Bad Witch
Bad Witch is the ninth studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on June 22, 2018, by The Null Corporation and Capitol Records. Their first album since Hesitation Marks, it is the last of a trilogy of releases, following their two previous EPs Not The Actual Events and Add Violence. Like with their previous releases, it was produced by frontman Trent Atticus Ross; the record diverges from the style of previous Nine Inch Nails work, notably by the inclusion of jazz instrumentation in the music, including saxophone performances by Reznor. The album is reminiscent to David Bowie's final studio album Blackstar, whom Reznor had collaborated with two decades prior. At just over half an hour long, the record is Nine Inch Nails' shortest full-length release to date; the Cold and Black and Infinite North America 2018 Tour was announced alongside its release to promote the album, in addition to the album's sole single, "God Break Down the Door". Upon release, Bad Witch was well-received by critics.
The album reached number 12 in the UK, as well as the top five of various Billboard charts. In 2016, Nine Inch Nails planned a trilogy of EPs, starting with Not the Actual Events; the second EP, Add Violence, was released in 2017. Regarding the third entry in the trilogy and its delayed production, frontman Trent Reznor said: Following a handful of concerts in support of Add Violence, Reznor was enthusiastic to begin work on the final part of the trilogy. After experiencing creative difficulty in the studio, he and bandmate Atticus Ross decided to focus on doing something "exciting" and "risky", which included the incorporation of saxophone; those sessions led to Bad Witch, a studio album inspired in part by David Bowie. While Bad Witch was set to be an EP, it developed into a full-length album. Reznor saw the trio of planned EPs as one long album with three smaller components, after seeing how EPs tend to be overlooked, Reznor decided to promote Bad Witch to a full album. Musically, Bad Witch is a concise album that utilizes aggressive instrumentation and vocals associated with industrial rock and quieter, more somber music most prominent in the two instrumental tracks on the record.
Reznor employs a saxophone at multiple points on the album, he sings in a way dissimilar to his normal manner, with some critics comparing the style to Bowie's. The album incorporates diverse sounds and instrumentation reminiscent of many different genres and musical styles. Reznor's saxophone performances play a prominent role in the album, making the album distinct from previous releases by Nine Inch Nails; the only song on the album to be released as a single is "God Break Down the Door." The album contains two instrumental songs, "Play the Goddamned Part" and "I'm Not from This World," described as "a discordant, freeform jazz jam amidst clashing electronics" and "droning and hypnotic," respectively. The album's sixth and final track, "Over and Out", begins as a upbeat electronic song but ends as a protracted segment of white noise that concludes Bad Witch; this may be compared to the closing track of the Add Violence EP, "The Background World," a song which ends on a repeated loop, compressed into white noise.
Several critics have compared Bad Witch to Ross' film scores. Others likened the album to Bowie's Blackstar, some to Reznor's soundtrack for the 1996 video game Quake. On June 22, 2018, the album was released to retailers worldwide, it entered on several international charts and at 12 on the Billboard 200. Bad Witch received positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 77, based on 23 reviews. AllMusic's Neil Z. Yeung called the album "frustrating", but "the most cohesive and enveloping experience of this period". Terence Cawley of The Boston Globe gave Bad Witch a positive review, writing, "Reznor is still making records that crackle with restless energy. For an artist who once specialized in massive concept albums, the short-and-sweet approach of Bad Witch suits him well." Writing for NME, Tom Connick gave the album a perfect score, calling it the band's best release in a decade.
