What do you even call this? Dubstep? Garage?? House? Techno??? I think one of the best things about this track is that it defies classification, all while rolling along with its frenetic, snappy, broken-beat-esque rhythm, chopped diva vocals and old skool detroit synth lines...If "Future Garage" should have a template, this song should be it.

Trent and his new bosom production buddy Atticus Ross are at it again. (At this point I'm just calling the two of them Nine Inch Nails 2.0 and being done with it)

That said, NIN v2.0's latest outing is the soundtrack for the Film adaptation of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". The soundtrack is being headed up by a VERY cool single, featuring the vocal talents of Karen O. from The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The song is of course a cover of the Led Zeppelin classic, "Immigrant Song"...and what a cover it is...I dunno what I love about it more, NIN's signature dark, driving, percussive basslines and rhythms, Karen O. and her ethereal, almost orgasmic-sounding vocals, or the fact that it all. just. works...and PERFECTLY I might add.

Check the video below, marvel at the jaw-dropping awesomeness of both the song, and David Fincher's pseudo-Giger visuals, and the fact that you just KNOW, based on this video alone, that this movie is going to kick ass six ways from Sunday.

Swing House? Electro-Swing? Baroque House?? Antique Beat??? Not sure what you'd call this...but I call it a pimp-ass jam.

So metal purists hate Korn...Dubstep purists hate Skrillex...what are a bunch of maligned misfit musicians to do?? Well how about put an album together that has all the haters eating big ass bittersweet slices of humble pie?

Such is the case with Korn's new album, The Path of Totality. It's been a while since we heard from Jon Davis and Co. they've gone through some lineup changes...and it would seem they've taken a liking to dubstep. I mentioned Skrillex before, and yes, he's on here, but so are 12th Planet, Excision, Downlink, Noisia, and pretty much everyone who's ever put a modulated bassline to a half-step beat.

Conceptually, you may think this album is merely a contrivance on Korn's part in some desperate attempt to revive their careers...and maybe it is...but by FUCK does it ever work!

The end result is an album that is equal parts Korn's unique brand of bass-driven nu-metal, and squelchy, belching distorted basslines along with that signature half-step dubstep rhythm from Skrillex and friends; and if I had to give this distinctly new sound a name (and since suffixing everything dubstep-related with "-step" seems to be popular), I would call it Gigerstep. Because that's EXACTLY what I envision every time I hear this album...some gargantuan Giger-esque biomechanical horror slithering through an urban wasteland, spewing corrosive quicksilver-y bile and destroying everything in its path.

...Yeah, it's like that. Totally like that.

Now I would issue a caveat about this album not being for everyone...but in all honesty, I'm no big fan of Korn and never really have been. Sure, when I was a kid I had a copy of "Follow The Leader", what teenager back then didn't?? And yet, I find myself immediately drawn to this sound. The energy on this record runs rampant, it's an angry sonofabitch of an album...the kind of album Trent Reznor might have made if he were still as pissed off as he was 20 years ago. At the end of the day though, if you like Skrillex and his brand of dubstep, and if you like Korn, your jaw will probably drop the second you hear the very first low end bass growl in the opening track. 

So haters be damned, as far as this music nerd is concerned, Korn and a bunch of nu-skool dance music kiddies just served you up as a snack to the aforementioned Giger monster. This album kills it and you bloody well know it.

 PS: as a little added bonus, here's the video for the album's first single (featuring Skrillex)

So like a lot of kids who grew up in the late 80s to early 90s, I was big into the burgeoning Grunge and Alt. Rock scene. Especially The Pixies, and recently, The AV Club did a series where they invited a bunch of indie bands to do covers of a bunch of old songs. In the following case, Surfer Blood covers "Gigantic" by The Pixies.

Surfer Blood covers The Pixies 

Now while this cover is pretty cool, and the lead singer is ALMOST as cute and crush-worthy as Kim Deal was for me back when I was 13-14, it just doesn't live up to the original.