Nine Inch Nails Give A Free Secret Live Show In Los Angeles

How awesome is this whole Year Zero thing? There is now an alternate reality game taking place, and the group Art Is Resistance (AIR) from the Year Zero websites is taking on a tangible form, thanks to fans. Last night, they were then taken to a warehouse in Los Angeles for a "private resistance meeting" and then escorted via elevator to a stage where Nine Inch Nails performed six songs:

The Beginning of the End
Survivalism
Last
March of the Pigs
We Are in this Together
The Frail

All this before a "SWAT team" busted in and broke up the party. Sick!

More Year Zero Websites Discovered

Another couple of sites has been located in the Year Zero story: www.exterminal.com, www.freerebelart.net. Still just noise on the pages, no real content. Perhaps they will update on April 17 when the album is out?

But check out www.gracetheteacher.net, which DOES have some content. It's someone's personal blog. Still checking it out for myself, but wanted to spread the word!

Album Review: Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero

As reported here yesterday, the latest effort from Nine Inch Nails, Year Zero, is streaming online. Kicking off with the drum-machine packed, apocalyptic "Hyperpower!", Trent Reznor's latest concept album delivers on the anticipation we've been expecting since the viral marketing campaign began. By the time "The Beginning of the End" takes off, the listener is enraptured. Trent Reznor is a master of using musical tools like hooks and simple rhythms to make his songs, which the more closed-minded might expect to be unlistenable, accessible. "The Good Soldier" has a repetitive bass loop that is every bit danceable over lyrics that tell the story of a soldier who appears to have just lost faith in the cause he is fighting for. And "God Given" has a trip-hop style beat and club anthem chorus DJs will be jealous of. It is this kind of signature irony, an intense conceptual experience over music that can move a body, that makes Nine Inch Nails so successful.

Key tracks on Year Zero: "My Violent Heart", an alternating down-tempo verse and smashing chorus about an uprising in the Year Zero world; "The Beginning of the End"; "Meet Your Master", noise layered over a simple rock beat topped by a sing-along chorus; and "The Great Destroyer", starting with a drumpad beat followed up with guitar power chords and the higher range of Reznor's singing, and swelling with a grimy, electro-noise assault.

It is not until after the messy climax of "The Great Destroyer" that the album takes a slower pace and moves into more ambient sound (at least as ambient as this style of industrial techno can get) to end the album. This album is what Nine Inch Nails fans expect of Trent Reznor: boundary pushing music that rocks. Under his NIN moniker, Reznor has proven that he is prolific without sacrificing quality or the cutting-edge sound he helped to popularize. Year Zero is as creative and artistic as it is listenable. A broad concept album, which Reznor has succeeded with in the past (most notably The Downward Spiral, read Any Given Tuesday's review here) Year Zero is bound to be wildly successful without jeopardizing Trent's musical integrity.

Click the album art to purchase. Year Zero officially releases April 17.

Breaking News: Stream Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero

Check out the big news: stream Year Zero courtesy of the Nine Inch Nails fan club, The Spiral. The album will release on April 17 for mass consumption.

Expect a review here soon.

Nine Inch Nails Reveal "Survivalism" Lyrics, Artwork for "Survivalism" Single

Nine Inch Nails has made the lyrics to "Survivalism" available, along with artwork for the "Survivalism" single.

"Survivalism":

I should have listened to her
So hard to keep control
We kept on eating but our
Bloated bellies still not full
She gave us all she had but
We went and took some more
Can't seem to shut her legs our
Mother nature is a whore

I got my propaganda I got revisionism
I got my violence in high-def ultra-realism
All a part of this great nation
I got my fist I got my plan I got survivalism

Hypnotic sound of sirens
Echoing through the streets
The cocking of the rifles
The marching of the feet
You see your world on fire
Don't try to act surprised
We did just what you told us
Lost our faith along the way and found ourselves believing your lies

I got my propaganda I got revisionism
I got my violence in high-def ultra-realism
All a part of this great nation
I got my fist I got my plan I got survivalism

All bruised and broken bleeding
She asks to take my hand
I turn and keep on walking
What you'd do the same thing in the circumstance I'm sure you understand

I got my propaganda I got revisionism
I got my violence in high-def ultra-realism
All a part of this great nation
I got my fist I got my plan I got survivalism

backing vocals: Saul Williams

Nine Inch Nails Releases "Survivalism" Video, Single Now On iTunes

Nine Inch Nails has posted the "Survivalism" video on the Year Zero site. The "Survivalism" single is now available on iTunes.

