Cover Of The Week: NIN does Joy Division

This week's cover is an old favorite of mine. Nine Inch Nails originally released this Joy Division tune on the soundtrack for the film The Crow, as well as on an import version of their album The Downward Spiral. The track saw the light of day in remastered form on the second disc of the Deluxe Reissue of The Downward Spiral in 2004.

Nine Inch Nails - "Dead Souls"

Buy NIN's music here.

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Previous Covers Of the Week:

M.A.C.C. - "Hey Baby (Land Of The New Rising Sun)"
Gov't Mule - "30 Days In The Hole"
Veruca Salt - "My Sharona"
Soundgarden - "Come Together"
Pearl Jam - "I've Got A Feeling"
Gomez - "Getting Better"
Muse - "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You"
Cast - "The Seeker"
Manic Street Preachers - "Been A Son"
Steve Earle - "Breed"
Sheryl Crow - "Keep On Growing"

Nine Inch Nails - Woodstock '94

This show holds a special place for me because it introduced me to the music of Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails. I was home for the summer from college when Woodstock 1994 happened, and a friend and I decided we'd camp out in my parents' basement to watch the performances on TV for the weekend. Woodstock 1994 quickly earned the nickname "mudstock" because rain had turned the fields where the festival took place into a muddy mess. Mud was everywhere - during Green Day's set the band even got into a playful mud fight with fans until all of the band members and their gear were covered.

Nine Inch Nails was due to perform third to last on the same night as Metallica and Aerosmith. I'd heard some good things about NIN, and had even heard the single "Head Like A Hole" from 1989's Pretty Hate Machine, but I didn't know what to expect or whether I'd be into their songs.

The band took the stage after dark, with the sounds of the instrumental "Pinion" from the 1992 Broken EP gradually increasing in volume and in synch with the stage lights. The band was nowhere to be seen until the music reached its crescendo, and it was then that the TV audience could see the band take the stage.

And what and entrance! The band members were completely covered from head to toe in mud. A moment of solidarity with the mud-covered fans? Perhaps. Whatever the reason, the crowd was theirs from the second the started playing set opener "Terrible Lie". I was blown away by the visceral energy of the band's performance, particularly Reznor's. He was hitting the mic on his head during the opening song, screaming like a man possessed, and bounding around the stage. At different times during the performance he even attacked other band members. Apparently the band was riddled with equipment problems and frustrating monitor issues during the set, which may have led to the particularly intense performance. Nonetheless, it was awesome.

The songs were amazing too, and by the time they got to "Burn", from the soundtrack to the film Natural Born Killers, I was hooked. In my opinion, the NIN performance at Woodstock '94 completely blew away the Metallica and Aerosmith sets that followed - no small feat. I went out and immediately started collecting NIN's records, and I've been a fan ever since.

Here's the complete performance from Woodstock 1994.

Nine Inch Nails
Woodstock 1994

Terrible Lie
Sin
March Of The Pigs
Something I Can Never Have
Closer
Reptile
Wish
Suck
Burn
The Only Time
Down In It
Dead Souls
Help Me I Am In Hell
Happiness In Slavery
Head Like A Hole

Buy NIN's music.

For a taste of newer NIN, check out I Am Fuel, You Are Friends for the band's recent Bridge School Benefit performance.

Odds And Sods From The Blog World

Heather at I Am Fuel, You Are Friends posted 19 "live and unreleased" Ray LaMontagne tracks as a teaser for his forthcoming new album. She also recently put up two new Black Crowes songs from the brothers Robinson's acoustic mini-tour. You can find "I Got The Late Nights Again" and "Cut From The Shadow" here.

Cable and Tweed has a great set of pre-Boy U2 demos posted, called "Contract Demos '78-'80". Don't know if all the uber-fans already have that stuff but it seems like a gold mine.

My Ex Best Friend has some Coldplay rarities up. "Ladder To The Sun" is a full track, and there are also snippets of the boys covering Aqua's "Barbie Girl" and Nelly/Kelly Rowland's "Dilemma".

Also posted at My Ex Best Friend is an MP3 of Radiohead covering Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" that can be found here. I did a little research and it's actually Sparklehorse with Thom Yorke singing some of the vocals. Apparently he called in his vocal part over the phone and you can hear his TV on in the background.

Speaking of Radiohead, Hello Gina posted a version of "Creep" as covered by Damien Rice on Today FM in Ireland on 06-22-05.

Ear Farm has a fantastic series of live concert posts updated every weekend. Live sets from Sublime, Spoon, Ween, The Unicorns, My Bloody Valentine, New Order, Sufjan Stevens, Neutral Milk Hotel, Sonic Youth, Explosions in the Sky, The Smiths, Morphine, Talking Heads, The Stone Roses, The Cure, PJ Harvey, Pulp, The Decemberists, Blur, Nine Inch Nails, Johnny Cash, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Led Zeppelin, Islands, Echo and the Bunnymen, Morrissey, and The Durutti Column are available.

Muzzle Of Bees has an acoustic set from Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie that aired in 2003 on KEXP.

Ben Gibbard appears again at You Ain't No Picasso covering Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Belle And Sebastian cover "Billie Jean" as well.