THE NIN HOTLINE

This comes from an anonymous source that passed some quickie background checking on our part. Keep in mind, even when we post news taken from Perry Farrell's wife about Lollapalooza, sometimes things change. That being said, check this lineup out for the up-and-coming Coachella Festival. Please, if you pick this news up from us, credit and link accordingly, just as we do. 12/1/04 Update: That goes for you too, Undercover.
APR 30


DAVID BOWIE
NINE INCH NAILS
PJ HARVEY
INTERPOL
THE FAINT
FRANZ FERDINAND
THE POLYPHONIC SPREE
BOARDS OF CANADA
TV ON THE RADIO
YEAH YEAH YEAHS
SQUAREPUSHER
CLINIC
FRENCH KICKS
SECRET MACHINES
PHOENIX
BEEP BEEP
DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS
DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979
THE HELIO SEQUENCE

MAY 1ST

R.E.M.
TEARS FOR FEARS
WILCO
MODEST MOUSE
BRIGHT EYES
JIMMY EAT WORLD
MOS DEF
BADLY DRAWN BOY
THE STREETS
SPOON
CAKE
THE POSTAL SERVICE
THE SHINS
SLEATER-KINNEY
RILO KILEY
RADIO 4
DOVES
IRON AND WINE
THE ARCADE FIRE
MOVING UNITS
I would highlight Nine Inch Nails, but then I'd have to highlight a lot of other bands, because there are a lot of really good acts on this list. Naturally, my first instinct when seeing a lineup this crazy is to discount it, but I'm fairly confident about our source. But remember, this is still preliminary -- still a rumor.

We were pretty shocked when Pitchfork reported on The Downward Spiral last month with nary a sneer from the online rag that wrote one of the two negative reviews of The Fragile that I remember, and gave Things Falling Apart an abysmal 0.4 rating in their review of that CD. Someone said that Rob Harvilla, who'd penned the above October news item, used to DJ at his college radio station, and played both discs of The Fragile in their entirety upon its release, which explained the friendly attitude.
Now, another Rob (Mitchum) has written some downright nice things about the Deluxe Edition of The Downward Spiral, giving the release an 8.3 out of 10.
Unfortunately, they don't touch on the 5.1 mix save for that it exists, and don't talk about the three demo tracks. This is possibly attributable to the relatively common knowledge that Pitchfork tends to review MP3 downloads rather than legitimate promotional copies, and it's a shame because while a ten year old album and it's b-sides gets decent accolades, the surround mix really puts it over the top, in my admittedly biased opinion. I got my 5.1 DVD system (with five speakers and a subwoofer!) for $10 as a display unit at a Radio Shack... if you don't have a 5.1 system by now in some fashion, you're really out of excuses at this point (except for the one about Chinese slave labor, maybe).
All bitching/constructive-criticism aside, it's a good review on all counts, and it's refreshing to see a Reznor write-up on that site that doesn't serve solely as a Pitchfork Media whipping post.

It was brought to my attention that the links to the Webcam Archives on my website weren't working. While fixing as many of the links I could find I figured I should post it here for those of you who might still check it out from time to time.

Today is the American release date for the 5.1 remixes of The Downward Spiral. People have been reporting that most large retail outlets have stocked only two copies of the Dualdisc version, while the SACD "Deluxe Edition" is far more prevalent. Circuit City in York, PA is down to one copy of the Deluxe now :p The average retail sale price of the Dualdisc is about $14.00, with the Deluxe Edition going for around $20, with Best Buy appearing to be the cheapest place to pick the albums up.
The DVD appears to be region-free, so if you're outside the states and are looking to get this imported, I say go for it. UK shoppers, Towerrecords.co.uk has the Dualdisc for £8.87 and the SACD 'Deluxe Edition' for £13.86.

NinJaw's at it again, with a massive page detailing The Downward Spiral dualdisc release. If you are on dial-up, be very patient, as the scans are all pretty high resolution.
Unfortunately, all four players Ninjaw played the DVD on were region free, so he's still not sure if it's region-encoded or not.

Just a few hours ago, tds.nin.com went online with a preview of the releases due out this tuesday in the US.
Along with a jukebox that plays clips from every track on the two-disc deluxe edition, you can download a collection of wallpaper for your computer, comprised of new photos taken by Rob Sheridan of the Russell Mills artwork used for The Downward Spiral. There is a spot reserved for a future contest to win a pack of TDS Deluxe goods, as well as scans of package and promotional artwork... including the lyrics to burn.
The site promises to be updated with even more in the future, so keep your eyes peeled. You never know what kind of stuff might get hidden in there.

