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The most frequently asked questions about Nine Inc
From: Ian Thomas Patterson <[email protected]>
NINE INCH NAILS - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
VERSION 1.3
This FAQ was compiled by Ian Patterson (alias beatpunk) based on information
gleaned from album liner notes, information from record companies,
information from record store owners, and various other sources of
information that seemed to fit the facts. If, however, you notice anything
wrong with this FAQ, and would like to call it to my attention, feel free to
do so. I will try to keep this as updated as possible...
Many thanks go out to (in chronological order):
Paul Vargo (nin-list administrator)[email protected]
Yertle...........................................kaemcdonald@alex.stkate.edu
Brian.............................j152%[email protected].edu
Brett............................................blckjck@leland.stanford.edu
Nathaniel D. [email protected]
Ryan Zamecnik............................................zamecnik@cs.uwp.edu
Matthew Barton......................................faxgb@rs6000.adm.fau.edu
John McDonagh..........................................mcdonghj@unix2.tcd.ie
Michael [email protected].sunysb.edu
Peter Dubuque.[email protected]
You know who you are! :)
PART ONE - GENERAL QUESTIONS
"Does the name 'Nine Inch Nails' mean anything?"
Some possible explanations...
a) The fingernails of the Statue of Liberty are nine inches long.
b) The nails used to nail shut a coffin are nine inches long.
(and the most popular)...
c) Jesus was crucified with nine inch nails, except for the nail through the
feet, which was a foot.
"What is the significance of the 'Halo' numbers?"
The "Halo" designations on every official NIN release, as far as I can tell,
designate their order of release. For instance, the "Down In It" single,
which was the first official NIN release, was "Halo 1". _Fixed_, the most
recent, was "Halo 6".
"Is Nine Inch Nails really only one person?"
Yes and no. The majority of studio work is done by Trent Reznor alone.
There are exceptions to this - most of _Broken_ was co-created by Flood, a
production artist who has produced such stuff as U2's "Achtung Baby",
Curve's "Doppelganer", Depeche Mode's "Violator" and Nitzerebb's last three
albums. Howver, according to Trent, he and Flood don't plan to work
together again anytime soon, having become "pretty burned out on each other".
Also on _Broken_, Martin Atkins and Chris Vrenna contributed live
drums to "Wish" and "Gave Up". On _Pretty Hate Machine_, Flood helped with
"Head Like A Hole" and "Terrible Lie", while other big-names Adrian Sherwood
and Keith LeBlanc helped with "Down In It" and "Sin", among others. John
Fryer and others also helped in various ways with this album, but not so
much in the creative aspect as much as the technical aspect.
Live NIN is an entirely different matter. For the Lollapalloza 1
tour, Trent supported himself with a very real band, including the late
Jeff Ward from Lard. From what I've heard, the live NIN lineup changes a
lot - at one point it included Martin Atkins.
"What is it with Trent whispering?"
Well, he likes to whisper. In songs like "Sanctified" on PHM, towards the
end, there's some whispering, but there's debate on whether it's actually
Trent. He also whispers a lot on _Broken_, usually at the end of songs.
Probably the most well known instance is at the end of "Suck".
"What was Trent's whle connection to Pigface?"
Pigface (in case you didn't know) is a huge band consisting of basiclly
anyone who wants to be in it at the time... Trent was involved with the
recodring of the first Pigface album, _Gub_, on which appeared "Suck" in its
first (and best, IMHO) incarnation. Trent also contirbuted to rhythm/noise
track "Bushmaster". Trent then toured with Pigface for at least a short
time and then (this is where the info becomes hazy) was apparently kicked
out, some say because he tried to take over the band. Trent apparently no
longer has any connection with Pigfcae, other than being friends with some
of the members, like Martin Atkins (who drums for NIN on tour sometimes).
