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.

Let’s face it: Trent Reznor “retired” the live incarnation of Nine Inch Nails because he’s getting (already is?) married, 44 years old, and having a kid. Sorry to burst the artistic hype bubble there, but that’s probably the way it is and Godspeed Mr. Self Destruct, I say. Besides, there’s plenty on the horizon, including video games, “another Ghosts record,” and a Gary Numan collaboration at least. As for that last project, Gary Numan joined Reznor & company for the London stop of their “Wave Goodbye” tour this summer and not only were reviews of the collaboration brilliant, but we now (thanks to the T. Rez) have unfuckingbelievable HD footage to prove it.

“Ahh… finally catching my breath after it all,” Reznor wrote just before this past weekend. “Thank you once again for the last wave of shows and your interest and support over the years. We’re beginning work on a variety of things NIN and not-NIN related that we’ll inform you of when the time is right. Check back from time to time and who knows what you’ll find.”

He then posted the following two videos, available here or embedded below, and I know it’s a total cliché, but it’s like you’re really on stage with the band:

There’s just something about that pesky Radiohead pay-what-you-want scheme that gets under Trent Reznor’s skin. I think it’s the fact that he basically tried it with Saul Williams’ The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!, and it failed to work for a lesser-known artist. Either way, he dissed the Radiohead model once, then posted a rant about it on his site, and now it’s come up in yet another interview.

“At the end of the day, when you saw what [Radiohead] did in terms of them signing with a record label and selling a record, it felt like a step backward, and it felt like it was just more of a stunt than any kind of real formula for people to survive in the same era,” Reznor told the A.V. Club.

“The thing that I learned from Radiohead is, I don’t want to ask you what you think it’s worth. ‘Hey, I just worked a year on this thing.’ ‘Well, that’s worth 10 cents.’ ‘Hey, fuck you!’”

As we all know by now, Trent Reznor “waved goodbye” to the live incarnation of Nine Inch Nails last week, putting the moniker on an indefinite concert hiatus after an epic final run of shows. In a last interview, just moments before taking the stage at LA’s Wiltern Theater for the final NIN gig, Reznor spoke to Pink is the New Blog’s Trent Vanegas about his favorite memories from touring and teased a few upcoming projects.

Reznor’s self-released string of EPs Ghosts I-IV was a huge success a few years back, earning him Radiohead comparisons for its free component and lots of cash from its tiered pricing scheme. So it’s no surprise that he’ll be giving that type of project another go. “I am sure there’ll be another Ghosts record before too long,” Reznor said, adding cryptically, “I’m working on some other things with some other people that may become a new band.” Many of our commenters seem to think Reznor’s “new band” may include fiancée Mariqueen Maandig, who left her band West Indian Girl last month.

Also, Reznor took a funny stab at the ‘07 Reading Fest lineup, in which NIN openers Fall Out Boy, The Used, Lostprophets, Funeral for a Friend, and Billy Talent didn’t provide his idea of a good festival appearance. “If we’re playing Reading Festival in the UK,” Reznor recalled, “and we’re after 8 pop punk bands that I hate, the audience is all a bunch of people I don’t like, [who] probably don’t like me, we’ll gear the set to either antagonize or win them over.”

I guess Trent wasn’t kidding when he told NME just before that show, “I doubt you will see me on the side of the stage for Fall Out Boy.”

Well, I had a feeling that Nine Inch Nails’ recently loose-lipped front man Trent Reznor wouldn’t just quit Twitter without a public explanation and sure enough, we’ve got one. Reznor checked in recently with fans at his favorite rant destination: the official NIN.com forum.

“Around the time news broke of my engagement, a faction of troublemakers showed up whose sole intent was to disrupt, harass, insult and incite,” Reznor wrote of his falling out of love with Twitter’s novel way of keeping in touch with the NIN fan base. He goes on to say that blocking Twitter @haters doesn’t really do the trick, as it still leaves them a forum for contaminating the benevolent portion of NIN followers. What’s more, his inquiries on the matter to the Twitter staff were only met with rebuffs, such as “yeah, um, we’re thinking about doing something about that - people are complaining.”

