Ok, so Issue
8 is a little bit late. Big deal, it's my Newsleter, and I
can make it late if
I want. So nyah! <grin>
[added March 9th] Fuck,
it's about time I got this out. I'm inna NiN mood
for the newsletter.
MWHAHAHAH, I think Nine Inch Nails rock, and Ministry
is good. I also happen
to think that the Load(Metallica) rocks also. So fuck
you all. <grin>
I mean. Rrrr, Enjoy this longish Newsletter. And it's still
a bit late.
[added april 29th] oops... <smile>
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
<=- Head Line News<so to speak> -=>
*1 - Nine Inch Nails*
by Neil Strauss
Spin
April, 1997
What's it take
to be named the Most Vital Artist in Music Today?
A singular
vision, scores of imitators, and a willingness to trash the
competition.
As Neil Strauss learns, Trent Reznor fits the bill perfectly.
Eight years
ago, Trent Reznor seemed like a throwback, beating the dead
horse of indutrial
rock. Today, he seems like a visionary, the first rock
star to make synthesizers
tcool for teenage headbangers, paving the way to
popularity not just
for countless knock-off industrail acts but also, to
some degree, for hyper-trendy
brats of techno and electronica.
Unlike many
musicians, Reznor is savagely aware of his place in the
current strata of
pop stars. He constantlyt compares himself to other
musicians, saying
that he "can't write a thousand songs like Billy Corgan,"
that he's "not as
careerist as [Marilyn] Manson," that he "can't sing about
[his] big dick like
David Lee Roth." It's for this reason, in large part --
these intense feelings
of self-consciousness and competition -- that the
most vital artist
in music today has completed only one new song in the past
three years.
While cleaning
off a place on the couch at Reznor's cliffside house in Big
Sur, where he's been
holed up writing the followup to 1994's The Downward
Spiral, I spot an
envelope. Scrawled in black pen are the words NEW SONGS. I
don't open it. I do
notice, however, that it's very thin.
SPIN: Is fair to say that you suffer from writer's block?
Trent Reznor: I'm afraid
to really push myself and write because I'm afraid
of failure. When I
was doing The Downward Spiral, I was kind out freaked
out, and Rick Rubin,
who's doing the new record with me, was trying to talk
to me. And I just
wanted to kill myself. I hated music. I was like, "U just
want to get back on
the road because I hate sitting in a room trying to,
trying to" -- how
do you say this? -- "just scraping my fucking soul."
Exploring areas of
your brain that you don't want to go to, that's painful.
You write something
down and you go, "Fuck, I can't say that. I don't people
to know that." It's
so naked and honest that you're scared to let it out.
You're giving a part
of your soul away, exposing part of yourself. I avoid
that. I hate that
feeling of sending a tape out to someone: "Here's my new
song. I just cut my
soul open. Check it out. Criticize it."
SPIN: Let me ask you
then: Why do you thing SPIN chose you as the most vital
artist in music?
Trent Reznor: I don't
know. I've no idea. I was pretty shocked when I was
told, "Hey, you're
number one." I was like, "Is this good?" Because I can
already read the letters
next month saying, "Fuck that, man. Why didn't you
choose so-and-so."
It's nice,
though, to have some kind of mainstream-media appreciation. I
thought we'd always
skirted super-attention. There are a hundred books on
Courtney Love in Waldenbooks
and there's none on us. So it's flattering. But,
you know, I'm just
a footnote in rock history, the guy that had mud on at
Woodstock. "Where
Are They Now: The Nineties."
SPIN: Do you ever wonder,
"How am I going to make sure I matter in the next
decade?"
Trent Reznor: Jimmy
Lovine of Interscope Records, who I respect a lot, said
to me at one point,
"I'm the president of Interscope and not a producer
anymore because I
see guys like you and Dre come along, and I can't compete
on that level." When
you think about the rock world, there's a window of
time where what you
do has pertinence and meaning. I hope ten years from now
I'm making soundtracks
or producing or something. I don't want to putting
mud all over myself
at the Sands in Las Vegas.