"What is Trent's whole connection with Ministry?"
a) Some people assert that Trent played on the "In Case You Didn't Feel Like
Showing Up" tour, but he's not listed anywhere in the CD booklet - however,
this was also at the time of his major contract dispute, and if I remeber
correctly, he could tour with whoever he wanted, just couldn't record.
b) On the 1000 Homo DJ's _Supernaut_ EP Trent plays backup guitar and uses
the psedonym Ike Krull. He was originally to sing the song, but TVT
wouldn't let it be released.
c) Also, Al Jourgansen from Ministry (alias Hypo Luxa) produced (and
maybe helped create) "Get Down Make Love", the Queen cover that's the b-side
of the "Sin" single.
d) Trent is listed as an "Additional Cock" on the indside of the Revolting
Cocks (Al, Paul, and Bill from Ministry, with friends) CD-single for
"Beers Steers And Queers". This single contains at least two live tracks, so
maybe Trent toured with RevCo... This would seem to conflict with the
reports that Trent played on the In Case You... Ministry tour.
e) There are samples from the _Broken_ version of "Happiness in Slavery" and
"Gave Up" on both remixes of "Just One Fix" and the b-side "Quick Fix" of
the Ministry single for J1F - I have the import version, and was told that
that has some samples not released on the American version, so if anyone
with the domestic version (the cardboard Digipak, not the thin plastic
jewel-box) can verify whether the samples that were eliminated were/were not
NIN, that would be nice...
"What Nine Inch Nails videos exist?"
Officially, NIN has videos for "Down In It", "Head Like A Whole" (two
different versions, I think), "Pinion", "Wish", and "Happiness in Slavery".
A video was made for "Sin", but TVT refused to let it be released except to
a very few clubs.
PART TWO - DOWN IN IT (halo 1)
"When was "Down In It" released?"
"Down In It" was released on 12" vinyl only in 1987. It was re-released on CD
maxi-singles and tape maxi-singles in 1992, after the runaway success of PHM.
Both releases have the same songs - the singe, shred and skin mixes. The
first two can also be found on the HLH single, the third is the version that
appears on PHM. Also available on the HLH single is a fourth mix of "Down In
It", called the "demo". The name leads some to believe that this was the
version he submitted to TVT in order to obtain his record contract.
"What is the song about?"
Trent won't say. He has said on many occasions, however, that he's really
sick of people misintrepreting it (and about people misinterpreting his
lyrics in general off PHM) , and that it's NOT about a bad acid trip.
Some sources claim that the whole first album is about (surprise!) a bad
realtionship with a girl named "Chrissy". However, that might not apply to
"Down In It", since it was first released in 1987 and was probably written
some time before (unless it was a REALLY bad realationship that left him
writing about it two years later).
PART THREE - PRETTY HATE MACHINE (halo 2)
"What's up with the extra lyrics that are printed with the regular lyrics at
the ends of some songs?"
I've heard that if you put them together the right way, they make up another
song. I've not been able to that yet, and I'm pretty persistant, so I dunno
about that... It could just be that he meant to include those lyrics in the
songs, but they just didn't fit into the music.
"Is the printing on the tape itself correct?"
The tape I bought was fine. The tape my best friend has has the sides
reversed. Given Trent's penchant for odd track numbering (all NIN european
single-CD's have track numbers completely altered - so that the CD plays the
songs in the right order, but the number you see on the CD player is
incorrect).
"What's the album cover a picture of?"
Again, differing theories:
a) A distorted view of the crown of the Statue of Liberty.
b) One source says that Trent (on Prodigy) said that the cover was a
circularsaw blade stretched out.
PART FOUR - HEAD LIKE A HOLE / SIN (halos 3+4, respectively)
"What is the difference between the American and European releases?"
In the case of _Sin_, the only difference I know of is the track numbers.
In the case of HLaH, there is one additional mix (the "opal" mix) that
didn't make it to the American release. I've never heard it, although have
heard that it's very good, more danceable, etc.
PART FIVE - BROKEN (halo 5)
"What the hell is wrong with my CD?"
Probably nothing. It's a long story. _Broken_ was released in the
following different forms:
a. As the 5" CD with the six named tracks, enclosed with a smaller,
3" CD with the bonus tracks. Some very capitalistic record store owners
took the 3" out and sold it separately, which is why I believe production of
that particular kind was limited to the first pressing. Some information
leads me to believe that the 3" CD might also be called _Nothing_.
b. As the 5" CD with tracks 1-6 as the normal songs, tracks 7-97
each one second long and blank, tracks 98-99 as the bonus tracks.
c. As the 5" CD with tracks 1-6 as the normal songs and tracks 7 and
8 as the bonus stuff.
d. As the 5" CD with only 1-6 being the normal songs, without the
bonus tracks entirely (a rip-off, IMHO). It is believed that this form is
the result of heinous record-store owners taking out the 3" to sell
separately.
