End of the Month Music Bitchfest - November 2012

Nine Inch Nails

• The release (finally) of some new How to destroy angels_ music with their "An omen EP_". Despite the pretentious and superfluous* punctuation choices, this is a really solid release and makes me even more stoked for the full length album, coming in "Spring 2013"...apparently. Between this, their first EP and that cover of "Is Your Love Strong Enough?", one could cobble together about an hour's worth of HTDA music...if one were so desperate for How to destroy angels_ music inclined. I reviewed it and you didn't/don't want to read it. Also, the band released their music video for "Ice age", directed by John Hillcoat (director of The Road). Not bad; there are some pretty cool visual effects towards the end that seem slightly reminiscent of the video for NIN's "The Hand That Feeds" but cooler. And, is it me, or are Mariqueen's eyebrows COMING OUT OF THE SCREEN TO KILL YOU!!!!!! Take a look.

• The release of the "Theme for Call of Duty: Black Ops II", both the "original" version and the "orchestral" version. What can I say? It sounds like Nine Inch Nails doing a huge and cinematic video game theme song. Check it out.

• Trent Reznor's very first AMA ("Ask Me Anything", not "Against Medical Advice") session over at Reddit. In a nutshell: mostly bad or no news, some cockteasing and cryptic bullshitery and a few breadcrumbs that NIN fans will have to make into twelve course meals for the next decade or so. No surprises there. Put on your Internet Asshole Boots and slog on through, if you really want to.

• But, the most exciting bit of Nine Inch Nails news this month (ACTUAL Nine Inch Nails news, not Trent Reznor, not HTDA) is the procurement of four unreleased remixes that Danny Hyde (a remix artist and occasional member of Coil) created for Nine Inch Nails back in the 90's: one for the remix EP Fixed and three for the remix album Further Down The Spiral (which, I just got learned from the interthing, is one of the highest selling remix albums in music history). It's these remixes (the first two, for "Gave Up" and "Closer" are great, the second two, for "The Downward Spiral" and "Eraser" are less than great) that spurred this "Coil Review Project" that I have foolhardily undertaken. The things Coil does to these songs...in some cases they strip them down to their barest elements and in others, they completely obfuscate and dement everything familiar about them. Theirs are the most interesting (and, at times, unlistenable) Nine Inch Nails remixes to date and nothing since has been as noteworthy. I'll put it another way: you've seen Se7en? You know those amazing opening credits? That's Coil's remix of "Closer". Also in this bundle of music acquired by the Nine Inch Nails discussion board community, Echoing The Sound, are a handful of edits of the remix of "Gave Up" which appear in the new(?) film, Young Americans. If you have any interest, you can find these on The Pirate Bay and...potentially nowhere else.

Eels

E...come on, seriously, this is too much! Mere days after reappearing and announcing a new album, a pre-order page pops up on the official Eels site offering a version of the album with a second disc containing another thirteen tracks! Five are all new b-sides and the rest are live tracks from their wang-rocking 2010 and 2011 tours. Plus, they've put up a brand new track. It's called "Peach Blossom" and it is just delightful. Spoiler alert: the celeste is BACK. Over the next two months, we'll probably see a music video or two and get another one or two songs as well. How do I know? BECAUSE E IS GOD DAMN DEPENDABLE, THAT'S WHY.
Along with this promise of twice what fans were expecting, Eels also posted some initial dates for their 2013 world tour.
Yes, they are coming to New York City (Friday, March 1st, Webster Hall) and, yes, I will be in attendance.



Beck

Beck's "Song Reader" is available now, apparently, although I'm not going to purchase it; it would be like Stephen King releasing a book only in Braille; only a small portion of his fans could enjoy it, and I am not among them. The preface, which sort of serves as his mission statement, has been posted and, while it is very well written and intriguing, I still cannot get behind this project. This really bums me out, but, there you go. I'll see which artists end up officially recording these twenty songs, but don't expect me to do backflips until Beck changes his mind and records the damn thing himself. To witness/take part in the shit show that is this amazing, never-before-seen musical experiment, head over to www.songreader.net and weep a bitter tear...or discover a hot new talent, I don't fucking know, however, if you do go there and you do listen to a bunch of the submissions, I beg of you, don't come back at me with, "You know, these actually aren't that bad..." just keep it to yourself and peddle your burnt and reeking spandex elsewhere.


They Might Be Giants

Still no movement with that fucking pizza...BUT, despite that, work on TMBG's 16th album is going very well according to Flansburgh (the final tracking session was on the 27th). There have also been a few more IFC goodies that I can't tell you about but of which you should be really jealous.
The band has also posted a heck of a lot of song titles from their upcoming album and its inevitable companion album of weird/inaccessible b-sides. Flans stated that the album is tentatively set for a late February or early March release.



Aside from my misguided quest to listen to all of Coil...there's really nothing else to speak of. I suppose, when I'm though with that little project, I'll talk to my contact at Rolling Stone and have it published....or just let them all sit quietly on the internet and die, slowly, from disinterest.
Either way.

*sigh*











* For the moment...maybe this is just the initial phases of some profound and amazing oh never mind.