Pretty Hate Machine :: Nine Inch Nails (1989)

I think we decided to dedicate December to talking about our favorite albums, right? Well, I dug deep to find one of my all-time (still) favorite albums. I don't listen to it all the time anymore, but I still get a lot of pleasure out of "Pretty Hate Machine" by Nine Inch Nails. Sometime around 1995, Nine Inch Nails got very popular and almost mainstream, but before that, they projected this amazing edginess, that I think influenced a lot of people that came after them.

1989 was a little early for me (I was nine), but I benefited a lot from having an edgy older brother. My brother was into all kinds of cool music. I still can't figure out how he knew all these cool bands- we lived way out in the sticks and this was wayyy before Al Gore invented the internet for us all to enjoy. But anyway, when he made his big switchover to CDs (circa 1993) I was the lucky recipient of his wonderful cassette collection (Cure, NIN, Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, everything).

I think a good test for an album's quality is if it sounds as good to you now as it did when you were an angsty fourteen year-old. This one passes! Listening to it now, it still seems amazing. If anything, my added years only make me see how good and pure the music actually was. Like, when Trent Reznor sings, "Seems like salvation comes only my dreams / Can this world really be as sad as it fucking seems?" those lines seem really good and pure and honest to me still today.

The tracks:

1. Head Like a Hole
2. Terrible Lie
3. Down in It
4. Sanctified
5. Something I Can Never Have
6. Kinda I Want to
7. Sin
8. That's What I Get
9. The Only Time
10. Ringfinger

The video for "Head Like a Hole" (from MTV, there might be an ad for a couple seconds before it starts):

Nine Inch Nails - New Music - More Music Videos

Beautiful Friend :: Cranes

I recently re-discovered Cranes, when I was traveling. I saw the CD on a table, and all kinds of nostalgia came flooding back.

My brother used to play this amazing music (circa 1993). Rough melodies with sharp industrial beats, contrasted with this mysterious female voice, almost impossible to understand. This is Cranes.

"Beautiful Friend" is probably their most beautiful, and most accessible, song.

I feel those days without end
when we used to be friends
those summer days were spent
in search of hope and happiness

we used to while away our days
in a beautiful haze
I guess I knew one day
that you'd be moving long away

you said go back to your dream
back to your wilderness
go back along the walk
maybe you'll find some happiness

I wept a thousand tears for you
for my love that came true
and soon I realized
I'd always dreamt it'd come to this

And though that time passes by
and that our lives have changed
but our love was special
our love was strange

And though my heart broke
in time it did mend
except when I think about the time
that we used to be friends

Coast is Clear :: Curve

I was on a mission to find this song! I remember this blaring through the wall of my older brother's room when I was a kid. I think I even had an old hand-me-down cassette with this song on it, but today I couldn't remember what it was called.

So. Curve. So Beautiful. I always loved the singer (Toni Halliday). She's so plaintive and mesmerizing. Enjoy.

P.S. I also love how this clip is from MTV's "120 Minutes." People who had cable used to tape it and then pass the tapes all over school. I remember it being so cool! To catch some Cure or They Might Be Giants and get a whiff of that other world out there, somewhere...

Above my bed in this ugly room
Hangs the whisper of the sandman
You can be my father, for the love you show
It's just a little too late
It's never enough to swallow those pills
Now I'm sick, and always will be

Take it, I don't want it, you can have what you like
Just don't try and trick me to sleep
Then turn out those lights

You can be my father, for the love you show
It's just a little too late
It's never enough to swallow those pills
Now I'm sick, and always will be

Dreams of meeting truth (be my father)
Dreams of meeting truth (for the love)

I said you can be my father for the love you show
It's just a little too late
It's never enough to swallow those pills
Now I'm sick, now I'm sick, now I'm sick

Just when you thought it was alright [x2 ]

Do Ya Think I'm Sexy :: Revolting Cocks

This blog post goes out to my brother, my awesome friend who introduced me to everything I knew as a teenager. He is one of the coolest people I have ever known. As he transitioned to CDs, I inherited his old tapes: Pixies, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Cure, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult... how did he have such good taste in music?? I can't figure it out. We lived out in the middle of nowhere. No cable, no MTV, no nightclubs, and this was pre-internet... hmmm.

This is the Revolting Cocks covering Rod Stewart's "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy." Revolting Cocks, or "RevCo" was a side project for people that were in all these other industrial/techno/dance bands, like Ministry and Nine Inch Nails. This song is from their 1989 album "Beers, Steers and Queers." I take this song as sort of an ironic fuck-you to all those smarmy people like Rod Steward who were big in the late 80s / early 90s. My brother played this song ALL THE TIME, usually playing his bass along with the tape. He was / is so cool!