In 2005, Nine Inch Nails came back from their lull/disappearance/hiatus with the album With Teeth, one that I'm very fond of. As a precursor to that, they released The Hand That Feeds as a single.
In another case of me not remembering the exact order of events, I think I read something on their website about a free gift for fans, so I signed up and received in the post the numbered 9" box that this record lives in (#1668/2000). I think that made me go out and buy the single, which my local HMV had an offer on - if you bought all three UK versions together you got a small discount. It was enough to tempt me, so I got all three (which basically had the same song and two remixes spread across them. I also ended up with a promo single that Hugh had got from his university radio station, containing just the a-side and being one of the most redundant cds in my collection). I never got round to buying the other 9" single(s) from With Teeth to flesh out the boxset, so this record lives in there alone, along with the letter that came with it (photographed below). It'd taken a minor beating in the post, but is in reasonable condition.
The single is great. Like I said, I have a lot of time for With Teeth and love that it’s just a very regular, heavy Nine Inch Nails album. Sometimes, when a band routinely has such grand ideas, it's nice when they do something simple. At the time, I compared it to Broken in that sense - just very good, heavy songs. The dub remix on the b-side is largely nothing of interest - longer but in no way better.
Format: 9", numbered boxset
Tracks: 2
Cost: £1.80 new
Bought: HMV, Lancaster
When: 18/04/05
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
