Nine Inch Nails
"NIN" redirects here. For other uses please see Nin.Nine Inch Nails (abbreviated as
NIN and typeset as
NIИ) is a critically and commercially successful
American band formed in
Cleveland, Ohio in
1988 by
Trent Reznor, who is the only consistent member of Nine Inch Nails. As producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor has remained solely responsible for the musical direction of the band, and has described NIN as "two separate entities" [
1]: the "studio," consisting almost entirely of himself; and the live band.
Reznor describes the meaning behind the name
Nine Inch Nails as such:
Although Nine Inch Nails has existed for over 18 years, it has only produced four proper full-length albums:
Pretty Hate Machine,
The Downward Spiral,
The Fragile, and
With Teeth, with an average of five years between each album. With the inclusion of the important
Broken EP, Nine Inch Nails' primary releases are:
#
Pretty Hate Machine (
1989)#
Broken (
1992)#
The Downward Spiral (
1994)#
The Fragile (
1999)#
With Teeth (
2005)
The seeming sparseness of this discography belies the extent of NIN's work, as each main release serves as a center to numerous satellite releases, including
remix albums,
singles with extensive collections of
b-sides, and tour documentaries. Indeed, each primary release is seen as the center of an associated era, in which the secondary releases are viewed as vitally important to understanding of the artistic whole. This feeling is enhanced by Nine Inch Nails' adoption of
halo numbers to number each release, regardless of format. This sequential system carries the implicit message that every NIN release, from albums to singles, is an equally-important part of NIN's catalog.
In addition to official releases, NIN has performed work on numerous
soundtracks and
remixes.
Pretty Hate Machine
Main article: Pretty Hate Machine
NIN's
debut album,
Pretty Hate Machine (
1989), largely consists of studio versions of demo recordings (released later unofficially as
Purest Feeling.) This was also NIN's first collaboration with producer
Mark 'Flood' Ellis. It went
triple platinum in the U.S. and produced the singles "
Head Like a Hole", "
Down in It", and "
Sin". Music videos were made for all three tracks, but the video for "Sin" was not released to the public until 1997, with the release of
Closure.
In the credits of Pretty Hate Machine, Trent Reznor thanks British Horror/Fantasy writer
Clive Barker for inspiration towards the stirring sound the album portrays. As of
August 19,
2005, the ownership rights to the album were put up for
auction by
TVT Records, compliments of Prudential Securities Financial Services. It was 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 would also be able to collect a percentage on future sales of Nine Inch Nails' other TVT-related releases, including
Broken,
Fixed,
The Downward Spiral and
Further Down the Spiral.
Rykodisc, who did not win the auction but were able to license the rights from Prudential [
2], re-issued
Pretty Hate Machine on
November 22,
2005. Rykodisc wanted to release a Deluxe Edition of the album, similar in concept to the Deluxe Edition of
The Downward Spiral, however Reznor was not willing to produce it without payment [
3]. Rykodisc also re-released
Pretty Hate Machine in 12" vinyl, as well as the single "Head Like a Hole", on
January 31,
2006.
Broken
Main article: Broken
NIN's second major release was
Broken (
1992), an
EP of six tracks plus two bonus tracks. It was originally released in a fold-out format, containing the first six tracks on a regular CD and an additional three-inch mini-CD with the remaining bonus tracks. After Trent Reznor discovered that some unscrupulous record store owners would remove the mini-CD and sell it separately, it was later released as one CD, with the bonus songs as "hidden" tracks 98 and 99. The song "
Wish", aided by the video directed by
Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson of
Coil, won a
Grammy in the "
metal" category.
Jon Reiss directed a music video for "
Happiness in Slavery," which was almost universally banned due to its graphic content. The video depicts
performance artist Bob Flanagan strapping himself to a machine that subsequently pleasures, tortures and kills him. A video for "Pinion" aired twice on
MTV before being banned for its objectionable content, although images from it did become a fixture in the opening title sequence of the MTV show
Alternative Nation. Also videos for "Help Me I Am In Hell", "Gave Up" and 1995 live footage of "Wish" were made. A full length video informally called
The Broken Movie was also made by Sleazy, but has not seen an official release.
