13 posts tagged “nine inch nails”

I originally posted this to Facebook, but not everyone sees my Facebook. Also, as an added bonus, on Vox you can listen to songs from some of the albums I picked by going to my library:

http://dingle.vox.com/library/audio/

Anyway, this was not easy. Generally, I buy an album for two reasons:

a) I love the artist
b) I love a song (or a few) I've heard

There were a lot of artists who I love deeply that didn't make the Top 20 this year. The albums were good, but there were a surprising number of fantastic albums from bands I had never heard of before this year. Also, some of my lesser favourite bands put out solid albums this year. So Death Cab For Cutie, Nine Inch Nails, The Cure, Beck, Counting Crows, Conor Oberst, Hayden, Mercury Rev: try harder next time.

Then I had to decide my criteria. A greatest hits will never be included, because that's cheating... they're usually all the best bits of a band's career crammed into one and that's often hard to compete against. I was also unsure about letting the Au Revoir Simone album in as it's remixes, and the Flight Of The Conchords CD because it's a TV show soundtrack essentially. However, both were great little discs - and the Au Revoir Simone album opened me up to The Teenagers and James Yiull.

So this is my Top 20 Albums Of 2008 Assuming Nothing Else Comes Out That's As Good Between Now And Christmas. I do not apologise for any of them, but I do think you should buy them all at your earliest convenience.

1. Elephant Shell by Tokyo Police Club
From the second I heard 'Nursery, Academy' in the basement of a nearby Borders, I was hooked. Even if the Last.fm software is total arse and couldn't manage to scrobble every time I played this album, it spent a lot of time on rotation on my iPhone. 'Tessellate' is the sort of song I would dance to, if I could dance, and wasn't permanently embarrassed by myself.

2. The Hollow Of Morning by Gemma Hayes
The album came out in October, and has gotten a lot of plays since. It soundtracked both directions of a transatlantic flight and lots of journeys to work. That Gemma still isn't huge after three excellent albums is a huge disappointment, especially when this album stretches her sound to include more interesting arrangements, like the almost electro opening to 'At Constant Speed' - a song that somehow builds up to a Prince-esque synth riff. She's certainly my favourite female artist right now.

3. Oceans Will Rise by The Stills
While other members of the extended Broken Social Scene family came out to play this year (Brendan Canning, The Dears, Jason Collett), The Stills had them all beat with an album that straddled their first two while still veering off in its own direction - from the stately 'Everything I Build' to the hypnotic, driving 'Snakecharming The Masses'.

4. Volume One by She & Him
It's one thing for any band to produce an album that so perfectly captures the spirit of the past without being a tacky parody, but the fact it was a quirky young actress and a well-regarded but obscure indie troubadour made it seem even more out of left field. Zooey Deschanel's voice, as you may expect from brief singing bits in films like Elf and The Assassination Of Jesse James, is the star of the show - on both her own songs, such as the fantastic 'This Is Not A Test', to covers including 'I Should've Known Better' by The Beatles.

5. Turning Down Water For Air by James Yiull
Somehow performing the miraculous task of melding acoustic indie singer-songwriter material to thumping dance beats and fascinating electronic arrangements without it all going horribly wrong, this CD is the total meeting point of everything I am listening to at the moment, with some utterly gorgeous songs like 'This Sweet Love' - which does a lot with a very simple acoustic guitar motif and drum beat.

6. Field Manual by Chris Walla
His day job, Death Cab For Cutie, also put out an album, but it was Walla's solo CD that really got my love this year. 'Our Plans, Collapsing' is the highlight of the album, but it was great to hear how he sounds when he's not twiddling the knobs or plucking the strings on someone else's songs.

7. Some Racing, Some Stopping by Headlights
It took a while to sink its claws in, 'Market Girl' aside, but it slowly melted my heart... and I also managed to get some great remixes of some of the songs on an ultra-limited edition remix disc they put out, so there's now more of the songs to love. 'Cherry Tulips' is the sound of a beautiful daydream.

8. Reverse Migration by Au Revoir Simone
The remixes on this album are by and large among the best remixes I've heard. The robotic voice singing the chorus on 'Stars', the crazy campfire romp of one of two new versions of 'The Lucky One' (the other was provided by James Yiull and was so gorgeous, I bought his album), the fun electroclash-ish tweaking of 'Fallen Snow'... it's a great disc, and certainly worth inclusion here.

