Pick Your Poison: Monday 5-6-13

And now, a few words about Nine Inch Nails. There was a period in my life when NIN was more than just a band to me – they were an obsession. That period primarily occurred during my adolescent years, when records like The Downward Spiral and even The Fragile tapped into the rage, depression and general darkness that seemed to consume my puberty addled brain. Unlike many of the bands I listened to during that period however, NIN actually remained a constant fixture in my music library straight through their final shows back in 2009. Puberty ended and I became a relatively well-adjusted human being with little to no anger issues, yet the songs stayed with me and I was always eager to hear what Trent Reznor had up his sleeve next. It broke my heart when they shut down the project a few years ago. Yet I also understood where Reznor was coming from in his decision to move on. That band and their catalogue can be tough to continue to push forward with, especially in a live setting, when you’ve been doing it for 20 years straight and have reached 40 years old. Part of me hoped that unlike Soundgarden or Stone Temple Pilots or any other number of bands that have reunited and fired up the cash cow once again, maybe NIN would be different. Reznor had movie soundtracks and the new band How to destroy angels_ with his wife, so the need to reach back and revive the sleeping giant shouldn’t have been much of a temptation. Yet here we are four years later, and NIN will be back touring this fall. Apparently there will also be new music in the pipeline, to go with the new band lineup that aims to do something a bit different with the classic NIN catalogue. I’m equal parts disappointed and excited at the prospect. What I really wanted to mention in this post, and it’s kind of pointless now, but earlier today the band uploaded their 1993 short film broken onto Vimeo. The film is something of a cult phenomenon, never officially released and something that’s really only been passed around on VHS bootlegs and certain torrent sites. Directed by Peter Christopherson, it collects the videos for all the tracks on the Broken EP which results in a snuff film that includes torture, masochism, dismemberment and cannibalism. To call it graphic and extreme would be putting it lightly. Anyways, I was going to link to the Vimeo post where you could find it and watch it yourself (if that’s your thing), but the administrators took it down because it violated the site’s terms of service. As somebody that’s seen a lot of rather explicit things on Vimeo before, you’ve really got to do something horiffic to have your video taken down. So clearly, nobody is meant to have easy access to watch this film. If you’re really compelled to see it, perhaps a torrent is your only friend. Good luck on your quest! For the rest of us, let’s talk Pick Your Poison. Nothing quite so explicit here, but some good songs nevertheless. I’m happy to recommend tracks from Cool Ghouls, The Hussy, The Koo Koos, Plastic Visions, Trivial Shields and Young Knives. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream new songs from pacificUV, Sibille Attar, WALLA, and Chad Valley’s remix of Bell X1.