Musician’s Notebook

 

Nine Inch Nails’, “The Slip” Album Review

 

 

I was fairly impressed with Nine Inch Nails’ album. To think that most of the times when people say,

“The best things in life are free!”, I will forever relate that to this album. I would like to warn most though 

its hard to really determine my opinion because I am an overall Nine Inch Nails fan for about 12 years now.

I do, however, would like to add that the one album I had anticipated from Nine Inch Nails for many years wasn’t

my favorite (”With Teeth”) of course after 2 -3 years, “With Teeth” did grow on me.

 

 

The reason why I’m even mentioning a past album in a current album review is because if I really wanted to 

say if I had to imagine what kind of sound I expected “With Teeth” to sound like it would have to be, “The Still”.

I think this album was is genius. I would have paid two times the amount of “With Teeth” for this album and I think

my wallet would have had to problem giving it up.

 

 

So I’m going track by track to describe to you guys another great record by Nine Inch Nails.

 

 

Track 1: 999,999

 

Sometimes Trent loves to do a great a little intro to his albums whether it be all atmospherical or a good intro song. 

Here he uses kinda of a hissing sound with some ambient and some greatly designed sounds in the background that 

he uses his great knowledge of sound synthesis to perform. The sounds get a little more intense then it all stops and

you hear his voice saying something which at first you didn’t notice was being manipulated by an effect  saying, “HOw did I Slip….”

which leads to the actual track.

 

 

Track 2: 1,000,000

 

Using one more 1 to the title of the track brings you his next track. Which has the usual harsh and rash synth lines with some 

crazy noisy sounds and harsh bass sounds to accompany his neighboring sounds. There’s even a slight guitar shred in 

the song that reminds of “Wish” from their “Broken” EP. The chorus is catchy along with some the abrasive sounds 

in the verse. Overall great song! It kinda reminds you of a mixture of what he would do in his “Broken” EP 

with his maturity of the “With Teeth” album.

 

 

Track 3: Letting You

 

The drum programming sequence in the beginning of this song kinda reminds me of some crazy drum n bass but then the synths 

begin to go nuts with some speedy vocal melodies. Another aggressive sounding song to follow up with its previous.

The chorus really hammers on against your brain in this one. It’s fast and its what you expect in a nicely evolved Nine Inch Nails song.

 

 

Track 4: Discipline 

 

This is the single for this album that most of us have already heard before the album came out. The song that made us 

anticipate the album to begin with. This one reminds me of something that would be in “With Teeth”. Its got your

synth lines that remind you of the synth lines in “The Hand That Feeds”, but its just such a better song. A very catchy song and kinda 

tones down his aggressiveness from the previous tracks on this album so far.

 

 

Track 5: Echoplex

 

This was the other song that was heard in iLike before the album came out. The electronic drums starts off the song along 

with the bass line that is effected by a strange kind of distortion. It’s a pretty good song overall with some great melodies. The beat I think is one 

thing that will stay stuck in your due to the fact that it never really changes. Maybe not my favorite song out of the whole album 

but it gives good contrast to the other songs that you’ve heard up to this point. 

 

 

Track 6: Head Down 

 

I love the drums in this song and the extremely distorted guitars. I love this song its very mid tempo and everything, but what I really love about this song

is the chorus. WOW! The sequence that follows the chords is just really amazing. It kinda reminds me of what “The Line Begins To Blur” 

did to my auditory pleasure. Not a track to skip at al!

 

 

Track 7: Lights In The Sky

 

Piano and vocals. One of the things that I love that Trent does. Sounds like a ballad of some sort, but if you’ve ever liked any of his piano and vocals 

only like the beginning of “Hurt”, “Something I Can Never Have”, etc. I think you’ll love this one if you’ve ever loved his piano and vocal work. I think the 

structure if very heart and especially the chorus and the melody that accompanies it.

