NIN’s Trent Reznor Thinks Emo Sucks Too
by Amelia G : January 23rd, 2007
Over the years, I think Rolling Stone magazine has maintained a higher standard of journalism than most music rags. The majority of music publications are written by writers in the employ of publicists and most rarely have an article on topics other than a performer’s favorite color or fictional creative process. Although their musical tastes and mine are not always precisely the same, Rolling Stone is usually an example of what journalism ought to be.
A week or so ago writer Elizabeth Goodman did a brief piece for Rolling Stone’s online incarnation where she really blasted Trent Reznor. Full disclaimer: The Nine Inch Nails album Pretty Hate Machine pretty much changed my life. When the “Get Down, Make Love” single came out, I drove from DC to Chicago, partly so I could get it from Wax Trax before it was widely available. Some of this is a topic for another article, but I wanted to fully disclose where I’m coming from on this.
In the recent Rolling Stone piece, Elizabeth Goodman chortled about Trent Reznor not being allowed to be giddy with happiness, being goth and all. Reznor apparently confided to Rolling Stone that he had perhaps taken so long between albums because he had sort of lost his confidence and was too worried what people thought of him. The goth-industrial icon went on to explain that he felt he was developmentally past that and was likely to only improve as an artist. The writer quoted what he said and summed it up saying, “After tiring of patting his own back, Reznor went on to pontificate on another of his recent epiphanies.” A little harsh. Apparently, Reznor’s second epiphany was realizing that he didn’t care much for the twenty bands …
Forrest Black and I went out to Das Bunker last weekend to catch Andy LaPlegua’s special DJ set there. In honor of the occasion, we posted the first series of photographs of Andy and Kellie we’d shot. The shoot happened serendipitously. The plan was initially to just photograph Kellie by herself, but Andy was hanging out and a studio space with stage blood, Jack Daniels, and Kellie in it just really called for him to participate too. This photo session also resulted in the artwork for Combichrist’s last full length album and T-shirt design and a liner note shoutout. Kellie then interviewed Andy for a Blue Blood feature article and, by the time of their next photo session with us, Kellie and Andy were married.