A viewer named Becky works at a record store, and got a copy of the dualdisc version of The Downward Spiral. The DVD has a body of work section, which lists all the releases to date, plus artwork and clips for the non-TVT releases, as well as video clips for the listings of Closure and AATCHB.
Becky writes, the gallery is really full of beautiful photos that look like original "finalist" pieces for the initial release 10 years ago. it's a great package, that sounds incredible in surround sound.
Also, Ninjaw from France has a copy of the Dualdisc (the French NIN fanclub has a history of getting US releases before the US), and will undoubtedly be sharing more information when he has better facilities to do so. We should know shortly if the DVD is region free or not.
***UPDATE***
NinJaw has posted photos of the fan club meet up and mass purchasing of the DualDisc, on this thread in Echoing the Sound. If you are on dial-up, beware, as they are massive pictures, and will take a while to download.
***UPDATE***
On a related note, Ben followed a link from Interscope Records' website to tds.nin.com, which went live tonite with sound clips, artwork, desktops, wallpapers, and information on a future contest. Very nice!
Finally, for this update, it looks like Blabbermouth got a press release about the Deluxe Edition release. Most of it is stuff we've heard already, except the part about the "28-page booklet filled with photos and graphics." There's also a quote from Reznor about how The Downward Spiral lends itself to a surround format.
I feel so out of the loop! Anyway, we'll post more info as we get it.

This week, several people wrote in noticing that the domain name withteeth.net points to the official website at nin.com. That doesn't mean anything: withteeth.net is registered to a fake address in Seattle, using the email address oatmeal@gmail.com. I'm not positive, but I don't think that's related to Nine Inch Nails, really.
Those of you looking to guess the official domain name associated with the upcoming album need look no further than with-teeth.com (or .net), which is registered by the same folks who have registered nin.com. Currently, there are Network Solutions placeholder sites there, but when something goes live, we'll let you know.

He's in California, keeping busy, folks. You may remember some time ago we posted about him doing sample work with Jerome Dillon... well, these have finally been released in a two-volume set of sounds in WAV format and Recycle REX format. Available directly from Sony (who recently purchased the audio software division of Sonic Foundry), get Volume 1 here , and Volume 2 can be found here. Each library is available for $79.00.
In addition to those new sounds, Keith's worked on some original music. Entitled Magdalene's Dream, the album features music written and performed by Keith Hillebrandt, with vocals and lyrics by Lana Lokteff. Decorated with soundscapes reminiscent of Useful Noise, Magdelene's Dream is a more straightforward electronic album, with thirteen tracks of dance music, that will appeal especially to gearheads with an ear for synthesis.
There are samples of the music, backstory, graphics, but absolutely no photos of the notoriously camera shy Hillebrandt to be found at their official website, along with a forum to banter with other fans of the work.
Magdelene's Dream is available for $15.98 at Amazon.com, but you'd be silly to buy there when you can get it direct from Piggyback Records for $10.99. That's including shipping (in the US, I assume.)
If that's still not cheap enough for you, I've got a copy sent to me, quite courteously of Piggyback Records. Not one to hoard swag, I'm willing to give it to someone who gives me a pretty good reason. "I don't have the money" does not count. Do you have any songs you've created with the (very nice) Useful Noise sample discs? Are you stalking Keith? Are you a Keith Hillebrandt imposter, using your fake NIN credentials to get free booze and remix U2 songs with Trent Reznor? Send an email to theninhotline@gmail.com with a story or a reason or a song that shows that you MUST have a copy of this disc. You might just win a copy! (As usual, we don't sell your emails or put you on mailing lists or any of that crap. Do you see any banner ads on this site? You know we love you, baby.)

About three years ago, I thought it'd be a cool idea to make an RSS feed of the headlines on the Hotline. I get a lot of requests for it. Well, I finally got around to it. This is the URL for said feed.
Firefox 1.0 users - You can also bookmark this XML file as a "Live Bookmark," which will display the current headlines from the site whenever you look at its entry in your bookmarks. It's pretty slick.
Thanks to Azroth at Digital Noise, I've put in the code that makes the RSS feed button appear automagically in Firefox. (Psst, you should really be using Firefox by now). Sometime in the next three years, I might actually make the description tag fill with some content from the posted stories, but I'm not making any promises. I'll get it implemented before the next, next NIN album.

