Goodbye Aaron North (and Jeordie), Hello Robin Finck…Again.

Posted today, April 4th, nin.com reports (or implies) that Trent Reznor has decided Aaron North is out and Robin Finck is in as lead guitar for future Nine Inch Nails tour performances. 

Welcome back (again) Robin Finck to NIN.  Finck has participated in many “old school” Nine Inch Nails tours, such as the legendary Woodstock ‘94 performance, and also appears in two live releases.  Finck’s other notable inclusions: Guns N’ Roses and Cirque du Soleil.

Nevertheless, we will miss you Aaron North…

…and Jeordie White, as NIN’s YouTube page credits Rich Fownes as a new official band member.  Thus dawns a new NIN age.

Addendum:  While I remain neutral between pro-Aaron and pro-Finck (I am quite ambivalent on the issue: Finck undoubtedly qualified and talented in the NIN department, but Aaron was so entertaining to watch), I find amusing the nin.com comments in regard to this latest piece of news.  To those claiming that Finck will save NIN, resurrecting the core industrial, are we forgetting that the ultimate power lies in the hands of Trent, he who writes and dictates the execution of his music?  Granted each musician brings his own flavor, but the music will always sound exactly how Reznor feels it should; thus, the “industrialness” of NIN depends on the one and only.

 

Read Between the Lines: Pemberton Festival 2008

If you do not mind a road-trip (or trans-ocean flight) to Canada, then the nin.com newsfeed has posted brilliant news: Nine Inch Nails will OFFICIALLY be performing on July 25th, the first day of the Pemberton Festival 2008.  Unlike the speculations surrounding Lollapalooza, this performance date is the real thing, confirmed by both the official Pemberton Festival website and nin.com.

Early Bird tickets, sold at “Early Bird” prices, will go on sale March 28th at 10:00am.  The Early Bird tickets will go for 239.50 CDN plus “fees and service charges”, a whopping 20 CDN cheaper than the standard three day ticket package.  Mind these two ticket packages include entrance to the festival site only, not camping fees.

Nevertheless, a performance date set for NIN brings into question Lollapalooza, or perhaps it helps to perpetuate the unconfirmed rumor.  If Trent will be procuring a band for the 25th of July, why not take the same band to Chicago for the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd of August?  The simple fact that nin.com has not dispelled the rumor also helps to imply its validity.  Certainly Trent knows of the NIN Lollapalooza gossip.  If the Lollapalooza lineup includes NIN, the Lolla politics surely include a contract requiring the performing artists and bands to keep silent until the official Lollapalooza lineup is announced (April 7th), but Trent would be under no obligation to abstain from informing his fans if he were not performing, as I am sure he would not want his fans to spend their money in vain.  Thus, perhaps no news is good news.

What of this NIN lineup that will be performing at Pemberton?  If the music to be showcased originates from Ghosts I-IV then the band will look radically different than the norm.  But who expects to see NIN in concert only playing instrumental music?  When would Trent not preform Head Like a Holeand Closer?  Surely the playlist would include the legendary NIN anthems, and such a playlist would require the usual musicians: a bassist, lead guitarist, drummer, keyboards, and obviously Trent.  As Alessandro Cortini and Josh Freese are credited as band members, according to the NIN YouTube channel, they will most likely fulfill their usual spots within the band.  But NIN resources do not mention Aaron North and Jeordie White.  Aaron is currently working on an album with his new band Jubilee, which is said to “not be considered a side project”, and Jeordie is of course living as Twiggy Ramirez and creating a new MM album.

Even more dumbfounding is the Pemberton Festival lineup, i.e. the headliners that will be sharing the stage with NIN.  Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers?  I assumed their disastrous performance for the Superbowl halftime would mark the end of our suffering from their concert appearances, but apparently not.  And Coldplay?  Though I much adore A Rush of Blood to the Head, X&Y seemed somewhat anti-climatic, and I have little anticipation for their upcoming album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends that is to be released in June.  They too apparently managed to incorporate Timbaland into their album.

Nonetheless, eyebrow raising bands do emerge here and there in the Pemberton lineup; after all, how uninteresting could a festival be containing both NIN and Jay-Z?