Nine Inch Nails Biography and Profile

Biography

Nama : Nine Inch Nails
Birth Date : 1988
Birth Place : Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Sex : B
Occupation : Industrial band
Claim Fame : Album "Pretty Hate Machine" (1989)

Nine Inch Nails (NI?, the second "N" is flipped horizontally on album and promotional art) is a critically and commercially successful American band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988 by Trent Reznor.

Axcess magazine interviewed Reznor after the release of The Downward Spiral in 1994. They asked him how he came up with the name Nine Inch Nails and this was his reply:

"I don't know if you've ever tried to think of band names, but usually you think you have a great one and you look at it the next day and it's stupid. I had about 200 of those. Nine Inch Nails lasted the two week test, looked great in print, and could be abbreviated easily. It really doesn't have any literal meaning. It seemed kind of frightening. [In his best he-man voice] Tough and manly! It's a curse trying to come up with band names."

NIN's sound has variously been described as alternative, electronica, heavy metal, rock, synth pop, or, most commonly, industrial. Regarding his music being categorized as industrial, Reznor had this to say in a 1994 Axcess magazine interview:

"What was originally called industrial music was about 20 years ago Throbbing Gristle and Test Department. We have very little to do with it other than there is noise in my music and there is noise in theirs. I'm working in the context of a pop song structure whereas those bands didn't. And because someone didn't come up with a new name that separates those two somewhat unrelated genres, it tends to irritate all the old school fans waving their flags of alternativeness and obscurity. So, I'd say I've borrowed from certain styles and bands like that."

NIN's songs cover a range of genres; as a body of work, they cannot be pigeonholed. "The Perfect Drug" has the flavor of drum and bass, "Down in It" is essentially a rap, "Happiness in Slavery" is industrial, "The Frail" is a melancholy piano piece, and most of Pretty Hate Machine could be considered dark synth pop.

NIN's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), largely consists of studio versions of demo recordings. It went triple platinum in the US and produced the singles "Head Like a Hole," "Down in It" and "Sin." Music videos were made for these three tracks, but the one for "Sin" became banned on MTV due to its sexually explicit content, which included scenes of pierced genitals and a homosexual encounters. Since 1997, however, this video has been available on Halo 12.

NIN's second major release was Broken (1992), an EP of six tracks plus two bonus tracks. It was originally released in a fold-out format, containing the first six tracks on a regular CD and an additional three-inch minidisc with the remaining bonus tracks. It was later released as one CD, with the bonus songs as "hidden" tracks 98 and 99. The song "Wish" won a Grammy in the "metal" category. Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson of Coil directed a music video for "Happiness in Slavery," which was universally banned due to its graphic content. The video depicts performance artist Bob Flanagan strapping himself to a machine that subsequently pleasures, tortures and kills him. A video for "Pinion" aired twice on MTV before being banned for its objectionable content, although images from it did become a fixture in the opening title sequence of the MTV show 120 Minutes. A full length video informally called The Broken Movie was also made by Sleazy, but has not seen an official release. Broken was followed by the remix EP Fixed.

NIN's second full album and third major release was The Downward Spiral ( 1994). It went quadruple platinum and is often considered by critics to be NIN's best work. There were four singles released, "March of the Pigs", "Closer", "Hurt", and "The Downward Spiral". One of the singles, "The Downward Spiral" was only released to radio. Music videos were made for the singles "March of the Pigs", "Closer", and "Hurt", with the edited MTV version of "Closer" becoming very successful. The album's final track, "Hurt", would enjoy success once again when it was covered, with slight alterations to the lyrics, by Johnny Cash in 2003. The Downward Spiral was followed by the remix EP Further Down the Spiral. A remastered version of the album was released on November 23, 2004, with an accompanying CD of b-sides and rarities.

NIN's fourth major release was The Fragile (1999). It produced three singles, one released in the US ("The Day the World Went Away"), one in the UK ("We're In This Together") and one in Japan and Australia ("Into The Void"). Music videos for "We're In This Together", "Into the Void", and "Starfuckers Inc." (retitled as "Starsuckers, Inc.") were aired in the US. The Fragile was followed by the remix album Things Falling Apart

NIN's fifth major release, With Teeth (2005), was written and recorded following Reznor's painful battle with alcohol addiction and substance abuse. The first single, "The Hand That Feeds" was leaked onto the Internet months before the official release of the single, through a poor quality rip of a radio broadcast. The music video, consisting of digitally altered rehearsal footage, was debuted on the official Nine Inch Nails website.