On the evening of Saturday, November 13th, Jhonn Balance of Coil died. Details can be found at Threshold House. Though my only encounter with Balance was receiving an email from him through the Analogue Heaven mailing list, his remix work with Nine Inch Nails played a pretty big part in me becoming such a fan.
Coil were signed to Nothing Records, but due to some rumored Interscope cock-blocking, never released any albums on the label. Coil contributed many remixes to the Nine Inch Nails discography, including the Fixed remix of Gave Up, Closer (Precursor) (which is seeing a remastered release with the Deluxe Edition of The Downward Spiral, and was the theme song for the movie Se7en), The Downward Spiral (the bottom), and several other tracks on Further Down the Spiral.
I was a big fan of Balance's work, and am sad to hear he is gone.

The Official Nine Inch Nails Website has been updated with a brand new digital photograph that appears to show Jeordie White and Jerome Dillon doing something or other.

This month's issue of Rolling Stone features an ad for the Deluxe Edition of The Downward Spiral, which joanowl scanned and posted on Echoing the Sound. While there's really no new information (save for the picture of the 2CD set) I know some people like to collect this kind of stuff.
In related news, non-US release dates are all over the map. No one really has a solid date. Acid Pits checked the UK shops for Amazon, Woolworths, HMV, and Tower Records, and the release dates listed include November 22, December 6, and January 22. If you're not in the US, just go with the January 22nd release date, and if something comes out sooner, you'll be that much happier for it.
Unhappy are those abroad who do not have SACD players, however, as we've learned that the DualDisc format, featuring DVD-A on one side, and CD on the other, is being test marketed by Universal, only in the United States. At the moment. So, if you live outside of the US and you do not have an SACD player, but still want to hear TDS in 5.1, you can probably import the DualDisc version for nearly the same cost as the SACD version.

Amazon.com is now taking pre-orders for the Downward Spiral DVD-A, at about half the price of the 2-disc SACD version. Keep in mind, the DVD-A dualdisc is a two-sided optical media format - one side plays in your DVD player, the other side in a regular CD player.
Both the DVD-A and SACD versions of The Downward Spiral have been remastered and remixed in to 5.1 surround sound. The SACD comes bundled with a bonus disc with highlighted b-sides and remixes of songs from The Downward Spiral, along with never before released demo versions of a handful of tracks. The DVD-A has a number of videos and image galleries. More information can be found on the nine inch nails website.
These new releases of The Downward Spiral are available in the US in two weeks. k. wrote in from Belgium to mention that the according to a record store in Belgium, that country's release is slated for Monday, November 22nd. In the past, most stores receive those shipments on Friday, and usually sell them through the weekend.
Ries points out that amazon.de lists the German SACD release date as being December 6th, also a Monday.
We'll be happy to hear about your non-American shopping experiences in search of The Downward Spiral deluxe edition.
Thanks for the news, Ryan!

The November issue of SickAmongthePure is live.
Packed with tasty tidbits, the November issue SATP features an original interview with one of the founders of heavy electronic music, KMFDM. Sascha Konietzko and Lucia Cifarelli sound off on the recording industry, touring life, and their latest albums, WWIII and From the Land of Volcanoes, respectively.
SickAmongthePure also interview Icon of Coil, Written In Ashes, Blow-Up, feature great essays on banning Pit Bulls, fundamentalist Christianity in American politics, and much, much more. Give it a whirl - it beats being constantly reminded about the recent U.S. election.

Trent Reznor has made a statement in the current section:
one step closer to the end of the world. the one-two combo of corporate greed and organized religion apparently proved too much for reason, sanity and compassion.
it's a sad and shameful day to be an american.
-trent reznor

Don't forget your picture ID. In fact, bring several forms of ID. If you have your voter registration card, bring that too. Don't take any crap, either. I'm not going to insult you by telling you who to vote for, but please make an informed choice.
If anything, put a vote in because my vote may not count. When I moved last month, and changed my address with PennDOT, I had them notify the election Registration Bureau. When I got my new voter registration card for Dauphin County last week, not only had my name been altered, but my party affiliation had also been changed. I couldn't fix them either, because my registration card arrived the day after the books closed. Living in a swing state sure is cool!
Go see what kind of fun you can experience at your local voting location. The lines are probably going to be long, so pack a lunch and bring a book. If you encounter anything fishy, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
Vote!