9. Devotion by Beach House
One of the most haunting and relaxing albums on this list, Devotion is the perfect soundtrack to cold winter evenings by the fire, breezy summer nights watching the sun set, and everything in between. It's an utterly bewitching album, with the sparse instruments drenched in so much reverb it sounds more like the memories of songs than songs themselves.

10. Hideaway by The Weepies
This was one of many albums that came out of nowhere but then spent a lot of time in my MP3 playing devices. Vocal duties are split between both members of this husband and wife duo. Steve Tannen sounds like Elliott Smith (without the penchant for stabbing himself in the gizzard) while Deb Talan has a very quirky, clearly Joni Mitchell-inspired delivery. Slightly folky, very catchy, with one song ('Antarctica') that you'd swear was a Fleetwood Mac out-take. A lovely album, and a great respite from some of my mopier choices.

11. In Ear Park by Department Of Eagles
It's hard to pin down everything I hear when I listen to Department Of Eagles. There's Nick Drake, later period Beatles, Tom Waits, Sufjan Stevens, Arcade Fire (at least, the odd yelp that reminds me of Win Butler) and a ton more. It's a wonderful, eclectic, vintage-sounding album. 'Waves Of Rye', 'Phantom Other' and 'Floating On The Lehigh' are all contenders for my song of the year, too.

12. Keeper’s by Deastro
Deastro is basically just this kid in Michigan who is fucking insanely productive. As well as Deastro, he has at least three other projects that I know of, all putting out fantastic synth-based pop that sounds like a less polished splice of The Killers and Death Cab For Cutie. There are also some bizarre instrumental pieces to break things up. It's certain to put a spring in your step.

13. Lucky by Nada Surf
Don't get me wrong, my love for the Surf isn't waning; and this is still a great record (it grows on me more with every listen), but it's not their best. Still, it was great enough to make my top twenty, thanks in no small part to catchy, hummable songs such as 'I Like What You Say' and darker, more political tracks like 'The Fox'. And let me tell you, if you can get through 'Weightless' and not get your sappy gland well and truly done over, you are an impenetrable fortress.

14. Starfucker by Starfucker
This was recommended to me by Leslie (hi Leslie!). Sometimes I am so swamped at work, I can't listen to music at all, but for some reason I gave this one a chance and I'm very happy I did. It's insanely catchy indie with a liberal helping of synths. 'Pop Song' in particular delivers on its name with a nice, fat chorus and a runaway keyboard solo that makes me all giddy.

15. Saturdays = Youth by M83
It looks like France didn't get the memo that the '80s are over and there will be no more John Hughes movies starring a young Molly Ringwald. Really, that is exactly what every song on this album will make you think of... it's extremely retro, but like She & Him, it's an authentic tribute rather than a piss-take.

16. Chinese Democracy by Guns N’ Roses
My first ever CD was Use Your Illusion II. My second ever CD was Use Your Illusion I. I have been waiting for this album since I got those two. I don't care that it's basically an Axl Rose side project with Guns N' Roses being little more than an appropriated brand name, it's still a surprisingly decent collection of songs with some fantastic guitar work from Buckethead. 'Better' would be awesome no matter what the name on the box said.

17. Keep Telling Myself It’s Alright by Ashes Divide
This is the only CD put out by a bald dude called Billy who basically plays everything bar the drums on his CDs that I have been able to endorse for several years. The Billy is Howerdel, formerly of A Perfect Circle, and this really does sound like his former band without Maynard and, strangely, less upbeat... and considering how mopey APC could get, that's saying something.

18. Crystal Castles by Crystal Castles
They sound like a brain aneurysm run through the sound chip of a Commodore 64. In case you're confused, in this case, that's actually a positive comment, as I loved the Commodore 64, and I love electroclash and electronica with the odd manipulated, screamy vocal and obscure song titles.

19. Accelerate by REM
While it could be argued that the album (and its Automatic For The People-through-New Adventures In Hi-Fi-esque sound) was an intentional, calculated response to previous album Around The Sun bombing, that familiarity makes the songs on this album very easy to swallow. There was no growth period with me. And when we saw them live, there wasn't that jolt between old and new that you get at a lot of gigs (with the awkward crowd vs. band stand-off).

20. Flight Of The Conchords by Flight Of The Conchords
While this collection of parodies of everyone from Prince to the Pet Shop Boys will have you giggling, thanks in no small part to lyrics that talk about hermaphrodites, David Bowie's nipples and try desperately to make the routine, mundane sex life of a married couple sound like Barry White fodder, it's so well put together that you spend a lot of time just appreciating the songs. Yes, really. 'Ladies Of The World' (with serious lyrics) would provide the backing music to lots of late afternoon quickies.

It's a scary good year.

Here is everything Jess and I have acquired between us (obviously, I did most of the acquiring as Jess hates democracy).

- ¿Como Te Llama? by Albert Hammond, Jr.
- Agony & Irony by Alkaline Trio
- Magic Monsters by April March & Steve Hanft
- Keep Telling Myself It's Alright by Ashes Divide
- Reverse Migration by Au Revoir Simone***
- Devotion by Beach House
- Modern Guilt by Beck
- Blackblack by Blackblack**
- Intimacy by Bloc Party**
- Something For All Of Us... by Brendan Canning**
- Wilderness by Brett Anderson*
- You Cross My Path by The Charlatans
- Field Manual by Chris Walla
- Conor Oberst by Conor Oberst*
- Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings by Counting Crows
- Crystal Castles by Crystal Castles
- Donkey by CSS
- 4:13 Dream by The Cure***
- Keeper's by Deastro
- Narrow Stairs by Death Cab For Cutie
- In Ear Park by Department Of Eagles***
- SooL by Ellen Allien
- Flight Of The Conchords by Flight Of The Conchords
- Shade Side Sunny Side by For Against
- The Midnight Organ Fight by Frightened Rabbit
- The Hollow Of Morning by Gemma Hayes**
- Chinese Democracy by Guns N' Roses***
- In Field & Town by Hayden
- Some Racing, Some Stopping by Headlights
- Turning Down Water For Air by James Yuill***
- Here's To Being Here by Jason Collett
- The Jealous Girlfriends by The Jealous Girlfriends
- Acid Tongue by Jenny Lewis**
- The Silver City by Jeremy Messersmith**
- Boo! Human by Joan Of Arc
- Youth Novels by Lykke Li**
- Saturdays = Youth by M83
- I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too by Martha Wainwright
- Snowflake Midnight by Mercury Rev**
- Strange Attractor by Mercury Rev**
- Lucky by Nada Surf
- Ghosts I-IV by Nine Inch Nails
- The Slip by Nine Inch Nails
- Skeletal Lamping by Of Montreal***
- Mercy by Ours
- Third by Portishead
- Accelerate by REM
- Volume One by She & Him
- Starf**ker by Starf**ker***
- Oceans Will Rise by The Stills**
- Walk It Off by Tapes N' Tapes
- Reality Check by The Teenagers***
- Elephant Shell by Tokyo Police Club
- Forth by The Verve***
- Hideaway by The Weepies
- At Mount Zoomer by Wolf Parade

List originally compiled in June.

* August update.
** October update.
*** November update.

Well, it's over. I meant to post a recap of who I saw on Saturday yesterday morning, but I got sidetracked; and I've been in bed feeling like rubbish all day today. Not sure whether Lollapalooza's to blame or some other source of lurgee, but I can at least see straight now.

So, Saturday. We got to Grant Park in time to see a snippet of Foals. I had no opinion on them either way, which is odd considering they're one of the many "saviours of rock n' roll" that get trotted out by the NME every year. I also caught a little snippet of The Gutter Twins, featuring the inimitable Mark Lanegan. I wasn't paying too much attention, but they sounded alright.

The first band proper for me was MGMT, whose weird Bowie meets dance sound was perfectly suited to the festival vibe. I really enjoyed them, and their guitarist's shredding all over 'Kids' was fantastic.

Josie went off to see DeVotchKa, who are like a Hispanic gypsy folk take on The Smiths, while Jess and I hung out waiting for Brand New to come on. We saw them live already, but in a terrible venue full of teenyboppers, so we were hoping they'd be better at a festival. Not so much. The highlight of their set was the dudes brawling a few metres away from me. It's a shame, because on CD, they're great.

At least frontman Jesse Lacey was as disappointed as us, at one point telling the crowd "You should all be watching Explosions In The Sky."

Somehow, there was a big gap for us, until we ended up watching Okkervil River while waiting for Broken Social Scene to come on. They weren't what I expected (the name conjured up rootsy blues, but they were more folky and upbeat). I liked them.

Then Broken Social Scene... Broken Social Scene were my second favourite band after Radiohead. For a band with such an inconsistent line-up, they manage to be consistently awesome, and played some of my favourites including '7/4 (Shoreline)' and 'Farewell To The Pressure Kids'... and they had Amy from Stars with them, awesome.

We caught the tail end of Toadies' set (apparently they were big in America, never heard of them... and gladly so), then sat patiently waiting for Rage Against The Machine. I had chosen them over Wilco as I don't know that I would get to see them again.