I'd love to
think someday that I made a difference, I changed something, I
shifted axis somewhat.
But all I can do is try and make the best music I
can. Not go into it
thinking "I'm going to change shit." It becomes
calculated if you
cater to the idea of shifting things. I think we have in a
subtle way, but, um,
yeah, I'd love to be remembered. [Sarcastically] Elvis,
Lennon, Reznor.
SPIN: Do you think
you've helped pave the way for the mainstream acceptence
of techno and electronica?
Trent Reznor: Maybe.
It starts sounding real egotistical if I take and
stance on that. But
to answer your question, I think we definitly took a
certain element of
harder-edged electronic music to the shopping mall. You
might say that my
success was to take industrial misc and add a melody to
it, add an element
of pop to it. It connected with people in a way we didn't
anticipate.
SPIN: How about these
sort of one-hit-wonder industrial bands like Stabbing
Westward and Gravity
Kills. Do you feel responsible for them?
Trent Reznor: Look
at it terms of the music-industrys follow-the-leader
approach: "Okay, Nirvana's
big, let's sign every band that sounds like
them." I'm sure after
Nine Inch Nails had some success, other labels asked,
"Who sounds like them?"
Do I think that Stabbing Westward and Gravity Kills
were part of that?
Yeah, I do. Were they ripping me off? Yeah, I kind of see
that, and then I think,
"Do I whine like that? Am I perceived as that?"
I think there's
a few innvators and many imitators. It shocks me to see
Bush go to No. 1.
Not to single them out, but I just can't respect them, Do
they write good songs?
Yeah, they've written some good songs. But I cannot
respect or toleratethe
lack of innovation.
Music is my
life. I know everything I can know about it. I know that it's
not background. It's
not stuff you put on in the car to drive home from your
job at IBM. It means
something oto me. And that's why I hate when something
so uninteresting can
be successful. But I'm going into this purist attitude.
I can tell. Fuck them
for doing that, you know? But it's also well-written
enough that a guy
who comes home from work can say, "Yeah, that's a good
song. These guys rock."
SPIN: Exactly. It may be good music but not important music.
Trent Reznor: You've
got a point there. From Stone Temple Pionts down the
line, they've got
some good songs -- give them credit -- but their whole
premise, the house
they built, is ridiculous. They're not saying anything. I
don't mean to sound
like "I am important." I rip people off, too. People
always say about our
music. "Yeah, they're just Ministry songs." But if I
started thinking.
"Fuck, that's a good song. I should write one that sounds
just like it," or
"I should cut my hair like that, maybe then I'll be
successful," I wouldn't
have a soul.
SPIN: Do you think
people can tell the difference between what's sincere and
what's a pose?
Trent Reznor: I'd like
to think they can. But what the English press gives
me all this shit,
"No one can be as depressed as this guy. He's full of
shit. He's just cashing
in." But I am that depressed! My head's just wrong.
I'm not trying to
be Mr. Tortured Artist Guy. I wish I could be more content
with the situation
I've got. It's a complicated situation, and I see
contemporaries who
are very happy in the situation they've got. But my head
doesn't work the same
way.
SPIN: But is being "content" something you should necessarily strive for?
Trent Reznor: It's
not about being content. It's about, What if everything
you ever wished for
in your life and never thought you'd get, you got? And
it still sucked. That's
the thing. I look at Oasis: dumb idiots just living
life. You know, ignorance
is bliss. And there's truth to that. I guess I
just don't want it.
SPIN: So do you ever feel you don't deserve to be a rock star?
Trent Reznor: I'll
say one thing here. When Nine Inch Nails first got
signed, I didn't know
how to do interviews. I really still don't. I talk to0
much and I say stupid
things. At the time, my heros were Janes Addiction,
among others, and
I'm reading where Perry's a male prostiute and has this
junkie lifestyle.
And I'm like, I smoked pot when I was 18 once. I'm boring.
I'm not into this
icon. I love Kiss for the same reason. Gene Simmons had a
cow tongue grafted
to his; that was the greatest shit. And I kind of made
this pact with myself
that I would just be honest. I am 31, I grew up in
Pennsylvania. I wasn't
a male prostitute. I'm not gay. My tongue is my own.
