Speaking Of 20 Years...
Trent Reznor celebrates his own debut album Pretty Hate Machine, released 20 years ago this month.
Although I have noticed that Reznor rarely skimps on the self-congratulations, I'll back him up on this one. Pretty Hate Machine did seem pretty seminal for its time around these parts.
Around the late 80's and early 90's there was a local radio station that played music that you just didn't hear on mainstream radio around that time. The Cocteau Twins' "Sugar Hiccup" into Public Enemy's "She Watch Channel Zero", The Connell's "Gun And Games" into Frank Zappa's "Dinah-Moe-Humm", etc. My friend Al was a DJ there, and Joe even did a short stint on a late-nite shift. But even with a format such as that, hearing "Sanctified" off the newly released Pretty Hate Machine album was the most arresting thing on the air at that time. One of those songs where everybody in the car you were driving had to shut the fuck up so that you could turn it up and feel that bass line grow and build until your speakers blew out every time. It really was the definition of the "oh-my-God-it's-THAT-SONG" kind of experience.
It was also about four months later when I turned 21 and was able to go to nightclubs (or at least legally, since I had been going to them since 19 while Joe was a DJ), even though there were few places one could go back then to hear music like that. While the rest of Hampton Roads was out dancing to in clubs to MC Hammer and Bell Biv Devoe, Joe and I discovered Adam's -- a gaudy little hotel hotspot that had an "Alternative Night" every Monday night with a DJ named C.D. McHenry, where one could dance to Shriekback, Bauhaus, The Stone Roses, and best of all, "Head Like A Hole" from the Pretty Hate Machine album, which got the whole floor sweating and throbbing -- Joe, Mike, Al, Wes, Pamela Jo, S. and just dave, Lee... we all met each other to that album, rubbed our soaking bodies against each other to the pulsating angst of that song. And we are all still old friends to this day, twenty years later. Pretty amazing.
My friends and I were just starting to get into industrial music at the time, from the dancier stuff of Meat Beat Manifesto to the chaotic crunch of Einstürzende Neubauten. But it was Pretty Hate Machine that became sort of our gateway drug to the meat of that new world. That summer when Joe became the Tuesday night alternative night DJ at Friar Tucks on Hampton Boulevard, "Head Like A Hole" was already getting play on MTV's 120 Minutes, and the mainstream exposure was beginning to show. A good year before Nirvana's Nevermind hit the airwaves, people were already putting away their Poison albums and exploring this "new" genre of music that Pretty Hate Machine promised. It got to where any song of that album was a guarantee dancefloor-packer. Perfect for the drama-fueled post-adolescent snobs we were. And perhaps a part of me goes right back to that mindset every time I hear that album, and not a whole lot from the 80's does that to me as much anymore.
Nine Inch Nails as since changed and evolved from such pop mentality. But I dare say they have never sounded quite as fun again. But then again I probably haven't been as fun myself since 20 years ago, so who am I to say?
Although I have noticed that Reznor rarely skimps on the self-congratulations, I'll back him up on this one. Pretty Hate Machine did seem pretty seminal for its time around these parts.
Around the late 80's and early 90's there was a local radio station that played music that you just didn't hear on mainstream radio around that time. The Cocteau Twins' "Sugar Hiccup" into Public Enemy's "She Watch Channel Zero", The Connell's "Gun And Games" into Frank Zappa's "Dinah-Moe-Humm", etc. My friend Al was a DJ there, and Joe even did a short stint on a late-nite shift. But even with a format such as that, hearing "Sanctified" off the newly released Pretty Hate Machine album was the most arresting thing on the air at that time. One of those songs where everybody in the car you were driving had to shut the fuck up so that you could turn it up and feel that bass line grow and build until your speakers blew out every time. It really was the definition of the "oh-my-God-it's-THAT-SONG" kind of experience.
It was also about four months later when I turned 21 and was able to go to nightclubs (or at least legally, since I had been going to them since 19 while Joe was a DJ), even though there were few places one could go back then to hear music like that. While the rest of Hampton Roads was out dancing to in clubs to MC Hammer and Bell Biv Devoe, Joe and I discovered Adam's -- a gaudy little hotel hotspot that had an "Alternative Night" every Monday night with a DJ named C.D. McHenry, where one could dance to Shriekback, Bauhaus, The Stone Roses, and best of all, "Head Like A Hole" from the Pretty Hate Machine album, which got the whole floor sweating and throbbing -- Joe, Mike, Al, Wes, Pamela Jo, S. and just dave, Lee... we all met each other to that album, rubbed our soaking bodies against each other to the pulsating angst of that song. And we are all still old friends to this day, twenty years later. Pretty amazing.
My friends and I were just starting to get into industrial music at the time, from the dancier stuff of Meat Beat Manifesto to the chaotic crunch of Einstürzende Neubauten. But it was Pretty Hate Machine that became sort of our gateway drug to the meat of that new world. That summer when Joe became the Tuesday night alternative night DJ at Friar Tucks on Hampton Boulevard, "Head Like A Hole" was already getting play on MTV's 120 Minutes, and the mainstream exposure was beginning to show. A good year before Nirvana's Nevermind hit the airwaves, people were already putting away their Poison albums and exploring this "new" genre of music that Pretty Hate Machine promised. It got to where any song of that album was a guarantee dancefloor-packer. Perfect for the drama-fueled post-adolescent snobs we were. And perhaps a part of me goes right back to that mindset every time I hear that album, and not a whole lot from the 80's does that to me as much anymore.
Nine Inch Nails as since changed and evolved from such pop mentality. But I dare say they have never sounded quite as fun again. But then again I probably haven't been as fun myself since 20 years ago, so who am I to say?
posted by Melissa at 2:31 PM
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