When Filter mainman Richard Patrick went into rehab in 2002, it marked the end of the industrial-rock band’s rad second line-up. That means it’s been about a decade since the Filter that made Title Of Record (super classic!) and The Amalgamut (epic!), and since then jeez I haven’t caught sight of Patrick’s old team like at all. Which is surprising, cuz drummer Steve Gillis is a stud (here) and guitarist Geno Lenardo co-wrote this phase of Filter’s biggest (here) and biggest-selling jamz (here).
Friday, December 16th, 2011 at 12:40pm by Axl Rosenberg
Yesterday, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross were nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Score for their contribution to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo*; it’s their second nomination in as many years and would seem to suggest that the duo will probably get a second Oscar nod, too, although it’s not clear yet if they’ll be able to repeat the success of last year’s The Social Network. Still, pretty crazy to see the guy who once sang “I wanna fuck you like an animal” being all respectable n’ shit.
And since he is Mr. Respectable now, Reznor has granted a long interview to The Hollywood Reporter, a trade mag which I can’t imagine would have been interested in him even just a few years ago. But it’s a fun read, and they got some pretty good dish out of the dude — like the fact that he has no idea where his Grammy statuettes are:
Monday, December 12th, 2011 at 11:30am by Axl Rosenberg
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo score was released this past Friday, and I spent a good chunk of my weekend listening to it; I’m glad to report that, yes, it’s pretty fuckin’ great. But if, for some reason, you’re still not sold, here are two more things which will hopefully entice you:
Friday, December 2nd, 2011 at 11:00am by Axl Rosenberg
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoowas supposed to come out today… but I guess it’s been delayed for some reason, and now won’t come out until next Friday, December 9. That’s the poopy news. The good news is not only that the cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” that the duo recorded with Karen O. from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (and which appeared in the film’s first teaser trailer back in May) is now available on iTunes, but Reznor and Ross are giving away six tracks from the score for free download right now. Here are all the details, via a statement Reznor has posted on Nine Inch Nails’ official website:
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 at 12:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
And, according to Nine Inch Nails’ official website, that release date is December 2. Mute Records will release the album internationally, while Null will handle distribution in North America.
As fot the album art… It’s pretty sparse, but I’m digging it; bright white is not the color you’d usually associate with the character of Lisbeth Salander, but her simple, stark, silhouetted image seems all the more striking for being presented in such an unexpected manner. It almost feels like an x-ray without being an x-ray; it’s that extreme of a vibe. Check it out below and see what you think…
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011 at 11:00am by Axl Rosenberg
Nine Inch Nails may be done as a touring band, but it lives on as a recording project — which makes sense, since it’s really just Trent Reznor, and pretty much anything he does, be it How to Destroy Angels or film scores, sounds like NIN. So, um, yeah.
Nine Inch Reznor’s latest release is a cover of “Zoo Station” from U2′s last good album, Achtung Baby. The good news is, Reznor did not make a rote re-recording of the original song, and instead attempted to put his own unique spin on the material. The bad news is, the results are actually kind of boring, if not at all terrible. It’s interesting to note that his version of the tune is a full two minutes longer than the original; I guess Reznor felt like he really, really need extra time for all the semi-ambient computer noise.
Nine Inch Nails’ cover of U2′s “Zoo Station” is part of Q magazine’s tribute to Achtung Baby, which you can stream here.
Friday, October 14th, 2011 at 5:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
Friendly reminder: as of RIGHT THIS SECOND, the legendary Richard Christy from Death, Iced Earth, Control Denied, and, oh yeah, The Howard Stern Show, is at the MetalSucks/Vertebrae 33 booth at New York Comic Con signing copies of Charred Walls of the Damned‘s ridiculously rocking new album, Cold Winds on Timeless Days, which is out NOW on Metal Blade Records. He’ll be there ’til 7 pm, so there’s still time for you to hop on a bus, subway, or in a cab and get your ass down there — we’re booth #2625. Myself and/or Vince are also there now, and will be there tomorrow and Sunday, too, and we may have some other special guests in store for you yet. So come on by, pick up some free swag courtesy of Indie Merch and Metal Blade, hang out, whatever. It’ll be a blast! Get all the details here.
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011 at 12:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
The people who make movie trailers are some of the smartest filmmakers in Hollywood, so they figured out a long time ago that using Nine Inch Nails’s oh-so-very cinematic music to sell your action movie is a way smart move, even if Trent Reznor isn’t actually scoring your film (see: 300). And when (ahem) assembling the new teaser for Marvel’s highly anticipated The Avengers, one of those smarties was like “Oh hey, Nine Inch Nails totally have a song about being, like, unified and stuff, and we should use that!” And that smarty was right, because it works, and it makes the movie look that much more awesome… even if there’s another superhero movie coming out next summer which about which I am way more excited.