The Broken Movie, as of 2005, can only be found on bootleg.
Broken was followed by the remix EP
Fixed.
The Downward Spiral
Main article: The Downward Spiral
NIN's second full album and third major release was
The Downward Spiral (
1994). This was NIN's second collaboration with
Mark 'Flood' Ellis. Two singles, "
March of the Pigs" and "
Closer to God", were released from this quadruple platinum album, and two additional tracks, "
Hurt" and "Piggy", were sent to radio without a single release. Music videos were made for "March of the Pigs", "Closer" and live versions of "Eraser" (which would never receive airtime) and "
Hurt". The edited MTV version of "Closer" became very successful. The video for "Closer" (directed by
Mark Romanek), in many ways, set a standard for Nine Inch Nails videos with its eerie images of pigs' heads and S&M paraphernalia. Also, "Closer (Precursor)", a remix of "Closer", was used for the opening credits of the movie "Se7en". The album's final track, "
Hurt", would enjoy success once again when it was covered, with slight alterations to the lyrics, by
Johnny Cash in
2003. In
1995 David Bowie sang a duet version of "Hurt" with Trent Reznor on the
Outside tour.
The Downward Spiral was followed by the remix EP
Further Down the Spiral, which featured a collaboration with electronic music pioneer
Aphex Twin and new guitar parts being lent by
Jane's Addiction guitarist
Dave Navarro. There are two versions of
Further Down The Spiral, the second featuring some different remixes. A remastered version of
The Downward Spiral was released on
November 23,
2004, with an accompanying CD of
B-sides and rarities. The remastered recording was also released as a two-sided
DualDisc. The Deluxe Edition of the remaster features multichannel and stereo
SACD versions 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. The
DualDisc contains a remastered CD-Audio on one side and features a
DVD-Audio format side containing High Resolution Stereo and 5.1 Surround mixes of the entire album with expanded album art, a discography, and music videos "Closer" (stereo and surround), "March of the Pigs", and "Hurt (Live)".
The Fragile
Main article: The Fragile
NIN's fourth major release was the two-disc album
The Fragile (
1999). It produced three singles, one released in the US ("
The Day the World Went Away"), one in the UK ("
We're In This Together") released as a 3 part single, and one in Japan and Australia ("
Into The Void"). Music videos for "We're In This Together", "Into The Void", and "
Starfuckers, Inc." (retitled as "Starsuckers, Inc.") were aired in the US.
It is often speculated that "
Starfuckers, Inc." was a parody of Reznor's former friend and protégé,
Marilyn Manson. Several vocal takes were chopped up and spliced together, purportedly as a not-so-subtle jab at Manson's alleged inability to capture his desired vocal style in a single take. According to this view, the lyrics satirized Manson as being vain and insincere. Manson and Reznor later reconciled, and Manson even appeared in the music video for Starfuckers, Inc. Despite popular consensus, there does not appear to be any official confirmation from Reznor that the song was aimed specifically at Marilyn Manson; in fact, the video even includes a scene where Reznor is throwing baseballs through busts of himself, among a variety of other artists including
Billy Corgan of
The Smashing Pumpkins and
Fred Durst of
Limp Bizkit. The video also contains an overweight woman being dunked into a pool of water in the common carnival game style, dressed in a style that many consider to be mocking
Courtney Love on the cover of
Live Through This.
In interviews prior to the album's completion, Reznor said he was considering organizing the tracks such that one disc would contain all instrumentals and the other the songs with lyrics. These plans changed when
Bob Ezrin suggested an arrangement of tracks that would strengthen the "four corners of the album"â€"namely the beginnings and ends of each of the two discs. Ezrin is credited in the liner notes as having "provided final continuity and flow".
The Fragile was followed by the remix album
Things Falling Apart. The Fragility Tour was recorded and released on CD and DVD as
And All that Could Have Been. A special edition came with a companion disc called
Still, featuring acoustic re-recordings of songs from across NIN's career along with several new songs.
Still is regarded as a classic among fans, and there was much speculation prior to the release of
With Teeth in 2005 that the album would take a form similar to
Still. Three videos for
Still were released on
NIN's official website.
With Teeth
Main article: With Teeth
NIN's fifth major release,
With Teeth (preliminarily titled Bleedthrough), was written and recorded following Reznor's battle with alcoholism and substance abuse. The album involved the collaboration of the
Foo Fighters'
Dave Grohl (ex-
Nirvana) playing live drums for many of the songs. The music video for the first single, "
The Hand that Feeds", premiered on the
official NIN website rather than on the traditional . The album was leaked prior to its official release on
May 3,
2005 on both CD and
DualDisc formats. Though the package for the album lacks the typical liner notes,
nin.com/with_teeth (registration required) features access to download a digital
PDF poster full of stylized artwork and lyrics. The band allowed the entire album to be listened to in streaming audio at
MySpace beginning
April 27,
2005 [
4]. The vinyl, Japanese, Australian & UK release of With Teeth all featured an extra track, "Home", a leftover cut from the
With Teeth recording sessions.Along with the standard edition and "Limited Tour Edition", a
DualDisc version is available, which features
With Teeth in stereo and 5.1 surround sound,
DVDA stereo and surround playback, a
Dolby Digital stereo and surround mix, the music video for "The Hand that Feeds", an interactive discography, and a slideshow of NIN-related images.
Nine Inch Nails dropped out of the 2005
MTV Movie Awards show because of a disagreement with
MTV 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 charadeAnd behind it all there's a price to be paidFor the blood on which we dineJustified in the name of the holy and the divine"Apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me", Reznor said. They were replaced on the show by the
Foo Fighters.
In fall
2005, Nine Inch Nails launched a
North American tour supported by
Queens of the Stone Age, as well as
Autolux for the first half of the tour followed by
Death from Above 1979 during the second half.
|
Nine Inch Nails live on tour in 2005 |
The second single for this album, released in mid-July, was "
Only." A video for "Only" was completed around May. It was created using primarily
computer-generated imagery, and directed by
David Fincher. It debuted on
July 11th on
Fuse and can been seen on the band's official website.
In April of 2005, Trent Reznor released the source files for "The Hand that Feeds" in
Garageband format, to allow his fans to remix it. The release spawned an
Unofficial Remix Contest, in which over 500 fan remixes were submitted. After receiving such a tremendous response from this "experiment", the source files for the next single "Only" was released in a wider range of formats. On the NIN official Web site, Reznor said: "There is no agenda here other than for you to explore, experiment, and have fun with it, I'm looking forward to hearing what you come up with." Fans were able to access
The Ninremixes Myspace Page to upload their remixes, vote for their favorites, and comment about their experiences in a blog. As an alternative to this, fans also created a database with similar features to host these as well as other remixes, creating one of the largest fan created media sites to date,
ninremixes.com. The source files are in various file formats, including Garageband and ACID formats. They can be found on
nin.com.
On
December 10,
2005, Nine Inch Nails performed at the sixteenth annual of the
Acoustic Christmas by the
Los Angeles, California radio station
KROQ. It was the first time the band ever performed at
KROQ concerts.
The third single to
With Teeth, "
Every Day Is Exactly the Same" was released in April of
2006, but Reznor has confirmed that a music video will not be released. [
5]
With Teeth was
RIAA Certified Platinum in March
2006.
Reznor is currently in the studio finishing the follow up album to
With Teeth.
Reznor's other works
Trent Reznor often performs work outside the context of Nine Inch Nails. More information on work credited to Reznor can be found in
Trent Reznor's discography.
