As is the case with every year, I always reflect back through the music. I make about 4 mixes a year, filled with new music and new music discoveries, and at the tail end of the year, I collect them all into a "master playlist" and include bonus tracks! (Comes to 100 songs total! Over 6 hours of listening.)
89. Winter Wonderland / Don't Worry Be Happy by Pentatopnix (Featuring Tori Kelly) 90. Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) by Bruce Springsteen 91. Old Man by Beck 92. Strung Out Johnny by Iggy Pop 93. Shut Up by Alan Walker & UPSAHL 94. Otherwise by Julia Wu 95. Lux AEterna by Metallica 96. Pistol by Cigarettes After Sex 97. (You Made It Feel Like) Home by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross from the film Bones and All 98. Remember Me by Schuyler Fisk 99. One More Try by Crosses 100. Go To Hell by Bayside
I've been fortunate enough to see Nine Inch Nails perform live several times over the years in multiple iterations. Everything from the Downward Spiral tour to their co-heading stadium tour with David Bowie, and beyond. But lately, I'd been going down the rabbit hole on YouTube for a series of videos I remember being posted on their official YouTube page. Live performances shot by their friend and collaborator Rob Sheridan directly on stage. The frantic nature of the footage, bouncing from band member to band member, coupled with the excellent sound mix straight from the soundboard makes for some of their all-time best performances!
I also found some recent uploads from their drummer Ilan Rubin; a drummer cam, if you will, and these performances of "The Perfect Drug," "March Of The Pigs," and "Piggy" were next level.
I started collecting a bunch of these videos into a YouTube playlist and realized I was basically putting together the ultimate live Nine Inch Nails setlist! Since there are plenty of fellow NIN lovers out there, I thought I'd share what I consider to be the best NIN gig we were never at!
Nine Inch Nails: Live
1. Somewhat Damaged live from on stage Roskilde Festival, Denmark 7.3.09 2. March Of The Pigs / Piggy Live from The Santa Barbara Bowl 9.13.22 3. Last live from on stage in Holmdel, NJ 6.06.09 4. The Becoming live at Sasquatch Festival 5.24.09 5. I'm Afraid of Americans live from on stage in Toronto, 6.02.09 6. The Perfect Drug live from The Santa Barbara Bowl 9.13.22 7. The Fragile live from on stage, Adelaide 2.28.09 8. Burn live from on stage, Melbourne 2.25.09 9. Survivalism live w/ Saul Williams, Atlanta 5.10.09 10. The Big Come Down live circa 2013 11. Closer from the live CD / DVD "And All That Could Have Been" 12. Wish live in Cleveland 9.24.22 with NIN alumni Richard Patrick, Chris Vrenna, Danny Lohner 13. Head Like A Hole live circa 2013
I love, love, love the new trailer for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: VOLUME 3. And I also loved the way James Gunn incorporated the Spacehog song "In The Meantime" into the trailer's score.
It reminded me that several years back I had made a mix that kicked off with that track, but also celebrated some of my favorite one-hit wonders from the 90s. I'm not talking about any of the now-classic grunge era hits, but most of the big radio & MTV hit singles in a post-Nirvana world.
I couldn't resist also using a few tunes in the same vibe from the early 2000's, including a few tracks from the Spider-Man soundtracks, and so instead of naming it something 90s-centric, I went with "Turn Of The Decade!" I guarantee there will be a few of these you haven't heard or thought of in years!
1. In The Meantime by Spacehog 2. Sex & Candy by Marcy Playground 3. Down Baby by Loud Lucy 4. Monster Slide by Addict 5. Laid by James 6. Believe by Dig 7. One Headlight by The Wallflowers 8. No Rain by Blind Melon 9. Groove In The Heart by Deee-lite 10. Superman (It's Not Easy) by Five For Fighting 11. Save Me by Remy Zero 12. Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger 13. The Distance by Cake 14. Torn by Natalie Imbruglia 15. What It's Like by Everlast 16. Save Tonight by Eagle-Eye Cherry 17. Semi-Charmed Life by Third Eye Blind 18. Out Of My Head by Fastball 19. Breakfast At Tiffany's by Deep Blue Something 20. Closing Time by Semisonic 21. Your Woman by White Town 22. Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve 23. The Freshman by The Verve Pipe 24. Hero by Chad Kroger featuring Josey Scott 25. Learn To Crawl by Black Lab 26. Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional 27. Float On by Modest Mouse 28. Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol 29. Natural One by Folk Implosion 30. Low by Cracker 31. Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Quite a lot of these bring back fond memories. (And melodies!) The Addict track "Monster Slide" comes from the movie DISTURBING BEHAVIOR. Couldn't resist the one-two Superman themed punch of the Five For Fighting song with Remy Zero. (The theme for SMALLVILLE!) I was actually at Woodstock 94 (an awful experience I'll save for another blog) and I have a distinct memory of getting there early in the evening of the first night, setting up our tent and hearing in the distant James performing "Laid" and later slowly drifting to sleep as Deee-lite performed their big single "Groove Is In The Heart."
Fastball, Third Eye Blind, Snow Patrol, Marcy Playground, Eagle-Eye Cherry! Remember these names?! Kick back and let's go on that ride....
