As previously reported, the music video for Nine Inch Nails first new single in half a decade, ‘Came Back Haunted’ was directed by American filmmaker David Lynch, news that first dropped courtesy of Trent Reznor himself when he posted an image of himself hanging out with the Twin Peaks and Mulholland Drive director on his Twitter.
Now the pair’s collaboration has surfaced with the David Lynch-directed video for ‘Came Back Haunted’ appearing online and the results are suitably Lynchian. The video is prefixed by a health warning that reads: “This video has been identified to potentially trigger seizures for people with photosensitive epilepsy. Viewer discretion is advised.”
Flashing lights and lightning quick edits follow with black and white images of a spider superimposed over a girl, blinking red and white squares, and shaky handy-cam footage of Reznor performing cut in-between. It’s creepy and artful – the perfect visual accompaniment to Nine Inch Nails’ first new material since 2008’s The Slip.
Its not the first time that Lynch and Reznor have worked together, the Nine Inch Nails worked on the director’s Lost Highway soundtrack back in 1997, recording original music for the score (that predated his Oscar winning work with Atticus Ross for director David Fincher) as well as featuring contributions from Marilyn Manson, Smashing Pumpkins, David Bowie, Lou Reed, and Rammstein.
The ‘Came Back Haunted’ video also follows new of David Lynch’s latest musical project, namely The Big Dream, his second album of music to follow on from his 2011 record Crazy Clown Time. The new album sees the arthouse mainstay returning to primary songwriting and performance duties, writing 11 out of the album’s 12 tracks.
Recorded over several months at Lynch’s own Asymmetrical Studio with engineer Dean Hurley, who aslo contributes production and instrumentation to the album, The Big Dream features a cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘The Ballad of Hollis Brown’ as well as collaboration with Swedish singer Lykke Li. Self-described by Lynch as “modern blues,” the album is out July 19th. It’s creepy and artful – the perfect visual accompaniment to Nine Inch Nails’ first new material since 2008’s The Slip.
‘Came Back Haunted’ sent Nine Inch Nails fans into overdrive early last month when a Seattle radio station leaked the brand new single. In the space of an hour the new track had gone from crappy radio rip to official high-fidelity stream online, with Reznor himself tweeting: “Not exactly how we planned it, but…”
The single is taken from Hestiation Marks, the Nine Inch Nails record that Trent Reznor had been secretly working on and the band’s first with Columbia Records, out on the 3rd of September this year as the 28th entry in Reznor’s ‘halo’ cataloguing system.
At the same time, Nine Inch Nails have been busy preparing their live music return, starting with an appearance at Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival at the end of the month and the recently announced Tension 2013 tour dates seeing a fresh lineup playing across America from September until the end of the year.
The ‘newly invigorated’ lineup however won’t be including King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew, despite Reznor’s naming the musician as a key part in the return of Nine Inch Nails after a half-decade long absence. Belew broke the news on his Facebook, writing “concerning me being part of the 2013 Nine Inch Nails band: it didn’t work.”
News that came just days that bassist Eric Avery had quit the band, replaced by former NIN associate Robin Finck, joining Alessandro Cortini, Josh Eustis, Ilan Rubin, and of course, Reznor, who has been helping fans get back in the mood ahead of their impending return by drip-feeding old material from the NIN archives on the band’s website and Tumblr page. A veritable treasure trove of rare photos, images, artwork, and videos as well as a rarely seen 75-minute tour documentary about the group’s Self Destruct Tour, which began in 1994 and ran until mid-1996 across eight massive legs to promote the landmark NIN opus, The Downward Spiral, and features cameos from Marilyn Manson and David Bowie.
View the Hesitation Marks artwork and new 2013 Tour dates below and listen to ‘Came Back Haunted’. You can get a free download of the track when you pre-order Hesitation Marks from the official Nine Inch Nails store or from iTunes.
Nine Inch Nails 2013 Tour Dates
July 26th – Niigata Prefecture, JP @ Fuji Rock Festival
July 28th – Ansan, KR @ Ansan Valley Festival
August 2nd-4th – Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza Festival
August 9th – 11th – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands Festival
August 15th – Kiewit, BE @ Pukkelpop
August 16th – Biddinghuizen, Holland @ Lowlands Festival
August 18th – Hockenheim, DE @ Rock ‘n’ Heim
August 23rd – Leeds, UK @ Leeds Festival
August 24th – Paris, France @ Rock en Seine Festival
August 25th – Reading, UK @ Reading Festival
August 28th – Milan, Italy @ Mediolanum Forum (w/ Tomahawk)
August 31st – Philadelphia, PA @ Made In America Festival
October 25th – 27th – Ashville, NC @ Mountain Oasis Electronic Music Summit
November 1st – 3rd – New Orleans, LA @ Voodoo Festival
Tension 2013 Tour Dates
* with Explosions in the Sky
# with Godspeed You! Black Emperor
09-28 St. Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center *
09-30 Kansas City, MO – Sprint Center *
10-01 St. Louis, MO – Chaifetz Arena *
10-03 Montreal, Quebec – Centre Bell *
10-04 Toronto, Ontario – Air Canada Centre *
10-05 Cleveland, OH – Wolstein Center *
10-07 Auburn Hill, MI – The Palace of Auburn Hills *
10-08 Pittsburgh, PA – Petersen Events Center *
10-11 Boston, MA – TD Garden #
10-14 Brooklyn, NY – Barclays Center #
10-15 Newark, NJ – Prudential Center #
10-18 Washington, DC – Verizon Center #
10-19 University Park, PA – Bryce Jordan Center #
10-21 Raleigh, NC – PNC Arena #
10-22 Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena #
10-24 Atlanta, GA – Philips Arena #
10-25-27 Asheville, NC – Mountain Oasis Electronic Music Summit
10-30 Sunrise, FL – BB&T Center
10-31 Orlando, FL – Amway Center
11-01-03 New Orleans, LA – Voodoo Music Experience
11-05 San Antonio, TX – AT&T Center *
11-08 Los Angeles, CA – Staples Center *
11-09 Phoenix, AZ – US Airways Center *
11-11 El Paso, TX – Don Haskins Center *
11-13 Broomfield, CO – 1st Bank Center *
11-15 Las Vegas, NV – The Joint *
11-16 Las Vegas, NV – The Joint *
11-18 Portland, OR – Rose Garden Arena *
11-19 Spokane, WA – Spokane Arena *
11-21 Vancouver, British Columbia – Rogers Arena *
11-22 Seattle, WA – KeyArena *
11-24 Edmonton, Alberta – Rexall Place
11-25 Calgary, Alberta – Scotiabank Saddledome