| Song | Director | Released | Notes |
|---|
| "Down in It" | Eric Zimmerman & Benjamin Stokes | September 1989 | The birth of Nine Inch Nails' logo can be seen in the jacket that Trent Reznor is wearing |
| "Head Like a Hole" | Eric Zimmerman | March 1990 | the audio for this video is not the album version and is in fact from the remix titled "Head Like a Hole (clay)," found on the U.S. "Head Like a Hole" single |
| "Sin" | Brett Turnbull | November 24, 1997 | never aired (an edited version appears on Halo 12, though the original video only became available through TVT's website [6] and has yet to be officially released) |
| "Pinion" | Eric Goode & Serge Becker | February 1992 | The video of '"Pinion," though not the audio, was used for the introduction of MTV's Kennedy-hosted Alternative Nation. |
| "Wish" | Peter Christopherson | February 1992 | |
| "Help Me I Am in Hell" | Eric Goode & Serge Becker | November 24, 1997 | Never Aired. Later released on Closure |
| "Happiness in Slavery" | Jon Reiss | November 24, 1997 | Never Aired. Later released on Closure |
| "Gave Up" | Jon Reiss | November 24, 1997 | Never Aired. Later released on Closure |
| "Wish (live)" | Simon Maxwell | November 24, 1997 | aired on 120 Minutes, Later on Closure |
| "March of the Pigs" | Peter Christopherson & Trent Reznor | March, 1994 | The released video was second attempt, after a more complex concept was abandoned. [7]. There is speculation that clips from the original shoot appear in Closure. |
| "Closer" | Mark Romanek | May 12, 1994 | two versions of video released (Original Version / Nothing Version) |
| "Burn" | Hank Corwin & Trent Reznor | August 24, 1994 | for Natural Born Killers |
| "Hurt (live)" | Simon Maxwell | March, 1995 | |
| "The Perfect Drug" | Mark Romanek | January 18, 1997 | for Lost Highway |
| "Eraser (live)" | Simon Maxwell | November 24, 1997 | Never aired. Later released on Closure |
| "We're in This Together" | Mark Pellington | August 27, 1999 | two versions of video released (Short / Long) |
| "The Day the World Went Away" | Unknown | 1999 | never completed (original clips compiled with live video on Halo 17) |
| "Into the Void" | Walter Stern & Jeff Richter | January 14, 2000 | |
| "Starsuckers, Inc." | Robert Hales & Brian Warner | May 2, 2000 | edit of "Starfuckers, Inc." |
| "Deep" | Enda McCallion | August, 2001 | for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider |
| "The Hand that Feeds" | Rob Sheridan | March 17, 2005 | released on nin.com |
| "Only" | David Fincher | July 12, 2005 | 90-95% CGI |
| "Every Day Is Exactly the Same" | Francis Lawrence | Cancelled | Never Aired. Cancelled in Post-Production. [8] |
|
Broken , the unreleased short film directed by Peter Christopherson, contains the videos for "Pinion", "Wish" and "Happiness in Slavery". It also features a video for the song "Help Me I Am in Hell", and a different video for the song "Gave Up" than what appears on Closure, set to scenes within the film. It is commonly referred to as the
"Broken Movie."
Reznor has been quoted in
Kerrang! magazine as commenting that he has enough material for a new release tentatively scheduled for 2006 featuring the tracks that were not on
With Teeth. [
9].
In the months following the release of
With Teeth, two new Nine Inch Nails songs surfaced: "Non-Entity" recorded live at the ReactNow!
Hurricane Katrina benefit concert, and "Not So Pretty Now" has appeared on the setlist of a few recent Nine Inch Nails live shows. Reznor has stated that both these songs were outtakes from the
With Teeth sessions, and that studio recordings may see future release [
10].
A DVD version of
Closure is forthcoming, but has already been delayed for several years. Reznor has indicated that it is now in the hands of
Interscope, and the latest news on the DVD is about the work on the menus [
11].
Reznor has indicated that he would like to release remastered
surround sound editions of
Pretty Hate Machine,
Broken/
Fixed and
The Fragile [
12]. However, the Rykodisc reissue of
Pretty Hate Machine does not contain a surround sound mix [
13].
On March 28, 2006 and March 30, 2006, two of NIN's live shows (Oklahoma City and El Paso respectively) were filmed in
high definition for possible future DVD release [
14].
On June 24th, 2006 near the end of performing at the Molson Amphitheatre [
15] in Toronto, Trent Reznor confirmed there would be a new album released "shortly". He again confirmed this at the Verizon Ampitheatres in Irvine, CA and Indianapolis, IN, and Shoreline Ampitheatre in Mountain View, CA saying that he was going back into the studio for awhile and would be releasing new material after the first of the year. He also said that he would be coming around on tour again in support of the new material.
