yeah yeah yeahs / nine inch nails

This new Yeah Yeah Yeahs single “Zero” really, really sounds like “The Hand That Feeds” by Nine Inch Nails if you ask me. That der-der-de-der–de bassline rhythm has been turned into a guitar motif, and with a slightly different melody, but it’s basically the same; it also shares the black-mirrorball production, and the stomping drum machines too. And it’s a good choice of song to make a monster first single out of.

Until I heard “The Hand That Feeds” I thought that NIN were just something that goths listened to when they wanted to do that leg-humping dirty rap dance, but this song changed all that - I think it’s properly great, and very underrated. Too artificial for rock clubs, too uncool for hipsters, only fit demographically for manga-obsessives to put on their iPod while they duck out for sustenance in the middle of the night. But I love its robo-glam pomposity for some reason.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Zero

Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds