In 1995, Nine Inch Nails were one of the biggest bands in the world and The Downward Spiral had catapulted them to all new levels of rock stardom. Elliott Smith, however, was still 3 years away from his Oscar-nominated breakthrough “Miss Misery.” Well, I’ll bet the 26-year-old Elliott Smith didn’t realize that it would matter to anyone 14 years later that, armed with an acoustic guitar and short bleached hair, he dissed Nine Inch Nails in a small club.
Click here, to watch the video (via Glorious Noise/Daily Swarm) shot by Mary Lou Lord of Elliott Smith playing his unreleased track, “We’re All Friends Now.” If you can’t listen to diss tracks at your workplace, here is Elliott’s lyrical reaction to Trent Reznor’s “Head Like a Hole:”
The feedback starts and the singer yells
“I’d rather die than give you control”
But he’s already sold the whole damn thing for a big loan