 

 

Track 8: Corona Radiata 

 

Sounds sinister and almost like the world is ending or something. It’s another instrumental that could be used for a score of a movie or something. 

I will have you judge for yourself. Strange way to follow up sucha great ballard sounding song. 

 

 

Track 9: The Four Of Us Dying 

 

Another sinister instrumental. The bassline and the effect in it is lovely. The song is generally a harsh electronic rock jam to me. 

It keeps you anticipated throughout the entire song. It’s a great track to jam to if you feel you need a dosage of a great blend of electronic rock

with crazy synths and background sequences and etc.

 

 

Track 10: Demond Seed

 

The drum sequence is what really turns me on in this song. It’s more electronic than anything and I have been loving what 

Trent has been doing electronically lately especially since the “Year Zero” album. The song has some similar traditional Nine Inch Nails 

sounds. It’s abrasive, the vocals are soft, and the guitars at a minimum. It’s repetitive but it’s that beat that just doesn’t leave you 

and doesn’t get tiring neither and thats also the way the album ends.

 

 

 

Overall

 

I”m very impressed with the album. It seems almost too short sometimes, but that can be a perspective thing. You can enjoy it so much you might want 

to play it again.  I honestly suggest getting this album, after all its free! Any hardcore NIN fans would def. appreciate it. It’s got its older influence

back somewhere in there with a blend of the new mature sound since “With Teeth”, but it’s got the balls of “Broken” and “Year Zero”. So if you were 

a fan of any of those records, then I can almost guarantee you will love this album. For those of you who have been living under a rock for nearly 15 years

and are a fan of electronic music blended with rock music because I really wouldn’t want to call NIN industrial these days, I would get out of that shell of yours

and check this out this record. So don’t wait and do your ears a favor and get this album now at http://www.nin.com (Again, it’s free and you won’t have to feel guilty about “illegally” downloading it from a torrent site or a file sharing P2P network)

 

 

 

  

Apparently, 70-Year old Bill Cosby goes Hip-hop. He recorded a hip-hop album and says it has a pop and jazz feel to it. Although the comedian says he doesnt rap because he can’t say half the words that most rap music says to begin with because it’s profane and degrading. Well, isn’t that lovely?  As he says he doesn’t expect it to be much of a hit or anything, but why waste your time? I would expect a entertainment professional  to understand how the industry works in these situations and if you’re going to be a 70 year old senile rapper that decides not to rap in a hip-hop album because “automatically” rapping has got to have to have profane and degrading lyrics, then maybe someone should just stick to what they know. 

 

The album should be due out in this month and I would consider it, “very interesting”. I don’t think Bill Cosby has  given me anything to laugh about until now. Although, I don’t agree with his speculations that all rap is “evil”, I have to say his reasoning behind this album is primary to educate those in the wrong path. The only situation at hand here is the fact that people that are in the wrong path will not take Bill Cosby serious, I mean for god sakes he did Jello commercials and besides who’s ever taken him serious to begin with? 

 

The world may never know. I suppose once this album is out, we’ll see what’s going on. It may be a  great success or it might be a major bomb. I personally have mixed feelings about it, even though he’s somewhat a child psychologist and a entertainment veteran.   

 

 

Upon arriving on Nine Inch Nails’ website on the highly anticipated day after the message on their web blog titled, “2 Weeks”,

we saw that the assumptions were very much correct, we stumbled across the message saying:

“05 may 2008: halo 27

 

Click HERE to get the new full-length nine inch nails record: the slip

 

(thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one’s on me)”

 

 

That’s right ladies and gentlemen the expected (or unexpected) album from Nine Inch Nails is out. The best thing about it is, as you can read, 

“this one’s on me” meaning its absolutely FREE! It’s not another Ghosts I-IV this album actually contains vocals like all other Nine Inch Nails albums.

