Saw Nine Inch Nails at the Hordern last night. They were killing it until about half an hour in when suddenly the whole Hordern Pavilion lost power, P/A, lights, everything. When it became clear it was going to be a while before things got fixed, everyone drifted out into the yard out front to wait.

After about 20 frustrating minutes, we found ourselves people-watching… big guys with dreadlocked goatees in Slayer tshirts looking increasingly pissed off. Security guys running around with their walkie talkies, clearly terrified the Slayer tshirt guys would start a riot. Of course they decided to close the bar, which was presumably intended to prevent people from getting juiced up and rioting, but really only made things worse.

After 40 minutes the lights came on, and a huge cheer went up. Everyone filed back in and the band fired back into the set with 1000% intensity. Probably the best NIN show I’ve seen, despite (because of?) the intermission.

Most fascinating is this video that shows what happened backstage while they tried to get the lights back on. At the time, we were outside joking around that Trent would be curled up in a foetal position with Kleenex on hand. But as you can see in the video, he is calm, collected, an absolute pro.

NIN Sydney 2.24.09 – Mid-show Power Outage [HD] from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

Sup ye on the flagon of christmas cheer:

http://badgods.com/nineinchnoels.html

I still think Shirt is better.

I just realised its almost 10 years since the RSM boys helped me put together my rap/rock opus Acid Reign. Due to overwhelming demand* I have decided to do a digital re-release! Think of it, if you like, as the Acid Reign Deluxe 10th Anniversary Edition ™

The result of many nights of us toiling away in my bedroom with mics, guitars, weed and a not insubstantial amount of Berri Estate shiraz-in-a-box, this album is something I’m still pretty proud of. Some of it stands the test of time quite well (I still think the titular track is the best song I’ve ever put together).

Of course, some of it is now agonisingly embarassing to listen to; specifically, my lyrics to This Is How It Is. Sample lyric: society’s a plague and you know I’m the cure / the bitches can’t resist my pheremone lure! **

Anyway, here it is, with high quality 192k MP3 VBR encoding, lyrics, and PNG artwork, all zipped up in the one package.

Download Nexus6-Acid_Reign.zip (51mb)

There’s high res CD cover artwork in there as well, so if you’re still emotionally attached to old-school media, you can print out the cover and make yourself a CD. How awesome is that? Much thanks to the RSM dudes who helped with this, in particular Cyanide Assassin, who helped write half the tracks, features on almost all of them, and was tirelessly supportive the whole time. Cheers!

* read: no demand whatsoever
** did I mention I was smoking alot of weed when making this album?

Resurrected from the mysterious and murky depths of my hard drive: the parody of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” I wrote and recorded in like 2001. It was the days before software that could strip vocals from a song, so I meticulously reproduced the music myself using an Alesis nanosynth and a MIDI keyboard. People still make me sing it at parties.

I even devised an elaborate website to “launch” it. Take note kids, this is what happens when you have too much time (and weed) on your hands.

• View the site
• Play the track
• Read the lyrics

Crikey Moses! Its actually getting released! And it only took 14 years. What’s next, Duke Nukem Forever?!

To make things even more surreal, Dr Pepper is making good on its promise to give a free can of soft drink to every single person in America if Axl managed to finally get it out this year. The press release reads like an Onion article:

“We never thought this day would come,” Dr Pepper Vice President of Marketing Tony Jacobs said Wednesday. “But now that it’s here all we can say is: The Dr Pepper’s on us.”

Kurt (starred as the bored clerk in the MH Tourettes sketch) has released an album of what he calls “ambient noise”, under the moniker “Downfall”. Pretty cool stuff!

There are very few ears I have not yet bashed with effusive praise for my favourite online music store, emusic.com.

• The site interface is extremely well designed. For instance the “refine by” feature is a stroke of genius.
• It is social. Like last.fm, let your neighbours guide you. Let me show you what I mean:
  
• Songs are provided as DRM-free MP3 files, which you can easily copy, burn and play on any device, unlike iTunes’ MP4s which will only play on an iPod or iTunes. Hey Apple: DRM sucks, I am a music fan, not a criminal.
• The pricing is extremely attractive. To start off with 25 tracks… for free. $25 a month for 90 tracks? Sold.

The one downside (and I’m not sure you could even call it a downside) is that the site hosts independent labels only. So, no Britney Spears, no Coldplay, no U2. When I put people onto the site for the 25 free songs deal, I hear the same kvetching: they don’t have any music that I like.

Its hard for people to get their heads around the fact that emusic isn’t about the way you buy music these days — walk into HMV and pick up that CD you’ve heard so much on TV and radio. Its about the way you bought music when you were 16 — spend an entire afternoon combing the shelves, fawning over cover art, listening to promising candidates on the dodgy store CD player, chatting with the guy or girl behind the counter.

Occasionally you would by a CD based on the cover art alone — and sometimes it would be dud, but that would only make the gems seem more special when you came across them. And yes, on emusic you will occasionally find you’ve downloaded a dud… but in this case, did I mention you’re paying $25 for the equivalent of 9 full albums?

If you really want the big brand artists, you might be surprised who you can find on indie labels these days: The Pixies, REM, Snow Patrol, Dizzee Rascal, Cat Power. However I have found some absolute gems at emusic.com that I would never, ever have come across if I based my music purchasing decisions on Triple J’s current playlist and Sony/BMG’s marketing schedule.

Now I get a warm tingly feeling because I’m supporting smaller independent artists, rather than pouring more alms into the coffers of your Bonos and Madonnas.

So what are you waiting for? (cough) 25 (cough) free tracks (splutter) (cough)