It's not like a Marilyn
Manson situation. I love Manson, I respect him. He's
about showbiz and
he knows what he wants to do. And I think he's a good kick
in the ass of that
conservative Pearl Jam pseudo-alternative integritry thing.
SPIN: How much of what's going on pop-wise do you view as competition?
Trent Reznor: I watch
MTV and I think it sucks and I think most videos are
shitty. But I watch
because I like knowing what's going on. I want to know
that the last No Doubt
video sucked so I don't do it myself. Since I'm aware
of the buisness element
of things, I get to feel a little competitive. For
example, I like Beck
now. But when hhe first came out, I felt tthat
"urrrrrggghhh," just
purely from a he's-the-competition point of view. Not
that we're doing the
same thing. I felt stupid even feeling that. But I
wanted to not like
him. And then I was like, "Your shit's good." Everyone
around me -- everyone
-- says he's great, he's great. And I think that last
record is great. But
it's hard to not feel that sense of competition. It's a
bullshit way to think.
And that's what's distrubing about the whole idea of
"You're number one."
Well, why? Because I'm better than him? I try not to
think that way, but
to be frank, there's a part of me that does feel that.
SPIN: Have you ever
considered doing something sompetely different, like a
record as Trent Reznor
instead of Nine Inch Nails?
Trent Reznor: I've
thought about that. I'd really like to get into more film
scoring. I think I'd
be good at it. I also thought about doing a record of
instrumental piano,
like This MortalCoil-type mood music, music you can put
on when it's a rainy
day. Or doing things like [the sounds on the CD-ROM
game] Quake.
SPIN: Do you ever go
to the game areas on the Internet under an alaias to
post messages asking
for help when you're stuck in a game?
Trent Reznor: Oh yeah,
totally. I'm a cheater. And I'm a videogame addict. I
could have written
15 more records in the amount of time I spent playing Doom.
SPIN: Do you ever worry
that something of someone is going to cut short your
life before you've
said everything you have to say?
Trent Reznor: Through
my own self-destructiveness, or through a random act
of violence?
SPIN: Either.
Trent Reznor: There's
the whole romantic notion of Ian Curtis, or for that
matter Kurt Cobain,
burning out before they've said what they've had to say.
But I don't really
think about it that much. I've got a long way to go in
terms of what I want
to accomplish. I've got more a lot more I really want
to say. I'd be sad
if I were dead tommorrow, though [laughs].
WHAT IS A LAMER?
- By Invictus
---------------------------------
I've been modemming for a long time now, and I've seen some of the
biggest assholes in
the world. You know who I'm talking about. They're the
testosterone-overdosed,
lippy, generally idiotic, and basically annoying
users who hide behind
their computer screens and their modems, and call all
over the city in an
effort to prove how much of a bad-ass they are. Well, we
SysOps have a little
term for these freaks. We call them Lamers. (Or lamerz,
whichever works for
you).
I swear if I had a nickle for every person who said they would kick
my ass, while on the
modem, I'd be so fucking rich, I'd make Bill Gates look
like a pan handler.
Sometimes, I wonder what makes these people tick (And I
hope it's a bomb!).
I mean, testosterone alone couldn't possibly be the
driving force behind
whatever it is that makes a person wake up in the
morning, do their
daily rituals (whatever they may be), get behind the
computer and say to
themseves "I think I'll go into cyberspace and REALLY
piss someone off!"
I mean, blatant immaturity is likewise, too easy an
explanation to possibly
hold any truth to it. So, I go into analyze mode. In
order to figure out
what makes them tick, first we have to look at what they
DO to earn their ever-so-proud
title of "Lamer".
