Friday, 2/27/09

Does this mean NIN is cool again?

For years on end, Pitchfork Media took great pride in lambasting anything put out under the moniker Nine Inch Nails. They were one of the few publications to write anything bad about the Fragile, giving the album a 2 on a scale of 10, and taking their next NIN review down to 0.2 out of 10. (Despite what's sometimes said in the press now, The Fragile was an astounding success among critics. I know because I read damn near every review at the time) It was clear that they were, at best, trolling.

However, in recent years, the 'fork has been warming up to the idea that it's okay to be cool with NIN, perhaps a result of cycling out writers who were less interested in actually reviewing music than they were in pumping out "slacker English major" prose, perhaps seeing the effort Reznor puts into the community - his fellow musicians, and his fans - or maybe it's just okay to like NIN because they're independent now.

It was an unusual turn of events when rehearsal videos from The Slip debuted on Pitchfork.tv (which what MTVmusic.com might have been in some alternate, better universe) of all places. In today's post about the video of 1,000,000 at Sydney, there's, dare I say it, gushing! Phrases like "pretty awesome" and "Holy fuck" season up the words they wrapped around their repost of the HD video Rob Sheridan posted on Vimeo the other night.

Maybe it just means it's okay for Pitchfork readers to be cool with NIN. Whatever the reason for the slow about-face, it's good to see other people come to realize what we've been plugged into for a long time.

Reported by leviathant at 13:03

Sample a song from Josh's new album + Interview with Trent about "the end!"

Josh Freese is on a mission. A mission to provide you with the most memorable album packages ever! He has updated his official website with package details, and to let everyone know the packages are very real and not a joke. The album is not available until March 24th, but in the meantime, you can sample the single "I Don't Think That's OK". Just enter your email address to receive your download link.

Also, there is a quick interview with Trent backstage at Soundwave regarding his break from Nine Inch Nails. You can view it here.

Reported by JessicaSarahS at 11:38

NIN's Vimeo Account

Rather than make a new post for every new video that comes out (and because it appears that we could see a lot more of these), make sure you bookmark NIN's Vimeo Homepage. Rob just uploaded another video shot on stage, this time for Burn. It's very cool to get a first-hand account of the chaos on-stage.

Reported by Lt. Randazzo at 08:52

NIN HD videos now available for download

If you haven't successfully ripped the new HD videos from the web yet, you can now simply download the 1,000,000 Live from Sydney 2/22/09 video and the Sydney 2/24/09 Power Outage footage directly from Vimeo. Just scroll past the Statistics box on the lower right side under each video. Each one is about 800+MB of yummy HD goodness. Thanks to NIN for making that available!

Reported by JessicaSarahS at 02:31

Friday, 2/27/09

Update on NIN iPhone App + More

Trent has posted an update on the nin.com forums regarding a few things -
We are putting the final touches on our iPhone application and we are aiming to have it in the app store by April 1. This is NOT to be lumped in with the major-label band app drivel that's coming out now. This is a new, cool, hopefully useful app aimed at the NIN fan that will be particularly good if you're seeing us on tour. It will make you smarter, healthier and more attractive to the opposite sex (if that's your thing)... and it's free. We're planning on a pre-release demo video as soon as we have a stable build.

Also, the set lists for tours post Australia will be much more varied than what we're currently playing. The fault lies with me in underestimating the time of converting the band to a four-piece Powered By Ilan™ as well as spending a lot of time with Jane's Addiction during our rehearsal time before AUS/NZ run.

So there!
TR
So... there.

Reported by Lt. Randazzo at 23:04

1,000,000 Live From Sydney

I'll keep this short and to the point: Head here to view a live video of 1,000,0000 from Sydney, shot by Rob Sheridan on his Canon 5DMII camera. Enjoy!

Reported by Lt. Randazzo at 19:14

NIN nominated for Toronto Indie Awards

Nine Inch Nails is nominated for Best International Group or Duo with Radiohead, the Kills, My Morning Jacket, and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds rounding out the nominees. Head over to the inDiscover website to register and place your vote. Thanks to Don for the submission!

Reported by JessicaSarahS at 11:54

Wednesday, 2/25/09

Ghosts I-IV Wins 1st Black Tunecore Award

Tunecore, an online music distribution company, is throwing down the gauntlet with the RIAA and is announcing a series of awards based on online units sold and are broken down into three categories: Black (500,000 copies sold), Silver (250,000) & White (100,000), and are very similar to the RIAA's Platinum (1,000,000 units sold) & Gold (500,000).

Along with the announcement of the awards came the announcement of the recipients, and while this may not be a surprise to us, it's sure to kick the record labels in the ass: Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV is the first and only album to win the Black Tunecore award, while other new and veteran artists fill the Silver & White lists. Check out this article from Newsday for more details.

Reported by Lt. Randazzo at 16:37

Complete LITS - Victoria Show Available

Exactly one week ago, I posted an update about Colin Cooper, a professional video editor who was working on putting together an edit of the Victoria show from the footage that was released back in January. Originally, the videos were available from his Vimeo account, and they still are, but Colin has emailed us with details on four torrents that he's put together of the COMPLETE show. Info follows below -
The torrents come in three sizes:

Small:
Video = MPEG-4 640x360
Audio = MPEG-4 AAC 16-bit, 128 Kbps, 44.100 kHz
Data = 2.31 GB @ 2.496 mbits/s
File Extension = .mov / .mp4
Great picture and sound quality in a small package. Optimized for iPod (Nano/Classic/Touch/iPhone). Two separate torrents. Quicktime version (.mov) contains chapter markers. Non-Quicktime version (.mp4) has no chapter markers, but should be compatible with both PSP and Zune portable media players (in addition to the iPod range).

Quicktime Version
Non-Quicktime Version

Medium:
Video = H.264 720P
Audio = MPEG-4 AAC 16-bit, 128 Kbps, 44.100 kHz
Data = 4.71 GB @ 5.099 mbits/s
File Extension = .m4v
Similar to my Vimeo uploads with alternate (heavier) video compression. Chapter markers. Optimized for iTunes, Quicktime Player, and Apple TV HD. May be further compressed for other uses.

Download Medium

Large:
Video = Apple HDV 1080i60
Audio = Linear PCM 16-bit Integer (Big Endian), Stereo, 48.000 kHz
Data = 24.52 GB @ 26.53 mbits/s
File Extension = .mov
Uncompressed source media output of my edit. Chapter markers for each song. Enjoy as-is for maximum possible quality or compress to any desired format (BluRay, DVD, etc.).

Download Large

The "Large" version should cover tech-savvy individuals who have the means to manipulate at will. The "Medium" version should cover most users in general. The "Small" versions are simply fun and convenient. They are also viewable on a computer for those with gear that might be too clunky for the 720P version.

Reported by Lt. Randazzo at 06:56

Nine Inch Nails at Summersonic in Japan

The Summersonic website has announced that NIN will be at the Summersonic festival in Japan this summer between 7-9 August. check it out!

Reported by icklekitty at 04:03

Wednesday, 2/25/09

Backstage at the Sydney power outage

The official NIN YouTube channel just posted a video documenting exactly what happened during the Sydney show when the power went out. It's a nice glimpse of what occurs behind-the-scenes when things change mid-show.

Reported by Tony at 23:22

Monday, 2/23/09

New Show Setup & JJJ Interview

A lot of questions were asked online and in other places after the LITS tour ended as to what the kind of show NIN would be putting on in 2009. One less member, a stripped-down production; the speculation ran rampant. Well, if you haven't been checking the tour journals on either ETS or nin.com, you've been missing a lot of answers to those questions.

There have been a few videos from down under here and there, but here's one from Ryan of nin-au.com from the Soundwave Festival in Sydney. Make sure to view this video in HD if you can; the quality is very good.



Also, here's the audio from the JJJ interview that took place after the Brisbane show. In the interview, Trent talks about the stripped-down show, some repercussions of the production-heavy LITS tour and the future of NIN along with some of Trent's future projects.

Reported by Lt. Randazzo at 20:38

Tour Date Rumors

There are plenty of unconfirmed tour dates floating around on various music sites. Until they appear here (they should appear soon), they will remain unconfirmed and will not be posted here. In the meantime watch a live performance by Jane's Addiction on NIN.com

Reported by JessicaSarahS at 19:58

Friday, 2/20/09

Details from Eric Avery about what's been happening in the studio

The official Jane's Addiction blog has been updated by Eric Avery; the entry is regarding some of the details that were hinted at by Trent via the nin.com photoblog and has been reported as "pretty revealing on what has been going on." Here's an excerpt -
"there was even talk of trent at that point. someone with skill, cred, and a creative opinion that would garner respect from all of us. someone that might be able to wrangle the unruly clash of personalities if we tried to do some more recording. but that seemed conceptual. someone like trent.

"hes busy doing his own thing. but a few days later i called our old friend again, "how real is the possibility of it being trent?" the reply was,"very real." i found the possibility of it exciting. i was feeling excited about janes? what would a new song sound like? i started putting down some ideas."
Very cool stuff.

Reported by Lt. Randazzo at 06:49

NIN on JJJ

Straight from the JJJ website:

This Sunday 22nd February, we're taking you to the Sydney leg of the tour where triple j presenters Stu Harvey from Short.Fast.Loud and Andrew Haug from The Racket will be interviewing NINE INCH NAILS, NEW FOUND GLORY and DILLENGER ESCAPE PLAN backstage! We'le keep you up-to-date with all festival goodness on the day via the blog, and bring you live pics from from the sweat-soaked mosh pit. So make sure you're tuned in this Sunday!

JJJ have a listen live function, so those of us outside Australia can listen in too!

Reported by icklekitty at 04:03

Thursday, 2/19/09

With Teeth & Fragile era shirts on the cheap

I'm not sure whether it's been dug out of the warehouse, or if Rebel Waltz is sending out shirts out to places other than merch.com again, but Goodrock's got a few oldschool NIN shirts in inventory again. One black & two charcoal & With Teeth shirts ($12.99 a piece), and the infamous *FUCKER shirt for only a buck more.

Yeah, I know when you read the headline you were hoping for that black shirt with the Fragile flowers on the front, but those are a bit harder to find.

In related news, merch.com has been adding more Year Zero era merch to their store, with shirts generally selling for $19.99 plus shipping.

Reported by leviathant at 16:26

Josh Freese "Since 1972"

Josh Freese has a new solo album coming April 14th titled Since 1972 and... I can't put this any other way, has unveiled an... interesting pricing scale that takes a few points from Ghosts I-IV, but it ranges from $7 to $75,000 and... well, just read it for yourself here.

Go on, read it. I'll wait here until you finish it.

Finished?

Now watch the YouTube video -


Finished?

Yeah. It's that awesome.

Reported by Lt. Randazzo at 03:17

Wednesday, 2/18/09

Alessandro Cortini @ Concordia University

CESSA has made available two mp3 files that contain a lecture Alessandro Cortini gave on January 30th available to download in their entirety. Both mp3s clock in at around 2 hours and 10 minutes and are definitely worth checking out if you're a Buchla fan. Head here to download the presentation.

Thanks to guilty for submitting this.

Reported by Lt. Randazzo at 18:59

Colin Cooper's Vancouver Edits

Colin Cooper, a professional editor from Vancouver (iMDB profile), wrote in to let us know that he's edited the entire Victoria concert and is uploading them to his Vimeo account. Here's an excerpt from what he told us -
As you are likely aware, viewers may download the original source file for each song if they sign on for free membership. My source files have very little compression (average size = 600MB per song), so the quality is much higher than a BluRay burn could offer.

My Vimeo account currently features the opening of the concert through to The Wretched. I am able to upload 5GB per week and will continue to do so until the concert is completed.
The only way to download the videos is to become a member of Vimeo, however, but considering the quality, it's probably worth it.

Thanks to Colin for submitting this in and making these videos available!

Reported by Lt. Randazzo at 18:54

Tuesday, 2/17/09

NIN playing Sasquatch Festival

NIN just added Sasquatch to the list of festivals they're performing this year. You can check out the entire lineup at the Sasquatch Blog. Thanks to Rob, Varia, Lonni, and Tim for the news.

On a related note, the NIN Wiki will be adding pages for each date on the tour, complete with setlists and an area for notes (here's last night's Auckland show). So the next time Trent makes a titty joke onstage, make sure to head over and put it on that date's page!

Reported by Tony at 17:43

Monday, 2/16/09

NIN Going on Hiatus

On nin.com Trent has put up a note about suspending NIN after the 2009 tour. Instead of me summarizing it, just go read it for yourself.

Also, be sure to bitch about discuss it in the ETS thread.

