I got an e-mail from Trent Reznor this morning. He was curious about how I found out about his recent music, and where I look for interesting new stuff. I answered all his questions, and for my trouble he gave me a free video of a live performance of the song 1,000,000. Pretty cool. We haven’t always been on such good terms. I was a big fan of Nine Inch Nails at the beginning. The innovative textures Trent Reznor created in the early nineties, combined with his eff-the-record-label attitude was actually inspirational. I drifted away as a fan somewhere in there though; I had gone through my own morbid nihilistic phase about 15 years before that, and the sheer negativity of his music eventually grew tiresome to me. So tiresome in fact, that one evening some friends of mine and I burned his CD’s on a fireplace just to excorcise my music collection. A little dramatic, but hey. Whatever. NIN has recently brought me back into the fold though, and through simple acts of generosity. First the Ghosts I free download made me aware that NIN was doing something other than screaming in futility about horror and tragedy, and in fact exploring some interesting new sound. Sounds with some dynamics of texture and intensity. I didn’t know what to expect with the next release, The Slip, but I wasn’t disappointed. Yeah, still a little too much non-stop audio grind for my tastes, but if you’re taking NIN on tour, you’ve gotta sound like NIN, right? I actually enjoy the recording, but I really have to be in that mood, and ever since I lightened up on the eyeliner and self-cutting, I just don’t get in that mood so often. But I digress. The important thing is that NIN is taking a smart approach to reaching out to their potential fan base. I probably would’ve never bought another NIN recording, but giving me free copies of Ghosts and The Slip have made me feel like this is an artist who “gets it”, and the fact that the music is pretty solid has actually left me feeling like going to show if he’s in the area (you’re playing Grand Rapids and not Detroit/Ann Arbor? WTF, NIN?), and barring that, feeling interested in buying any interesting retail packages NIN assembles as a result of the their recent tour and releases. Bring on the products, Trent, I’m back in your fan-base.