Nine Inch Nails - Survivalism

Similarly to the The Hand That Feeds boxset, I got a box (#672/2000?) to store the 9" singles that the band released from their With Teeth follow-up, Year Zero. I had high hopes for Year Zero, having enjoyed With Teeth quite so much, but it was less my thing - it was a concept album and heavily relied on electronic sounds, so it was really everything that I was glad With Teeth wasn't. It had some highlights, but overall wasn't as strong.

However, I did love the alternative reality story that sat alongside the album - the effort that went into that was crazy. I won't go into all the details - I’m sure they're well documented across the internet, but there were messages hidden on t-shirts, billboards, hidden USB drives containing songs and clues and endless websites of back-story; it was genuinely very cool - I bored some friends a few times with my excited stories re-telling what I'd read online (sorry).

The single doesn't do a whole lot for me - it’s a fine NIN song, but nothing to write home about. The b-side is unexpectedly interesting though (given that most NIN remixes aren't great): Saul Williams and Thavius Beck remix Survivalism but, crucially, add a lot. In particular, Saul sings the choruses, which is great. In a lot of ways, it feels closer to a Saul Williams cover of NIN than it does a NIN remix, which is cool. This was all happening around the same time as Trent Reznor producing Saul's Niggy Tardust album, so I guess they were spending a lot of time together. Nine Inch Nails were the reason I got into Saul Williams in the first place, since they had him support them at their Brixton Academy shows just before I went to Australia.

Format: 9", numbered, boxset 

Tracks: 2

Cost: £3 new

Bought: Virgin Megastore, Cardiff

When: 14/04/07

Colour: Black

Etching: none

mp3s: no

Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds

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

Nine Inch Nails - March of the Pigs

About an hour after buying this record I finally got the fact that it was a 9" record; somehow it'd taken an hour to realise that, of course, the band were named after nails 9 inches long - I'd never really thought about the words other than in the context of being a cool band name. Anyway, I was pretty pleased when I realised - I'd bought it mostly because I thought it was cool that it was a different size, but it was even better when I realised the significance. I'm not usually so slow on the uptake.

I’d spent 2000 and 2001 getting all the Nine Inch Nails albums, having been thoroughly impressed (and beaten and bruised) by The Downward Spiral. In 2002 I found this record in a second hand shop in Boscombe and quickly added it to the pile of second hand cds I was buying. At £5, I remember thinking it was expensive, and that all the cds I bought that day were a similar price, but for full albums.

The single itself is a highlight from The Downward Spiral - those piano interludes make the song - they're so unexpected (on first listen) and seem so out of place, but I love it for them. The remix adds something - certainly in that it's more than twice as long, but lacks the energy and juxtaposition of that energy against the piano, so is definitely a lesser version. A Violent Fluid is little more than a bit of filler, but the remix of Reptile (entitled Underneath the Skin) is quite interesting - it starts off quite underwhelmingly, but actually builds to something I quite enjoy, which is a rare thing to be said about a remix.

Format: 9", numbered (#411)

Tracks: 4

Cost: £5 second hand

Bought: Boscombe

When: 29/10/02

Colour: Black

Etching: none

mp3s: no

Chuck Ragan + Anderson Family Bluegrass - Split

Another from my far-from-complete Chuck Ragan collection. Not the cheapest, or most necessary record, but a nice one regardless. The first song is Revival Road, the song that came to represent the Revival Tour very well. I love the idea behind the Revival Tour and I was pleased they brought it over here last year - there are a lot of great artists involved, all making lovely songs. The next two are In The Clouds and Live By The Sword (a live version with Paige Anderson of Anderson Family Bluegrass) and are both on the Break Our Bread 7". Both are good songs.

Paige has a fairly shrill voice, but it works with the music (particularly next to Chuck's singing). That said, it still catches me off-guard each time I put the needle on the second side. Two more nice songs. Chuck gets a joint writing credit on the second song but doesn't sing. He could well be playing guitar though. I really know nothing about Anderson Family Bluegrass, I suppose the idea is the record will make me check them out. I like the songs but, ultimately, they're just less to my taste.

I picked this up when Chuck toured with Frank Turner a couple of years ago. I went to two nights of that tour (London and Portsmouth); I'm a big fan of both artists and knew people who'd want to go in each city. Chuck played Kingston without Frank a few nights later, but I had to go to Cambridge for a conference so couldn't make it. A rare example of my PhD taking priority over music. It's a nice coloured record and only 9 inches across, a format I assumed reserved for Nine Inch Nails singles. Kinda expensive though.

Chuck Ragan has been quite prolific over the last few years in putting out 7"s here and there, and the early ones are pretty hard to come by, so it's pretty fair to say it'll never be a complete collection. I can still enjoy the records I do have like this one though.


Format: 9"
Tracks: 5
Cost: £12 new
Bought: Gig
When: 23/03/10
Colour: Green and clear
Etching: none
mp3s: no