End of the Month Music Bitchfest - September 2012

Nine Inch Nails

At 12:22 am on Thursday, September 19th, Trent Reznor posted the following on Twitter: "Yes."
As staid and irrefutable as a simple negative can be, this "yes" is, literally, its diametric opposite.
It speaks volumes.
"Yes" to what?
A new NIN album?
The long-awaited How To Destroy Angels LP?
The edited HD footage from the final Nine Inch Nails shows?
Something totally different streaking towards us from out of left field?!
With that "yes"...there are no obstacles, just promise...the future is completely unwritten...anything is possible...
Or, you know, go fuck yourself.
That one word was retweeted 1,364 times and favorited 430 times (as of this moment).
Quadruple fuck yourself because the day after he posted this epic fart marks the thirteenth anniversary of The Fragile.
Which I'm sure he probably forgot; just like he forgot about the tenth anniversary deluxe edition...due out three years ago.*
I have to say, for an artist so worried about his own relevance, he sure does love to test out just how long he can go without releasing stuff and, thusly, how far he can fade from peoples' minds.
But, hey, right now it's still Thursday, September 20th. At the stroke of midnight, nin.com could suddenly update with details and links and candy and rainbows; he's pulled awesome shit like that before.
You may never know these sentences even existed because they could be replaced with the screaming ardor of the tiny fanboy living in the back of my brain who is always ready to sing the praises of everything Trent Reznor has ever done EVER.
Although, to be honest, I'm thinking "No."

Also, Reznor is set to appear on October 14th in L,A, for an evening talking about music with David Byrne and some dude, where he'll probably let slip the amazing news that something will be released in some capacity...soon....maybe...
Then he'll literally shit on the stage and 1,364 Nine Inch Nails fans will tweet about it while 430 of them roll around in it, chanting lyrics from their favorite songs off of The Fragile.
I can see it so clearly that I can smell it.

Heh.
So, THE DAY I typed the above, Reznor posted the following:

Sorry for the radio silence lately... I've been busy! There's a number of things to be revealed over the coming months. Some you may expect, others you may not. Patience, my friends.

Today's news is about my band How To Destroy Angels. I'm happy to announce we've formally partnered with Columbia Records for our next series of releases. The first of these will be available in November and it's called An Omen EP. As you may have guessed, it's an EP. It contains six songs, some of which are from our full-length LP which is coming early next year.
We are making some videos, we are going to be performing live, and that's all the details I have for now on those matters.

Regarding our decision to sign with Columbia, we've really spent a long time thinking about things and it makes sense for a lot of reasons, including a chance to work with our old friend Mark Williams. There's a much more granular and rambling answer I could give (and likely will in an interview someplace) but it really comes down to us experimenting and trying new things to see what best serves our needs. Complete independent releasing has its great points but also comes with shortcomings.

We are all very excited about you checking out the new stuff. Wish I could tell you more, but you know how this works... it would take all the fun out of it!

Stay tuned! — with Atticus Ross, Rob Sheridan and Mariqueen Maandig Reznor.

So....lot of emotions while reading through this....hm...you know, that would be a lie. There was one sentence while reading this: "November?** Early next year? Fuck you."
HAS IT NOT BEEN LONG ENOUGH?!

Whatever.
I'm too tired for any more bile today.
Prediction: we'll get some pictures, we'll get a song, we'll get a video, we'll get the EP, we'll get another song, we'll get the album.
The above sentence will take place from now until...I don't know...May of next year?
Wake me when it's November, then bury me in a stasis pod with the EP until it's "early next year" in mid-2014.
Check out their new site design and weep with the rest of us.


Beck

Good: Beck has a track on the new Tribute To Caetano Veloso album.
Bad: It's available for download in the Brazilian iTunes store.
So...thuck you?


They Might Be Giants

I've done some research and it looks like I can get all the vinyls from the IFC transferred to .wavs for about $50. Money well spent, as there is some pretty great stuff on these things.
Will I share them?
No, not unless the person I'm sharing with is a huge fan (probably just Jade, Gia and Sylvia).
Am I okay with them no longer being trapped on vinyl?
Yes, yes I am.
Flans has informed us there will be another vinyl mailing around the holidays and I've suggested that TMBG go back and rework some old tracks of theirs, maybe try some new stuff or perhaps take an approach they didn't take originally (a studio version of "Hey Mr. D.J., I Thought You Said We Had A Deal" with their recent horn arrangement would be tasty...). Both Flans and the IFC community seem to think that is a good idea.
I, also, think it is a good idea.
Since I now have the ability to talk directly to Flans, I asked him if he knew/liked any of my other favorite bands (except for NIN because I don't want to freak him out...) and he responded that he's met Beck several times and "he's a gent" and that he likes the video for the Eels song that his friend AJ directed. He also said he thought that Dan Miller is a Cake fan but that he also likes them and their guitar/horn arrangement.
The fact that Beck and They Might Be Giants know each other...I don't know, it kind of makes me warm on the inside.


