Nail Design Pictures Biography
(Source google.com)
Bursting
onto the scene in 1989, Nine Inch Nails married the electronic assault
of industrial music with the predictable hooks of pop music. The band,
largely a front for the solo efforts of one Trent Reznor, blazed new
aural landscapes on their blockbuster 1989 debut, Pretty Hate Machine.
Reznor's dark and twisted lyrics inspired legions of teenagers to apply
black eyeliner and to don dark trenchcoats, reenergizing a Goth scene
that had been festering just below mainstream radar screens while
existing on a steady diet of bands like Laibach and Einsturzende
Neubauten. Michael Trent Reznor was born May 17, 1965, in the small town
of Mercer, PA; he went by his middle name to avoid confusion with his
father Michael. At age five, Reznor's parents divorced and he wound up
being raised mostly by his maternal grandparents; even so, Reznor stated
repeatedly that his childhood was mostly happy. He began playing the
piano at age five, studying classical music, and later learned tenor sax
and tuba in the school band; he also acted in musicals and became an
avid Kiss fan. Reznor spent a year studying music and computers at
Allegheny College, but dropped out after a year to pursue music
full-time; he soon packed up and moved to Cleveland with high school
friend Chris Vrenna. Around the same time, he was discovering new wave
and assorted underground music; he was most fascinated with early
industrial, since it offered an edgy, aggressive way to use electronic
instruments. At age 19, he successfully auditioned to join an AOR band
called the Innocent, which released one album, Livin' in the Streets
(Reznor's picture does appear on the jacket). He quit the Innocent after
just three months and subsequently gigged with local bands; he also
worked in a keyboard store and as a janitor in the local Right Track
recording studio. Eventually, he became a studio engineer, teaching
himself various computer applications and working on his own material
during off hours. In 1987, Reznor appeared in the Michael J. Fox/Joan
Jett film Light of Day, where he played keyboards with a trio dubbed the
Problems during a bar scene.
Reznor recruited a band and hit the road with the Lollapalooza circus in 1991, expanding the NIN fan base with a series of inspired performances and subsequent release of the explosive Broken EP in 1992. Flirting with top-of-the-charts popularity, Reznor martialed the troops to produce 1994's The Downward Spiral, a prog-rock concept album that was recorded in the Hollywood house where Sharon Tate met her fate at the hands of the Manson Family. A year later, Further Down the Spiral, an extended EP of remixed tracks from The Downward Spiral, was released on Interscope. Their 1997 single, "The Perfect Drug," was included on the Lost Highway movie soundtrack and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance. As the millenium draws to a close, Reznor is widely regarded as one of the most influential voices in alternative music, earning himself a slot in a canon of musical auteurs previously carved out by the likes of Bowie, Reed, and Eno. NIN's sound has variously been described as alternative, electronica, heavy metal, rock, synth pop, or, most commonly, industrial. Regarding his music being categorized as industrial, Reznor had this to say in a 1994 Axcess magazine interview: "What was originally called industrial music was about 20 years ago Throbbing Gristle and Test Dept. We have very little to do with it other than there is noise in my music and there is noise in theirs. I'm working in the context of a pop song structure whereas those bands didn't. And because someone didn't come up with a new name that separates those two somewhat unrelated genres, it tends to irritate all the old school fans waving their flags of alternativeness and obscurity. So, I'd say I've borrowed from certain styles and bands like that." NIN's songs cover a range of genres; as a body of work, they cannot be pigeonholed. "The Perfect Drug" has the flavor of drum and bass, vocals in "Down in It" seem influenced by early rap & hip-hop, "Happiness in Slavery" is in the vein of Skinny Puppy and Ministry, "The Frail" is a melancholy piano piece, and most of Pretty Hate Machine could be considered dark synth pop.
NIN's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), largely consists of studio versions of demo recordings. This was also NIN's first collaboration with producer Mark 'Flood' Ellis. It went triple platinum in the US and produced the singles "Head Like a Hole," "Down in It" and "Sin". Music videos were made for all three tracks, but the one for "Sin" was never released to the public, due to video never being finished. However, since 1997 this video has been available on Halo 12. "Something I Can Never Have" also appeared on the soundtrack for Natural Born Killers. Trent Reznor is planning to release a re-mastered version of Pretty Hate Machine but due to certain mishaps, fans might have to wait for it a little longer as on August 17 2005, the ownership rights to Pretty Hate Machine will be put on auction block by TVT Records, compliments of Prudential Securities Financial Services. Pretty Hate Machine is part of an overall biddable package that also includes the rights to the Television's Greatest Hits compilations and the Mortal Kombat movie soundtracks. In addition, the highest bidder will be able to collect a percentage on future sales of Nine Inch Nails' other TVT-related releases, including Broken, Fixed, The Downward Spiral and Further Down the Spiral.
