from a 2010 studio session -- and as expected, it's lush, sensual stuff.

This is Thirteen.

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Dear God, yes.

Here it is, folks: brand new Nine Inch Nails.

I have to admit I was wary given the turn Trent's music has taken over the past few years. Not that I don't like it; I like it very much. It's just that it's been very experimental, free-form and obviously made to be applied to movie soundtracks. I wondered if he could regain the kind of focus that would create not just great music but great Nine Inch Nails music.

And he has.

This sounds like the old material I love so much. This sounds brand new. It's just fucking great.

Here's Came Back Haunted.

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So I wake up to good news to start the week. Nine Inch Nails are once again being cobbled together and will begin touring through this year and next. The new lineup is interesting, including guitar legend Adrian Belew and original Jane's Addiction bassist Eric Avery.

Here's Every Day Is Exactly the Same.

Listening Post

I'm not sure Deadmau5 actually has any spare time, because when he's not recording new material, being paid to remix other people's stuff, or getting into Twitter feuds with aging, irrelevant pop stars, he's creating remixes to throw out into the ether just for the hell of it.

Like this: a very cool and menacing reimagining of Nine Inch Nails's Survivalism.

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Theme week continues around here with what could very well be my favorite Nine Inch Nails song -- and that's really saying something.

This is The Great Below.

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I have to admit, this is a video I didn't even know existed until I stumbled across it.

Here's Nine Inch Nails -- Deep.

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Since it's the day before Halloween, here's a sufficiently creepy little video from Jersey post-hardcore gods The Dillinger Escape Plan.

This is Unretrofied.

And as a bonus, a mind-blowing live clip of TDEP joining Nine Inch Nails on-stage for Wish. It's a video that features Trent Reznor feeling unusually talkative and taking that opportunity to insult Coldplay.

I Will Let You Down

Sorry, gang -- I'm outta here early today.

Got a happy baby to play with and a Nine Inch Nails show later tonight.

Happy Friday.

Quote of the Week

"You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly YOU feel uncomfortable? Heard Chris Cornell’s record? Jesus."

-- Trent Reznor, via Twitter

Listening Post: Bonus Halloween Edition

Just for the hell of it -- before I sign off for the day in order to give myself time to get the bowl of cough drops ready for the trick-or-treating kids and drink a few glasses of Maker's Mark: Two videos perfect for Halloween, from two visionary directors.

One remains the most disturbingly chilling video ever made -- pure hallucinatory madness. The other hits a note of creepy unease that can't quite be explained but is undeniable.

Happy Halloween, folks.



Aphex Twin -- Come to Daddy (Dir: Chris Cunningham)




Nine Inch Nails -- Closer (Dir: Mark Romanek)

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Nine Inch Nails is one of the few bands working today -- Radiohead being another -- that could release an album for free via its website and still manage to make money off of it by putting it up for sale in a standard format later.

Here's one of the reasons why: From The Slip, it's Echoplex.

The Twilight Clone

I can't think of a cooler honor than having a Nine Inch Nails remix named after my memoir. (Whether or not it really is, who the hell knows -- but give me my little fantasy.)

Nine Inch Nails: In This Twilight (Dead Star Mix)