I was... kinda non-plussed. While musically, they were tight, it sounded exactly the same as the CDs. To me, part of the appeal of seeing a band live is seeing how they mess with their arrangements. Add to that the fact they *kept* stopping so Zach could lecture the moshpit, and it wasn't all that entertaining. A massive shame. I wish I had seen Wilco now.

Sunday was the least action packed of the three days, reflected by the fact we were able to head down so late (not helped by The Weakerthans pulling out).

As we arrived, we could hear Iron & Wine and decided against them as they would be a bit of a Debbie Downer. So, our first act of the day was the brilliant Saul Williams. The girls weren't fans, but he did put on an energetic performance.

We caught snippets of Blues Traveller and Love & Rockets, but the next band proper was The National. Having seen them in the colossal United Center supporting REM, I wanted to see if their sound fared better in a relatively smaller environment... and I am pleased to say it did. I love them.

After they left the stage, the girls went over to catch the start of Kanye West's set while I watched Nine Inch Nails. I'd seen them before and really enjoyed them, but for some reason, the magic just wasn't there this time around... I think mostly because they decided to kill the mood a short way into their set by playing some of the instrumental pieces from Ghosts I-IV... which, while great to listen to when you're chilling out, is not really much fun when you're stood in a field.

They did play an awful lot of material from The Downward Spiral, though, which sort of made up for it. Especially 'Closer'.

Overall, it really was a good weekend, marred only - really - by feeling horribly ill today.

This is a great year for music. We are only a third of the way through, and already we've had...

January
- In Rainbows by Radiohead was released on CD (naturally, I already had the £40 discbox)
- American Gothic EP by Smashing Pumpkins
- In Field & Town by Hayden
- Field Manual by Chris Walla
- The Bedlam In Goliath by The Mars Volta*

January highlight...

February
- Here's To Being Here by Jason Collett
- Lucky by Nada Surf

February highlight...

March
- Ghosts I-IV by Nine Inch Nails
- Volume One by She & Him
- Diamond Hoo Ha by Supergrass*
- Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings by Counting Crows
- Accelerate by REM
- Last Night by Moby*

March highlight...

April
- Keep Telling Myself It's Alright by Ashes Divide (aka Billy Howerdel from A Perfect Circle, I'm listening to it now)
- Mountain Battles by The Breeders*
- Walk It Off by Tapes N' Tapes
- Flight Of The Conchords by Flight Of The Conchords**
- Third by Portishead**
- Mercy by Ours**

April highlight...

* need to buy
** have on pre-order

It's not looking like it's going to slow up, either.

This year's Lollapalooza line-up was announced this week. Jess and I already had tickets on the strength of the rumour of Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails, meaning we paid $175/£88 instead of $205/£103. Boy, am I glad we decided to go... the line-up is pretty intense. Bolded acts are acts I love, asterisked acts are acts I would be interested in seeing.

Radiohead
Rage Against the Machine
Nine Inch Nails
Kanye West
Wilco
The Raconteurs*
Louis XIV*
Love and Rockets
Gnarls Barkley*
Bloc Party*
The Black Keys* (they played last year and I enjoyed them)
Broken Social Scene
Lupe Fiasco
Flogging Molly
Mark Ronson
Cat Power*
The National
G. Love & Special Sauce
Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings
Explosions in the Sky*
Brand New
Gogol Bordello*
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks*
Dierks Bentley
Okkervil River
Amadou & Mariam
Blues Traveler
John Butler Trio
Girl Talk
Your Vegas
CSS
Eli "Paperboy" Reed & the True Loves
Battles*
Steel Train
Jamie Lidell
Bang Camaro
Butch Walker
The Blakes
Mates of State
Tally Hall
Spank Rock
White Lies
Brazilian Girls
Magic Wands
Chromeo
Electric Touch
Duffy
Innerpartysystem
The Kills
The Postelles
Rogue Wave
The Parlor Mob
The Go! Team
Bald Eagle
Mason Jennings
Krista
The Gutter Twins*
Ha Ha Tonka
Yeasayer
Witchcraft
Grizzly Bear
We Go To 11
MGMT*
Sofia Talvik
The Weakerthans*
Booka Shade
Santogold
Black Kids*
Black Lips
Dr. Dog
Nicole Atkins & the Sea
The Ting Tings
Kid Sister
Office
The Cool Kids
What Made Milwaukee Famous*
Does It Offend You, Yeah?*
The Whigs
Manchester Orchestra
Foals*
Uffie
The Octopus Project
Cadence Weapon
Ferras
De Novo Dahl
Noah and the Whale
Margot & the Nuclear So and So's
K'NAAN
Serena Ryder
Newton Faulkner

I only went to V and Glastonbury in the UK, but for the past three years, Lollapalooza has far outclassed both of those... and being hosted by Chicago's gorgeous park land, it's a short bus ride from home, with decent places to eat, drink and stay nearby.