The straw that broke the Prince of Darkness’ back, however, was when one person, that Reznor calls “a lonely, obsessed, delusional, bitter ‘fan’ who recently posted how the celebrity she’d most like to date is ME,” tweeted insensitive comments at the sister of Eric De La Cruz, a man who recently passed away after Reznor raised almost one million dollars in the hopes of saving his life.

“It depresses me to think my art and life’s work can attract this kind of scum,” Reznor said, adding later, “If that was your intention you trolling, cowardly pigs - you’ve succeeded.” [Insert “March of the Pigs” joke here]

Love him or hate him, Reznor’s an interesting guy and it is depressing that some anonymous person took advantage of his recent good will. Going forward, I hope Twitter can attract more @TrentReznors and less of these kind of folks, but I wouldn’t put money on it.

Out of all the bands covering Gary Numan of late (Dead Weather’s cut of “Are Friends Electric?” etc.), Numan told Music Radar recently that Nine Inch Nails’ version of “Metal” is among his favorites. Now that NIN’s Trent Reznor says the group is on its final concert tour, Numan took the opportunity to let his favorite admirers be his backing band.

Drowned In Sound’s Sean Adams posted a nice review of NIN’s Wednesday night show at London’s O2 Arena, where Reznor brought Numan up on stage to take the lead vocals for “Metal” and “Cars.” Check out a good quality video of the latter performance below:

If Trent Reznor drops your name in an interview, it usually isn’t a good thing. In recent memory, Reznor has gone out of his way to bash Interscope, Timbaland, Chris Cornell, Rivers Cuomo, Prince, and his former friend Marilyn Manson. Nobody’s safe from the wrath of Reznor’s loose lips, you see, and now he’s added two more foes to his interview hit list: Gene Simmons and record executives.

“I’d never want to be Gene Simmons, an old man who puts on makeup to entertain kids, like a clown going to work,” Reznor told the Philippine Daily Inquirer’s Pocholo Concepcion on his reasons for retiring NIN’s live career. Simmons has actually come up before (“I would hope that I never become Gene Simmons…”), as Reznor likes to use him as an example of the way not to age as a rock star.

Reznor saved his worst venom, however, for record label executives, calling major labels a “Mafia-type run business” and positioning himself as a Robin Hood-esque character for struggling bands. He said the bands of the future should find a business model “where the artist is more fairly represented and has a say and is compensated, and you’re not paying for jets for record label CEOs… They’re in their last moments of death and I’m happy to see them go ’cause they’re all thieves and liars.”

Reznor doesn’t want to be rock’s Prince of Darkness anymore, but the new title Prince of Thieves might actually work.

We posted a while back about Nine Inch Nails’s Trent Reznor’s efforts to help Eric De La Cruz, a Nevada man who is uninsured and desperately in need of a heart transplant (background here). Reznor sent out a call, and fans answered in droves, raising nearly $900,000 toward De La Cruz’s medical expenses.

In response to his efforts, Reznor has been presented with “proclamations from the US House of Representatives (three Congressmen in total), the US Senate, the NYS Governor, the NYS Senate, the NYS Comptroller and the Suffolk County Legislature,” according to an email sent to theninhotline.com from fan Mike Caplice.

Caplice’s email continues: “These proclamations were in honor of the generous work done by Trent and the entire NIN Community to help #Eric. You can see a picture of the presentation as well as pictures of the procs/citations themselves at my twitpic account.

“I wanted the entire NIN community to see that their efforts have been recognized by all levels of government. I’m an 18-year fan of the band who has two parents with cancer, and have seen just how flawed the US Healthcare system is. I thought this was a really special moment for all of us who have seen the band and the community evolve over the years into a really positive and powerful force.”

Click here for a video of Caplice surprising Reznor with the proclamations at a New York NIN concert, and click here for updates on De La Cruz’s progress.