Each Nine Inch Nails release is given a sequential number, with the word "Halo" preceding it (eg. The Downward Spiral is also known as Halo 8). Many independent and new wave records follow similar numbering schemes.

NIN's mud-soaked performance at Woodstock '94 is one of their most famous moments. The band earned a Grammy for "Best Metal Performance" for their live performance of "Happiness in Slavery" when it was included on the 1996 Woodstock '94 double CD set.

NIN created the ambient music for id software's computer game Quake in 1996. As a tribute to this, the programmers of the game included a nail gun as a weapon, whose ammo boxes bore the NIN logo.

A number of NIN songs are not available on any of the official releases. Some can be found on bootleg CDs, but others have only been permormed live.

Unreleased songs:
"Theme from the Right Track" - instrumental track from Reznor's sessions at the Right Track studios
"Slate/Intro" - introduction to Purest Feeling, which was the demo for Pretty Hate Machine
"Purest Feeling" - Pretty Hate Machine reject
"Maybe Just Once" - Pretty Hate Machine reject
"Twist" - demo version of "Ringfinger"
"Now I'm Nothing" - track performed live between the releases of Pretty Hate Machine and Broken, often used as an introduction to "Terrible Lie". Some of the lyrics were worked into "Gave Up" from Broken. This was never recorded in the studio.
"Red Scab" - performed live in 1995 with Adam Ant, a cover of his track of the same name
"Beat My Guest" - performed live in 1995 with Adam Ant, a cover of his track of the same name
"Scary Monsters" - performed live in 1996 with David Bowie, a cover of his track of the same name

post-With Teeth album has already been started. According to Reznor, "There is another record in the works that I hope to release in a timely fashion." [3] (http://www.nin.com/access/index.html) Reznor has mentioned that he has more new songs created than appear on With Teeth. One of these songs may be "My Dead Friend", a song announced by Reznor in 2003 when With Teeth was known as Bleedthrough.

Reznor is not planning to release any remix albums for With Teeth. [4] (http://www.nin.com/access/index.html) (see: Fixed, Further Down the Spiral or Things Falling Apart)

A DVD version of Closure is forthcoming, pending the resolution of some legal troubles.

In a response to a question on the official NIN website (http://www.nin.com), Reznor indicated that he would like to release surround sound versions of Pretty Hate Machine and The Fragile, similar to what was done for the 10th anniversary editions of The Downward Spiral. More than likely, Reznor will need to finish the tour for With Teeth before he can find time to work on this project.

Trent Reznor is the only official member of the band. He assembles different producers, engineers and musicians to assist him in creating new songs, though Reznor writes all of the lyrics himself and is in sole control of the direction of the band. Similarly, Reznor assembles a live backing band for each NIN tour.

Live band members. Hate '90 Tour (1990):
Richard Patrick - Guitar
Jeff Ward - Drums (beginning of tour)
Chris Vrenna - Drums (remainder of tour)
James Woolley - Keyboard

Self Destruct Tours (1994 - 1995):
Robin Finck - Guitar, Keyboard
Danny Lohner - Bass, Guitar, Keyboard
Chris Vrenna - Drums
James Woolley - Keyboard (1994)
Charlie Clouser - Keyboard (1995)

Outside Tour with David Bowie (September - October, 1995):
Robin Finck - Guitar, Keyboard
Danny Lohner - Bass, Guitar, Keyboard
Chris Vrenna - Drums
Charlie Clouser - Keyboards, Drums

Fragility Tours (1999 - 2000):
Charlie Clouser - Keyboard, Theremin
Jerome Dillon - Drums
Robin Finck - Guitar, Keyboard
Danny Lohner - Bass, Guitar, Keyboard

With Teeth Tour (2005 - ????):
Alessandro Cortini - Keyboard
Jerome Dillon - Drums
Aaron North - Guitar
Jeordie White - Bass, Guitar