Former Nine Inch Nails keyboardist Alessandro Cortini released an eponymous debut LP from his new project SONOIO this morning, as well as one particularly unusual item in an optional bundle: SuONOIO, a portable synthesizer with which you can manipulate the sounds, rhythms, textures and drones from the album. Pretty rad idea, right? I think so.

Meanwhile, if the $160 price for the LP, exclusive EP, and synth bundle isn’t your cup of tea, Cortini is offering a host of other, much more affordable, options that include a signed print and various items. Most importantly, however, you can stream and/or download the first 4 songs off SONOIO completely free of charge. Check it out here or below:

You may want to set aside those How To Destroy Angels remixes for a moment because (per our buddy Jarrett) a new song from Trent Reznor’s other project, um… Nine Inch Nails, just hit the Internets. As Some Kind of Awesome reports, Reznor contributed the track to director Shinya Tsukamoto’s Japanese language film “Tetsuo: The Bullet Man” to be played over the closing credits. Despite the fact that the film was completed and showcased at film festivals last year (making Reznor’s February ‘10 contribution likely ineligible for Oscar contention), the epic instrumental composition is currently being dubbed as a theme song for the film.

Stream “Theme For Tetsuo: The Bullet Man” here or below, and watch the trailer for the revenge action flick as well:

Though Two Gallants singer/guitarist Adam Stephens is taking a break from the San Francisco group for an upcoming solo record, to use the word “solo” might be a tad misleading: Adams has enlisted a host of well-known friends for the to-be-announced LP, making it more of a full band effort, perhaps, than the Americana-meets-emo duo that brought him into the limelight.

In a blog update posted in January, Stephens revealed his solo debut’s all-star guest lineup, which includes former Nine Inch Nails touring bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen, My Morning Jacket’s Bo Koster and Patrick Hallahan, ex-Whiskeytown member Mike Daly, Atoms For Peace/Beck/Elliott Smith drummer Joey Waronker, Vetiver’s Andy Cabic, Decemberists collaborator Petra Haden, Blood Brothers’ Cody Votolato, Jen Grady, and Blake Mills, among others.

Stephens promises that more details about the forthcoming Joe Chicarelli-produced album are on the way, but in the meantime, two demos and a collection of live videos are available on his MySpace page for a taste of what’s to come. Haven’t listened to Two Gallants in quite some time, but I, for one, can’t wait to hear what this epic list of collaborators have cooked up.

Back in 2005, Rykodisc re-released Nine Inch Nails’ debut album, Pretty Hate Machine, which had been effectively out of print for 8 years while in the hands of TVT, the first record label to sign Trent Reznor. Now the record is still unavailable via legal digital outlets (it may even be out of print again), but all that is about to change…

Billboard.biz reports that L.A. publishing firm Bicycle Music has acquired 700 masters (about 80 albums) from the Prudential Securities Credit Corp, which had previously bought the collection from TVT. Included in the deal are the Pretty Hate Machine master tapes, as well as “co-publishing rights to Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails catalog includ[ing] the songs from… Pretty Hate Machine.” What’s more, Bicycle Music VP of business development and acquisitions Steve Salm told Billboard that the company are now plotting another re-release of NIN’s first record.

Sure, we’ve made our fair share of Grammy mentions around here (only in the name of O!), but as the award show’s broadcast hour grows nigh, the irrelevance of this thing is coming painfully into focus. Perhaps the best way to enjoy this corporate theater, though, is to give a bit of love to those who hate on it. Enter: Trent Reznor (honorable mentions: Thom Yorke and [possibly] Wilco).

Certainly not every tweet from the NIN mastermind is news, but even we have to admit that tonight’s return to microblogging deserves a headline: “Grammy asshole weekend in LA,” Reznor wrote. “Yuck.” Hmm… care to go on?

The Grammys = the old guard / old media propping up their puppets trying to convince the outside world (and each other) they’re relevant.