As I'd hoped and expected, the David Byrne/St. Vincent album, Love This Giant, is excellent, truly something new in a sea of dead and dusty sound.
Seriously, those horns are so god damn versatile.
You can read my review (which, according to an Amazon robot, helped someone to purchase said album!) here or on Amazon!!! I'M IN THE BIG TIME NOW!!!! THE BIG TIME!!!! NOW!!!!!!!

Moments after posting the August Bitchfest, I discovered that Tori Amos had released a track from her upcoming...cover album?...remake album?...reinterpretation album?...Gold Dust.
Since then, over the course of the month, the whole album has been put up.
The majority is absolutely beautiful; the tracks have a freshness and vitality that wasn't missing but just wasn't there...what? Not really sure how to put it... Some of them have a new life and some of them were fine just the way they were.
Thanks be unto suet that Tori figured out how to escape that adult contemporary corner she was painting herself into the past few...decades.
I swear, there's nothing that basing an album around strings or horns cannot accomplish...
I've been spending some time with her recent live album (just her and a piano), From Russia With Love.
That lady...has still got it.
As much as I love Reznor, he will never be as good at writing a song or playing a piano or singing as Tori Amos, even though he does have better pronunciation than her.
I don't think I'm going to write a full on review for Gold Dust, I might just compare the originals with the new versions and discuss which I like better...if you're good...and pure...and can stand...and be true.

Now, some sadness as Tweaker released two tracks (one called "Nothing At All" and the other, the last track off the album, called "Fine") from their third and final album, call the time eternity. There's some sort of remix contest on AcidPlanet that allows one to hear and remix "Fine" and...aw, man...it's really not that great.
It's not a great song, it's not a great Tweaker song and, as what might be the last song they'll ever create...it's really, really not a great song.
I want nothing more than to love Tweaker and all the stuff they do, but songs like this make it difficult.
I know about judging books and covers and all that, but I'm not judging the whole album...I'm judging the end of the album.
And it's a disappointing ending.
The other track is sort of an...evolution of a song from their first album called "Happy Child". It features Jessicka from Jack Off Jill on vocals and, well, it seems that I don't really like Jessicka from Jack Off Jill.
On the chorus she sounds all right, I guess, but the verses are spoken in what I keep finding myself calling "tough girl talk singing".
It's sort of talking along with the beat with an affected voice?
It's fucking horrendous.
The biggest problem I have with both these tracks is that they feel like demos, like they're both missing something, some instrumentation or studio polish to make them better...oh man I hope these things aren't too indicative...
You can hear "Fine" here and "Nothing At All" here and then be a judgemental asshole like me.
Woo.

But, as I am, in my heart of hearts, an optimist, I have some really good news with which to end this here Bitchfest.
I was searching for info about a new Thom Yorke solo album (as I enjoyed The Eraser more than any Radiohead album in recent memory) and, aside from a few random tracks he's released (which range from all right to repetitive and overly obtuse), I discovered that Atoms For Peace had just put up their official site.
Originally, "Atoms For Peace" was a track off of Eraser and now, it's a supergroup made of Yorke, Flea,  Nigel Godrich, Beck drummer Joey Waronker and some crazy Brazilian percussionist. They had released their first single, "Default", literally days before I stumbled onto them and it's really solid. So much so that I wrote a review of it.
For a song not done by Nine Inch Nails or Trent Reznor or How To Destroy Angels or Beck or Cake or Eels or They Might Be Giants.
It's that good.
I've been listening to it again and again, on repeat, and finding new elements and a deeper appreciation for it every time.
There's not a whole lot of info on them right now, but, apparently, the full length album is set for early 2013.
Very much looking forward to that.
Go to the Atoms For Peace web site and you can hear "Default" and see the accompanying simple yet effective video.










* This is what Nine Inch Nails fans call the Mathematics of Sadness.
**November 13th, to be specific, and, although solid dates do make these things better, I'm still pissed that the album has been done for at least 7 months and we're just starting the patented Reznor Release Cycle NOW. I wonder if he ever looks back on his days of wanting to get his music out to the world as soon as possible, maybe while masturbating, and I wonder if that's what he uses to bring himself over the top into climax...