Trent Reznor is the only constant member of the band, writing all of the music and lyrics himself and maintaining sole control of the direction of the band. While recording, Reznor assembles various
producers, engineers, and musicians to assist him in creating new songs.
Similarly, Reznor assembles a live backing band for each NIN tour. Aside from Reznor himself (
vocals,
guitar,
bass,
synthesizer), musicians in live incarnations of NIN have been:
Pretty Hate Machine era tours (October 1989 - September 1991)(Pretty Hate Machine promo tour; Jesus and Mary Chain support tour; Hate '90 Tour; Lollapalooza '91 Tour)
*Richard Patrick - Guitar
*Jeff Ward - Drums (beginning of tour)
*Chris Vrenna - Drums (remainder of tour)
*Lee Mars - Synthesizer (beginning of tour)
*James Woolley - Synthesizer (remainder of tour)
Self Destruct Tours (March 1994 - February 1995)
*Robin Finck - Guitar, Keyboard
*Danny Lohner - Bass, Guitar, Keyboard
*Chris Vrenna - Drums
*James Woolley - Synthesizer (1994)
*Charlie Clouser - Synthesizer (1995)
Outside Tour with David Bowie (September - October, 1995)
*Robin Finck - Guitar, Synthesizer
*Danny Lohner - Bass, Guitar, Synthesizer
*Chris Vrenna - Drums
*Charlie Clouser - Synthesizer, Drums
Fragility Tours (November 1999 - July 2000)
*Robin Finck - Guitar, Synthesizer
*Danny Lohner - Bass, Guitar, Synthesizer
*Jerome Dillon - Drums
*Charlie Clouser - Synthesizer, Theremin
Live: With_Teeth (March 2005 - July 2006)
*Aaron North (formerly Aaron Icarus of The Icarus Line) - Guitar
*Jeordie White (formerly Twiggy Ramirez of Marilyn Manson) - Bass, Guitar, Synthesizer
*Alessandro Cortini - Synthesizer, Guitar, Bass
*Jerome Dillon - Drums (Marchâ€"October 2005)
*Josh Freese - Drums (October 4â€"5, 2005; December 6th, 2005â€"Onward)
*Alex Carapetis - Drums (October 7â€"December 1st, 2005)*In their early days, NIN used Phantasy as a practice space and it was a stage for several of their first concerts.
*The entire 2005 U.S. Club tour sold out in under 10 minutes, with tickets selling on eBay and other sources for more than $200.Music
*Singer Tori Amos has alluded to Nine Inch Nails in her lyrics: "Precious Things" mentions "demigods with their nine-inch nails" and "Caught a Lite Sneeze" finds her "[making her] own pretty hate machine." Reznor sang back-up vocals on Amos' "Past the Mission," and Amos sometimes includes the opening line of "Hurt" in live improvisations, and has performed the majority of the song at various times in concert, sometimes with silly alternative lyrics such as "I hurt myself today/to find a jellybean". Relatedly, the term "Starfucker," was used on Tori's song "Professional Widow," from 1996's Boys for Pele. "Starfucker" is a reference to the original title of a Rolling Stones song on the album Goats Head Soup released in 1973, a title which was changed to the less offensive Star Star for its US release.
*Eminem's "My Name Is..." from his 1999 album The Slim Shady LP features the line "Wanna see me stick Nine Inch Nails through each one of my eyelids?" in the first verse, commonly seen as a nod to the band.
*Progressive metal band Dream Theater has performed a live medley called "Caught in Alice's New Nine-Inch Millennium Tool Garden." It used the lyrics of their earlier release "Caught in a Web", but with new music which was a combination of the styles of Alice in Chains, Nine Inch Nails, Tool, and Soundgarden, all of which were prominent rock bands during the 90s. The band later wrote new lyrics to the song and released it as "New Millennium" on the album Falling into Infinity.
*NIN is referenced in the Phi Life Cypher remix of Gorillaz' "Clint Eastwood": "Now rearrangin' your whole skeletal structure then I find some nine inch nails to perform some acupuncture."
