year zero

Nine Inch Nails
Trent Reznor

This is the music that scares parents and the government.
Trent Reznor was born in Mercer, Pennsylvania, halfway between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. He began playing the piano at the age of five and showed an early aptitude for music. His former piano teacher Rita Beglin said "Reznor always reminded me of Harry Connick, Jr.". Reznor has repeatedly acknowledged that his sheltered life in Pennsylvania left him feeling somewhat isolated from the outside world. In a 1994 interview with Rolling Stone, he makes reference to his choices in the music industry, "I don't know why I want to do these things," Reznor says, "other than my desire to escape from Small Town, U.S.A., to dismiss the boundaries, to explore. It isn't a bad place where I grew up, but there was nothing going on but the cornfields. My life experience came from watching movies, watching TV and reading books and looking at magazines. And when your fucking culture comes from watching TV every day, you're bombarded with images of things that seem cool, places that seem interesting, people who have jobs and careers and opportunities. None of that happened where I was. You're almost taught to realize it's not for you." However, Reznor later confesses, "I don't want to give the impression it was a miserable childhood."

And, overnight, another video was released. The album is available Tuesday or go to gomusic.ru and get it today for about three bucks.