i found this classic at a tiny record store in San Francisco today.
it's one-sided. one 6:50 track of French disco house dance perfection. etched into the opposite side are the song's main lyrics:
MUSIC SOUNDS BETTER WITH YOU LOVE MIGHT BRING US BACK TOGETHER
i don't even know what to say about the actual song.
four on the floor with a thump of a bass we now expect from Daft Punk. delicious guitar/synth sample from a 1981 Chaka Khan hit. liquid lyrics, straight to the point. a decade later, on Alive 2007, it still killed.
I need to say something about Sonic Youth, anything. It's hard to be at all concise about a band this great, but let me try.
First, they are the greatest band in the universe. They join The Beatles, who've mastered pop, Pavement, who've mastered their own style of suburban pop, the Stones, who've mastered rock (and its ego), and certainly others you can come up with, bands which never disappoint, which always do something new but discernible.
Second, in a 30 year existence, there is no weak album. Some I admit I haven't fully "gotten" yet, but it's obvious the potential is there. I've heard the usual love-of-dichotomy "SY is split on a continuum between artsy noise and hard-rock songs," but there is so much more than that. There is always ambience, and there is always some kind of melody. The rhythms are pronounced (sometimes the rhythms are the melodies), and there's almost always some kind of "noise," an all-encompassing term if ever there was one.
Mostly what I would like is for others to notice how fucking amazing this band can be, a hard task, admittedly. Their discography is huge, and ambient noise isn't always the easiest thing to notice, even if sometimes the songs are clearly in the pop form or the melodies are highly pronounced (Teenage Riot, anyone?) And while every album is indeed unique, at distant listens they all sound the same. And consider that every critic and fan out there has their own opinions about which is the best album. How diverse is their discography?
2000's NYC Ghosts & Flowers is pure ambient, while 1992's Dirty is a Butch Vig-produced noise/grunge fest (they're both wonderful). Their first 1982 album is no-wave. Their second, 1983, is ambient noise rock (check out the Stooges cover and the lyrics to Confusion is Next). 1988's Daydream Nation is about as catchy as they can get, while 1998's A Thousand Leaves is about as laid-back as they can get. I could go on. I used to think Thousand Leaves was my favorite, but really it's just my first vinyl fetish and the first SY that I truly got into, opening up this wonderful world. I could always go for parts of Washing Machine, Confusion is Next, Dirty, and of course, shuffling through the entire discography.
And so to close, if there is any doubt about the ever-constant strength of this band, listen to a song from each album:
1982 S/T: I Dreamed I Dream 1983 Confusion is Next: Freezer Burn/I Wanna Be Your Dog 1985 Bad Moon Rising: Death Valley '69 1986 EVOL: Shadow of a Doubt 1987 Sister: Schizophrenia 1988 Daydream Nation: Teenage Riot 1990 Goo: Kool Thing 1992 Dirty: JC 1994 Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star: Sweet Shine 1995 Washing Machine: Little Trouble Girl (or Unwind...) 1998 A Thousand Leaves: Snare, Girl 2000 NYC Ghosts & Flowers: Nevermind (What Was It Anyway) 2002 Murray Street: Sympathy for Strawberry 2004 Sonic Nurse: I Love You Golden Blue 2006 Rather Ripped: Jams Run Free 2009 The Eternal: Massage the History
it has always been about the live experience with this band. before i fell into The Downward Spiral, before i touched The Fragile or Pretty Hate Machine, there was And All That Could Have Been and nothing else.
i've come to realize that my main criterion for judging music is sincerity. i don't care if you sound like death metal or like a guy dragging a tipped over ice cream truck or something in between: as long as what you're doing is making you happy, as long as you are making music that you love, then i love it too. and what better test is there for sincerity than a live demonstration?
if you watch that video, you'll see NIN performing the usual two first songs of their Fragility Tour shows, "Terrible Lie" and "Sin." and, in less than ten minutes, you'll see the energy, the love, the destruction, the emotion, the absolute fucking sincerity of Trent Reznor performing his music.
sure, he's wearing a mask of cornstarch and makeup and, whatever, the videos are not actually complete performances, instead composed of patched up clips from ten different shows, but these things don't make Trent seem any less sincere. what's really important is how much detail goes into each performance. notice every flash of lighting, perfectly matched up with a synth or drum break. notice the structure of the bandmembers on stage, like a pentagon: bassist, front left. keyboardist, back left. guitarist, front right. drummer, back right. Reznor, center stage. five musicians with the main man at the front leading the charge. beyond that, there's the obvious stuff. the whole band headbanging like they fucking mean it (take a look at 4:30-4:50, in particular... those 20 seconds practically taught me how to headbang). you don't headbang the whole song, goddamnit, you wait until that shit breaks, and you follow the dynamics closely. this is a science. then at 5:10, there's that fucking lighting again. a guy playing a theremin. strobe lights. the usual, the weird, the greatness.
but i'm not posting this just to talk about And All That Could Have Been, although that album and all of its distinct parts (CD/DVD/Still) certainly deserve their own posts. this is the Nine Inch Nails live experience. and though they are all created equal in awesomeness, they are not all the same.
it used to be a lot messier. NIN's Woodstock 1994 performances are famous because, just minutes before going on stage, the band got into a fun little mud fight backstage, making for quite the picture-perfect look onstage:
there are legends that tell of performances on the Spiral tours in 94-95, in which, sick of sitting in bloody fucking SEATS at a Nine Inch Nails show, rabid fans tore apart whole rows and sections of seats, ripping them straight out of the ground. whether those stories are true or not, there's plenty of evidence on Closure, the documentary of that tour, that the band caused enough destruction themselves to not even warrant the extra legends. check out the trailer for Closure for a peak into the madness:
a few years later, things got toned down a little bit on the Fragility tour, which i've already talked a little bit about above. Trent was still doing a shit ton of drugs, but he was destroying himself more than hotel rooms (oh, fragile Trent) and focusing his madness more on the visual experience than on anything else.
and that ended the era that i would never get to see because i was too young.
when i finally got into the band, Nine Inch Nails didn't really exist. it was 2003 or so, And All That Could Have Been was three years in the past and the last thing Trent had said was inscribed as a little message in that DVD's packaging:
just a glimpse
just a little reminder
of a time and place we
used to live in
this dvd attempts to
document the
experience of
nine inch nails live,
as we were in the
summer of 2000
we filmed and recorded
most of the dates of
the north american
fragility 2.0 tour
with home video cameras
then assembled
mixed and edited this
ourselves with our
home computers
in my eyes
fragility 2.0
was a summation of
what we had
accomplished up to
that time so this dvd
serves as a reminder
of achievement
as well as
a departure point
this is almost what
it felt like being there
trent reznor
i read this little message often, perhaps too often, and almost cried every time i read that last line, because i was certain that the DVD would be all i could ever have. i would only ever have "almost what it felt like."
with 2005 came new hope (sort of), when NINdom found out that Trent barely made it alive through a hefty battle with alcohol, cocaine, and heroin addiction. next came news of a new album. i said "new hope (sort of)" because when i heard the first new NIN song in 6 years--"The Hand That Feeds"--i instantly knew that the Reznor who had composed songs like "Terrible Lie," "Mr. Self Destruct," and "Somewhat Damaged" was a changed man now.
he would be clean, sharp, and productive as shit.
it took stoned Trent ten years to release 3 studio albums and 1 ep. it took sober Trent three years to release 4 studio albums. ridiculous. and though i'll agree that the quality of the music decreased, i can't say the same about the live experience. though i never truly experienced a pre-With Teeth show, i think i landed on the same heavenly cloud of musically energetic paradise that existed in those early years. though he may not be able to make music like he could back then, he can still play it like he used to.
i still remember the exact date the first time i saw NIN the first time: March 25, 2005. it was that time of year where my allergies start picking up, and when they pick up, so does my asthma. but fuck it. i was seeing motherfucking NIN in a tiny auditorium on the uc davis campus. i had moaned for this for too long. he opened with The Frail --> The Wretched. it was a dream come true. i screamed the whole night and nearly rushed the barricade when he started singing Piggy. i killed myself at that show.
the next day i was sick as shit, but it didn't matter. i could fucking die for all i cared because i had finally seen Nine Inch Nails live. i didn't die. i went to my computer and downloaded a bootleg of the show and listened to it nonstop for days, sick in bed. the song "With Teeth," in particular, with its soft, soothing, brutal refusal to let go of life, struck me so hard.
i was in love.
i proceeded to see NIN four more times that year: twice in the next month (two days in a row in San Francisco at a small venue called the Warfield, once with a bunch of friends and once by myself because none of my friends were as psycho as I was), once in November at the huge Oakland Arena, and once in December at a smaller venue in Santa Cruz.
the Oakland show was the one.
the show had originally been planned for an earlier date, about a month earlier, but the drummer at the time, Jerome Dillon, had repeatedly called in sick. Trent got pissed, got a new drummer, made a new date, and made it up to us more than we could have possibly imagined. Adam and i got to the venue before noon and we were still about 50 people back. we waited all day, hearing about how at other shows Trent had let NIN fan club members in for meet & greets and/or soundchecks. we got the latter. everyone casually walked into the venue as NIN was right there on stage, in broad daylight, like any other band, rocking out to Into the Void. and even when they were just playing for sound levels, they were having a good time. sincerity.