I'm unsure of which version is being currently manufactured, so I can't say
exactly what is limited edition and what isn't, except for the first
pressing with the 3", which is definately limited.
If, on the other hand, you purchased _Broken_ on cassette, the bonus tracks
are not listed on the liner notes or the casette itself except for the
writing credits which appear at the very end of the liner notes, and are
located on the second side.
If, on the third hand, you purchased _Broken_ on vinyl, my understanding is
that the EP itself (the six normal tracks) were on standard 12" vinyl, while
the bonus tracks were a white label 7".
The names of the bonus tracks are "Suck" and "Physical (you're so)" which
was originally written by Adam Ant.
"Why were the two bonus tracks not included on _Broken_?"
Maybe because "Suck" was written during the contract dispute (as evidenced by
its appearnce on _gub_), and trying to release it in full-blown fashion would
just have been inviting more legal shit. Or maybe just because he felt they
didn't belong with the rest of _Broken_ - for one thing, he's said that
_Broken_ was the thrid phase of NIN (the first being PHM and the second
being the three years of touring) and he felt "Suck" to be a relic of the
second phase.
"What's the deal with all the record companies buying each other out, and
what does it have to do with NIN?"
Well, apparently WaxTrax! filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in
November of 1992. Meanwhile, Interscope president Jimmy Iovine failed to
get TVT to let Trent leave their label, so he decided to just flat out buy
TVT. Once that was done, Trent felt a lot more comfortable, so he gave them
the finished _Broken_ (he had told TVT president Steve Gottlieb that he
would NEVER make another record for TVT, so he was keeping _BRoken_ a secret
until he was of of TVT). TVT then proceeded to take the money given them by
Interscope as a bribe for them to drop legal stuff against Trent and used
a small fraction of that money to buy WaxTrax!'s entire back-catalog, except
for the stuff that had already been bought (like the Front242 back-catalog,
which had been bought by CBS/Sony). This accounts for why there was a
conspicuous absence of WaxTrax! stuff in stores in the early part of 1993,
and why it's all back now with a new little TVT symbol on it...
"Are there any singles off of _Broken_?"
Not singles as such, but promo CD's exist for "Happines in Slavery" and
"Physical". The former features more remixes by Adrian Sherwood and others,
the latter features only the "mass-consumption" mix. Both are available from:
RGV records and CD's inc.
PO box 25503
Washington DC 20007
There's also a promo in existance for "Wish" that got sent to radio
stations. This has the "no dirty words" mix - not a remix per se, jus the
original with the music cut out for all the "fuck"'s. Don't know if this is
also from RGV.
PART SIX - FIXED (halo 6)
"Is _Fixed_ a limited edition?"
Yes. This means there were only a certain number of copies printed, and
they're pretty much all gone now, although the manager of out local cool
record store here managed to snarf up about 50 from Sam Goody (HA!) and is
now selling them for about $11.
"Why?"
There are a few theories. One holds that _Fixed_ was kept limited in order
to not interfere with the MTV-inspired success of _Broken_, and will be
re-issued in about a year as a non-limited. Also, collectors LOVE
limiteds. Also, maybe they just thought it wouldn't sell well. Time will
tell...
"Who does the remixes?"
Coil remixes "Gave Up"; Jim G. Thirwell (aka Clint Ruin, Foetus, etc.)
remixed "Wish" into "Wish (remix)" and "Fist Fuck"; Trent Reznor, Chris
Vrenna and Butch Vig remixed "Suck" and "Last" into "Throw This Away"; PK
remixed "Happiness in Slavery"; Reznor, Vrenna and a slew of others
mutilated "Happiness in Slavery" into "Screaming Slave" - kind of like
Skinny Puppy's "Download" with guitars...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hope y'all found this enjoyable and informative. If anybody who reads this
has information that I omitted, screwed up, forgot, or wasn't aware of,
please send it to me (before may 6, when my account bites the dust) at:
[email protected]
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