Year Zero

Scott Hardie | June 3, 2007
Any NIN fans have opinions on the new album yet? (I'm pretending that I don't already know one author is a fan.)

Me, I'm grateful to have it as a birthday gift from a friend, and I like it after the first few listens so far. Before it came out, I was apprehensive when I heard how dense the concepts in this "concept" album would be. Reznor created a complicated mythology for it, and I don't much like when musicians do that, because it tends to distract them from what interests me most, the music. But in terms of the music, each NIN album so far has been a quantum leap ahead of the one before it, and I believe this one can continue the trend.

Erik Bates | June 3, 2007
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | June 3, 2007
I can understand that attitude, because I used to think of it the same way. I thought NIN was only liked among the goths at my high school because it was dark, transgressive, and popular, not for its true merits. But some years later, on a driving trip across the country, a friend got me hooked on the first album Pretty Hate Machine, the one that avoided all the hype, and damn if I wasn't impressed with it musically. With most bands I barely notice the lyrics, and in NIN's case I have to notice a little because they can be so in-your-face, but I still care much more about the melody and composition, and this was really good stuff. I slowly proceeded through the other albums and loved each one. Some are full of pretty melodies and are easy to like at first (Downward Spiral and With Teeth), but others just seem like a wall of ugly noise and they take time to appreciate the buried layers (Fragile and seems like Year Zero). I haven't heard a bad album yet; even the bad songs are at least interesting. But I guess it doesn't help the non-fan perception that "he puts out shit and people love it" when most of the songs released to the radio as singles are not the good ones. Whoever chooses his singles for him has an odd strategy.

On Dave Matthews, though, I'm with you.

Erik Bates | June 3, 2007
[hidden by request]

Jackie Mason | June 3, 2007
[hidden by request]

Anna Gregoline | June 4, 2007
I'm breaking the first rule of this thread by posting when I am most definitely not a NIN fan. Every time I hear something new from Reznor, I think to myself, "He's putting out pure shit and people are eating it up simply because it's NIN."

I have to say, I'm a little baffled by this - people like what they like. I don't like NIN or Trent because it's trendy or it takes me back to when I was 15 or anything like that. I REALLY dig the music. So therefore, we ran out and bought YZ when it came out and it blew our minds cause we love it.

Brand new shift with this record - Trent is using "WE" instead of only "I" phrases - a shift in his writing. Lots of ideas in this one, it's so textured. I think this is what he was really working on when "With Teeth" was released. I like that album a LOT, but it's far more commercial.

I kind of giggle, too, no offense, when people reference NIN as a "band." It's Trent Reznor. That's it. The only musicians that help him out are for live tours (hardly ever the same musicians twice for each tour as well - the entire musical creation is his. There is no "they."

Scott Hardie | June 4, 2007
Erik, there are probably hardcore fans out there who could explain what his dense metaphors like that mean, but personally I don't really care any more than you do. I'm into it for the music. :-|

Erik Bates | June 4, 2007
[hidden by request]

Tony Peters | June 4, 2007
Honestly I have the first three CD's but I only really listened to and continue to listen to Pretty Hate Machine. I haven't heard the new album but if I hear something that sounds good I may pick it up. Right now Baby 81 BRMC's newest CD is in very heavy rotation for me.

Erik Bates | June 5, 2007
[hidden by request]

Anna Gregoline | June 5, 2007
I cannot defend much about Trent's lyrical content, he still writes mostly like he's 15. But. His latest album definitely has better lyrics than past ones.

Steve Dunn | June 5, 2007
I loved Pretty Hate Machine when I was in high school, and I've seen them live a couple times, but I've never listened to any other NIN album.

So I don't really have anything to add on that subject.

I'm posting to take a stand on behalf of Dave Matthews. What's the beef, people? Is it that you don't like his genre? That I can certainly understand, though I think it's a bit weak to slam an individual artist on that basis. I'm not a huge Dave Matthews fan, but I think the album "Under the Table and Dreaming" is fantastic and that Dave and his bandmates are extremely talented musicians.

It's certainly not for everyone, but I'm curious if there's any basis other than subjective preference (taste) to describe Dave Matthews' music as "pure shit."