The Avengers is in theaters May 4, 2012. Nine Inch Nails’ The Fragile has been out for, like, over ten years, dummy.
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 at 12:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
Mouth Taped Shut, a viral site created to promote the upcoming English-language film adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, debuted a video about the manufacturing of the movie’s posters last night, and while that’s not very interesting (at least to me), the inclusion of even more of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ film score certainly is. Check it out below.
And lemme just say that I know I’ve been babbling on and and on about this score a lot, but, uh, can ya blame me? It’s only aspect of the film that’s pretty much guaranteed to be interesting. Director David Fincher is pretty brilliant, but I haven’t been too keen on his last couple of films, and I’ve tried reading Stieg Larsson’s book multiple times now, and I keept giving up — ’cause despite selling endless amounts of copies, I’m sorry to say, the story telling is pretty poor. But at the very least, Reznor music is always provocative.
There’s still no word on the soundtrack’s release date, but presumably it will be sometime before the movie’s December 21 opening.
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011 at 2:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
Because film scores are generally one of the last aspects of a movie to be completed (makes sense when you think about it — scoring a film is a very precise science, and it’s pretty much impossible to do correctly until the film is completely edited), and because marketing for a film needs to begin months in advance of its release, movie trailers often use temp music that’s either from another movie (e.g., Hans Zimmer’s score for Crimson Tide, which was in seemingly every action movie trailer during the 90s) or was written just for the trailer and will never be used again (like Zack Hemsey’s awesome “Mind Heist” music for the Inception trailer).
But I guess director David Fincher got his shit together fast, ’cause apparently the music in the new trailer for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (below) is from the actual score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. It’s not hard to believe, either — if I hadn’t been told that it was real Reznor/Ross material, I’d have to compliment whomever composed it on doing a bang-up job of imitating that duo’s signature sound. Check it out and see what you think… sounds pretty intense to me:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes out at Christmas. There’s no official release date for the score yet, but presumably it will be sometime in the week or two prior.
Monday, September 19th, 2011 at 4:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
The thing about Ministry is, sure, they were innovative, and sure, their live show has a lot of cool lights and effects and shit, but I think their music gets real boring real fast. It falls under the category of “too much of the same too quickly.” To give a recent example: Remember that single “Lies, Lies, Lies” from 2006′s Rio Grande Blood? Catchy fucking song, but I was shocked to learn that it’s just barely over five minutes long — ’cause it’s just the same thing, over and over and over again, and consequently feels like it’s an hour. And their whole catalog is basically like that. I remember when Al Jourgensen insulted Trent Reznor as just some Ministrwannabe back in the day, thinking, “Well, if you ever write a song as good as ‘Head Like a Hole’ or ‘Hurt,’ you might sell that many records, too.”
That being said, you do have to give Jourgensen and company their spot in history… and director Douglas Freel’s new documentary about the band, Fix: The Ministry Movie, does look like a lot of fun. Besides covering the project’s entire history, it features interviews with Reznor (!) and Maynard James Keenan, who, in the trailer below, is, I think, but I’m not positive, is making a reference to the abandoned Tapeworm project he had with Reznor.
ANYWAY, here’s the trailer. The movie is gonna be doing four screenings (at least so far) this month and next month across the U.S.; get the screening schedule after the jump.
How could they—how could they do this?! And to you of all people—
You, who so loyally downloaded each of their album leaks; you, who mobbed them outside their tour bus to plug your band they didn’t want to hear about at 1:45 in the morning; and, of course, you, who left an elitist comment on an MS thread about how KVLT they used to be and how nothing they’ve done recently is worth a damn—What nerve!
Bands change, and as human beings we’re hardwired to resist that. But deep down, in our own girly, paradoxical way, we sort of look for it, too. Ambivalence aside, if you were to investigate the primary reasons as to why the majority of the groups you like head south (not on tour), it would likely come down to the fact that they did actually change things. What you thought wasn’t broken they tried to fix anyway and now you’re left with an annoying buzz and a whole bunch of spare parts.
We go about saying “oh that band ‘sold out’” or “they used to be good, but now they’re just a bunch of pussycats.” But that’s not really all that descriptive. Music nerds love to complain, not explain, and maybe that’s the problem here. In this series we will explore the leading factors in a band’s artistic decline and examine just why it is that your rock gods of yester-year are now the radio slobs you can’t bear to hear.
Metal Insider‘s Bram Teitelman just keeps bringing it with the golden oldies of embarrassing “before they were famous” videos; this chili dog commercial starring Cinderella and this ad for Warrant’s 1-900 number were bonafide gems. Where does he find this stuff? I’m convinced Bram just sits at home on YouTube all night scrolling through search pages for “metal ’80s funny” until he strikes paydirt. Oh, he actually found this via The Daily Swarm? Nevermind.
