Someone should make a note to ask TR about it the next time they do a Q&A like at that one they did before a show recently in Mexico(?) I think it was.
Someone should make a note to ask TR about it the next time they do a Q&A like at that one they did before a show recently in Mexico(?) I think it was.
I don't really want to continue to beat a dead horse in the "NIN spotting" thread after we have moved on and got it back on topic, so I'll just post this here:
@Max
For what it's worth, it wasn't actually Bill Leeb who was throwing shade at TR in Facebook. It was some goof in the peanut gallery (comments section).
Bill just pointed out that Birdbox had been streamed 43 million times and there are idiots trying to blindfold themselves and walk around doing everyday tasks and the soundtrack was by NIN. This lead someone in the comments to ask:
to which he responded: "no i think its cool total success again"I’m not sure if it’s just a detail you added, or if you’re trying to poke some fun at T. Rez
So, no ill-will on Bill's behalf there.
Continued from the TOOL Thread...
I'm with @Helpmeiaminhell on this one. You thought Eat the Elephant was better than the trilogy?? That's a BOLD statement dude. ETE was and still is garbage compared to the Trilogy. The Trilogy has some major bangers. NTAE is the best thing we got since "The Fragile" so raw, so powerful. It's the closest thing we will ever get to a Broken to TDS 2.0 from Trent. Add violence was decent as well - The Background World is one of the best tracks he's done. Sure, maybe Bad Witch was the weakest of the link, but I would still take BW over Eat the Elephant any day of the week.
I tried listening to ETE when it first dropped, and thought it was pure garbage. Picked out a few stand alone tracks that I went back to throughout the year, but I could never go back to that record as a full entity. At the end of the year, when "Best of" lists started popping up, one rock/metal list listed ETE as one of the top records, and I raised an eyebrow and thought maybe I was quick to judge, and I'll give it another chance. I tried spinning it in order from beginning to end again, and it was boring. It did nothing for me.
People always begging for TDS or Broken, and Trent gives the fans what he they want on NTAE, and you say it's a weak release compared to ETE? That's insane.
I'd rather listen to Ghosts I-IV on repeat for a week straight than listen to Eat the Elephant ever again.
I liked Eat The Elephant just fine, but it does feel very by the numbers for the most part. It doesn't feel like they've evolved much since their last album. The EP trilogy is solid stuff though and definitely better than Eat The Elephant.
I was curious, too. Found this:
More details if you follow it to YouTube.
Last edited by ThermionicScott; 01-06-2019 at 08:26 PM.
ThNks for clearing that up- I’ll give it a listen later. I’ll be pessimistic right now about it though, I just never cared for JD so doubt a change in pitch will do anything. I like Trent’s version that sounds more distorted and heavier compared to their style.
Cant put a finger on why exactly. Maybe they always sounded dated to me when I did first hear them.
EDIT: just listened to it. I hate the singers voice- nothing necessarily wrong with the music, that part is fine.
Last edited by Krazy; 01-07-2019 at 06:05 AM.
That video is pretty lol. They've taken the two songs known to have been shifted for singing comfort and extrapolated that out to pitch shift another 30 mins of songs?
Joy Division was amazing. I was super late to that party - just really gave them a chance a few years ago, but it really holds up. There was this magical period of music I never knew about - talking heads, Joy Division, Bowie Berlin Trilogy - meanwhile my parents were listening to disco...
Ditto. I was late to the party because everything I heard of JD had been on 80s and 90s CDs of not the best transfer quality... so when I started getting into vinyl I figured I'd take a chance on some of the stuff I had dismissed earlier. Kraftwerk, Joy Division, the A Clockwork Orange soundtracks (both Kubrick's and Carlos versions)... all the earlier electronic/industrial/no wave/goth that just didn't sound "right" before, does now. It helped contribute to my theory that music (or subjectively good music) is atemporal; we just cannot keep on top of all of the music all of the time, so we discover it when we can.
For quite some time, I've always thought that there's probably no Nine Inch Nails opinions more controversial and unpopular than opinions against Broken and The Downward Spiral.
It has made me wonder if there are actually any NIN fans out there that weren't really into Broken and TDS, as inconceivable as that might be/seem. (And maybe not necessarily to the point of actually hating those releases, but that would also very much be the ultimate given for most controversial/unpopular NIN opinions concerning 1990s NIN.)
And in some ways, Pretty Hate Machine could also be included in this as well, but Broken and TDS still seemed to be by far the most untouchable, unreachable and unstoppable (And arguably "untoppable".) NIN albums in terms of praise, respect and immortalizing NIN altogether. On the other hand, it could also still be said/proven that Pretty Hate Machine still had a hand in all of that anyway, and was very much a tremendous part of the 1994-1995 tours.
And in spite of The Fragile being loved as much it does, especially on ETS, and even more-so the older it gets, it still also gets very mixed opinions when compared to Pretty Hate Machine, Broken and TDS.
Last edited by Halo Infinity; 01-14-2019 at 06:47 AM.
Well, I'm definitely one fan that isn't as into Pretty Hate Machine as everyone else. I do like the album, but compared to every other release it's simple, generic, and full of not so great lyrics. Don't get me wrong, it's still a good album, but I think it shows that TR was still kind of figuring out what he was doing at the time. Compared to subsequent releases that were so unique and full of interesting musical experiments and production techniques, it just doesn't hold up for me in the same way.
