Former PiL, Ministry, Pigface, and NIN drummer Martin Atkins currently owns possibly the rarest item in Nine Inch Nails history, but that won’t be for long: According to an eBay listing (currently fetching around $1k with 4 days left), Atkins is selling his cassette copy of Trent Reznor’s demos for what would become his debut Pretty Hate Machine LP, and giving part of the profits to charity. Perfect timing, no?
Atkins says he first met the future Golden Globe nominee around 1983, when Reznor was recruited to play trumpet (!) with his then band. Atkins writes:
It was at a barbeque… where I spent a little time with Trent and remember him telling me about some music he was working on. John Malm, who was to become Trents manager was also there. I’m not sure exactly when I received this cassette, it must have been before 1988 when I left New Jersey to move to Chicago.
And now for the best part: The NIN Hotline, who first uncovered the listing, have posted streams of two 52-second snippets of “Terrible Lie” and “Sin” from the cassette, which were originally uploaded by Atkins himself to his Facebook page. They sound pretty great — even for demos — so hear a taste of both samples over at NIN Hotline.