MUSIC FROM SPACE: Nine Inch Nails - THE PERFECT DRUG

Saturday, April 18, 2009


Frankly, 1997's The Perfect Drug isn't one of Nine Inch Nails' best songs. And the video itself almost plays like a big-budget parody of '90s goth cliches, with Trent Reznor swooning around in a fancy shirt, sipping absinthe beside his crackling gramophone while vultures and pasty-faced zombie children lurk in the shadows. (Reznor himself has declared it his least favorite NIN track, and dismissed the video as "overblown.") Originally composed for the soundtrack of David Lynch's Lost Highway, the song didn't make a big splash in the '90s and was nearly forgotten until it turned up as a fiendishly difficult track in the game Rock Band.


But if you're a fan of the work of Edward Gorey, this video is an absolute must-see. It's packed with references to Gorey, capturing much of his style if none of his humor. The first clue that things are getting interesting comes around the 15-second mark, when we see one of Gorey's trademark urns with a pair of feet sticking out from under it. Then, around 27 seconds in, two eerie ladies with veils show up and you know you've entered Mr. Blutig's Evil Garden.



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About This Blog

"Science fiction plucks from within us our deepest fears and hopes, then shows them to us in rough disguise: the monster and the rocket." - W.H. Auden

Who is he, this one who is called "Greg Stacy"?

Greg Stacy began the MONSTERS AND ROCKETS blog in April of 2009. Prior to that, he was editor of the popular sci-fi/horror news website DARKWOLDS.COM. He has also written for LA WEEKLY, OC WEEKLY, UTNE READER and LOS ANGELES CITYBEAT. He always feels weird writing about himself in the third person.

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