NIN has posted a couple of videos, of EchoPlex and 1,000,000, recorded live at rehearsals in Los Angeles.

Great performances and the videos let you see what each of the musicians is doing throughout the songs. 

The videos are taken from a series of performances directed by Rob Sheridan, available on The Slip Limited Edition CD/DVD.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Creative Commons licenses are designed to protect your rights to your music, while allowing people copy and share it. 

Creative Commons’ Eric Steuer notes:

This year, NIN released both Ghosts I-IV and a second album, The Slip, under a CC BY-NC-SA license. Both albums were downloaded for free and shared legally millions of times by fans under the terms of this license. At the same time, NIN found great financial success in selling cool, well-crafted, limited edition physical editions of both sets. Back in March, Wiredsaid the band made $1.6 million on Ghosts I-IV in its first week of release alone.

Additionally, Radiohead’s song “House of Cards” is up for several Grammys, including Best Short Form Music Video. The video’s animation data was released under a CC BY-NC-SA license earlier this year (see previous post).

Congratulations to Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead for the nominations. Also, congratulations to all of the other artists whose work was nominated for Grammys this year, including Brian Eno, Diplo, Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo (AKA Gnarls Barkley), My Morning Jacket, Gilberto Gil, Peter Gabriel, Thievery Corporation, and Cornelius – all of whom have used Creative Commons licenses and/or have supported CC over the years.

Musicians like NIN are using Creative Commons licensing, and giving away their music, to actually gain more control of their careers.

It remains to be seen whether unknown artists will be able to create new careers at the scale of groups like Nine Inch Nails, though.

The Slip will be available in an individually numbered 2 disc, 6 panel digipak & double gatefold vinyl in the US, Canada, and parts of Japan.

The digi will be LIMITED to 200,000 pieces only, each individually numbered, and will include a DVD of NIN performing live tracks from The Slip at rehearsals, a 24-page booklet, and an exclusive sticker pack.

For UK, Europe, Australia, and other territories, the release will not be limited or numbered, but will otherwise be identical.

The gatefold vinyl release contains 1 LP (180 gram vinyl) and a 24-page booklet (vinyl is not limited or numbered anywhere).

CD Street Date (US & Canada): July 22, 2008
CD Street Date (UK & Europe): July 21, 2008
Vinyl Street Date (US & Canada): August 5, 2008
Vinyl Street Date (UK & Europe): August 4, 2008
Japan and Australia release info is TBA

The Slip will remain free for download indefinitely from theslip.nin.com.

There’s a 2008 Nine Inch Nails Tour coming up this fall, and it’s clear that NIN’s using the The Slip as a promo to build interest in its upcoming tour.

“Thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years – this one’s on me,” says Trent Reznor, and a fine thank you it is. While Ghosts I-IV (see our review) was an interesting (and successful) experiment, The Slip is a full-bore Nine Inch Nails album.

The album is a mix of environmental/ambient tracks & rockers, with a piano ballad thrown in for good measure.

The Slip gets off to a slow start with 999,999, an ambient track that sounds a bit Eraserhead industrial noise, and wouldn’t have been out of place on the Ghosts I-IV release. It quickly morphs into 1,000,000, a straight-ahead NIN rocker. It’s as blistering as anything NIN has done.

NIN keeps things moving with Letting You, and the more dance oriented Discipline. Discipline has sort of a post-disco feel, and ends with the sort of combined verse + chorus that Paul McCartney honed to a science with his 70’s Wings releases. Except this one is about needing Discipline.

Echoplex didn’t do much for me – we’ve heard all the sounds and themes before from NIN. Maybe a remix could help this one.

Head Down moves things back into hardcore NIN territory. It sounds like Reznor is running the drums through one of Metasonix’ bizarro tube distortion units. Wailing guitars, shouted choruses and alternating loud/soft sections turn this into a likely concert anthem.

Lights in the Sky is the piano ballad I mentioned earlier. It’s an attractive track, despite the crappy out of tune piano and despite the fact that Reznor has a relatively weak voice. The track works because it’s intimate and raw – you feel like you’re sitting next to Reznor as he sings it.

Lights in the Sky blends into Corona Radiata – which is one of the highlights of the album. It’s a simple ambient drone piece, but it’s really gorgeous. The first half of it wouldn’t have been out of place on Brian Eno’s Ambient 4: On Land. The second half gets a slow, distorted beat that feels like an irresistible force.

The Four of Us are Dying is another gorgeous track – but this time it’s gorgeous industrial noise. The track has a drum machine line that kicks it off and that runs through it, over which mellow, but powerful guitar and synth lines are woven.

The album finishes off with Demon Seed, a tight, clean rocker. It builds to a massive climax, dies away to almost nothing, and then comes back for another minute of rocking out. It’s a satisfying end to the album.

Overall, NIN’s new release The Slip is an excellent release. It delivers all the things you expect from NIN, it builds on their last release, Ghosts I-IV, and it even has some a couple of tracks that are likely to burn up some air time.

In addition to being a great free release, The Slip is released with a Creative Commons license – which means you can share the album with your friends, put it in your podcast or remix it. And, since you’re my friend, I’ve got one of the highlights of release, 1,000,000, available for you to download below.

You can download The Slip via the NIN site. Email registration is required. The album is available in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE. All downloads include a PDF with artwork and credits.