Anyways I don’t want to keep you here all day but the link to download this album is here: 

 

http://theslip.nin.com

 

 

Upon arriving at the site you will need to give your email address so that the download link will be sent to you and onc eyou click on the link you will have a 

choice to forward it to some of your friends via email. Once you have click on the download, you will be given several choices as to what format you want to download 

and also mentioning the fact that  the physical format are coming soon and i doubt those will be free. The formats available at the moment are:

 

High-Quality MP3s

FLAC Lossless 

M4A Apple Lossless 

High Definition WAVE 24/96

 

 

All files are 100% DRM

 

Also, as usual somewhere in the link you will have a link to download the multitracks to the album and NIN also encourages you to remix it and pretty much pass it along.

 Track Listings:

1. 999,999
2. 1,000,000
3. letting you
4. discipline
5. echoplex
6. head down
7. lights in the sky
8. corona radiata
9. the four of us are dying
10. demon seed

 

Aside from the new album I thought we’d all have to wait for awhile before Nine Inch Nails decided to announce their tour dates till May 25th but it appears they already

started throwing out some of the dates in our faces unexpectedly. Now, I too am disappointed that I don’t see a Florida date on here, but I mean it’s okay because they normally won’t give 

you all the dates for this next album’s tour right away. My only advice to those that don’t have their hometown under this list is just sit there and wait a little while longer 

and hopefully we’ll see them come around to our hometowns. Cross your fingers!

 

 

For ticket sales and presales it’s noted to go to their site http://www.nin.com 

 

 

 

7/25/08 Pemberton, BC [Pemberton Festival]

On sale: NOW

 

7/26/08 Seattle, WA [Key Arena]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5:00PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (10:00AM)

 

7/28/08 Edmonton, AB [Rexall Place]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5:00PM)

On Sale: 5/9 (10:00AM)

 

7/29/08 Calgary, AB [Pengrowth Saddledome]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5:00PM)

On Sale: 5/9 (10:00AM) 

 

7/31/08 Winnipeg, MB [MTS Centre]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5:00PM)

On Sale: 5/9 (10:00AM) 

 

8/2/08 Minneapolis, MN [Target Center]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5:00PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)

 

8/3/08 Chicago, IL [Grant Park - Lollapalooza Festival]

On Sale: NOW

 

8/5/08 Toronto, ON [Air Canada Centre]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5:00PM)

On Sale: 5/9 (5:00PM)

 

8/7/08 Uncasville, CT [Mohegan Sun Arena]

Pre Sale: 5/21 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/24 (10AM)

 

8/8/08 Worcester, MA [DCU Center]

Pre Sale: 5/14 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/17 (12NOON)

 

8/10/08 Baltimore, MD [Pimlico Race Course - V Festival]

On Sale: 5/3 

 

8/12/08 Knoxville, TN [Knoxville Civic Coliseum]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (9AM)

 

8/13/08 Duluth, GA [Gwinnett Arena]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/9 (5PM)

 

8/15/08 Oklahoma City, OK [Ford Center]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)

 

8/16/08 Houston, TX [Toyota Center]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/9 (5PM)

 

8/18/08 Dallas, TX [American Airlines Center]

Pre Sale: 5/6 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/9 (5PM)

 

8/20/08 St. Louis, MO [Scottrade Center]

Pre Sale: 5/28 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/31 (10AM)

 

8/22/08 Cleveland, OH [Quicken Loans Arena]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)

 

8/23/08 Auburn Hills, MI [The Palace of Auburn Hills]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)

 

8/27/08 East Rutherford, NJ [Izod Center]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (12NOON)

 

8/29/08 Philadelphia, PA [Wachovia Center]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)

 

8/31/08 Lexington, KY [Rupp Arena]

Pre Sale: 4/30 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/3 (10AM)

 

9/2/08 Morrison, CO [Red Rocks Amphitheater]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)

On Sale: 5/10 (10AM)

 

9/3/08 Salt Lake City [E Center]

Pre Sale: 5/7 (5PM)

On sale: 5/10 (11AM)

 

9/5/08 Oakland, CA [Oracle Arena]

Pre Sale: 6/12 (5:00PM)

On Sale: 6/15 (10AM)

 

9/6/08 Los Angeles, CA [The Forum]

Pre Sale: TBA

On Sale: TBA 

 

l

 

So it appears that Nine Inch Nails is doing it again! 

