10.30.99
OK, so here's some stuff on NIN for today.
01.
Trent claims "Starfuckers, Inc." is a joke. As good as the song is, I always
thought it was a joke too. You can read in somewhat
damaged: about the new nin album... my objections to its inclusion
on the album. I didn't think it was appropriate for such a mature new album
to feature this track. It still doesn't fit in well, thematically or aesthetically.
That doesn't mean it doesn't segue well, it does. It just doesn't belong.
But we have to remember the real reason it was put on The Fragile:
to sell copies to idiots. Seriously, every person who wasn't a major NIN
fan already that I got to buy the CD came back and the first thing they
commented on was "Starfuckers, Inc.". Like that's the best song on there.
In a way, it's the worst. OK, it has funny lyrics, and they do make me
crack up. And the music is awesome, really does remind me of some of the
drum 'n' bass artists like Squarepusher and Plug that Trent Reznor is distributing
through his nothing records. But the song is just not very deep.
It shamelessly invokes a Carly Simon song. Sure I know it was only to help
add to the feeling of "betrayal" of the song. But come on, we all know
Trent is fully capable of writing his own music without ripping off another
artist (and leaving it totally uncredited, mind you. I wonder if Carly
Simon has heard this?). The song comes off kind of shallow and pretentious
too. Yes, I know the whole song was written to bash people who acted like
superstars and all that. But come on, Trent is just as guilty sometimes
of that as other people. We're all human. Trent made a nice quip about
Fred Durst in a magazine and although it was totally on target it was also
completely inappropriate. The apeish Fred took it very personally and dropped
from being a fan to being an enemy, making fun of Trent in the press and
at concerts. What the hell is the point of all that? Seriously. Trent,
your music is great but please be the respectful and classy individual
we all know you are.
02.
Reviews have begun to turn very mediocre. Trent planned ahead of time to
send literally only 6 copies of the album to music critics before the album
was released. This ensured very positive reviews prior to the fan's being
able to hear it. So everyone figured it was going to be a landmark album
of the '90s, a true classic, the double CD that would return music back
to the way it used to be. Nuh-uh. To quote NIN itself, "Not this time,
no, you don't." Seriously. Sad but true, and all that. OK, so 250,000 people
bought the album in its first week making it Trent's first #1 selling album.
Cool. But how many people bought it the next week? 90,000, dropping it
all the way down to #16, the biggest drop from #1 ever. Ouch. Guess no
one is down in it anymore, huh? Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining
about the new album. I love The Fragile and I am so glad it finally
came out. But who else cares? The kids don't like it, no no no, the kids
don't like it at all. A lot of kids haven't even heard the new single.
And certainly no one is talking about. Just what are they talking
about then? They go by the names of Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, Korn, Orgy,
Smashmouth, Blink 182, System Of A Down, Method Man, Sevendust, 311, Creed
and Bush. Sick sad world. Now that the album has been released it has continued
to get very good (but not perfect reviews because it's not all on one disc
- yea, people just don't get it, do they?) reviews. It has also garnered
a small handful of poor reviews. One recent review I heard about was written
by kids. They said they were "not depressed enough to like this stuff"
and gave it a 2 out of 5. These kids were high school seniors. What a bunch
of idiots. Another better review I read totally trounced the album. But
it was really well written and made some good points. They completely laughed
at the lyrics which I actually think are good. They did cite some somewhat
cliche lines which raised some good points as to whether or not Trent is
progressing as a writer. They also called the 2+ years it took to make
this album "self-indulgent", and that's actually pretty much true. But
it is Trent's album, why can't he indulge himself? I mean, seriously.
The years he's spent on making this album show. No one minds that there
are 64 layers of sounds in a song. In fact, that's the main reason people
like NIN. It is interesting and friggen innovative. If you
want simple music listen to 311. If you want music that is complex and
challenging, do yourself a favor and buy The Fragile and a damn
good pair of headphones, which brings me to my next point.
03.
WEAR HEADPHONES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You have not listened to this
album until you have listened to both discs in their entirety with headphones.
It is the ultimate experience. You will be totally sonically overwhelmed
and quite pleased with this great music. I know a girl, I won't say any
names but she'll probably read this anyway, that listened to the album
with bad sounding tiny computer speakers. And she couldn't even listen
to the whole thing. She said the album was "OK". ???????????????????????
Am I the only person that sees something wrong with this??? She's barely
even touched the album since she bought it. Still she thinks she knows
it well enough to say it's "only OK" and that she doesn't like it. She
claims she did listen to it once with headphones but I kind of doubt it.
She probably listened to like one disc of it with headphones as she did
her homework or something. Ugh.
04.
Dr. Dre all day, every day. According to SLS News, Trent is still working
with Dre on new music. Does that excite anyone else? Dre's new album, whatever
it's called, comes out this Tuesday after a hiatus even longer than NIN's,
7 years. Of course, like Trent, Dre has been involved with soundtracks,
compilations and production of other albums, just not his own.
05.
Programmed a few tracks off of The Downward Spiral and both discs
of The Fragile on my stereo today. My mom was around so I didn't
want to play anything, you know, rude. So just for fun I picked some of
the beautiful instrumentals and songs with no controversial lyrics. The
tracks I programmed: 1: A Warm Place - 2:
The Frail - 3: La Mer - 4: I'm Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally
- 5: Ripe (With Decay). OK, so I got through
the first three tracks before ny mom left to go somewhere. During "The
Frail" I told my mom she has two guesses as to what "band, oops, I mean
musician" she was listening to. Her first guess was "National Symphony
Orchestra" and I said no, and her second guess was "Boston Pops." So I
smiled and said it was Nine Inch Nails and she thought I was kidding. Just
a weird story, I guess...
more later, maybe....