I kinda grew up on PHM, so I have major affection for it. I think if you listen intently and compare it to other stuff from that time period, it actually has a lot going on in terms of how it was constructed. Even then, TR had serious attention to detail and a gift for melodies and hooks.
In the first two or three years after I got into NIN, I listened to The Fragile, AATCHB and Things Falling Apart exclusively. I simply didn't have access to the rest of Halography where I lived, and it was pre-internet era for me. So when I finally got my hands on PHM, Broken and TDS, the way the studio versions of AATCHB songs sounded was a major letdown... for a while. Needless to say they grew on me later on, but it definitely took some time.
I'm glad that opinions like this exist.
when I read that, I instantly remembered multiple times audiophile people here got all "cannot listen to that CD anymore, the sound is terrible and hurts my golden ears".
AATCHB is fine. It's f---ing supposed to be overwhelming and make one feel their head is ringing, which it does during the nine inch nails show. Sweet Jesus on ecstasy!
Last edited by BenAkenobi; 01-17-2019 at 10:47 PM.
People could say it now, when they have other records and other NIN live recordings to compare. Back then, I was just 16 years old, I didn't know shit one about 'flac', 'lossless', 'clipping' and the rest of this shit. All I had were my 20-25 CDs and two dozens of tapes with music and my CD/tape Panasonic player (which is still alive and kicking to this day!)
Tension > Lights in the Sky.
First of all, I think that both Trent and the band sounded much better during the Tension tour, Pino Palladino's basslines and the backup vocalists added new layers to the NIN sound, while Lights in the Sky had the Ghost section, that was interesting but I thought that the Tension approach was more daring.
In terms of production both tours were awesome and it's obvious that Tension wouldn't exist without Lights in the Sky, but the Tension production was much more subtle in my opinion, in a good way, it wasn't about looking at a screen but about elevating the music and the performance. Besides this, it's immersive approach was mindblowing to me, the way they added another screen so that they could create those 3D effects that can be seen specially during the instrumental ending of Disappointed or during Satellite. For me this was the Lights in the Sky production taken to another level.
And regarding the setlist, I like some Hesitation Marks tracks like In Two more than any song on The Slip. And they played Somewhat Damaged during the Tension tour, which is my favorite NIN song ever.
Last edited by mauro995; 01-23-2019 at 11:03 AM.
I’ll agree to disagree about the production- but different strokes for different folks I guess.
Agreed on TR’s voice. It was atrocious after he got sick early on, and was probably stretching it to perform at Lollapalooza. As good as LITS was it isn’t necessarily a great setlist either. It can get kind of boring with that middle part that includes Ghosts/Piggy/The Greater Good, despite the eye candy.
The LITS vs Tension is shaping up to be an interesting discussion. But lest we forget, in addition to being utterly groundbreaking and revolutionary in its technological scope, LITS was taken to the people in a way that few artists would ever bother:
Missoula, MT
Nampa, ID
Kelowna, BC
Saskatoon, SK
Billings, MT
Rapid City, SD
Columbia, MO
Cedar Rapids, IA
Greenville, SC
Toledo, OH
As a fan in flyover country, I will always admire NIN for bringing such a massive and ambitious production to so many small to mid-size markets.
Personally, I enjoyed LITS more than Tension, and I was on the rail for both. I think that LITS helped shape what became a magical and bittersweet 2009 for the fans. Tension, on the other hand, was the much-anticipated 'reunion' that couldn't possibly live up to expectations. Also, back-up singers.
nampa is a boise suburb that happens to have an arena (where they’ve played twice). it’s not *that* remote. the same could be said for toledo as a detroit stop. but you’re right.
Last edited by kel; 01-27-2019 at 12:17 PM.
I'm biased towards the Lights In The Sky tour since I actually got to see it in person (I had tickets to see the Tension tour in Detroit, but had to bail the day of the show due to a medical emergency), but in terms of sheer performance, I think Tension is probably the better of the two. People can bitch about Lisa and Charlotte's singing and Pino Palladino's head bobbing all they want, but on top of what Trent, Robin, Josh, Ilan, and Alessandro were doing, they added additional layers that really made some of the songs 'pop' more.
I agree. Having seen both myself I’d say that LITS had a much more impressive stage production. Looking exclusively at performance/sound, though, Tension takes the cake for me. Even when I listen to the studio versions of the songs Lisa and Sharlotte sang on, I hear their vocals in my head/sing them to myself almost every time.
That being said, LITS is always gonna have a special place with me as my first NIN tour, even if both shows I saw were nearly identical in terms of the set list. It set the bar SO high right out the gate, and I was hooked. In This Twilight/Zero Sum outro while the band exited the stage one by one nearly moved me to tears.
Edit: Adding backup singers to the live version of Came Back Haunted was a fucking G move if there ever was one. Listening to it again gives me chills.
Last edited by ImTheWiseJanitor; 01-27-2019 at 01:03 PM.
Tension is the tour that made me love "Sanctified". It was one of the few NIN songs that I actively disliked, but I LOVE that version.
I just looked it up on Youtube and one of the top comment cracked me up. "The bass in this song is how babies are made. Fertilization sounds like this. You can look up the information in any biology textbook and they'll cite this performance in the chapter on human reproduction."