THE NIN HOTLINE

Over at nin.su, you can check out some photos from an amazing looking fan-organized release party for ...Niggy Tardust! and Year Zero Remixed, as well as shots from a previous gathering just for the hell of it. Attendees were treated to a live performances by local bands (coming soon to a YouTube near you) and DJ Heinali played a set mixing Niggy, YZR and other classics. Not the type to let the first performance by NIN in their country slip by undocumented, they've just put together a DVD of the Moscow performance - check out the screen shots here. Thanks to Xvostya for putting all this together and keeping on my ass about posting it, heh.

Well, I finally got around to doing what I've been putting off for about a year now: replacing that shockingly awful joke of a layout with a different joke of a layout that actually borders on functional, and restoring the archives that were gone during this time. Unfortunately, some of the images (mostly from 2003 and 2004) are still missing, but I tracked down as many as I could find, and did the best I could with what I had. I plan on fixing a few things and adding some more cool-depending-on-your-definition-of-cool stuff in the near future (i.e. before 2010), but in the meantime, it's up and running. So if you're already bored with remix.nin.com, why not stop over and waste some time at The Meathead Perspective instead?

Edit: Thanks to nympholept at ETS, I now have just about all the images restored, and some bad links have been fixed.

As many of you have already found out, the NIN Remix site is now online. You can login with your Spiral Account, or create a new account if you aren't already a Spiral member. Its a pretty cool site to play around with, and I urge you to upload many of your home-growth NIN remixes. There are also a couple Saul Williams multitracks available for download in the "Mix" section. Be sure to DIGG this story, and pay special attention to the remixes uploaded by Trent.

As if this isn't enough, there are three fresh new wallpapers available from NIN.com as well. Now your desktop can look as sexy as those remixes are going to sound after you sit up until 4AM working on them ... or is that just me that does that?

Thanks to Ross, both Jeff's, Ken and Daryl for the news.

Trent explains it over at nin.com, and you can spread the word via Digg. Essentially, on Saturday, lawyers at Universal Music Group squashed a major part of remix.nin.com, which was set to launch tomorrow. I'd type more, but I've gotta run.

If you're seeing this message, your DNS has updated, and you're at our new server. Tada. Nothing exciting to see here, but there will probably be a few broken links/sections here and there while I clean things up today.

I've been sitting on another hosting account for a number of months now, but have been putting off moving to the new server for a number of reasons that are far too boring to expound on here. Anyway, I've (mostly) jumped those hurdles, and am going to switch DNS over to the new host this week. In an ideal world, the transition will be seamless. What's more than likely, however, is that a few things might break. Once the weekend rolls around, I'll fix those things that shattered in the move, but until then, please bear with me and pardon our dust.

Someone already beat me to the Digg, but there's a feature length article over at tech supersite Gizmodo called Radiohead, Saul Williams, and the inevitable rise and liberation of the music industry. It touches on the more subtle points surrounding the way Niggy Tardust! was released, particularly in comparison to Radiohead's showier, if less rewarding presentation of their album. Give the story a read through, Digg it, leave a comment, and tell your friends.

A lot of people wrote in to let us know that a promotional video for Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro's new movie, Righteous Kill, features the NIN track "Heresy." Click here to check it out. This isn't the official preview so don't look for it at the theater next time you go to the movies. Righteous Kill marks the long-awaited return to the silver screen of Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson.

I'm sure that Leviathant will delete this part of the post and merge it with the earlier posting for my review of Niggy Tardust tomorrow morning, but since he's gone to go bed, he told me that I needed to "pimp my shit out," hence, why I'm posting this now!

I typed the review in about two hours after listening to the album for three. The quality will either reflect it or it won't, though it depends on what you grade quality as.

I jest. Anyway, if you liked the review or somewhat agreed with it, DIGG IT!

Also, I think that today's target (or one of the targets) for radio stations should be 105.7 The Point, "St. Louis' New Rock Alternative." Now, I haven't listened to The Point since they cancelled The Woody & Whipping Boy Show, which was several years ago, but I do know that they pride themselves on having people submit requests online, especially when they do their MyShuffle lunch or hours (again, ignorance on my part because it's been years since I've absorbed their daily schedule).

So, that being said, I think that it'd be cool if we could get a song like "Banged & Blown Through" to be played since it'd be something different from "Sunday Bloody Sunday," though that wouldn't be bad either. And, since their MyShuffle playlists include four other songs, change it up and see if they'll play some Coil or even 12 Rounds. I mean, it'd be better than their 35-song playlist that they're "rocking" right now.

