(Or, Bringing Him Closer To...Himself?)Sweet Lord on high, it's a good time to be a nine inch nails fan. Yes, yes, you could also argue that it's also a "good time to be a Boston sports fan," but that designation has become so cliche that I'm almost glad to be in a foreign country where my bandwagon Celtics fandom goes unquestioned. Tee-hee. Anyway, back to my point.
For years (c. 1994-2004), it was quite difficult to be a supporter of Trent and his little gang of Nails. Waiting excruciatingly long spans of time between opuses (see: The Downward Spiral and The Fragile), getting kicked in the nuts with teaser tidbits like "The Perfect Drug" and it's accompanying pile of ambient/jungle remix feces, and coming to feel an extreme sense of gratitude whenever minutiae of anything remotely NIN-related would pop up. "Trent sighted at Starbucks!", "NIN Reportedly Still Making Music!", "'Closer' Named Top Song To Make Sordid S&M Nasty To!" Like an abused spouse who cherishes those quiet moments of repose between beatings. He really does love me... But once Trent kicked the drugs, something clicked in his head (and new, extremely large biceps) and "prolific" became his life mantra.
After receiving an onslaught of love via With Teeth and Beside You In Time, Year Zero and it's accompanying mind-bending online world arrived and it seemed like all those years of waiting and waiting and waiting were finally paying off. But on March 2, 2008, Trent gave everyone the biggest "Gotcha!" yet (and a big punch to the testes for Thom Yorke's pay-what-you-want model) with the surprise release of 4-disc, 36-track, megaton instrumental album, Ghosts I-IV. The initial release was an online exclusive, with packages ranging from a free sample of disc 1 for the cheap assholes, to a $5 download of the entire work (complete with badass jpgs for each individual track) and even a limited edition $300 uber-orgy of autographed goodness that sold out faster than Fall Out Boy. Ghosts is a lot to digest, but for a fan, it's like an early Christmas, birthday and cherry popping all at once.
So yesterday when I happened upon the latest news that a new single had been mastered, sent to radio, and released online for FREE within 24 hours (that's one day, people!), I immediately bust a nut, said a prayer of thanksgiving to the Almighty (the other, non-Trent one), and then bust my other nut. The new single, "Discipline", can be categorized in the "dance" section of the NIN catalog: upbeat, able to inspire booty shaking, extremely catchy, and nary a negative cussword to be found (see: "Into the Void", "Kinda I Want To", "Only", "Hand That Feeds", half of Year Zero). If this is a teaser from an upcoming album with lyrics, then I am truly in heaven. Sober Trent is frighteningly focused and efficient. Me like. Go download the track for free. No excuses!
http://dl.nin.com/discipline/nin
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