Brief Music News

Downloaded the new Nine Inch Nails single, "The Hand That Feeds." Despite it sounding thematically like an inside-out version of Trent Reznor's/NIN's previous smash, "Head Like a Hole," it's epically cool. Pain and beauty, anger and honesty. It's a return to the visceral blam! of NIN's "Downward Spiral," as "Hail to the Thief" was a return to the grinding notes/surreal words combo plate of Radiohead.

It's also the first single for the band's upcoming "The Teeth," which comes out May 3 (in America, at least). Violent, angry, heartfelt, emotionally raw. What 50 Cent and Eminem is (was?) to a bunch of disaffected wannabe nihilists with white skin and black aspirations, Trent Reznor is to me. Trent is the cosmic votive candle that Chuck Palahniuk prayed to get inspiration for Fight Club. Trent is anger with a purpose, a scathing rebuke of holier-than-thou hypocrisy while being shattered into a million pieces over a broken heart.

In 1994, I sat in a high balcony watching Trent beat his keyboard racks into submission during a tour for "Downward Spiral." Unlike the suitors who followed in his wake (Limp Bizkit, Korn, et al), Trent doesn't pose as much as he unleashes what the rest of us would rather keep bottled up. We are buffeted by the sing-screech of metal and primal rage mixed into layers deep enough to resemble the caustic and tiered atmosphere of Jupiter. But there's a poetry there, a wanton balance between hope and oblivion, searching for any sort of feeling. And come May 3, I'm downloading it, putting it on my Shuffle, and wandering the rainy streets of my town seeing the world through Trent's eyes.