Jackie Mason | June 5, 2007
[hidden by request]

Scott Hardie | June 5, 2007
Just subjective preference here. The only other thing I have against Matthews Band is that I've heard they don't play any of their hit songs in concert, only the lesser-known songs, out of some kind of vendetta against fairweather fans. But I've been suspicious of the veracity of that trivia since I first heard it.

I do enjoy seeing someone wearing a "DMB" logo prominently on their shirt. Always funny to people who don't recognize the initials.

Amy Austin | June 6, 2007
I think I've said it here somewhere before that I would marry Dave Matthews if he weren't already someone else's prize and it was even a possibility... and I don't care what anyone else thinks about that. I not only find him very attractive and interesting from a political/philosophical standpoint, but I agree with Steve that he and his band are an outstandingly talented group of musicians... and I'm not even a huge fan of the genre, either. So thanks, Steve, for coming to the defense of the tragically hip (right!) such as myself.

As for the original topic of NIN, I am not completely versed in much other than PHM, either -- but I also think that Reznor, whatever people might think of his lyrical abilities/lack of and/or his ego (I have heard that it's rather large), is also a very talented individual who puts out some excellent crossover/industrial music. I like nearly all NIN that I've heard.

Aaron Shurtleff | June 6, 2007
I was with NIN up until I saw the video for "Perfect Drug". I thought the video was too funny, and then I couldn't take Trent Reznor seriously. If you don't take NIN semi-seriously, the music doesn't do it for you (or at least not for me...) I haven't really heard anything recent though, so that's not saying much. Maybe things have gotten better.

I have no beef with DMB, except that they are one of those bands that "you have to see live to understand". The quote indicates that it is one of those bands that people say that about, but that I have found is no better in concert than on the albums. *shrug* Obviously, opinions differ! ;)

Steve Dunn | June 6, 2007
I guess I have a complicated history with DMB. They used to play at Duke all the time when I was in college, so at least once per semester I could count on seeing them at a party or playing on a quad somewhere. In those days, they were just the best band we ever saw at parties.

They released Under The Table And Dreaming in 1994, around my junior/senior year in college. The record was a revelation to everyone at Duke, I mean, we knew they were a fun band on the quad, but no one had any idea they could make an album that sounded so good. (You know how most CDs you pick up at club shows totally suck, even if the band is good?)

Anyway, next thing we knew, DMB were big stars. So then everyone loved them for a while because it was "cool" you know, because we were there first. Then came the backlash, when everyone who previously loved them began to hate them because everyone ELSE was loving them and it was all mainstream and no longer cool.

I bailed out of DMB for a while because their shows were always immensely crowded and usually hot (they played outdoor venues on their southern summer tours). I also never really got into any of their subsequent albums. I bought Crash but none of the others. Most of the band's songs, I guess, I've never even heard.

Always, along the way, I've had friends who were majorly seriously into DMB. I caught shows here and there but never made a special effort.

Then, a year or two ago I had an opportunity to see them play in Madison Square Garden. We had crappy, horrible seats - BEHIND the stage. It was cold. I was stressed. My expecations were low.

Blew. Me. Away.

Couldn't. Believe. It.

They were, hands down, the best rehearsed, tightest, most fluidly communicating band I'd hear that year, possibly in a few years. It's one of the best concerts I've ever seen. I still won't move mountains to see DMB, but I'll give them the props they deserve.

Then I saw them that summer in Charlotte and it was really hot and it sucked.

I know you're all thrilled to read my personal history with DMB.

Jackie, I find excessive fandom extremely annoying, too, but I don't think any band is immune to it. There are NIN dweebs running around, too.

Scott Hardie | June 6, 2007
I don't take NIN or Reznor seriously at all. Who can take seriously the lyrics that Erik quoted above? The goth hyperbole is silly, the post-apocalyptic anti-government mythology on the new concept album is silly, and yes, the video for "The Perfect Drug" (which he has said is among his weirdest, most uncharacteristic works) is silly. But that doesn't stop him from kicking ass.

Steve, I am thrilled to read your personal history with DMB. You give a solid explanation.

I can't help thinking of this.

Jackie Mason | June 7, 2007
[hidden by request]