Rock royalty are quickly overtaking cats in becoming the biggest provider of Internet “lolz”. Following in the footsteps of Nick Cave’s infamous Twitter showcase, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor has created his own moment of stunning, biting clarity in a Reddit ‘Ask Me Anything’ to promote the new How To Destroy Angels LP.
Welcome Oblivion is the debut album from Reznor’s collaboration with wife Mariqueen Maandig and longtime collaborators Rob Sheridan and Atticus Ross, and is the long-awaited full-length release following the band’s past two EPs.
However, Reznor drew controversy when he returned to a major label, Columbia Records, to release How To Destroy Angels’ material, after being stoically independent with Nine Inch Nails for a number of years.
As reported by Antiquiet, Reznor has previously said that his experiences so far with Columbia have been “pleasantly pleasant,” explaining that his main motivations for returning to a major label were inspired by their powers of exposure and mass distribution.
Something for which Reznor came under fire for in the How To Destroy Angels AMA on Reddit; let’s just say Reznor was anything but pleasant in responding to a troll, in one of the best replies of all time:
Q: “As millionaires, why did you sign up with a record label to promote your new album?”
A: [Reznor] “Sorry, the wifi on our yacht is having issues, we can’t get your full question to load. Try sending me an email at [email protected]”
That, my friends, is how you drop a C-bomb.
It’s an incredible feat that Reznor even has time to meddle in social media considering his busy schedule that’s long enough to make anyone experience secondhand exhaustion, notably including the recent announcement of Nine Inch Nails’ upcoming “full-on arena tour” of the US this year, as well as “lots of other dates worldwide to follow through 2014.”
After Reznor’s snappy Reddit reply quickly became viral, bandmate Rob Sheridan gave a more reasoned explanation to address some of the criticism including the motivation behind announcing a NIN tour in such close proximity to the new HTDA album:
“The answer is we DIDN’T WANT TO ANNOUNCE NIN [TOUR] YET,” writes Sheridan. “Even though the festivals don’t happen until July and August, they happened to schedule their announcements right at the time we were releasing HTDA. So we had no choice but to make the NIN announcement.”
“Not only is Trent not using NIN to help market HTDA or whatever garbage the armchair quarterbacking original poster spewed, we actively did NOT want the two to overlap,” he explained.
The first dates for the new NIN lineup’s return were announced in headlining Japan’s 2013 Fuji Rock Festival, it quickly skyrocketed the band to the top of the Splendour In The Grass rumour mill, as the two festivals are famous for having overlapping bands appear on their stages. So Aussie fans will no doubt have their fingers crossed the band will make the leap across for the water for the Australian winter music festival.
The rest of Reznor’s schedule includes partaking in Queens Of The Stone Age’s forthcoming sixth studio album, creating his Beats Music streaming service, the on-demand subscription based platform that he’s creatively steering to revolutionise the streaming market, and of course the recent release of How To Destroy Angels’ debut LP, Welcome Oblivion. Anyone else suddenly need a nap?
You can stream the brand new How To Destroy Angels album in full via Soundcloud below:
