Trent Reznor Says “Thank You,” Has A Free Gift For Everyone
All right, we rebound from our brief nostalgia trip and get back to what I’d intended to talk about earlier this morning.
I started today talking about Nine Inch Nails’ instrumental release Ghosts I-IV. Ghosts is the first NIN I ever bought and I bought it because A) it was instrumental and B) I loved the distribution method Trent employed in getting it out there to fans.
If you thought Ghosts was a cool idea for distribution, wait until you see what Trent is doing with his new album The Slip. Two words, boys and girls: fo’ free. That’s right, Trent is giving away his new record. You can download it. Now. Free. Legal. Free. Okay, so I think we all agree it’s pretty fucking cool of him to do this. Better yet is his reason for doing it. “”Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years,” Reznor said in a statement to fans. “This one’s on me.” I love that. “This one’s on me.” That’s impossibly cool. If Trent isn’t careful, he’s going to make me a full-fledged fan. I guess Adam Duritz isn’t the only one who understands how great the internet is for music. Don’t bet against Counting Crows doing something like this should they ever find themselves fully free of their record contract.
Two good friends of the site — Tom Johnson and Dawn Olsen — have written about this. I have to give a big tip o’ the cap to Tom because I read it on his site first and proceeded to out and download the record directly thereafter. Dawn gets mad props, too, because she rules and I’m somewhat afraid of her.
Seriously, though, take Trent up on his offer and download the new record. I’m listening to it now for the first time, and I think I really like it.
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I felt this album is very loose for NIN… sounds like they were having fun making these songs, instead of laboring over them like Trent has in past albums production-wise.
I’m sure he would not have given away The Downward Spiral as easily because of the production time invested in it. But this is an album nonetheless, which is cool on so many levels for an artist of this magnitude to do. S.Rod and I will be seeing him in August!
Even cooler is when you play The Slip on your iPhone, the lyrics show up on the screen when you touch the graphic. I gotta learn that embedding trick!
I didn’t know that about the iPhone trick. That is some cool embedding, sir.
I mostly like the loose feel of the record. It does sound like he made a conscious effort not to get too bogged down on these songs, to just let go of them. I like it and the freeness makes it all the cooler because I’m not sure I’d have checked it out at full price, despite liking Ghosts a lot (btw… did you see I namechecked you on Ghosts?). This was another nice entry point for me. I’m going to be looking forward with keen interest to see what he might have up his sleeve next.
My brother has seen him live a few times and says it’s always an amazing show.
I’ve seen him live twice before (‘94 and ‘00) so I was due for a refresher. But he never disappoints for a high adrenaline show.
Glad you liked the playlists. I find I listen to the aggressive one much more. I blame the NYC Subway and Wall Street.
)
And you wonder why I’m afraid to visit NYC? I like them both in equal measure. It’s good to have them both there, waiting for whichever mood I’m in, etc.
Sweet, I got Fanboy’d! If that’s a term. If not, it might be now.
I’m digging this a LOT. More than Year Zero so far, but that’s after only a couple of listens, and I’m a big With Teeth fan, which is an album not many NIN fans love – not sure why, I think it’s a killer album (Josh, give this one a shot – you might like this if you like The Slip.) I’m really hoping he releases the multitracks with the CD like he did with Ghosts (deluxe) and Year Zero Remixed (I’m not attempting the leet-speek crap with that as in the real title.) Now that I’ve got the multis, I need to dig out my old sound editing software and see what I can do . . .
I will definitely be buying a CD copy when it comes out regardless of getting this for free – he has earned my fandom, without a doubt. I don’t always love his lyrics, but he’s always given his fans a lot to chew on. This appears to be only the beginning of a very exciting new chapter. If this is any indication, the label was holding him back. Can’t imagine what is next.
Thanks for the heads-up.
With Teeth didn’t grab me when I first heard it and I never went back. I should. I got Year Zero and never listened to it. I am on track 4 and like what I hear.
I have seen him many times and your brother is right. Seriously, get to see him if he comes close. I think I have seen every tour possibly. First was in 1990 opening for Jane’s Addiction. On DS tour twice including when he toured with Bowie. Fragile tour and then twice on With Teeth each time he came through.
whoops, forgot the first Lollapalooza.
Okay, so you’ve seen them a time or two is what you’re trying to say.
You know, if my brother goes I might have to tag just to see the spectacle of it all. I’m still very casually dipping my toes in the NIN water but I’ve liked a little of what I’ve recently heard.
NIN has a “Remix” offshoot of their site (which is easily reached from their NIN.com site) that has each of the tracks on The Slip available for download in a couple of remixable formats (including garageband for apple) – if you’re interested in trying to mix and mash
I guess a link would’a been nice. Sheesh.
http://remix.nin.com/
Thanks, Michael. You’re right. I didn’t even get into that aspect of the fan re-mix efforts and such.