the actual show destroyed me and actually destroyed Adam. he hadn't eaten enough during the day and hardly enjoyed the show because he was dying. i didn't need food that night. firmly planted on the barricade, my arms, firmly planted on the band, my eyes, dazzled, firmly planted on the music, my mind. the light show, unlike any other NIN show (nay, any other show, by anyone) that i had every seen, was phenomenal. and they weren't just rehashing the same old shit over and over. i think Trent got sick of playing same old Closer, so he remixed it with a song from Pretty Hate Machine, "The Only Time." and it worked beautifully. check out the switch around 2:50.
i even got to experience that shit i saw on And All That Could Have Been, where in the middle of "Piggy," Trent hands the mic to a bunch of fans in front so they could sing. a few people around me and i caught a thrown microphone from Trent in the middle of "Suck" and belted out the lyrics like it was the last song in the universe. the light show was stellar, the whole band was feeling it, movement, movement, motion, motion, madness, madness, music music music music music music. i wanted to die (again).
and so it went.
in the summer of 2006, i saw NIN at Mountain View with my dad. another great show, and the second time a parent of mine attended a NIN show with me. (the first was in Oakland, but my mom and little brother were in the seats while i was at the barricade with Adam... not everyone likes getting to shows nine hours early.)
a year ago was the first time i took a girlfriend to a Nine Inch Nails show. i thought it would suck. for years, i had witnessed boyfriends have miserable times trying to defend their little girlfriends, half the time fighting with everyone around them instead of making love to Trent. thank god, Meryl and i got to the show ballsass early, like Adam and i in 2005, and we got barricade, once again. protecting the girl was hardly a problem.
the show itself, of course, was amazing. it got interactive again, too. to go along with the Year Zero theme, security-style cams displayed everyone at the barricade in our section on giant screens in the arena during "Survivalism." so silly, but so fun.
my favorite part of this show was the Ghosts breakdown. of all of NIN's new releases, Ghosts is the best. it's experimental and instrumental and glorious sound manipulation, which is all music is. oh, and it feels sincere. at the show, the band replicated a few songs off the album with upright bass and xylophones and all sorts of strange instruments i don't know the names of. oh yeah, and the lighting ruled, of course.
i saw Nine Inch Nails for the eighth and (supposedly) last time two nights ago. and i've concluded a few things: Trent loves music, NIN still rocks, and Trent loves music. over the course of the night he had a bunch of his friends, influences, and more come on stage to play music with him over the course of the 31-song and 2.5 hour set. they included Gary Numan, Eric Avery of Jane's Addiction, Greg Puciato from Dillinger Escape Plan, and Danny Lohner, the bassist from the Fragility tour. in the following video, Mike Garson, who was David Bowie's keyboardist back in the day and played those insane arpeggios on The Fragile for "Just Like You Imagined," made an appearance to add some piano mischief to the standard NIN repertoire.
i was stunned. and almost died (once again).
also, i'd be stunned if you actually read this whole thing. i just wanted to express how important the Nine Inch Nails live experience has been to me over the years and how, i'm sure, it will continue to be important to me for the rest of my life.
probably for a very long time, i will continue to say that a mass of people ebbing to Nine Inch Nails performing "Terrible Lie" live is probably the best possible thing that anybody can ever experience. i will compare all light shows to NIN's light shows. i will compare all bands' endurances to the endurance of a band that can rock and rock hard for well over 2 hours. every night. i will compare the dedication of other musicians' fans to the dedication of NIN fans who line up before the sun starts rising just for a barricade spot. at every show. i will compare the recording policies of other bands to NIN's policies, which strictly demand that everyone bring an HD camera and sturdy tripod to the show for the best quality possible. and, more than anything, i will compare your favorite musician's sincerity to the sincerity of Trent Reznor, who bleeds the stuff from his fucking eyes and throat.
last night, after watching an epic triple feature with Mark (Kill Bill, Vol. 1 -- The Holy Mountain -- Kill Bill, Vol. 2), i was driving home exceedingly high around 5am. earlier in the day, i had taken my ipod out of the car because it was dead and had also somehow managed to remove all the music from my iphone. so i was left to choose between Adam's 2008 summer mix and the radio. i had been listening to the mix earlier in the day, so i switched over to the radio, trying to pick up whatever i could. what could i pick up?
