Addictions

Nine Inch Nails has this thing on his (I say “his” because NIN is Trent Reznor, nobody else) website where you can download multi-tracks for a lot of his music, load it into a simple mixing program like GarageBand or Albeton Live, and remix it by any means you see fit. Then, once you’re done, you upload it back to the website, where people can listen, rate, leave comments.

This activity has taken hold of me. I am unable to remove myself from its clutches.

Imagine if you will, Dear Reader, having so much music that you love at your fingertips. Imagine looking at the raw tracks that weave together to create a piece of art you have ingested through your ears dozens of times. You can pick it apart piece by piece, put it back together, flip it around, speed it up, slow it down, change the key, or…dare I say it…insert yourself.

For now, I’ve limited myself to remixes, but I do intend to use the samples to create original material that I will sing on top of. My music has, thus far, consisted of country-influenced, guitar based stuff, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but I love a wide array of sonic experiences and I find it necessary to play around with all of them. The community of remixers on nin.com is thriving and vibrant, and I suspect it’s an uphill battle to get noticed, especially since many of them are producers and musicians in the real world.

I notice that many of them tend to make what I call “straight remixes,” or Nine Inch Nails songs that have been altered somehow. I tend to make “amalgamations,” my songs borrow so heavily from so many different sources that calling them a remix of any one isn’t really correct. I’m still pretty amateur at it right now, and for the most part my output functions as inside jokes for fellow fans (“oh wow, I didn’t think that song could go with that one…”), but each one gets better.

What’s that? You’re curious? Well okay, but just FYI, I make no guarantees you’re going to like this crap, it’s very much like Nine Inch Nails. Go to this link and press play in the upper right. You should see a song called “You Have Set Something in Motion.” There’s also “Turning into God,” which is not as good because it’s older.

http://remix.nin.com/play/mix?id=16615

Anyway, have fun with that.

I was going to do a post defending the greatness of “South Park,” a show I suspect a high percentage of my readership does not like. I feel certain I can make a case for the thing, especially for those of you who are politically conservative and/or moderate. I’ve been working on it for awhile, but I dunno, would you guys be interested in that?