The Independent's Ilana Kaplan noted that despite being only thirty minutes long, the album was full of complexity and would be received as a sensory overload. Writing for Q, George Garner considered the album an "excellent reprisal" of Nine Inch Nails' "industrial aggression", concluding that after thirty years, the band sounded reinvigorated. Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic felt that Bad Witch does not reach the highs of 1992's Broken or 1994's The Downward Spiral, but it does not dishonor them either. Drowned in Sound's Christian Cottingham was more mixed on the album, criticizing it for relying too much on previous Nine Inch Nails sounds and material. Sam Sodomsky of Pitchfork wrote, "for the first time in a long time, Reznor sounds like he’s got his eye on the future." All tracks written by Atticus Ross. Credits adapted from the liner notes of Bad Witch. Nine Inch Nails Trent Reznor – arrangements, production, saxophone Atticus Ross – arrangements, production, programmingAdditional personnel Alan Moulder – mixing Tom Baker – mastering Chris Richardson – engineering Justin McGrath – engineering Ian Astbury – additional vocals Mariqueen Maandig – additional vocals
Joan Jett
Joan Jett is an American rock singer, composer, record producer and occasional actress. Jett is best known for her work as the frontwoman of her band, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, for earlier founding and performing with the Runaways, which recorded and released the hit song "Cherry Bomb"; the Blackhearts' version of the song "I Love Rock'n Roll" was number-one on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks in 1982. Jett's other notable hit songs include "Bad Reputation", "Crimson and Clover", "Do You Wanna Touch Me", "Light of Day", "I Hate Myself for Loving You" and "Dirty Deeds". Jett has a mezzo-soprano vocal range, she has three albums that have been certified Platinum or Gold, has been a feminist icon throughout her career. She has been described as the Godmother of Punk. In 2015, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts were inducted into the Roll Hall of Fame. Jett lived in New York since the late 1970s before moving to Rockville Centre, New York. Joan Marie Larkin was born on September 22, 1958, to James Larkin and Dorothy Jett Larkin, at Lankenau Hospital in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia.
She is the eldest of three children. Her father was her mother a secretary, her family was Protestant and attended church but not religious. In 1967, her family moved to Rockville, where she attended Randolph Junior High and Wheaton High School. Jett got her first guitar at the age of 14, she took some guitar lessons, but soon quit because the instructor kept trying to teach her folk songs. Her family moved to West Covina, California, in Los Angeles County, providing Jett the opportunity to pursue her musical endeavors. Shortly after the move, her parents divorced and she changed her name to Joan Jett, taking her mother's maiden name as her professional and legal name. In Los Angeles, Jett's favorite night spot was Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco, a venue that provided the glam rock style she loved. Jett became a founding member of the Runaways, alongside drummer Sandy West. Jackie Fox, Lita Ford and Cherie Currie soon joined up to complete the band, creating the classic lineup. While Currie fronted the band, Jett shared some lead vocals, played rhythm guitar and wrote or co-wrote a lot of the band's material along with Ford and Currie.
The band recorded five albums, with Live In Japan becoming one of the biggest-selling imports in US and UK history. The band toured around the world and became an opening act for Cheap Trick, Van Halen and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, they found success abroad in Japan. While touring England with the Runaways in 1976, Jett first heard the song "I Love Rock'n' Roll" when she saw Arrows perform it on their weekly UK television series Arrows. In 2010, The Runaways, a movie about Jett's band, was released, starring Kristen Stewart as Jett and Dakota Fanning as Currie. While the Runaways were popular in Europe, Australia and South America, they could not garner the same level of success in the US. After Currie left the band, the band released two more albums with Jett handling the lead vocals: Waitin' for the Night and And Now... The Runaways. Altogether, they produced five albums from 1975 until they disbanded in the spring of 1979. Soon afterward, Jett produced the Germs' only album. In 1979, Jett was in England pursuing a solo career.
She recorded three songs there with the Sex Pistols' Paul Cook and Steve Jones, one of, an early version of Arrows' "I Love Rock'n' Roll". This version appears on the 1993 compilation album Flashback; that year, she returned to Los Angeles, where she began fulfilling an obligation of the Runaways to complete a film, loosely based on the band's career entitled We're All Crazee Now! Three actresses stood in for the departed band members, including Rainbeaux Smith, a rock drummer. While working on the project, Jett met songwriter and producer Kenny Laguna, hired by Toby Mamis to help Jett with writing some tracks for the film, they decided to work together. Jett relocated to New York, where Laguna was based; the plug was pulled on the project halfway through shooting after Jett fell ill, but in 1984, after she became famous, producers looked for a way to use the footage from the incomplete film. Parts of the original footage of Jett were used in another project, an underground film called DuBeat-Eo, produced by Alan Sacks but not commercially released.
