The Best Record of 1989: Day 25
#5 Nine Inch Nails, Pretty Hate Machine vs. #124 Dog Faced Hermans, Everyday Timebomb
Good morning!
Today we’re taking a look at records from Nine Inch Nails and Dog Faced Hermans.
Note: As many of you know, I recently wrote about a Best Record of 1989 challenge and noted that I'd be occasionally writing some of these up.
I've started doing some quick hits of each matchup and posting them directly to the page. Some will be longer, some won’t, and some might just be a handful of sentences. There'll probably definitely be some typos.
Check 'em out and let me know your thoughts! Chin wags & hot takes welcome! Sharing and restacks are always appreciated.
In case you missed this week’s earlier matches, check out:
Day 21: #13 Janet Jackson, Rhythm Nation 1814 vs. #116 King's X, Gretchen Goes to Nebraska
Day 22: #52 Laurie Anderson, Strange Angels vs. #77 Wire, It’s Beginning to and Back Again
Day 23: #20 Julee Cruise, Floating Into the Night vs. #109 Eleventh Dream Day, Beet
Day 24: #45 The Beautiful South, Welcome to the Beautiful South vs. #84 Keith Jarrett, Changeless
KA—
My junior high school was a hothouse. It had low ceilings and few windows (this was intentional- it was intended as a security measure). The few that did exist were of the reinforced variety.
It didn’t feel safe, it felt like we were in County. And it was overcrowded. So crowded in fact, that they had to add 2 extra minutes of passing time between periods because of the human gridlock.
My friends and I used that time in traffic to swap mixtapes, talk about bands, and whatever else 14-year-olds do.
And so it was in A-hall that I had a copy of this record pressed into my hands. I waited until the bus ride home to put it in my Walkman (related: I’m old).
It didn’t take long for Pretty Hate Machine to rearrange my mind.
“Sin” is far and away my favorite track on the record. The beat is relentless and never lets you catch your breath. It’s desperate and danceable all at once. “Head Like a Hole” has some of the most visceral lyrics on an album full of them. When Reznor screams, “I’d rather die than give you control,” you feel it. Slower tracks like “Something I Can Never Have” are solid, even if they sound like how driving on a surface street feels right after getting off the freeway.
Nine Inch Nails’ sound is dominated by clanging synths and sardonic, shrieking vocals. But Reznor stretches that industrial-strength noise over a pop framework, and his harrowing but catchy music has taken the college charts by storm.
In 1989, the music world was as crowded space as those halls. Even in the alternative and/or industrial genres, it was hard to stand out. But this record did and does. It took the college charts by storm, and my group of friends were along for the ride.
Note: Pretty Hate Machine made my list of Top 100 albums, coming in at #26. This first appeared as part of that project.
Years ago, I was reading a review in (I think) Flipside in which the reviewer mentioned being so annoyed by the record's intentionally stupid title that they almost didn't bother listening to it. If memory serves, it still got a pretty poor rating, but that always stuck with me.
Sometimes, you can judge a book by its cover.
Fast-forward to today, and I was 90% sure I was going to do the same with Dog-Faced Hermans. I mean, really? But I rationalized it by seeing that they're from Amsterdam by way of Scotland and thought maybe, just maybe, it's some slang term that presents much better overseas.
Yesterday, I cited a review using the term "ostinato feel" and shared that my new life goal was to shoehorn that term into as many reviews as possible. I was only half-joking, but it only took a day.
Everyday Timebomb is a blitzkrieg of jazz punk, angular guitars, noise, and repetition—so, so much repetition. There are some African elements here, and I'll give them points both for their social stances and the use of oddball instruments, but man, does this get old fast. Save yourself some time and just skip to "frock." It goes long on jazzy grooves and (relatively) short on squonks and dissonant noise.
There are seven tracks here, and once you're about a minute into the first, you're good. There is much ostinato. The novelty comes in hot but burns out quickly—another case of being able to judge a record by the cover. No thanks.
Bottom Line: Thank you Trent Reznor for putting out a record that rearranged my mind. Thank you Dog Faced Hermans for reminding me that I have a low tolerance for “Jazz punk.”
My vote: Pretty Hate Machine all day.
Any thoughts on either of these records? Agree/disagree with my takes? Which one of these would you vote for? Sound off in the comments!
Check out the full bracket here.
Info on the tourney, voting, and more is here.
As always, thanks for being here.
KA—
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I've gotta go with NIN.
Many, many years ago when I was a mere 16 years old my friends and I made the two hour drive down to Wilmington, NC to The Mad Monk to see NIN. "The Monk" held all of 300 people and they got the best acts. NIN, Fishbone, Suicidal Tendencies. The list goes on and on.
When we arrived there was a long line across the gravel parking lot of folks waiting to buy tickets at the ticket window (this was when you still bought a real ticket from a real person at a real window at the real venue the day of the show). The tour buses were parked on the opposite side of a tall chain link fence that separated us patrons in the parking lot from the bus/backstage area. As we were waiting in line a guy came up to my friends and I on the other side of the fence with a $20 in his hand trying to hand it to us through the fence. He asked if any of us would be cool enough to run across the busy road to buy a pack of Marlboro cigarettes from the gas station. None of us wanted to get out of line and we knew the show was going to sell out but he said he would guarantee we would get in. I took the bait, grabbed the $20 and ran across the four lane road to the gas station.
Upon my return there were about 5 people standing around the parking lot and a sign in the ticket window that said, "Sold Out". My friends made it in and the guy that approached us was nowhere to be found. I was standing around debating if I should try and climb the fence and risk being thrown out and banned forever, or just hang out for the next two and half hours in the parking lot. The next thing I know the door swings open and the guy that sent me on "Operation Cancer Stick" is yelling at me, "Get your ass in here! You're holding up the show!" I follow and he leads me through the club and out the back door where I find myself on the other side of the fence at the door of one of the tour buses. I step on the bus to find Trent Reznor waiting for that pack of smokes. I handed them over and we exchanged a few words and I said something along the lines of, "I'm a dummer" before I was quickly whisked off the bus and back into the club.
I don't know if Trent smoked those Marlboros that I risked life and limb crossing that busy road to fetch for him. Maybe they were for another band mate, who knows? What I do know is NIN put on one hell of a show for 300 people that night and it helped solidify my decision to make music my life and to stay with it behind that drum set waiting for me back at home two hours away.
Years later I found myself playing a festival date where NIN was headlining later that night. After my soundcheck was over I was heading to change and grab a quick bite to eat when I noticed Trent Reznor lifting weights and working out by the buses. I'm a long time work out guy so I made a little small talk for a few seconds as I walked by, but I didn't have time to relay that story to Trent. However, thanks in part to that encounter at that early NIN show in a small bar in southeastern NC, I was now living out my dream every night. Cheers to NIN!
Let's see: R&R Hall of Famers emblematic album against Dog Faced Hermans, who I wonder if even @Gary Trujillo knows. I know I don't. No. 5 against No. 124. What are the odds? Are there in-game parlays?