NIN's second major release was Broken (1992), an EP of six tracks plus two bonus tracks. It was originally released in a fold-out format, containing the first six tracks on a regular CD and an additional three-inch minidisc with the remaining bonus tracks. It was later released as one CD, with the bonus songs as "hidden" tracks 98 and 99. The song "Wish", aided by the video directed by Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson of Coil, won a Grammy in the "metal" category. Jon Reiss directed a music video for "Happiness in Slavery," which was almost universally banned due to its graphic content. The video depicts performance artist Bob Flanagan strapping himself to a machine that subsequently pleasures, tortures and kills him. A video for "Pinion" aired twice on MTV before being banned for its objectionable content, although images from it did become a fixture in the opening title sequence of the MTV show 120 Minutes. A full length video informally called The Broken Movie was also made by Sleazy, but has not seen an official release. The Broken movie, as of 2005, can only be found on bootleg. Broken was followed by the remix EP Fixed.
Reznor recruited a band and hit the road with the Lollapalooza circus in 1991, expanding the NIN fan base with a series of inspired performances and subsequent release of the explosive Broken EP in 1992. Flirting with top-of-the-charts popularity, Reznor martialed the troops to produce 1994's The Downward Spiral, a prog-rock concept album that was recorded in the Hollywood house where Sharon Tate met her fate at the hands of the Manson Family. A year later, Further Down the Spiral, an extended EP of remixed tracks from The Downward Spiral, was released on Interscope. Their 1997 single, "The Perfect Drug," was included on the Lost Highway movie soundtrack and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Hard Rock Performance. As the millenium draws to a close, Reznor is widely regarded as one of the most influential voices in alternative music, earning himself a slot in a canon of musical auteurs previously carved out by the likes of Bowie, Reed, and Eno. NIN's sound has variously been described as alternative, electronica, heavy metal, rock, synth pop, or, most commonly, industrial. Regarding his music being categorized as industrial, Reznor had this to say in a 1994 Axcess magazine interview: "What was originally called industrial music was about 20 years ago Throbbing Gristle and Test Dept. We have very little to do with it other than there is noise in my music and there is noise in theirs. I'm working in the context of a pop song structure whereas those bands didn't. And because someone didn't come up with a new name that separates those two somewhat unrelated genres, it tends to irritate all the old school fans waving their flags of alternativeness and obscurity. So, I'd say I've borrowed from certain styles and bands like that." NIN's songs cover a range of genres; as a body of work, they cannot be pigeonholed. "The Perfect Drug" has the flavor of drum and bass, vocals in "Down in It" seem influenced by early rap & hip-hop, "Happiness in Slavery" is in the vein of Skinny Puppy and Ministry, "The Frail" is a melancholy piano piece, and most of Pretty Hate Machine could be considered dark synth pop.
NIN's debut album, Pretty Hate Machine (1989), largely consists of studio versions of demo recordings. This was also NIN's first collaboration with producer Mark 'Flood' Ellis. It went triple platinum in the US and produced the singles "Head Like a Hole," "Down in It" and "Sin". Music videos were made for all three tracks, but the one for "Sin" was never released to the public, due to video never being finished. However, since 1997 this video has been available on Halo 12. "Something I Can Never Have" also appeared on the soundtrack for Natural Born Killers. Trent Reznor is planning to release a re-mastered version of Pretty Hate Machine but due to certain mishaps, fans might have to wait for it a little longer as on August 17 2005, the ownership rights to Pretty Hate Machine will be put on auction block by TVT Records, compliments of Prudential Securities Financial Services. Pretty Hate Machine is part of an overall biddable package that also includes the rights to the Television's Greatest Hits compilations and the Mortal Kombat movie soundtracks. In addition, the highest bidder will be able to collect a percentage on future sales of Nine Inch Nails' other TVT-related releases, including Broken, Fixed, The Downward Spiral and Further Down the Spiral.
NIN's second major release was Broken (1992), an EP of six tracks plus two bonus tracks. It was originally released in a fold-out format, containing the first six tracks on a regular CD and an additional three-inch minidisc with the remaining bonus tracks. It was later released as one CD, with the bonus songs as "hidden" tracks 98 and 99. The song "Wish", aided by the video directed by Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson of Coil, won a Grammy in the "metal" category. Jon Reiss directed a music video for "Happiness in Slavery," which was almost universally banned due to its graphic content. The video depicts performance artist Bob Flanagan strapping himself to a machine that subsequently pleasures, tortures and kills him. A video for "Pinion" aired twice on MTV before being banned for its objectionable content, although images from it did become a fixture in the opening title sequence of the MTV show 120 Minutes. A full length video informally called The Broken Movie was also made by Sleazy, but has not seen an official release. The Broken movie, as of 2005, can only be found on bootleg. Broken was followed by the remix EP Fixed.
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