Black Nasty: "How about nowish?"

It is an oft-discussed fact among my friends that independent culture can sometimes be as oppressive as popular culture. My friend Sammy likes Pearl Jam alot. I like Sammy. You know who else I like? Nine Inch Nails. That's right. When I was a teenager, I jammed "Pretty Hate Machine" strictly all of the time. "Something I Can Never Have"? "Down In It"? Come on now. You know those songs rocked your socks off, angsty-ass teenage poetry lyrics and all. My fondness for Mr. Reznor's cliche-ridden whiny musings has persisted, and on top of that I've developed an honest-to-God, non-ironic love for the craftsmanship that he brings to the recording process. As a producer, he's just plain the shit - the remastered Dolby Digital 5.1 surround-sound release of "The Downward Spiral" is unfuckwithable - if you want to hear exactly what can be done with modern recording technology, just find a friend with a nice 5.1 Dolby set-up (assuming you're not balling out of control) and check out that CD. The same is true of "The Fragile" - an album that has one beautiful instrumental for approximately every two annoying screamy songs with "Fucker" in the chorus.

I picked up "With Teeth" last night, to get hyped about the show he's doing here with Saul Williams (note to Jesus: Thank you for making this dude the opener.), and it is an overall so-so album with a few absolute rockers. So far "All of the Love in the World," "Sunspots," and "The Line Begins To Blur" stand out. Songs that I wish were not included are "Love Is Not Enough" and "You Know What You Are?". But I love those first three.

Go ahead. Make fun of me.