*Weird Al Yankovic has paid tribute to NIN more than once: "Closer" is parodied in the "Alternative Polka" from Bad Hair Day, and "Terrible Lie" and "Closer" in "Germs" from Running with Scissors.
*Following the feud between Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit, in their 2000 song "Hot Dog" returned the lyrics of Closer, stating "You wanna fuck me like an animal/You'd like to burn from the inside." Ironically, this attempt at "bashing" Trent Reznor only forced them to give him a co-writing credit on the song for the usage of his lyrics, and therefore earning him money from sales and airplay.
* In Crazy Town's 1999 album The Gift of Game, the song "Darkside" contains the lyrics "Devils eyes and nine inch nails".
* The MC Lars song Signing Emo contains the line "Industrial comes back/The pres. needs a NIN." MC Lars has stated he is a fan, but live often replaces NIN with Tool, a sign of the current relevance of Tool to the industrial scene.
* Amanda Palmer of The Dresden Dolls has performed "Right Where It Belongs" at some of her solo performances.Film
*NIN has recorded tracks for numerous film soundtracks, including a cover of Joy Division's "Dead Souls" for The Crow (1994), "Burn" for Natural Born Killers (1994), "The Perfect Drug" for David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997), and "Deep" for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001). "You Know What You Are" was remixed for the film DOOM (2005) by Clint Mansell, who also composed the score. Reznor also produced the soundtracks to Natural Born Killers and Lost Highway.
*Director Tony Scott has used Nine Inch Nails music in two of his films to date. The Fan featured a clip from "The Art of Self Destruction, Part One" from Further Down the Spiral. Man on Fire featured clips from six Nine Inch Nails songs: "The Art of Self Destruction, Part One", "Self Destruction, Part Two", and "The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)" from Further Down the Spiral; "The Mark Has Been Made" and "The Great Below" from The Fragile; and "The Wretched (Version)" from Things Falling Apart. Reznor himself received a "Music Consultant" credit for the film.
The Machinist's writer Scott Kossar is a fan of Nine Inch Nails, and named Christian Bale's character Trevor Reznik in tribute to Reznor. Also, his original script had NIN lyrics on the first page, the promotional poster for the film has a backwards "N", and early press articles described Reznik as going through a "downward spiral".
*In Small Soldiers, just as one of the soldiers is about to fire the nail gun, he shouts "Hey kid, don't you like Nine Inch Nails?".
*In Class of 1999 (1990), during the scene featuring phone conversation between Cody and Hector, "Head Like a Hole" is being played on the radio in Razorheads' head-quarter.Television
*Several excerpts of various Nine Inch Nails songs have been used on episodes of the television shows CSI, Cold Case, The Sopranos, Homicide: Life on the Street, Criminal Minds, and Brotherhood [16].
*An episode of Muppets Tonight, a spin off of The Muppet Show, contained a performance by "Nine Inch Snails," an unpunctual musical group of snails dressed in "goth" apparel.
*During the raging war in former Yugoslavia in early 90s, Croatian national television used the intro to "That's What I Get" (most likely without permission) as background-music in a war-propaganda commercial - featuring Croatian territorial defense soldiers in combat.
*An MTV-produced documentary that covered making of Terminator 2, contained few excerpts from different remix-versions of "Head Like a Hole".Video games
*Being a huge fan of the game Doom, Reznor worked with id Software to create the soundtrack for Quake. In the game, ammunition crates for the nail gun have the "NIN" logo on them. Reznor later composed music and sound effects for id's Doom 3, although ultimately his efforts were replaced by other artists. The sound effects portion of Reznor's effort is available on the internet due to an earlier leak of the incomplete game.*Trent Reznor
*Nothing Records
*Marilyn Manson
*Faux Cyrillic
*ИOfficial sites
*Official site
*The Spiral - The official Nine Inch Nails fan clubMajor fan sites
* The NIN Hotline â€" A daily updated website that provides NIN related news.
* Echoing The Sound - Major NIN forum including NIN tour journal, related band discussion, and more.
* The Art of Self Destruction â€" A Nine Inch Nails archive.
* TheFragile.com â€" Source for news, photos, information, message board, and free email accounts.