1. THREATEN PEOPLE.
Spare me. When you threaten someone over the modem, you
are just proving how
fucking stupid you are. For all you know, I am 6'7",
335 lbs with a 2%
body fat, gun wielding, black belt kickboxing, don't take
shit from anyone,
hulking brute. But it doesn't matter, because these people
would NEVER say this
to your face. If they had that much guts, they wouldn't
need a computer screen
and a modem to hide behind. Threatening people when
and if you DO actually
plan to follow through on your threats is one thing,
but 99% of the threats
you see over the modem are a failed attempt at
covering up a severe
insecurity, that likely stems from taking a lot of shit
kickings from people
who didn't like the snotty look on their face, their
big mouth, or foul
attitude. So as you see, this is counter-productive.
Lipping people off
gets you shit kicked, shit kickings make you a lippy
S.O.B., and being
a lippy S.O.B. gets you shit kicked. Am I the only one who
sees a problem here?
2. SWEAR....ALL THE
TIME. Yes, nothing can be communicated without "FUCK,
FUCK, FUCK, FUCK,
FUCK." Hey, it's a great word, it helps express something
in an extreme fashion,
but when it goes into overkill, it really gets lame.
The reason why they
do this is often not just because they are trying to
pull off an attitude
that they WISH was convincing, but because any word of
more than 2 syllables
is totally out of their vocabulary. Some people
though, can get away
with it, if they have already proven to be a
thoughtful, insightful
individual. After this is established, if you have a
pissy day, swear until
your face falls off! We know you're intelligent. Now
vent. After you've
proven your intellectual capacity, a person reading your
venting goes from
saying "Gawd, what an asshole. What rock did this guy
crawl out from under?"
to saying "Oh, shit. ______ is having a bad day. Ahh
well. Happens to us
all".
But rather than prove that they can be liked, and can be insightful
or at LEAST inquisitive,
they go out and prove to the world exactly what it
is that they already
know to be true; that everyone hates them. No friends,
no life, if they have
a girlfriend, it's because she was desperate, or is
lame enough, like
the Lamer, to be strangely attracted to a man who has more
testosterone in his
veins than white blood cells, making it miraculous that
the lamer is not constantly
getting fabulous dieases due to his low immune
system. They would
rather swear their heads off, because they are protected
by a phone line, and
a computer monitor.
3. POST/CHAT WITH THE
GRAMMAR LEVEL OF A 3 YEAR OLD. Hey, everyone makes
typos. Until voice
recognition software is mastered, we will all make typos.
But you can always
distinguish a lamer based on their atrocious spelling and
lousy grammar. Here's
a sample of a typical post in a public message area by
a lamer:
fuck you you fuckin
assholes i can kick al yor ases you stupid motherfuckers
i am better than all
of you youu all suck your mother's dicks and spit it
out on her face fuck
you all call my bbs no lamers!
Please note that there is no punctuation at all until the end of the
post, Note also the
amount of swears that are completely unneccessary, the
lack of imagination,
the anatomically incorrect and frankly unflattering
'mother' reference,
and the hypocrisy. This brings me to the next point;
4. HYPOCRISY. The sad
thing in this country is that anyone can run a BBS,
and most of the world's
lamers do this at some point in their futile
existance. Then, to
make matters worse, they go out and call well-respected
users of BBSes lamers,
when they have been kicked off of more BBSes than
they know how to count.
(See point 3.) If this is how they really think
modemland operates,
perhaps they should take a step back and realize that
respect = respect.
But even this math equation is soo hard for them to
comprehend.
Please note: A lamer's definition of a lamer is one who isn't as
lame as they are.
5. DOWN WIT' MA POSSE.
That's right, most lamers think that they are
gangsters. I would
honestly like to see these inferior little punks spend
half an hour in south
central Los Angeles (aka 'The Hood'), and walk out
alive with their 35-sizes
too big jeans, talking like blacks, acting like
blacks, even calling
each other "Niggas", when they are so white, if they
got any whiter, they
would be transparent! If they could maintain this act
for half an hour down
in L.A., right in front of some of the REAL gangsters
down there, and come
out out of their little play unscathed, then I might
consider them to be
somewhat rivalrous in their petty gangs.
Of course, when they are hiding in their rooms, with no friends
except other lamers,
they are safe. They are able to lip anyone off, and get
away with it, because
the technological advance of actually being able to
reach through the
phone line and ram your fist down their puny throats has
yet to be perfected.