 

 

After releasing, “Ghosts I-IV” on March 2, 2008 you figure most fans were thinking, “Okay, great well, now we’ll have to wait for some time for another release from Nine Inch Nails.”  Well guess again! Nine Inch Nails just so happens to release their new single entitled, “Discipline” (mixed by Alan Moulder), which includes vocals and everything. American radio stations began playing the new single and provided the online links  as to where you can download this song for free (discipline.nin.com)    

 

 

 

Now the whole situation that has people completely psyched and in massive anticipation is the fact that about two weeks prior to “Ghosts I-IV”, Trent Reznor posted on his site blog “2 Weeks”. So he does it again now! April 21, 2008 Trent Reznor posts “2 Weeks”. So us doing the math leads to the very speculation that the follow-up to “Year Zero” will be released on May 5th, 2008!! Even contained with the MP3 down for Discipline is the message that says “Go to www.nin.com May 5″. So no one knows exactly what that’s all about, but we all know that Nine Inch Nails has gone completely independent and of course thats a whole other story. 

 

 

In the future, I  will be discussing a few things about how the music business has changed over time and why artists like Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead have been doing these complete DIY releases. As for now let’s all put our hands together for more Nine Inch Nails material! 

 

 

  

 

A recent study suggests that digital music will not save the music industry from the sharp decline it has been experiencing over the last few years.

From what I’ve read in various parts of the web and the opinions some music bloggers are taking on this issue, some perspective needs to be gained.

Nobody Said Digital Music is a Passing Fad

The first thing to reconsider - many writers seem to be accusing the study of calling digital music itself a passing fad.

Wrong.

It merely says that digital music isn’t going to save a sinking ship.

This is only confirmation.

We’ve known that the music industry has been sinking for some time. We’ve all known that nothing could save it but a complete turn-around in the way it does business. We’ve also known that’s not going to happen.

Digital music is definitely not a fad. It’s a revolution. In an environmentally fragile age, we need to be conscious of our choices when it comes to wasteful distribution methods. For musicians, it means the end of era where the stranglehold on the music market is tight.

The mistake many musicians make is assuming that this means it’ll be easy for them to become rich and famous and rock out in stadiums.

It might level the playing field, but a variety of other skills - or contacts with these skills - are essential. The foremost among them is marketing.

Being able to work with a digital audience for your digital music helps.

The traditional music industry is falling down like a tree falling on a lumberjack. But the ideal of an independent band is not a completely realistic ideal, as I’ve said before. We all need to put in place business systems that make it possible for us to remain independent while working with those businesses that possess the resources to fulfill various functions.

Well, digital music means that you can safely remove distributors, retailers, and printing presses from the list (unless you choose to sell CDs, but that’s not going to work for long).

Anyway, let’s get back to watching this industry pull off its last band-aids before it’s buried in the coffin.

Yes, that picture is of a weasel.

Why?

EMI, the music industry giant, wants to drop their funding for the music industry’s trade bodies, including the RIAA.

Well, I never liked those guys anyway. So why are they weasels?

If we can reform the industry, we need to reform trade bodies and create an industry regulated by those who truly care about the artist.

In the industrial age, it was unions that first gave workers freedom from the most horrendous of situations.

The RIAA and other music industry trade groups purport to be looking out for the needs of the artist. They really look out for the executives in those overpriced black leather chairs.

But a reform of the industry requires that when the trade groups are reformed to enforce fairness and justice, the corporations of the industry are still eating at the same table.

