Category Archives: Trent Reznor

Guided by the blazing sun

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me: have you heard the new project from Trent Reznor?

Bonnie: no
good?
or bad?
i’m afraid bad…

me: It sounds almost identical to another NIN song…just can’t place it.

Bonnie: ohhh
well
hmmm

me: but…it’s his new wife on vocals

Bonnie: she’s hot

me: with music that sounds just like NIN…which is great but just rubs me funny.

Bonnie: yea

me: she is hot…no question.

Trent married an alien from Mars’ Bai Ling Tribe who goes by the name of Mariqueen Maandig. Mariqueen used to be in the band West Indian Girl, but now that she’s fucking on Trent’s nine inch (I hope) nail, she doesn’t need to sing for her supper anymore.

-Michael K (dlisted.com)

My first thought when I heard Trent Reznor’s new project, How To Destroy Angels, was: “The music sounds great, but the vocals, well the vocals just don’t fit.”

I wondered who this amateur vocalist could be.

Mariqueen Maandig Reznor. Trent’s wife…and she’s no amateur.

Mariqueen was a vocalist for the band West Indian Girl for 5 year span starting in 2004.

Sounding a lot like the Beach Boys on acid, Californian West Indian Girl is the pop answer to the Flaming Lips or Pink Floyd. The band is even named after a well-known strain of powerful LSD.


Download West Indian Girl – Leave Tonight

And then there is this new project for Trent and Mariqueen Reznor. How To Destroy Angels, or HTDA for short. The group also includes Atticus Ross, a past collaborator on Nine Inch Nails stuff as well as a remixer/producer/musician/programmer on many different projects including the Coheed & Cambria’s “Year of the Black Rainbow” and the musical score to The Book Of Eli.In a facebook discussion, the group answered some questions from fans…well…fans of NIN at least. Trent answered one question about what How To Destroy Angels allows Trent to do that he couldn’t do with Nine Inch Nails besides having a different vocalist.

Yes, it sounds more NIN-ish than I believe it will as we progress. To me, HTDA frees me from some of the constraints I’ve begun to feel (primarily emotionally) in NIN.
NIN is not dead and I am about to work on some material that I believe will be quite different than previous NIN very soon.

Fair enough, and I am not complaining, I love the “sound” of NIN. I just don’t get why we care about this new vocalist. (She’s hot tho…) The song sounds like an outtake from the album Ghosts or The Fragile. It even sounds a lot like the song The Fragile in my opinion.


Download Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile


Download How To Destroy Angels – A Drowning

If you think you can do better, Trent has made the multitracks for the HDTA song above and the video below available via remix.nin.com

Bonnie: here’s my issue
gotta re-listen
but her voice isn’t that awesome
it’s good
sufficent

me: yeah
absolutely
it’s very much just ok

Bonnie: i would rather hear a trip hop artists singing it
something raspy and sweet at the same time?
or maybe someone wth a french accent

me: i was gonna put in the post…if I can find the instrumentals to this song I bet I could do better.

Bonnie: hehe

Black Hole Sun, won’t you come?

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I thought Trent Reznor was just being mean and overly critical. He sent the following tweet after listening to Scream:

The album starts out with some sort of horrific trumpet fanfare and I am already cringing. wtfwtfwtfwtf is all I can think. Mookie is overjoyed because he has hated Chris Cornell ever since he took up with Rage Against the Machine members to form Audioslave. I, on the other hand, have remained faithfully devoted since Badmotorfinger in 1991. I was down with the whole Seattle thing and all the roles Cornell played in it. Screaming Trees. Temple of the Dog. Alice in Chains. SINGLES!


[Chris Cornell – Seasons]

If I should be short on words, and long on things to say…

The thing I have most loved about Cornell, other than his general hotness (swoon), is his impeccable gift of lyricism, as showcased above in one of his first solo efforts, from 1992’s movie soundtrack to “Singles”. So as I attempted to give track 1, “Part of Me”, a fair listen through my cringes and distorted facial expressions, I had hope that this song would start to make sense.

Alas, it is a hip hop song, and it’s not supposed to make any damn sense at all. So, it doesn’t.

I love the man. I support him in wanting to do something fun. Wouldn’t you make a record with Timbaland if you were given the chance? I just can’t fathom how he can call a track finished, and sign his name to it, when the lyrics read like the ecstasy-induced scattered thoughts of a clubgoer.

He considers the album “an interesting sociological experiment,” since people seem to be more concerned about who is making the music rather than the music itself.

Well… OK, I am trying to follow you here, but… I don’t. “Of those who are given much, much is expected.” That’s my rule, baby.