Other symptoms of lamerism include being PROUD to be kicked off of a
BBS, overusage of
bestiality, incest, and masturbatory references when
flaming people, and
foolishly thinking that they are something special when
they have no evidence
to back it up at all.
If you suffer from any or all of the above conditions, you could be
the next person to
get kicked off of a BBS, or, if you're really unlucky,
kicked off the face
of the planet. Remember, cyberspace tends to have a
culture on its own,
and things such as adresses tend to get around quickly,
as do reputations.
If you are a lamer, help is available. Just grab a gun,
make sure you get
your entire head in front of it, pull the trigger, and put
yourself out of everyone's
misery.
-Invictus, Dischordia BBS.
The above contents are (C)opyright 1996-1997
The Demise Of An Era:
Octapode Shuts Down
By Diggson
April 5, 1997
"Can't Tell If This Is True Or A Dream" - Metallica
April 4th, 1997, a normal day to some, but to several thousand users, it
was the end of something
special. The place we called home, a place where we
were admired, respected,
and cherished is no longer. Octapode BBS has dropped
carrier for the last
time.
In her final hours, the truly hard core 'Poders sat and waited for the
final logoff.
They scrambled to send good-bye mail, most of which will never
be read. They
reminisced of the early days, when they first started, who they
admired and hated,
and most of all how lame Jed was when he first logged on
(Sorry Jed :) ).
To most of you it is just the passing of another board, but
to us, the ones who
called it home, it was the passing of a member of our
families as we sat
and helplessly watched her demise. Talk of taking the
board arose, along
with several other suggestions, but all in all we know it's
time for 'Pode to
rest.
To me, 'Pode was something special. I first obtained my account in
April
of 1993, and since
then have amassed 4300 calls, and logged 1300 hours into
the system, watching
it expand, grow, morph, and mold into the shape it now
leaves the BBS community
with. I have seen users come and go, hard core users
turn to casual users,
flame wars from hell, fights, threats, flirtations, and
advice for the lovelorn
in my 4 year tenure as a resident, and have never been
so choked up about
any inanimate thing in my life. To me 'Pode was more than
a board, it was a
place where I was accepted for who I was, it was a place I
could go to talk to
complete strangers what I couldn't even tell my own
parents. I got
hooked and I got hooked fast, and I am glad I did, because
without 'Pode, I would
never have gotten through rough times, would never have
a reputation for being
moody and taking things WAY too personally, and most of
all, I would never
have met my current sweetheart. To 'Pode I owe a great
deal, and as my way
of saying thanks, I'm writing this article. People may
slam it, people may
hate it, people may love it, but 'Pode is a special place
and in my heart, it
will always remain #1.
So as we sit and wait for the reunification of 'Pode's user base on
different fields,
we remember her, we cherish her, and we love her, but we did
not fail the one constant
in our geeking careers ...
Octapode BBS - Laid To Rest, April 5, 1997
May She Rust In Pieces
" Deathly lost, this can't be real " - Metallica, Fade To Black
"There was no violence, no one got hurt, but 3000 seats died"
-- Lars Ulrich, Metallica
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
>=- ADS -=<
Chromehenge, 15 free
hours of on-line service for new users. No Credit Card
Number Needed. (403)
225-2221 Call now for Membership.
Small people wanted
for miget tossing contest. Mail [email protected]
for appilcations.
Ftp: User.Dischordia.Org L/P ftp/<emailaddress>
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
]=- 124bits Free -=[
Kawphy is still looking
for writers. Nscafe Unleaded wherever you
downloaded this file.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
BBS's you can find
this lovely, well packaged newsletter. On the following
systems : Dischorida
<World HQ> 283-3863
Chromehenge
225-2221
Lynx From Hell
N0T-4Y0U
Creo Imagonem
228-4901
Antipode
295-2326
Hermits Cave BBS
217-2035
Atlantis
243-8032
CyberDemon
219-3104
Alan's Major BBS
EDMONTON