Before hearing Nine Inch Nails, I had no idea who Skinny Puppy, Depeche Mode, Bauhaus, or The Cure (save for “the hits”) even were. It isn’t that I was close-minded or anything; it’s just a generational thing perhaps. Fact is, I was relatively young upon first hearing “Closer” on MTV’s (was it called “Buzzworthy”?) commercial clips. I’ve since grown up, of course, become a huge fan of said bands and learned that these people were/are not only brilliant (or more brilliant as the case may be) in their own right, but they were/are also massively obvious influences on NIN mastermind Trent Reznor. Okay, that’s a convoluted overshare of an intro to a very simple story…

LA Weekly’s West Coast Sound blog reports that The Posters Came from the Walls, a forthcoming (and apparently great) documentary about über Depeche Mode fans features footage of people hailing from “Bucharest to Berlin to Tehran,” not to mention Muscovites celebrating [frontman] Dave [Gahan] Day on Russia’s national military day. All docs could use a little star power, though, and NIN frontman/”Depeche-ist”/fanman Trent Reznor answered the call.

Reznor provided a “sizeable interview,” saying “a lot about California and Depeche Mode,” according to co-director Nick Abrahams, whereas co-director Jeremy Deller simply added that he has “some compromising pics of [Reznor] so he had to agree.” More compromising than this or this? I kid, I kid.

For more info on The Posters Came from the Walls, go here and here.

Despite Johnny Cash’s version of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” being considered among most to be in the canon of music history’s greatest cover songs, I must confess that I’ve never been too crazy about it. It’s a brilliant performance, for sure, not to mention Mark Romanek’s epic music video, but I’ve always felt that other Cash covers, like “Personal Jesus” or “I See a Darkness”, were more suited to producer Rick Rubin’s sonic aesthetic.

To be clear, I’m not going to say that this cover by the Dresden Dolls’ Amanda Palmer from New Years Eve is better—or even on par—with Cash’s, but there is something about the Boston Pops Orchestra’s arrangement that gets under my skin in the same that Trent Reznor’s original so perfectly punctuates The Downward Spiral.

Watch it here or below:

When Nine Inch Nails auctioned off spare Banjitars and other equipment on eBay recently, many thought the move signaled that the band had not only retired from touring, but were planning a hiatus from releasing new material as well. Not to mention, Trent Reznor has been oddly absent from the Internet of late—save for a few random tweets. We now know, however, that NIN aren’t going to let Radiohead, Arcade Fire, and a slew of other rockers completely pwn 2010 alone.

“Sorry I haven’t been around much lately, I’ve been working on not working for a couple of months, which for me is hard work,” Reznor posted on NIN.com just before Christmas. “2010 has a number of things planned including new material from nine inch nails and something else that isn’t nine inch nails.”

Four electric guitars, four acoustics, two basses, and one banjitar (?) used on various tours and in recording studio sessions by Nine Inch Nails have been posted on eBay by Trent Reznor and company. No specific reason for the auction has been given (is Trent clearing out a spare room in his house for a nursery?) aside from a statement that they are “no longer in need” of the items. Yeah, I suppose the novelty of a mutant banjo/electric guitar wears off eventually.

Reznor does have a habit of smashing keyboards, so there are no Nord Leads or Minimoog’s up for auction just yet, but this first batch of eleven steel-stringed axes is only the beginning of the NIN yard sale: “We will be listing hundreds of items over the next several weeks,” a statement reads on the official site and within the eBay description. “Guitars, keyboards, amplifiers, drums, staging, anvil cases, cables, rack/outboard gear, guitar effects, [and] pedal boards,” are on the way.

I understand the impulse for a diehard fan to own an item used when magic was made on stage or in the studio (I own a couple effects units of the late Elliott Smith), but if you’re not a NIN fanatic, you may as well grab a banjitar at the retail price.

As previously reported, NIN’s Trent Reznor, Rage’s Tom Morello, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, the Roots, Rise Against, Billy Bragg, Jackson Browne, and other famous musicians have joined the National Campaign to Close Guantanamo and released a string of statements condemning the use of music for torture at Gitmo. Well, it looks like the debate is heating up a bit:

Debra Burlingame, director of Keep America Safe, a political organization co-founded by Liz Cheney that focuses “on issues like troop levels, missile defense, detainees, and interrogation,” called Reznor and company’s political stand “pathetic,” telling the Washington Times:

It’s almost laughable to think that heavy metal bands like Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine have a moral authority on national security issues.

They’re worried about torture of hard-core terrorists? This is really something I would expect to read in the Onion.