that's right. WILD NINETY FOUR NINE, THE BAY AREA'S PARTY STATION. anyway, whatever they were playing pleased me enough for the short car ride home, so i left it. when that song ended, though, "It Was a Good Day" came on. and it kicked my ass to the curb. i know i've heard this song a couple times back in the day, but it must've floated out of my memory at some point. well, it came back and it came back so good.
rapping over a 1977 slow jam called "Footsteps in the Dark" by The Isley Brothers, Ice Cube only needs 4 minutes and 20 seconds to make you feel as good as he does. except he doesn't make the same mistake of interrupting the jam to coo high-pitched love lines... he just lets it play right on through until the end of the song.
and by the end of the song, your ears will be begging for the beat to be brought back.
in the meantime, Ice Cube lets you know how he feels: pretty goddamn good. for solid reasons too: mama made a good breakfast, cops didn't give a shit that he ran a red light, he fucked a girl he's had an eye on since high school, he's stoned, he's drunk (didn't puke though), and, to top it all off:
"today i didn't even have to use my AK. i gotta say it was a good day."
who the fuck rhymes "AK" with "good day?" a man who feels good, that's who. take me there, man.
Last night, i went to a farwell party put on for me, by my music club I am a part of over here in Japan. My good friend who is in the club who speaks very decent english, gave me this cd as a thank you/goodbye present. As she gave it to me, she mentioned that the members of the band used to go to our college, and were a part of the same circle we were all in. I also recieved another cd by a more current group that had recently graduated.
Anyways, this cd is excellent from the first listen. even though I hate it I will go for it: if Can made a band Air, had a japanese girl singer at times, and were super mellow and driving. Its a stretch I know, and rather pointless, but go for that idea, maybe. This mini-lp, as its called, is one 35.2 minute track split up into five parts, but never truly stops. Its got great mellow but moving basslines, upbeat up simple drumming, athmospheric singing at times, sweepingly simple accordians, and tactfull guitars. There are also some bells and pianos in there. and some quiet spoken words. The layers pile up at times, but its great. A guitar part that is minmally used in part one is brought to the front more, in part 5, and a little in almost every part actually. besides that, its a fun ride. long delays on the vocals, and lost of echo on everything. this album will fill the entire room. its got that warm feeling to it.
i'd recommend listening to it at night in the car. or on the cpu while working or surfing the inetrnet. but then again, thats how I listen to all of my music, so who knows when you will like it best. I feel as if the album could be twice as long and just as interesting, but thats just me. I love the cover of the album, and that they dont look so serious, and that they are in the woods.
its summertime here in japan. the rain has for the most part stopped. the humidity is.... well slightly less than its soup-iness of months past. and its time to listen to belle and sebastian again. i have a love hate relationship with this band. I am sorry to admit that, but i can only listen to this band when i really feel like being a bright sun-shinny individual. other times, i just find the stuart's voice annoying and it silly pop music. i know this is truly telling you more about me than the music, but I cannot describe how good it feels to walk to school, in the warm sun, and to hear this band in my ears. I just randomly started thinking about this band on the way to school. some song of 'the life pursuit' and i hadn't listened to it in about 7 months. and it felt so fresh and new and warm and happy and oh my goodness it felt so good.
me: "i really feel like listening to the life pursuit today" tori (smirking and with great half serious disdain):" its ALWAYS the life pursuit in my car..."
what else needs to be said. its making me dream of love and beautiful girls. for some reason this music and them are one in the same in my mind. thank you summer. thank you stuart.
I apologize for the youtube video. This is all I could find.
Yesterday night, for some reason I decided to youtube "Codeine". The only song that attracted my attention was a song that I knew about a few months ago which they wrote for a 6 x 7" box compilation set called "Endangered Species".
I'm pretty sure this is hard to find, which is why it took me so long to realize this song even existed.
As all Codeine songs, they're hard, but soft yet somewhat noisy and slow hence the genre I feel they pioneered, "slowcore".
It starts off with a couple of riffs that makes you think you're about to listen to a badass upbeat rockin' song, but all of a sudden the crashing drums with a dragging bass and feedback from the guitar comes in and it transforms into a sluggish song. The nasally voice of Stephen Immerwhr comes in with the lyrics.
Lyrics (excerpt):
There's a castle in her heart The walls go up for miles
There's a tower You can see everything But she shows you nothing
Every time I hear this song I think of Beni Bischof's Castle series.
Particularly this picture:
If you listen to the lyrics and look at the photo; it fits perfectly.
So simple.
This castle. No bridges. No windows. No light inside. Just a massive brick building in the middle of nowhere.
