A fan appears to have made a joke Nine Inch Nails record to make good on the band’s April Fool’s promise from 2009.
Twitter user @seed_nine is seemingly the brains behind ‘Strobe Light’, the collaborative record that Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor announced a decade ago. At the time, a rapidly flashing GIF image was featured at the top of the band’s website with a strobe effect to match the album name.
But the long-running April Fool’s day joke looks to have reached its end – to some extent – with a 14-track album shared on Bandcamp. Songs on the record feature vocal samples of Jay-Z, Bono, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Justin Timberlake, Shania Twain, and more.
http://seed9.bandcamp.com/album/strobe-light
Music journalist Annie Zeleski responded to the news on Twitter today (April 1), writing: “I appreciate gambits with long games. Which is why it’s delightful to me that, a full decade after Nine Inch Nails touted an April Fool’s Day gag album called “Strobe Light,” the LP apparently exists.”
I appreciate gambits with long games. Which is why it's delightful to me that, a full decade after Nine Inch Nails touted an April Fool's Day gag album called "Strobe Light," the LP apparently exists. 1/ https://t.co/osiPVMVrBm
— Annie Zaleski (@anniezaleski) April 1, 2019
Of course, we could be doubly-bluffed; Reznor and co. could have in fact written and uploaded the album.
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In other Nine Inch Nails news, Reznor delivered a heartfelt tribute to The Cure at their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction over the weekend (March 30).
He spoke about how the music of The Cure gave him a sense of belonging at a time when he felt none. He also went on to praise the band’s creativity.
“Immediately this band struck a chord. The first album I heard was ‘The Head on the Door.’ I hadn’t heard anything like it before. I felt a lot of the darkness that I felt in my head coming back at me through the speakers, and it blew my mind,” he said.
“It was like this music was written just for me. I struggled my whole life feeling that I don’t fit in or belong anywhere — kind of like right now. Hearing this, suddenly I felt connected, no longer quite so alone.”
Nine Inch Nails’ management have been contacted for comment by NME.