All the corporations eat at this table. When they push in their seats and leave, it takes away yet another opportunity to initiate some reforms in one fell swoop. It means multiple strategies for each corporation for the same goal, instead of just using trade groups to achieve that one goal at once.

EMI will still be as corrupt as always and as self-serving as the trade groups it is leaving behind. This does not indicate any kind of good change for the future. Certainly doesn’t mean they will take an interest in good music at last, either.

A reform of this scale might seem to gargantuan to be true, but if anyone can do it, I think I know just the guys.

PS. Got a band with some tunes and want to get them out there? Read the latest in our Band Blogging series: Make Subscriptions Prominent.

Berklee has long been known for providing great content online and off for musicians regarding all the aspects of music creation, production and business, but just the other day it joined the ranks of the many new blog networks that have been launching of late with Berklee Music Blogs.

My perusal of their offering has looked quite promising and there’s been a pretty decent amount of quality content available throughout the network, such as this article for those of you who wish, for some reason, to try your luck with the traditional music industry and support the standing hegemony (we all know my opinion is to work directly with publishers, distributors and the like and cut out the middleman).

The blog network is staffed by music industry professionals, professors and educators from Berklee, and others and apparently covers music business, production, songwriting, music theory (yes, it actually is good for you!) and performance skills.

I have particularly enjoyed the advice of Erik Hawkins on production, remixing, Reason and Pro Tools, and not just because it seems he uses a Mac. For instance, this article on using reverb is great and has some fantastic pointers on the use of the effect, that may come as a happy surprise for those of you who wish all those plugins on each track would stop slowing down your grandma-configured computer.

I suggest you go take a look at the network and judge for yourself - but at the least, it’s great to see the fairly sparse musician’s niche in the blogosphere filling out a bit more!

Blogged with Flock

Nancy Prager, a copyright lawyer and writer whose articles I am a frequent reader of, has had some great commentary on the Radiohead “controversy” in the past couple of weeks (as well as the emerging “controversy” regarding Reznor and Saul Williams).

Prager’s conclusion on the whole thing:

“While In Rainbows may be a musical work for the ages, it wouldbe inappropriate to use Radiohead as the poster child of bands pursuingalternative paths if its journey leads them back to the major labels.”

I believe her to be correct. Free music downloads are a friggin’ great way for musicians to start building an audience. I’ve done it myself for most of this year. By the time I’d published the third tuneback, I was building buzz and had a few major publications, such as the Sydney Morning Herald, interviewing me and even releasing my songs on their site.

That’s not bad growth for three hours work (the tuneback concept imposes a rule of one hour spent writing and recording a song).

But building a career? You can’t do that by releasing free music forever, and in an age where - as Nancy says - some don’t even want to pay $1 to obtain the album and go over to the file sharing sites, you might want to wait until the ass-end of your career before you start giving fans entire albums for free.

Radiohead can afford to do this. They are sitting on more money than George W. Bush is sitting on stupidity. But if you are reading that, chances are you’re not sitting on that much cash. If you are, my email address can be found in the right sidebar (I have a bad case of starving artist syndrome). If you don’t charge for independently released albums you won’t be able to make any income from your songs. On the other hand, the tuneback is a minimal time and effort investment for building audience. There’s a balance when it comes to freebies.

The scary part is that Radiohead and Saul Williams are setting a dangerous precedent. Pubs already pay insulting rates to bands because they know they can get a cover band in for free. The problem of piracy has begun to plague album sales in the same way. This can only make it worse.

Or maybe, NDK was right when he proposed that Radiohead were really asking their fans: given the opportunity to steal from us, will you?

Tags: radiohead, in rainbows, saul williams, trent reznor, free music

It seems that every time it becomes a little more obvious that digital music downloads are pushing methods of physical distribution out of the picture, the music industry comes up with yet another ridiculous, wallet-raping scheme to get you to hand over money for something physical. The ethics of this alone are obvious: even if you are still a climate change sceptic, there’s no denying that selling factory-line physical products is wasteful when there are digital alternatives that are just as good (if not better).