Reported by heroicraptor at 18:24

Friday, 2/13/09

Aussie interviews, and... Britney Spears

bmoloney and malatete sent in a link to an interview with Trent Reznor on the Sydney Morning Herald, where Trent talks about touring, business, and rehearsing across the hall from Britney Spears. This garnered a blog response on britneyspears.com (Did I just link to britneyspears.com?)
Britney's manager, Adam Leber, says "Brit has been sharing the same rehearsal space with NIN for the past few weeks and they are getting along famously. Maybe we should ask Trent Reznor to remix Circus?"

Perfect fodder for Trent at PinkIsTheNewBlog.

Also talking to Aussie press lately, Justin Meldal-Johnson has a nice interview at Rip It Up, talking about the new direction the band has taken, and hinting at new (old) material that may get played on the upcoming tour. Good stuff all around.

Reported by leviathant at 12:29

Wednesday, 2/11/09

Rock-afire NINsplosion world premiere!

The Rock-afire Explosion's unique take on '1,000,000', organized by Itsjustdave and paid for via generous contributions from numerous members of ETS is now live!

Go check it out:



(Be sure to watch in high quality)


If Youtube isn't your bag, you can also view it at Vimeo or nab the download here



Thanks to all involved...

Reported by mark at 19:01

Tuesday, 2/10/09

Reflecting The Sonic Addiction

..or something.

While reading facebook instead of working, I came across a group set up to document the upcoming shows in 2009. They also have a website set up here if you want to get involved.


So what's been happening for those of us that don't own Final Cut Pro?

Well, NIN have started up a new photoblog for the next round of shenanigans. Check nin.com for the latest image, your forum of choice for "let's put this image through photoshop and work out what the setlist is going to be" and ninblogs for a nice quiet summary.

Shane Richmond from the Telegraph asks If Trent Reznor can save the music business, how about journalism?. Thanks to acidpolly for posting it.

Also, theprp.com ran the following article:

Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor is said to have been in the studio with Jane's Addiction bassist Eric Avery as of late, working on non-NIN related material. The news seemingly strengthens the recent rumors that Nine Inch Nails' upcoming April North American trek will be a double headliner with the once again reunited Jane's Addiction."

Thanks to Greg B for submitting that last one.

Reported by icklekitty at 07:32

Monday, 2/09/09

New video project blog + new video

I've been getting quite a few inquiries about my edits and what my final plan is for them so I've gone ahead and created a blog to keep those that are interested up to date on my progress. I am planning on burning this to DVD and Blu-Ray for those that want it, and distributing via torrent as well. There are more details in my blog, and I will continue to update it with specifics as I hammer them out.

And I didn't come here empty handed:

The Hand That Feeds* - Sacramento Multicam edit -Click for larger view


*changed it :)

And no, I don't have all the "halo's" ;)

Reported by JessicaSarahS at 15:31

The Rock-afire Explosion World Premier - Wednesday 9PM EST

The successfully fan-funded bidding effort to get The Rock-afire Explosion to play NIN has finally come to fruition.



See them play 1,000,000 this Wednesday at 9PM EST. Thanks go out to everyone that chipped in to help make this happen. Discuss (or give kudos) here.

Reported by ItsJustDave at 08:52

Wednesday, 2/04/09

Serving your fans - The Trent Reznor case study -- updated with Slides

Techdirt's Mike Masnick has written many a blog about Trent Reznor's efforts and moves dealing with the current environment faced by those in the music industry.

Masnick recently spoke at MIDEM industry conference, something he mentioned a few times leading up to the event, and has talked about getting footage online since then. An updated version of the video has been posted, featuring both the speaker and his rapid-fire slideshow.

The presentation's about 15 minutes long, and if you're reading this, you're probably already on top of everything he talks about here. Nonetheless, Mike covers a lot of important points very well, and perhaps more importantly, he's addressing people in the music industry - an industry he refers to as "a vast wasteland" in his presentation. Hehe.

Serving your fans - The Trent Reznor case study

Reported by leviathant at 11:41

Tuesday, 2/03/09

NIN playing Bonnaroo '09

TV On The Radio leaked it on their MySpace blog, but we now have confirmation that NIN will be playing this year's Bonnaroo Music Festival. Head here to see the lineup of initial artists that are set for the four-day festival.

Maybe now I'll finally be able to see Trent & Bruce Springsteen perform "Born To Run" together at last.

Reported by Lt. Randazzo at 23:00