“Once I start, I cannot stop myself.” No kidding. That lyric from “Discipline,” a hard but still live-sounding electro-rocker from The Slip — Nine Inch Nails’ second release of the year (and fourth in the last two years, if you count that Year Zero remix album) — sounds typically self-loathing, but leave it to Trent Reznor (pictured) to turn his self-loathing into a business strategy. Like Ghosts I-IV, The Slip is being freely distributed by a Creative Commons licence, but the latter has vocals as well as plenty of acoustic drums mixed with crunchy guitars and synths, lending the disc an unexpectedly stripped-down hard-rock feel. It might be a Slip, but it’s no slip-up. (http://theslip.nin.com)
PANTS ROCK
James Pants is a terrible name for a DJ, but since Welcome, his debut album on Stones Throw, isn’t out until the end of the month, there’s plenty of time to make up your mind properly. His excellent “Music From the Forest” mix for Stones Throw’s podcast series will help, especially if you like the idea of Too $hort segueing nicely into Kraftwerk’s “Hall Of Mirrors.” Ahh, hip-hop and teutonic robots: do it to me one more time, once is never enough. (www.stonesthrow.com/jukebox/)
EMUSIC IN CANADA
Totally Wired is an unabashed eMusic supporter, so news that they had launched an eMusic Canada service was met with goofy grins and frantic searching for newly licensed discs. They don’t have a Canadian office, but at least those “unavailable for download” warnings will be significantly reduced as labels make Canada-specific licensing deals. (www.emusic.com)
MP3 OF THE WEEK
Coldplay, “Violet Hill”: I remember a simpler time, when certain truths were universal: men were men, a single was something you bought in a record store and Coldplay fucking sucked. Now they’ve gone ahead and released a confusingly catchy, jaunty, rocking and generally not-bad song, on the internet, for free. Bring me the head of Boris Johnson, for surely this is all his fault.
(www.coldplay.com)