365 Albums! Day 3: Stir the Blood - The Bravery

Stir the Blood is The Bravery's latest studio album, released on December 8th. My dad got it for me as a Christmas present, because he saw the band perform on television and liked the guitar player's use of a violin bow. He keeps bugging me to let him borrow it. I think maybe he should have just bought the album for himself. I don't have much to say about it. It was a relatively short album, not even fifty minutes long. Most songs were standard 3-4 minute pop songs. The Bravery are from the same collective of New Wave, synth-rock/post-punk renaissance bands as The Killers and Franz Ferdinand, and honestly, the music was better the first time around.

It seems like The Bravery are trying to sound like The Killers (who in turn try to sound like The Cure or Depeche Mode but don't quite manage it), only edgier, with a lot more "fuck"s and references to kinky sex. Come to think of it, now that I take these facts into account, The Bravery want to sound like Depeche Mode, too.

At any rate, the album is pretty mediocre. The songs are catchy, but lack depth and are nothing that hasn't been heard before. One track, "She's So Bendable," reminds me of Psychocandy-era Jesus And Mary Chain. Another song, called "The Spectator," brings to mind The Sisters of Mercy. That is as far as the album deviates from the New Wave/dance sound, which, as I've already established, has been done into the ground. I really dislike new bands that try hard to sound like old bands, whether it's in tribute to those older acts, or just the fact that current bands are just not original. If you are reading this and you are thinking about starting a New Order clone-band, please reconsider. You will only look bad, not just because of your unoriginality, but also because the band whose sounds you are trying to replicate undoubtedly did it better.

Standout tracks: The remix of Slow Poison that Kevin Barnes (Of Montreal) did, which is included as a bonus track.

Trent Reznor to fans: "OMG I LOVE YOU GUYS." Fans to Reznor: "OMG WE LOVE YOU TOO."

To be a Nine Inch Nails fan is a non-stop, 24 hour lovefest. An orgasm that never stops! What with our gushing over the countless multi-tracks available to download and remix, the warm and fuzzy camaraderie felt while cuddled up next to each other in the NIN.com pre-sale line, and working ourselves into an erotic frenzy over the latest TR blog post, one can barely find time to breathe. As one of my wise compatriots in NINdom once said: "Fuck love, all you need is NIN."

Recently, a particularly exciting chain of events unfolded, involving Trent Reznor and his dedicated bunch of love slaves--er, I mean, admirers. This all culminated in a group of ambitious NIN fans collaborating on a project of a magnitude that is unmatched by anything else of its kind.

On May 5th, 2008, Nine Inch Nails made their latest album, The Slip, available on their website as a completely free download. A gift to the fans for their unwavering support over the years. Accompanying the album release was a short message from Reznor himself: "This one's on me."

Later that year, Reznor announced that the Lights in the Sky tour would not be recorded for DVD, or any other kind of commercial release. Instead, the band instituted a relaxed camera policy for the tour, encouraging fans to film the shows themselves. On the final night of the tour, Dec. 13th 2008, at the Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, Nevada, a group of fans came together to record the show, with more than satisfactory results. But it wasn't until the new year that a plan was set into motion.

On January 7th, the Nine Inch Nails online community struck the motherload. The NIN Camp released over 400GB of high-definition live footage for download, completely and abso-fucking-lutely free. Encouraged by both Trent Reznor and Rob Sheridan, the fans went to work.

After hours and hours of editing video and adjusting sound, and what seemed like endless voting on artwork and a title for the project, things had finally taken shape, and it was clear that this wasn't an ordinary fan production. The result? This One Is On Us, a massive labor of love for the fans, by the fans, and a thank you to Reznor for his generosity.

Though it began with the main goal of editing together the HD footage released in January and releasing it as a free, full-length concert video, the folks involved with This One On Us have since undertaken a number of projects. There's Another Version of the Truth, the original, incredibly orchestrated endeavor and the group's main focus. It is a 2xDVD/Blu-Ray release. The first disc will contain footage from the 12/13/08 performance in Las Vegas. Disc Two will consist of the aforementioned downloadable HD footage. A torrent of the DVDs will also be made available.

Another project from This One Is On Us, and perhaps the most exciting, is The Downward Spiral: Live. On August 23rd, 2009, Nine Inch Nails performed The Downward Spiral in its entirety at Webster Hall in New York, and history was made. Though I was not at the show, I know full well that everyone there spontaneously orgasmed after they realized the band wasn't going to stop after Closer. Upon hearing this glorious news, most fans at home did as well. Unfortunately, due to Live Nation's exorbitant filming fees, the show was not recorded like the other final Wave Goodbye dates for a future release. Naturally, This One Is On Us were there to save the day.

The Downward Spiral: Live comes in DVD format and can also be viewed on YouTube. For a fan-made production, it's of great quality and very well-made. NIN alumni Danny Lohner, Robin Finck, Justin Meldal-Johnsen, and Reznor himself have expressed their praise for the project, via NIN.com and their respective Twitter accounts. Most of all, the project is particularly special for fans that were not able to get ahold of tickets for the Webster Hall show, or any of the final Wave Goodbye club shows. It's quite a going-away present.

Other releases from the This One Is On Us team include mastered audio files of the Vegas show, in MP3 and FLAC format, and the Australia 2009 DVD, HD footage recorded by Rob Sheridan, also made freely available on NIN.com.

I know I speak for all NIN fans when I say that this year has been a dream come true. So many amazing things have come from the NIN Camp over the past few months. Hours of mouth-watering live footage, hugely successful charity efforts, meet and greets, and memorable live performances. Who knows what we all have in store for us in the future, or what new and impressive projects This One Is On Us will begin working on next? NIN may be laid to rest (for now), but it certainly isn't the end. It's only a matter of time until we're all lubed up and ready for more.