Show us the best email you received during the past couple of days.

No, but I will tell you it was from Annie Hardy, singer/guitarist with Giant Drag. I donated to their "Help us make a new album!" fund as they were dropped from their label, Interscope - the same group of fucktards who just lost Nine Inch Nails.

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/03/nine-inch-nai-2.html

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is how an established musical act makes lots of money without ripping off fans or lining the pockets of clueless shareholders.

Not a financial success, but releasing their latest album for free has also gotten The Charlatans a lot of attention, too:

http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2008/03/11/free-charlatans-album-racks-60,000-downloads

If that translates into sales and gig tickets, it's done its job.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080305-reznor-makes-750000-even-when-the-music-is-free.html

I don't know what the costs of the servers were. I don't know what the cost of producing the various physical versions of the music will be when completed. I don't even know what the album cost to produce.

At the end of the day, though, Trent Reznor could feasibly come out of this entire experiment with a significant chunk of change in his pocket... despite the fact he released his album using a Creative Commons license that means just one person downloading it legally could then have made it available for free to anyone without any legal comeback.

Are you listening, recording industry? Nope? Didn't think so. Carry on with your self-destruction.

Their site is borked right now so I can't order my copy, but the new Nine Inch Nails album - Ghosts I-IV - is now available. It's a collection of instrumental music.

Having tested the waters by releasing rapper Saul Williams' album online (an album he produced), NIN frontman Trent Reznor has adopted the digital/physical combination Radiohead were offering and then some. The different versions of the album are:

- Free: Download the first nine songs from the album as unprotected MP3s with PDF artwork.
- $5: Download all thirty-six songs with the PDF.
- $10: Same as the $5 offering, but you also get the album on 2 CDs.
- $75: Same as the $10 offering but with 1 DVD featuring the songs as multitrack audio to remix and 1 Blu-Ray (which I assume contains the songs set to video footage) in fancy packaging.
- $300: The same as the deluxe edition, but with the album on 180 gram vinyl and two artwork prints. Hand numbered and signed by Trent, limited to 2,500 copies.

Although $300 sounds ridiculous to me, especially when the only slightly less cool Radiohead box was $80, it's great that another successful act is embracing the internet mere years after Metallica and Dr Dre spazzed out over Napster... and in such a way that their fans can choose how much the music is worth to them.

According to the NME, Lily Allen thinks Radiohead are arrogant.

The musical equivalent of The Sun quoted her as saying: "It's arrogant for them to give their music away for free - they've got millions of pounds. It sends a weird message to younger bands who haven't done as well." and that their recent In Rainbows release mechanism devaluates music.

Thankfully, the rag thought her analogy was a little off, stating that she "bizarrely added": "You don't choose how to pay for eggs. Why should it be different for music?"

Listen, sweetheart. If you want to talk about devaluating music, how about the fact twats like you get all the bloody attention in the decreasing number of music magazines for spouting your bollocks opinions about other musicians. Every time I see an article about you, it's you making some stupid comment about other acts. And don't think I'm singling you out - it seems it's much more important to talk about who you hate this week, how much of pointless junkie twat Pete Doherty is and how much Amy 'Elvira' Winehouse wants to sabotage her career. Amy is the odd one out of the three of you, though, as she actually has something resembling talent.

If you actually made decent music instead of slagging off Girls Aloud, The Kooks, Radiohead, Bob Geldof... *insert everyone else you've wasted oxygen on here*... perhaps then I would entertain your notions about what is and isn't good for the music industry. As it is, you're a pox on the ears in every respect.

What kind of message are you sending to younger bands? Judging by the idiot from The Cribs, it seems your message - say lots of stupid things so no one has time to hear how rubbish your music is - is getting through.

By the way, immediately after In Rainbows came out, little-known rapper Saul Wiliams released his album The Inevitable Rise And Liberation Of Niggy Tardust in a similar fashion. Between his $5 asking price and backing of producer Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), I dare say it's done quite well for someone of his reknown. He is not a millionaire, but he too realises that away from the recording industry system, there is a way to get your music out to a wide audience without ripping them off.