Today’s laugher comes courtesy of one-time goth idol Trent Reznor, who apparently wasn’t always so dark and angry. Here’s a video of him covering Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face” with a band called The Urge in the early-mid ’80s Cleveland club scene. THAT SHIRT! THAT HAIR! Trent’s always been forward-thinking and “with it” as far as technology goes, but I’ll bet today he wishes YouTube were never invented.
Thursday, August 11th, 2011 at 10:30am by Axl Rosenberg
The official website for David Fincher’s new cinematic adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (not to be confused with Niels Arden Oplev’s adaptation of the same novel) launched yesterday afternoon, and with it came the first samples of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score for the film (much as they debuted their score for The Social Networkvia that film’s website). No shock — it’s kinda drone-y and very cool. Check it out below:
You may recall that a Reznor and Rossified cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song,” featuring vocals by Karen O. from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, has already debuted in the movie’s trailer. You can check that out here.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes out December 21. Presumably, the score will be released sometime beforehand.
This doesn’t really have anything to do with metal, but I found it kinda funny so I’m running with it.
A Scottish band called Found has released what is, at least as far as I’m aware, the first-ever edible 7″ — more specifically, a 7″ made from chocolate. According to Badass Digest‘s Devin Faraci (who came up with a headline far superior to my own):
“The first attempt was to pour chocolate over a pressed record, but the music created by the chocolate record was backwards. Instead they poured chocolate into the record mold, and presto, an edible single.”
I don’t know nearly enough about, like, science n’ shit to understand how this could possibly work, or what the band’s fans are supposed to do if they actually wanna keep the record, be it because they like the music, or because they think it’s gonna be a collector’s item, or whatever. (How easily would this thing melt? You’d have to at least keep it refrigerated, I’d imagine.)
I would, however, like to suggest that metal bands start trying this gimmick to sell their own shit. Of course, they would not necessarily have to use to chocolate. Here are some examples of what I think would be good cuisine-to-band matches:
Trent Reznor has been talking about doing a Year Zero television series on HBO for so long that, frankly, I had pretty much given up on the thing ever happening. But I guess Trent is a persistent dude — and that Oscar win probably didn’t hurt his ability to get shit done — so now the proposed series is taking a serious step towards becoming a reality: Jim Uhls, who was credited with writing the screenplay for the film version of Fight Club, has been hired to script the show, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The new red band (read: NSFW) trailer for David Fincher’s cinematic adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s everyone-but-me-has-read-it international bestseller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is out in the world. And, holy shit, someone filmed it on their cell phone because they were so desperate to share it and/or watch it on a loop that they couldn’t be bothered to wait until it officially appears online later this week. This is the world which we now inhabit.
ANYWAY, the trailer is of interest to the metal community because a) as you probably already know, Oscar-winning composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are scoring the film, and b) the trailer features a cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” recorded by Reznor and Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs. It seems safe to assume that Ross probably had more than a little something to do with the track, too, but Ross still doesn’t get any credit for all the work he does (check out the documentary about the making of the music for The Social Network on that film’s DVD if you want to get a better sense of how vital he has become to shaping Reznor’s sound), so as of yet he involvement hasn’t been officially confirmed.
Check out the trailer/song below. Hopefully a better version will turn up online soon.
Welcome to the latest edition of “Freeloader” in which we review albums that you don’t have to feel like a douche for downloading for free. Today Axl Rosenberg checks out From Exile’s latest release…
Any band considering making a covers album, let alone a tribute album to one particular band, should be made to listen to From Exile’s new, 100% free Nine Inch Nails cover EP, Just Like You Imagined. These aren’t just rote retreads that make you think “Oh yeah, I love this song!” before shutting it off and digging out the originals. Nor are they ill-conceived drek which utilizes the originals’ lyrics and little else. They’re bona fide reimaginings of the original material, wholly recognizable as the Nine Inch Nails classics we love, but From Exile have never failed to put their own stamp on the tunes.
I’ll be flying solo for much of next week as Vince and Kip head down to Austin for SXSW and I stay behind to ensure you are as irritated as possible. Won’t you come back and learn some more with me?
Friday, March 11th, 2011 at 11:00am by Axl Rosenberg
When word got out that Academy Award Winner Trent Reznor would be working on the upcoming film adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, some of us fans were understandably a little bummed. For one thing, FUCK VAMPIRES, and for another, for Reznor to follow-up working on back-t0-back film projects with the makers of Fight Club, No Country for Old Men, Schindler’s List and The West Wing with a project being made by the dude who made a movie about how bullets don’t have to fly in a straight line and Angelina Jolie’s ass, well… it felt kinda like Trent disbanding Nine Inch Nails to go join Orgy.
Well, hey, guess what? Turns out Trent isn’t working on that movie after all, in any capacity. Here’s the explanation he gave on the official NIN message boards:
