The Endtimes Are Upon Us
Say it with me now: “Two-time Grammy Award-winning artist, Slayer.” Good thing Jethro Tull didn’t put out an album last year.
Convergence
When things come at me in threes, I pay attention. I know that it’s nothing more than a trick of patterning, seeing a gestalt image where there really isn’t any deeper meaning, but it happens rarely enough that it’s usually worth mentioning.
The latest one started with the news that Radiohead is allowing fans to pay what they want to download and own their latest album (which comes out tomorrow, or very, very late today if they’re releasing it at midnight GMT). I sort of lost interest in Radiohead a few albums ago, but this is an incredible thing. Considering that the vast majority of artists make only a dollar or two from each CD sale, the five dollars that I plan to spend on my download of In Rainbows represents at least a 150% increase in profit for them. I like the idea of bands making a name for themselves and ditching their record companies–who are, to a one, lying, thieving, parasitic whores. Cutting out the middleman appeals to the Lutheran in me. The Sex Pistols need to record an album called “The 99 Feces” and nail it to the front door of EMI’s office building.
Related to this was today’s announcement that, for the first time in 18 years, Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails are not contractually bound or beholden to any record company and are officially free agents at this point. NIN fans know that, over the course of his career, Trent has signed some of the worst possible recording contracts in history, and the business side of his career has never done him a single favor. Interscope never knew how to promote The Fragile, they pushed With Teeth to be poppier than it probably would have been otherwise (not that I think that’s necessarily a bad thing), and they were so out of touch with Year Zero that Trent footed the bill for the viral marketing campaign himself. And not only that, he had to personally intercede to keep Interscope’s lawyers from going after the fans who uploaded “leaked” songs to file sharing services…when that was the whole point of leaking them in the first place!
The third item in this trifecta of “fuck the record companies” came in the form of today’s Diesel Sweeties, which you should all read on a regular basis. I think that the idea of a “certified indie” label is a great idea whose time has come. The big four record companies and their pitbulls, the RIAA, have done a great job of separating consumers from their money and keeping it from flowing into the hands of their artists. CDs don’t cost $18.99, not when the artists are seeing less than 10% of that. I can’t wait to see them die a slow death in a ditch, trading in their brand new Beemers for 12-year old Civics and realizing that they have no place in the new order of things.
Well, a man can dream, anyway. Here’s that Diesel Sweeties comic:
Year Zero, Part 3
(Note from the future: These links haven’t been double-checked; some may be dead.)
A dozen USB pen drives were found at the NIN show last night in Brixton, each containing the “Survivalism” video. Hidden in the video are two new websites.
The first is http://www.judsonogram.net, a webpage for a mental institution.
The second is http://www.thewaterturnedtoblood.net, which is a site created by an inmate at Judson Ogram.
A drug company called Cedocore is mentioned on the first site. http://cedocore.com takes you to the company’s corporate website.
There are all sorts of hidden things to do and see. http://www.ninwiki.com/Year_Zero_Research#Proven_Related_Web_Sites is an excellent resource for this, as is http://www.echoingthesound.org/phpbbx/viewtopic.php?t=20265.
Year Zero, Part 2
(Note from the future: I haven’t double-checked all of the links in this post. Some of them may no longer work.)
I’m creeping myself out more and more as I follow this stuff. Here’s what I’ve found so far:
The official website is http://yearzero.nin.com/. Watch the preview trailer for a glimpse of The Presence. The road sign that flashes by quickly says “I Am Trying To Believe.” Which leads us to:
(Click on “What is parepin’s purpose?” on the upper left corner of the screen and use the link on the next page to send an email to water@iamtryingtobelieve.com. You’ll get an automatically-generated reply sent to your inbox.)
www.anotherversionofthetruth.com
www.anotherversionofthetruth.com/audio/nohurry.mp3
www.anotherversionofthetruth.com/audio/ballgameOver.mp3
www.anotherversionofthetruth.com/audio/opalo.mp3
(Click and drag across the image to erase it. Click on the middle of the image to find hidden messageboards. Most of the topic threads have a link you can click on that takes you to an MP3 that fills in more backstory.)
105thairbornecrusaders.com/default.htm
www.consolidatedmailsystems.com
www.consolidatedmailsystems.com/nooneimportant/
(Click on any of the links and see what happens.)
http://www.securebroadcastinformatics.com/
http://www.solutionsbackwardsinitiative.net/pilgrims/sympathetic.htm
http://www.solutionsbackwardsinitiative.net/pilgrims/workarounds.htm
http://www.solutionsbackwardsinitiative.net/pilgrims/tangent.htm
http://www.solutionsbackwardsinitiative.net/pilgrims/usage.htm
http://www.solutionsbackwardsinitiative.net/pilgrims/upgrade.htm
http://www.solutionsbackwardsinitiative.net/pilgrims/malletrings.htm
http://www.solutionsbackwardsinitiative.net/pilgrims/subsystem.htm
http://www.solutionsbackwardsinitiative.net/pilgrims/power.htm
http://www.solutionsbackwardsinitiative.net/pilgrims/comm.htm
(There’s a hard-to-solve puzzle that takes you to other pages, which I’ve listed because I didn’t have the patience to solve the puzzle. You can also email Francisco@securebroadcastinformatics.com for another auto-generated email.)
http://uswiretap.com/case_number_required/
http://www.uswiretap.com/71839J/
(You can call 216-333-1810, the phone number listed on the page.)
http://www.artisresistance.com
http://www.hollywoodinmemoriam.org/
Also, check out the Wikipedia page on the story/campaign:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Zero_%28album%29
I love this shit!
Year Zero
Noah clued me into the fact that there’s a lot more going on with the marketing for Nine Inch Nails’ new album, Year Zero. Which you should all rush out and buy on April 17th, by the way.
Yeah, the concept is lifted from Lost and a thousand other underground/viral marketing tactics, but unlike Lost, I still have hope that this will pay off with some sort of satisfying conclusion.
leave a comment