NEWS: Trent Reznor Is Stone-Cold Fuck Awesome.

MUSIC: Trent Reznor Is Stone-Cold Fuck Awesome.

It's no secret that Trent Reznor is awesome. He's brought industrial music to the forefront and given the dark side of ourselves a kickass soundtrack. Pretty Hate Machine, The Downward Spiral, The Fragile, With Teeth, Year Zero, Ghosts I-IV, and now, we have The Slip, the newest, and might I add, free album.



That's right, this one's on Trent:

That's the word from the website. How fucking cool is that? A whole goddamn new album, free to download. All the major music outlets are buzzing with the news. And rightfully so. Not only is NIN one of the biggest musical acts ever (side note: they turn 20 next year), but ever since leaving Interscope, his former label, Trent has gone through a sort of Renaissance in terms of musical output. Back in March, he dropped Ghosts on us, an incredible instrumental album that, when released online, crashed the servers due to the immense traffic it generated. I shuffled into work the next morning a zombie because I stayed up all night waiting on my download. And just a couple weeks ago, we were treated to a free download of the single "Discipline" and a cryptic message that said "Two weeks." Naturally, fans were up in arms about this. Two weeks till what? More tour dates? Another album? God help me, the suspense is unbearable!!! And so, at midnight PDT May 5th (actually, just a little after, I noticed), Trent gave us "The Slip," an inspired and very danceable effort.



From the site:

This one, like 'Ghosts' before it, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike agreement, and of course, you can remix it if you so choose. Hell, after you download it, you'll get a page where you can email three of your friends a download link. Spread it all around, share it with everyone. Get a listen here. And how much money does TR stand to make? We won't know till the physical sales numbers are released. All I can say is that he must be very confident in making up that money in other ways. He made over a million dollars easy in the week after 'Ghosts' was released, just through online sales.



Here's the tracklisting:

Yeah, it's short, but it's great. I'll leave the discussion of its merits in SG's very own NIN group (join if you haven't). What I'm excited for are the setlists for the upcoming tour. With all this new music, are the shows gonna be 3 hours long? Not that it would bother me, but it may prove a logistical nightmare for the band and crew. Speaking of touring, go register with nin.com if you'd like to get presale tix. It's a new system they're using, and here's their logic:

Once again, check the performance page for the show dates/times/locations and presale info.



While I, like others, lament the decline of traditional record stores and the physical media they provide (there's just something about actually holding an album), I do embrace the new path that NIN and others (i.e. Radiohead) are blazing with digital downloads, and the subsequent closer, more direct relationship with fans that normally would be blocked by the record labels. The times change and we must change with them. For some opinions on this brave new world we are entering, check out David Byrne and Thom Yorke in Wired Magazine.

Beautiful.

That's pretty cool. Now I just have to get someone to download it and burn it to a CD for me.

I'm a little behind when it comes to music technology.

yeow!

Interesting! He does cool things!

Can I ask why you even bothered to mention how much cash he's going to make from the deal (Your Rolling Stone link is broken BTW)

How much of that is actual cash he's going to see? What is the cost price for the Ltd Ed sets (which are a magnificent piece of work, btw) How much does it cost to run servers so people can download stuff for free? How much are his fellow recording artists getting from this? It's almost as though you are suggesting he's gone down the online distribution path to become rich. Or maybe it's just me.

I believe that this is also a message as it were to the rest of the colapsing music industry. Basically get your heads out ur arses. With this it shows that struggling musicians have a chance. It proves that the industry is ripping people off. Trent must be racking in the dough from ghosts. Everybody knows it. Why steal something like that. Sure I can see why somebody might but come on its fucking 5 dollars. And if you like the band why not buy it to help your comrades right. I think more bands should do this. It saves trips to the store lol.

Actually, that was Prince. Just sayin'.... By the time Reznor came out there was already stuff moderately like PHM being done already.

prince did an industrial metal album??

no, but he brought industrial mainstream.

Trent's been just pouring out the music these past few years. I think it's wonderful.

so... without playing it? give me something to work with, here.

I dig Trent.

I now want to be Trent Reznor when I grow up.

Now?

HOW IS THIS NEWS

True, there were a ton of industrial bands before him (Einsturzende Neubauten, Throbbing Gristle, Ministry, Sisters of Mercy, etc.) but they were largely unknown outside the fanbase they had built. TR took what they started and put it out in the wide open for mainstream rock radio and MTV and such.

Well, I just found it interesting how much money he made in such a short amount of time on Ghosts and how most, if not all, of that went to him instead of a record label. I imagine that when then physical version of this new album comes out, he'll make a similar amount that again will go mainly to him. I really find it interesting the path he's making now that's he's independent.

In a related story, I had a sandwich for lunch.

This article sucks.

It's not. Nor is this article for anyone that is in the NIN group.

While I agree with your sentiment about the record industry needing to get its head out of its ass, are you trying to say that Trent Reznor is a struggling musician? Radiohead are struggling musicians? Luckily for them, the bulk of their huge fanbases were built years ago, in large part, due to the marketing machine of the record industry which we so love to hate. While the internet has definitely created some stars of its own over the past five to eight years or so, I don't know if any of them can command the sort of brand loyalty and willingness to still spend cash loyalty, that both NIN and Radiohead are able to with their internet releases alone.

Now, if you mean struggling musicians in general, now have a chance to get their music out without having to depend on the existing distribution channels and record companies, then yeah, you're right. (My 3 plays a year for my shitty MySpace band are a testament to that.) But I'd be curious to see if any of these internet-made acts will ever come close to the level of long-term brand and fan loyalty of a NIN or Radiohead.

I was just pullin' your leg, lady. your unabashed love for trent has been a staple of these forums for years! it's a fine thing!

this album is having sweet, sweet sex with my ears.

I like to be consistent. And I want to be known for something.

Fuckin' awesome. Thank you!

Trent Reznor is my Jesus.