“That part’s kinda fun,” Cornell, 44, told Reuters in a recent interview. “If someone is up in arms about the idea of an artist that they really care about doing something that they just can’t believe, it begs that question, ‘Well, what is it that you would want? Would you then want predictable, comfortable salad that gets reproduced year after year?'”

“The Answer is: listen to Bad Religion and yes,” says Mookie.

The title track is a disaster. Since when does Chris Cornell have to be obvious with his lyrics? It makes me want to cry.


Take a minute to tell you now
Don’t have to raise my tone
Take the level and bring it down
I just want you to know
I got no trouble with what you said
I don’t even think you’re wrong
It’s how you say it
You lose your head
Girl I’m standing right in front of you

It’s a travesty. You may find it funny, Chris, but I adore you, and it’s not funny. There is one somewhat redeeming track on the album. I was able to enjoy “Enemy.” And look, the music on the album is really good, and I should add the disclaimer that I really don’t like present-day hip hop. This is probably a really enjoyable album for Timbaland faithfuls and others who don’t know what flannel is.

Check out “Enemy”:


[Chris Cornell – Enemy]

There are 15 tracks on this album. 15 tracks! I don’t think I can listen a second time. I’m sorry. I’m proud of you, Chris…I’m glad you are enjoying this. I’m just not there with you.

For $10, though, you might as well try the 15 track “Scream”. Listen to it and tell me what you think. And if you’re feeling nostalgic, or interested in what I loved back in the 90’s, you can check out some of the other grunge projects CC has participated in. And for God’s sake, get Singles.


Best of 2008: I feel a million miles away

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2007 was a damn good year for new music. It was propelled forward by some sort of momentous occasion in 2006 that seemed to save all of the genres. 2008 blew by quickly, though, and the albums put out were still burning the energy radiating from the year before. I don’t know that many albums could argue they were radiating their own light. I have actually had a hell of a time putting together a Top Ten.

A few of my favorites put out new albums this year, but those didn’t change the scene, they didn’t change music, and they didn’t top what they’d done previously… So, despite how many spins they got on my iPod, they still didn’t make my list.

3OH!3 Want was one of the best, and most consequential, albums of the year. We claimed it resurrected Hip Hop. These boys are so damn adorable they resurrected something.

The Matches A Band in Hope was a) better than their last album which was already damn good, b) better than anything else in their genre all year long, and 3) enough to make a giant hunk of thugness get jiggy while driving his SUV. That’s a good album.

Colour Revolt’s Plunder, Beg, and Curse, The Bravery’s The Sun and the Moon Complete, and Murder By Death’s Red of Tooth and Claw were also some of the best albums of the year. These albums contributed to rock music in their own ways, whether it was proving that rock can translate to techno in an organic way and not just in the popular way club dj’s are doing it… proving that beards and southern rock are just barely getting started with their comebacks… or proving that three guitars and a drumset are not the only formula for a breathtaking live show. 2008 is better off for having these albums and these bands around.


Fasciination by The Faint was lauded by inAllcaps as “amazing” and “mind-blowing”. Thrice once again melted minds and limbs with the next installment in
The Alchemy Index, titled III and IV Air and Earth. And Death Cab for Cutie quietly and stealthily syncopated rhyme, rhythm, and reason with Narrow Stairs.

The Offspring, always one of my favorites, surpassed any of their previous albums combined in the ability to deliver that guitar that just makes my soul sing. Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace showed that they improve year by year and even though Splinter from 2003 was hard, smooth, and fuckyeah (yes it’s an adjective), RaF,RaG was light years better. THANK YOU OFFSPRING. I fucking love you.

But the best album of 2008 was Nine Inch Nail’s The Slip. How could it not be?

[Nine Inch Nails – 1,000,000]

Everything Trent Reznor puts out is impeccable. That is a lot to live up to. And there have been eight albums at my last count. He hasn’t slipped once. He has never failed to take on new challenges or rise beyond them. The Slip was even made available for digital download, free of charge.

“Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years — this one’s on me.”

Thank YOU, Trent. It. Kicks. Ass.

The official list from inALLcaps:

1. Nine Inch Nails: The Slip
2. 3OH!3: Want
3. Death Cab for Cutie: Narrow Stairs
4. Thrice: The Alchemy Index Vols III and IV Air and Earth
5. The Offspring: Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace
6. Colour Revolt: Plunder, Beg and Curse
7. The Matches: A Band in Hope
8. Murder by Death: Red of Tooth and Claw
9. The Faint: Fasciination
10.The Bravery: The Sun and Moon Complete