After a four year gap, Matchbox Twenty is one of the first to support the latest record industry scam: flash drive records. For $10, you get the equivalent of a CD single plus a bit of extra content - kind of like the special features on a DVD, which of course, you’ll never look at - even though you swear you’ll get there one day.

If you thought $10 for a single was bad, Matchbox Twenty’s Exile On Mainstream goes for $35, and you can only buy it from Best Buy. Ouch. I’d buy an album on USB for US$35, but only if it had an album of high quality, lossless recordings (high quality, of course, in terms of the sound itself and the music itself) and a few film clips or good live footage.

I don’t know exactly what’s on Matchbox Twenty’s flash drive, but knowing the mainstream music industry, probably nothing worth dishing out US$35 for. A stack of MP3s and a film clip, I’m guessing - or am I being too cynical? Matchbox would do well to take advice from their forefathers in this matter.

To the RIAA, good luck with the latest scam.

DevDad.com is the blog of stay-at-home dad Mike from Tampa Bay, Florida. He’s a 21 year old father, and I can sure sympathize with him for working out of home with a (wonderful) distraction running around. It’s interesting for me, personally, to read his blog and see how he handles business and family simultaneously. It’s a great blog, especially if you’re a parent of any kind. My son was conceived near the end of high school, and since most people tend to be in their thirties before having kids in this era, I feel more of a bond with what’s written on his blog than I might if he were 31.

Mike is running a competition, the Stay At Home Dad iMac Give-Away, for readers of his blog. The iMac is a fantastic home studio machine (for those who can’t afford something like a Mac Pro) - sure as hell beats the Mac Mini I have to forge my demos on - and I figured that readers would appreciate the heads up on this competition. If you can win this one, you’ll be churning out great new songs and tunebacks like a dog on heat. Go and check the Stay At Home Dad iMac Give-Away, and even if you don’t enter, subscribe - it’s a fun read.

This competition is sponsored by SitterCity, a leading American babysitting agency (it even does petsitting!), and while I’m out here in Australia and would more babysitting for Axl, I know Mike would not be partnering with them unless they were the best in their field. Thanks for the opportunity, SitterCity.

What are you still doing here? Go enter!

From the IHT:

A music industry group Thursday said it would cap “per channel” fees for major Internet radio companies streaming music on multiple channels.

SoundExchange, which collects royalties from Webcasters and distributes them to artists and record labels, said it would limit fees — at $50,000 a year — for online radio station companies that offer more than 100 channels to customers.

A decision made earlier this year by copyright judges meant that webcasters had to pay higher royalty fees and $500 per channel. Of course, with the power of web, many startups and small companies can provide hundreds of channels for consumer’s benefit. The decision these judges made could have brought down any internet radio revolution.

SoundExchange’s decision is a step in the right direction, which will allow small companies more room to grow and place fewer economic restrictions on the development of multiple channels. This is great for musicians who are building a career, as it means more mediums for promotion across the board. Bringing down internet radio is not good for the small bands who are working their asses off to get some promotion going, so we should all thank SoundExchange.

The world’s biggest record label, Universal Music Group, has officially stated that it has no intentions of renewing its deal with Apple to sell songs through iTunes. This could be a pressure tactic, perhaps trying to get Steve Jobs to give in to one of their numerous demands, but Apple has rarely given in to such things in the past.

On the other hand, if Apple doesn’t make some sort of deal to keep them on board, this could be the end of the iTunes Store. After all, it is the largest record label and despite the fact that their artists usually suck (think such talents as Eminem and 50 Cent), this will practically empty the iTunes Store.

The implication for independent bands? iTunes is a great way to sell your music without giving away rights to a publisher - but if nobody’s going to iTunes, nobody’s buying music there either. Granted, there are alternatives, but nothing that has the reach, influence and public trust that iTunes does.