NIN's Year Zero To Have a Part Two, and To Become A Movie (Maybe)

Is Year Zero going to be made into a movie? Trent Reznor seems to think it might. Not only that, there is supposed to be a Year Zero Part 2, slated for next year!

Nine Inch Nails Year Zero Listening Parties; "Survivalism" Single Delayed, Tonight's Birmingham Academy Show Rescheduled

Nine Inch Nails will be hosting a series of listening parties from March 11 through March 27 in cities across the US. If you can't make it, check out the MySpace page for more singles that have just been posted.

NIN's site also reveals the Survivalism single has been delayed, with no info on why or when it has been rescheduled.

More importantly, the concert scheduled for tonight at Birmingham Academy has been rescheduled to August 28 due to "circumstances beyond our control," according to the band. Is it the vast Year Zero conspiracy?

Year Zero password hack

Sort of. When you solve the puzzle at the website given in the Beside You In Time insert, you go to www.solutionsbackwardsinitiative.com/pilgrims. It's the future, and they're banning books. Watch out!

Nine Inch Nails releases "Beside You In Time" live DVD, another Year Zero clue

Yesterday, Nine Inch Nails released Nine Inch Nails - Live - Beside You in Time, which contained another clue: www.securebroadcastinformatics.com.

I can't really say what it means just yet, but there are moving boxes that look like a username/password form: username: carolina password: matt26:45-46. Matthew 26:45-46 in the Bible says (in a very modern translation):

"Then Jesus went back to the followers and said, "You are still sleeping and resting? The time has come for the Son of Man to be given to sinful people. Stand up! We must go. Here comes the man that is giving me {to my enemies}." Jesus announced to his disciples that his betrayer was approaching.

Year Zero marketing is so awesome!

All this Year Zero marketing and viral stuff is AWESOME. See Rolling Stone's guide to see how deep it goes.

As you peruse the websites, you can highlight the text to read it. Helps a lot on the blurry parts.

Check out the Year Zero album art. Scary stuff.

Stream "Survivalism" From Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero

We're all painfully waiting for Year Zero to drop on April 17. To help ease the pain, however, Prefix Magazine has "Survivalism" available to stream.

I'm going to go ahead and say, uhhh, I'm hoping some of the other songs are better. Like "My Violent Heart" which "leaked" (uh-huh) earlier. That's awesome.

Myriad Viral Marketing Websites Emerge Regarding Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero

As you know, Nine Inch Nails has a new album due on April 17, Year Zero. A number of websites have appeared, apparently relating to the album:

http://iamtryingtobelieve.com
http://anotherversionofthetruth.com
http://bethehammer.net
http://105thairbornecrusaders.com
http://churchofplano.com
http://www.consolidatedmailsystems.com

Word is that 42 Entertainment, who have done viral marketing for Halo 2 and other high profile items, are behind these sites.

And if you haven't yet, check the tracklist for Year Zero here.

Nine Inch Nails' Year Zero Tracklist Fully Revealed

So here it is. Nine Inch Nails has officially released the tracklist for Year Zero:

01 Hyperpower!
02 The Beginning of the End
03 Survivalism
04 The Good Soldier
05 Vessel
06 Me, I'm Not
07 Capital G
08 My Violent Heart
09 The Warning
10 God Given
11 Meet Your Master
12 The Greater Good
13 The Great Destroyer
14 Another Version of the Truth
15 In This Twilight
16 Zero-Sum

NIN's Year Zero Has A Website, Slowly Names Tracks

Dying to know more about the new Nine Inch Nails album, Year Zero? Then go to the Year Zero website. Looks like the track listing is slowly appearing. So far, track two: "The Beginning of the End". Refresh! F5! All the time!

Nine Inch Nails Enter Final Stages Of Production For "Year Zero"

The latest album from Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails is to be called "Year Zero" and is slated for release sometime in April. Reznor confirms on the NIN website that the album is in final mixing stages.