Jett and Laguna entered the Who's Ramport Studios with the latter at the helm, Jett's self-titled solo debut was released by Ariola Records in Europe on May 17, 1980. In the US, after the album was rejected by 23 major labels and Laguna released it independently on their new Blackheart Records label, which they started with Laguna's daughter's college savings. Laguna remembers, "We couldn't think of anything else to do but print up records ourselves." With Laguna's assistance, Jett formed the Blackhearts. Laguna recounted, "I told Joanie to support herself on the advance money. There was enough for her but not for a band, she said. And I believe to this day that it was the Blackhearts, that concept, that made Joan Jett." She placed an ad in the LA Weekly stating that she was "looking for three good men". John Doe of X sat in on bass for the auditions held at S. I. R. Studios in Los Angeles, he mentioned a local bass player, Gary Ryan, crashing on his couch. Ryan was born Gary Moss, adopted his stage name upon joining the Blackhearts in 1979, in part to cover for the fact that he was only 15 at the ti
Live 2013 EP
Live 2013 EP is the third extended play by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. It was released on September 10, 2013 on Spotify; the EP features live versions of four tracks, recorded during the Twenty Thirteen Tour. It includes three tracks from the band's 2013 album, Hesitation Marks, "Copy of a", "Came Back Haunted", "Find My Way", along with an alternative live version of "Sanctified", from the band's 1989 debut album, Pretty Hate Machine. Nine Inch Nails Trent Reznor – lead vocals, keyboards, synthesizers Robin Finck – guitar, backing vocals Josh Eustis – bass, synthesizers Alessandro Cortini – keyboards, guitar, backing vocals Ilan Rubin – drums, celloAdditional personnel Michael Patterson – mixing Paul Logus – mastering Russell Mills – artwork Rob Sheridan – design Nine Inch Nails official website Live 2013 EP on Spotify
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor is an American singer, musician, record producer, film score composer. He is the founder, lead vocalist, principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, which he founded in 1988 and of which he was the sole official member until adding long-time collaborator Atticus Ross as a permanent member in 2016, his first release under the Nine Inch Nails name, the 1989 album Pretty Hate Machine, was a commercial and critical success. He has since released nine Nine Inch Nails studio albums, he left Interscope Records in 2007 and was an independent recording artist until signing with Columbia Records in 2012. Reznor was associated with the bands Option 30, The Urge, The Innocent, Exotic Birds in the mid-1980s. Outside of Nine Inch Nails, he has contributed to the albums of artists such as Marilyn Manson and Saul Williams, he and his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, are members of the post-industrial group How to Destroy Angels, with Atticus Ross and long-time Nine Inch Nails graphic designer Rob Sheridan.
Reznor and Ross scored the David Fincher films The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Gone Girl, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Social Network and the Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. They scored the 2018 film Bird Box. In 1997, Reznor appeared in Time's list of the year's most influential people, Spin magazine described him as "the most vital artist in music". Michael Trent Reznor was born on May 17, 1965, in New Castle, the son of Nancy Lou and Michael Reznor, he has German and Irish ancestry and is a descendant of businessman George Reznor, who founded the heating and air conditioning manufacturer The Reznor Company in 1888. Reznor grew up in Pennsylvania. After his parents divorced, he lived with his maternal grandparents from the age of six, while his sister Tera lived with their mother, he showed an early aptitude for music. His grandfather, Bill Clark, told People magazine in February 1995 that Reznor was "a good kid... a Boy Scout who loved to skateboard, build model planes, play the piano".
He stated, "Music was his life, from the time. He was so gifted."Reznor has acknowledged that his sheltered life left him feeling isolated from the outside world. In a September 1994 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he referred to his choices in the music industry: However, in April 1995, Reznor told Details magazine that he did not "want to give the impression it was a miserable childhood". At Mercer Area Junior/Senior High School, he learned to play the tenor saxophone and tuba, was a member of both the jazz and marching band; the school's former band director remembered him as "very upbeat and friendly". Reznor became involved in theater while in high school, was voted "Best in Drama" by classmates for his roles as Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar and Professor Harold Hill in The Music Man, he graduated in 1983 and enrolled at Allegheny College in Meadville, where he studied computer engineering. While he was a student at Mercer Area Junior/Senior High School, Reznor joined local band Option 30 and played three shows a week with them.
After a year of college, Reznor dropped out and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, to pursue a career in music. His first band in Cleveland was a cover band. In 1985, he joined The Innocent as a keyboardist. In 1986, he joined local band Exotic Birds and appeared with them as a fictional band called The Problems in the 1987 film Light of Day. Reznor contributed on keyboards to the band Slam Bamboo during this time. Reznor got a job at Cleveland's Right Track Studio as janitor. Studio owner Bart Koster commented: "He was so focused in everything he did; when that guy waxed the floor, it looked great." Reznor asked Koster for permission to record demos of his own songs for free during unused studio time. Koster agreed, remarking that it cost him "just a little wear on his tape heads". While assembling the earliest Nine Inch Nails recordings, Reznor was unable to find a band that could articulate his songs as he wanted. Instead, inspired by Prince, he played all the instruments. Reznor has continued in this role on most of the band's studio recordings, though he has involved other musicians, assistants and rhythm experts.
Several labels responded favorably to the demo material and Reznor signed with TVT Records. Nine selections from the Right Track demos were unofficially released in 1988 as Purest Feeling and many of these songs appeared in revised form on Pretty Hate Machine, Reznor's first official release under the Nine Inch Nails name. Most of Reznor's work as a musician has been as founding and primary member of Nine Inch Nails. Pretty Hate Machine was released in 1989 and was a moderate commercial success, certified Gold in 1992. Amid pressure from his record label to produce a follow-up to Pretty Hate Machine, Reznor secretly began recording under various pseudonyms to avoid record company interference, resulting in an EP called Broken. Nine Inch Nails was included in the Lollapalooza tour in the summer of 1991, won a Grammy Award in 1993 under "Best Heavy Metal Performance" for the song "Wish". Nine Inch Nails' second full-length album, The Downward Spiral, entered the Billboard 200 chart in 1994 at number two, remains the highest-selling Nine Inch Nails release in America.
To record the album, Reznor rented and moved into the 10050 Cielo Drive mansion, where the 1969 Manson Family murders took place. He built a studio space in the house, whic
Light of Day
Light of Day is a 1987 American musical drama film starring Michael J. Fox, Gena Rowlands and Joan Jett, it was directed by Paul Schrader. The original music score was composed by Thomas Newman and the cinematography is by John Bailey. Fox and Jett play a brother and sister who are lead performers in a rock band, The Barbusters, in Cleveland, Ohio; the sister, Patti Rasnick, is an unmarried mother and has a troubled relationship with her own mother, religious. Estranged from her parents and struggling to make ends meet, Patti decides to dive headlong into a carefree rock music lifestyle; the brother, Joe Rasnick, pulls away from rock music to provide some stability for his young nephew. It takes a family crisis to force her to face the past with her mother. Michael J. Fox as Joe Rasnick Gena Rowlands as Jeanette Rasnick Joan Jett as Patti Rasnick Michael McKean as Bu Montgomery Thomas G. Waites as Smittie Cherry Jones as Cindy Montgomery Michael Dolan as Gene Bodine Paul J. Harkins as Billy Tettore Billy L. Sullivan as Benji Rasnick Jason Miller as Benjamin Rasnick Tom Irwin as Reverend Ansley Michael Rooker as Oogie 1984 Miss Teen USA Cherise Haugen as Crystal Jerry Gideon as Sean Yvette Heyden as Laurie Del Close as Dr. Natterson Ray Bradford as Dr. GouldA young Trent Reznor appears, with other members of Exotic Birds in the film as a member of fictional band The Problems as well as local teen band, The Pelicans, as The Bubblegummers.
The Fabulous Thunderbirds perform in the movie as themselves. Ron Dean cameos as one of the attendees of Patti's funeral home, Alan Poul appears as a cashier; the film was shot on location in Illinois. The film is best known as the first real attempt for Fox to take on more serious film roles after establishing himself as a comedic star. Light of Day is one of the few projects where Fox has smoked in front of the camera. Bruce Springsteen wrote and composed the song "Light of Day" for the film. Schrader's original working title for the film was Born in the USA, he showed the script to Springsteen to make sure he got the details right about a blue-collar bar band. Springsteen ended up using the title for a song he had been writing about a Vietnam veteran, as a result, the Barbusters's signature song, which he provided, gave the film its eventual title. Starting from the late 1980s and during the 1990s, Springsteen himself used the song to close his concerts. Schrader has expressed dissatisfaction with Light of Day its plain visual style: "I had progressed from being a person with a literary vision to a person with a visual vision, in that film I tried to... suppress my new literacy," and the casting of Joan Jett: "it's a good performance, but... that piece of casting just did not work."
In a review for the Chicago Sun-Times, critic Roger Ebert gave the film three-and-a-half out of four stars and called it the "most direct and painful statement" of a theme explored in Schrader's previous films—"wildly different characters with one thing in common: Their pasts keep them imprisoned, shut them off from happiness in the present." Ebert found Rowlands' acting "powerfully, heartbreakingly effective" and said that Jett matches to Rowlands' inspiration in "the most good performance."Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote "Bruce Springsteen wrote the rousing title song and took the phrase "Born in the U. S. A." from an earlier draft of Mr. Schrader's screenplay. It's possible from the finished film, to see what he and Mr. Schrader might share. One of the monologues included on Mr. Springsteen's recent live album describes his boyhood dream of becoming a rock-and-roller and proving something to his family, to himself, to the world. "Light of Day" wants to embody a similar dream. Mr. Schrader may have started out to make a film about the fiercest, most incorruptible stirrings of young talent.
But he wound up making a soap opera along the way."Variety criticized the film's writing, mocking the film's family as "anyfamily USA as written by Eugene O’Neill." The publication was mixed towards the film's casting, writing that while Rowlands did well with the material she worked with, Fox was miscast for his character and "Jett looks the part and manages to hit the mark from time to time, but for every hit there’s a miss." The magazine found Patti's obsession with rock-and-roll as an escape mechanism to be "childish and silly."Light of Day holds a rating of 53% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 15 reviews. The soundtrack to the film was released in 1987; as a single, "Light of Day" reached number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 and received additional album-oriented rock airplay due to the connection of Joan Jett and Bruce Springsteen. "The Barbusters" is the name of Jett's band in the film. "Light of Day" – The Barbusters "This Means War" – The Barbusters "Twist It Off" – The Fabulous Thunderbirds "Cleveland Rocks" – Ian Hunter "Stay with Me Tonight" – Dave Edmunds "It's All Coming Down Tonight" – The Barbusters "Rude Mood" – The Barbusters "Only Lonely" – Bon Jovi "Rabbit's Got the Gun" – The Hunzz "You Got No Place to Go" (M
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The orchestra's home is Heinz Hall, located in Pittsburgh's Cultural District; the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Pennsylvania. The orchestra's home is Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, located in Pittsburgh's downtown Cultural District, its current music director is Austrian Manfred Honeck, who joined the orchestra in 2008, its current president and CEO is Melia Tourangeau. The Pittsburgh Symphony presents classical, education, community engagement and special concerts throughout the year at Heinz Hall and in the community; the Pittsburgh Symphony has a history of touring both domestically and internationally since 1900. The orchestra counts more than 36 international tours, including 20 to Europe, eight trips to the Far East and two to South America; the Pittsburgh Symphony was the first American orchestra to perform at the Vatican in January 2004 for the late Pope John Paul II, as part of the Pontiff's Silver Jubilee celebration.
The orchestra was founded by the Pittsburgh Arts Society with conductor Frederic Archer in 1895, who brought with him a number of musicians from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, led the PSO in its first concert the following year. In 1898, a man steeped in popular music was chosen to lead the Orchestra. Victor Herbert had composed a number of comic operas, he was born in Ireland, but educated in Germany. A flamboyant conductor, he inspired audiences alike with his boundless enthusiasm. In its second season under Victor Herbert, the Orchestra received an invitation to perform two concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Andrew Carnegie financed the trip; the Orchestra traveled at a more frequent rate under his tenure, performing in Boston, Washington, D. C. and Canada. Under Herbert’s direction, the Pittsburgh Orchestra played as part of the Pan-American Exposition at the 1901 World's Fair in Buffalo, New York. Besides directing, Herbert had composed an original work for the Exhibition titled "Panamericana: Morceau Characteristique" for the Orchestra to perform.
He ended his appointment with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1904 when he left to take a higher paid position in New York. When Herbert left the orchestra in 1904, the Symphony Society chose as his successor a man who could not have been more different. Austrian conductor Emil Paur avoided theatrics. Trained as a violinist, he had served as conductor of both the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic as well as guest conductor throughout Europe and held the Pittsburgh Orchestra to the same exacting standards. Paur's programs emphasized the classical repertoire and included a heavy dose of Johannes Brahms, whose music was considered too challenging for most audiences at that time. Additionally, Paur clashed with many of the Orchestra's musicians when he prohibited them from accepting outside performing engagements and continued to hire European musicians. Paur remained at the head of the Orchestra until it disbanded in 1910; the orchestra attracted a number of prominent guest conductors during these early years, including Edward Elgar and Richard Strauss.
Despite lavish praise from critics and a growing national reputation, hard times lay ahead for the Orchestra. The Panic of 1907 had an immediate impact on the ability and the resolve of the wealthy to support cultural organizations throughout the country; the city of Pittsburgh proved to be no exception. To make matters worse, Paur's practice of hiring European musicians damaged relations with local musicians to the point where half of the orchestra's members refused to renew their contracts for the 1908–09 season. Subscriptions declined in the wake of the controversy. By 1910, the Orchestra's future was in immediate jeopardy; the original guarantors had conceived of the orchestra as a self-sustaining institution. In reality, they spent more than $1 million to subsidize the organization in its first 15 years. A new approach was needed and a plan was developed to raise an endowment; when insufficient funds were forthcoming, the orchestra canceled its upcoming season. No one suspected, it took 16 years, but on May 2, 1926, the dream of a new Pittsburgh Orchestra became reality.
The players took part in 14 unpaid rehearsals and contributed $25 each to sponsor a free public concert of the new Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under the direction of concertmaster and associate conductor, Elias Breeskin. Following the newly restructured Orchestra's successful debut, the Symphony Society organized a Sunday concert series that began on April 24, 1927. Sunday was chosen because most of the players were under contract with theater orchestras during the week; the following Monday, nine board members were arrested for violating the Pennsylvania Blue Laws, which forbade secular music-making on the Sabbath. The publicity didn't hurt the Pittsburgh Symphony; the board's fight to keep the series alive whetted the public's appetite for symphony concerts. In 1930, Antonio Modarelli assumed his post as the music director of the Orchestra, he had spent the previous eight years in Berlin composing and conducting, was the only American composer to be elected to the prestigious "Society of German Composers."
A German newspaper described his conducting as "forceful, modern music" and he was invited to conduct in Moscow. He was music director until 1937, but he never quite won the whole-hearted acceptance of Pittsburgh audiences, in part because he was a local boy, born in nearby Braddock, he had taught at Duquesne University and been a band leader in the N
With Teeth
With Teeth is the fourth studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on May 3, 2005 by Nothing Records and Interscope Records. The album was produced by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and long-time collaborator Alan Moulder, it features contributions from musician Dave Grohl. In line with some of the band's previous material, the record features notably introspective songwriting, influenced by Reznor's battle with and recovery from alcoholism and substance abuse; the album generated three singles, "The Hand That Feeds", "Only" and "Every Day Is Exactly the Same", the latter of, released as an accompanying remix EP, as well as a tour, Live: With Teeth. Upon release, With Teeth was well-received by critics, albeit less than their previous work; some complimented the aggressive composition, while others found it to be tasteless. The album became the band's second to reach number one in the US, was certified gold by RIAA. Reznor garnered mainstream attention with his influential second album The Downward Spiral, as well as a broadcast live performance at Woodstock'94.