Directly citing Trent's decision as an influence, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead announced on Halloween that they are leaving stagnant Interscope Records. Frontman Conrad Keely had given thought to leaving "several hundred times in recent years, but I think the Nine Inch Nails decision and Trent's phone call really sealed the deal for me." He continues, "Hopefully the other bands [on the label] will follow our lead[...] There aren't many bands on the roster left to ruin." Thanks to chris for the update, and for poking me about that Coil DVD (d'oh!)

If you're a frequenter to this site, you surely know there's another cool release due out in a few weeks, Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D... well, apparently Amazon got their copy, as they've posted 30 second clips from each of the tracks on the CD, and the previews show a very promising collection. Thanks for the heads up, Josh.

Trent mentions the remix album as well as a 'Greatest Hits' in a new Q&A that he and Saul Williams did with Billboard magazine, which you can read here.

In related news, Carrzy sent word that HMV.co.uk and Amazon.co.uk are now accepting pre-orders for Year Zero Remixed.

A while ago, I asked our resident journalism major, Lt Randazzo, to write up a run-down of The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust!, and even after he sent me his revised copy, I busied myself with other things (such as, and I'm not making this up, Helen Keller: The Ballet -- hey, we got free tickets) and kept forgetting to post what he wrote. Well, it's Sunday now, and I'm nearly done with the laundry, so I took the time to add some HTML tags and post his review, which you can read here, finally. (I realize about 3% of you are still on dial-up, but that's no excuse for not checking out this album I can't shut up about!)

Sarah got in touch with us about a recent exchange she had with Vinnie at 105.9 The X out of Pittsburgh, PA. After telling them about the Saul album she got an email back: one step ahead of you. I've been into Saul's work for years. Spent my $5 and will get something on edge of the x this sunday night!. I'll dance quietly around the actual relevance of radio and suggest that if you are in the area and you do hear the X play some new Saul, call em up at 412-333-WXDX and tell 'em you're glad to hear good music on the radio for a change.

Over at Gizmodo, there's a brief article about Niggy Tardust as the model the industry should follow when it comes to digital releases -- yes, I've already posted it to Digg -- although there's nothing there that you haven't already read if you're a regular to this site. A few people have written in about this two-page Cnet article interviewing Musicane's founders and talking about the release of NiggyTardust, although at the time of my posting this, they seem to have messed up on a few details. Thanks to Dennis, Ryan and Mark for the links.

Clint wrote in with this idea... to quote:
San Diego's 94.9 radio station prides itself on not being corporate, and all about the music. The afternoon DJ, Halloran, has a 4pm segment called The Daily Dog Dare where he takes your "dare" to play a song - any song. You can find the form here. I say we dare them to play Sunday, Bloody Sunday.

Keep bugging KROQ too, they seem to have this idea in their head that they're "can't play it yet but they will 'try' and get it on the air soon." Pshh. (Thanks to Dyslexic Kenneth for following up on that)

I don't really mean harass per se, but it's Thursday, do you really have anything better to do? I have a fun idea. Whenever NIN puts out a new album, I like to list radio stations for you to call and request whatever single they're pushing at the record label. I grabbed the lossless copy of Niggy Tardust this morning and it's been playing in my ears all day, and it's probably the coolest release to come out this year. This makes me want to tell other people about it.

Specifically, I was thinking we call up KROQ in Los Angeles... they've got a toll free number at 1-800-520-1067, and you can email them at itsabouttime@kroq.com. Tell them about how you downloaded Niggy Tardust today for $5 right from Saul Williams, free of meddling record labels. Tell them you heard about it on news sites online, or tell them you heard about it from message boards, or tell them however you heard about it. Ask them if they've heard it yet, and ask if they could play Sunday Bloody Sunday on the air, because it, like the whole album, is fucking amazing. (If you don't want to take my word for it, read through the 600+ posts about the album that have cropped up in the last 20 hours or so on our forum, or just download the album yourself)

Maybe tomorrow we'll harass talk to Q101 in Chicago.

It's different from the normal routine, but it might be fun concentrating on one station at a time.

If you downloaded Niggy Tardust and like what you hear, tell friends and strangers what they may be missing out on (and click Digg This). If you signed up but did not receive an email confirmation, please send an email to customercare@musicane.com and CC:leviathant@theninhotline.net and you should get squared away.

If you need reassurance from your peers, read what others are saying about the release. If you want my opinion, I think it's fucking awesome, and have been listening to it pretty much nonstop since I got it. My FLAC download flew by 650 kbps (yup, that oughta date this post). If you want to judge for yourself, it's still free to try, $5 for high quality.