From that point onward, Nine Inch Nails was among the most popular music acts of the 1990s. In 1997, Reznor appeared in Time magazine's list of the year's most influential people, Spin magazine described him as "the most vital artist in music." However, Reznor's musical output was infrequent, having released only three full length albums from 1989 through 2005, with a rough average of five years between each release. During this time, Reznor became addicted to alcohol and drugs, resulting in depression and writer's block; the band's 1999 double album The Fragile was met with positive reviews from music critics and sold 898,000 copies. However, it failed to attain the success of its predecessor and fell from the top of the Billboard after only a week. Afterwards, the only original Nine Inch Nails material released until 2005 was the 2000 remix album Things Falling Apart, as well as the 2001 single "Deep" from the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider soundtrack and Still. Reznor told Spin magazine in 2005 that "I was going to just drink drug myself out of it.
I got back to New Orleans after the Fragile tour, I'd pretty much lost my soul." After Reznor decided to go to rehab, he began work on a new album. The songwriting process moved along easier for Reznor than in the past, he said that it was due to having "a pretty good game plan I had themes and subjects As my brain started working, the songs just started to come out. I regained my self-confidence."Reznor planned the album to be a concept album, complete with a storyline. Reznor was quoted in a 2007 article saying: I'd come up with this kind of elaborate storyline, the record was gonna be a concept record that had a number of pretentious elements to it. I was gonna talk about multi-layered reality and waking up in a dream you can't wake up out of, finding acceptance after you go through this period of trying to fight it, it was all kind of a big analogy for me getting sober. Reznor recorded the album at Nothing Studios in New Orleans, the last release he recorded at the location before permanently relocating to Los Angeles.
The album was produced by Reznor and long-time Nine Inch Nails producer Alan Moulder, with engineering and assistance by Atticus Ross. The album was 5.1 surround sound. Former Nirvana drummer and current Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl contributed drums and live percussion on seven tracks. According to a statement on the official Nine Inch Nails website, Reznor stated that producer Rick Rubin was his "mentor" and "source of inspiration" throughout the planning and writing process of the album. Reznor was heavily inspired by the use of more analog electronic effects and instruments tape delay and modular synthesizers. A post on the band's official website dated May 5 indicated that Atticus Ross, Leo Herrera, Reznor were in the studio recording and "refining" rough new material, it stated Jerome Dillon was on drums on these sessions. Mixing began on October 28, on New Year's Eve Reznor revealed that the album was complete, would be titled With Teeth. Before the album's release, Reznor described With Teeth as "more song-oriented" and "lean" than the previous Nine Inch Nails album, The Fragile.
In reference to the album's sound, Reznor said he "tried to keep a lo-fi aesthetic running through it, a kind of carelessness." Moreover, he stated the music was less of a concept album, more of "a collection of songs that are friends with each other, but don't have to rely on each other to make sense". With Teeth is considered as Reznor's most rock-centric album since the Broken EP and labeled as industrial rock, electronic rock and hard rock; the album's sound draws inspirations from genres such as drum and bass, pop and ambient. The album's lyrics tackle Reznor's opinion of himself, his relationship with the world around him and his place in it, as well as his struggles with addiction. Although it dealt with these issues, Reznor was hopeful that it was still "disguised enough that not a boring record about recovery and addiction". Reznor drew influence from the September 11, 2001 attacks, which occurred shortly after his recovery; the album's first single, "The Hand That Feeds", was a direct example of the themes of protest and propagandist fear that helped influence the album.
These influences became more prominent in his next album, Year Zero, the alternate reality game that accompanied it. Early reports indicated. Reznor stated that the name was changed because "it was supposed to be about different layers of
