For his first-ever film score, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame was eager to have a bevy of new toys at his disposal. Perhaps a string section? Perhaps a full orchestral suite? Yet "The Social Network" director David Fincher put an instant end to such film music tropes.

"We got the idea from David that he wanted something that was not orchestral and not traditional," Reznor said recently. "He referenced 'Blade Runner' and Tangerine Dream. He mentioned sounds that were a synthetic landscape of sorts. Then we just spent a couple weeks with no picture and no input and were thinking of how we could create a world of sound."

Reznor, working with frequent collaborator Atticus Ross, will vie with film composer heavyweights such as Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman and A.R. Rahman, among others, for best original score at this Sunday's Golden Globes. It's illustrious company for Reznor's first film (Ross last worked on the film "The Book of Eli"), and the music of "The Social Network" couldn't be more atypical than the kind of orchestrations awards voters typically fawn over.

It's taut, largely digital, and minimalistic in its mournfulness, decorated occasionally with a piano. Whereas electronic maestros Daft Punk brought enough orchestral grandiosity to their "Tron: Legacy" score to stage a Fourth of July fireworks celebration, Reznor and Ross went the opposite route. Instead of adding to their synth-driven repertoire, the pair were taking away.

"We spent time in advance setting up rules," Reznor said. "If we were working orchestrally, we’d have these sounds and this kind of voicing to us. We adapted that to a world of modular synthesizers and an acoustic piano, and a general aesthetic of X,Y and Z."

Jim Guerinot, the manager of No Doubt, Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, the Band’s Robbie Robertson and the Offspring, was initially as skeptical as anyone in the concert business that the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger would clear the Justice Department.  But during the last year, as the two companies began working together more closely in hopes of uniting, he’s seen significant gains, both for his artists and their fans.

"I’ve gotten a tremendous amount of cooperation from them on fan-oriented programs to prevent scalping and lower ticket prices,” he told The Times on Monday.

He noted that anti-scalping measures that Reznor wanted for Nine Inch Nails’ farewell tour last year were implemented without resistance from Live Nation or Ticketmaster, and that both also fell in line with No Doubt’s wish to offer significant numbers of seats on the group’s 2009 reunion tour for $10.

“I can see where there would be concern from independent promoters, but on all my tours, I’ve been able to  lean into indies where I wanted to and where it’s more effective for the fans,” Guerinot said.

He believes the state of the economy nationally had a “tremendous amount” of influence in the approval from the Obama administration, which had been widely expected to exert far tougher scrutiny on corporate mergers than the Bush administration that preceded it.

Let the Coachella speculation begin. After the universe rejected Chris Cornell's attempts at joining forces with Timbaland, the alt-rock survivor announced over the holiday weekend that Soundgarden would be getting back together. No major details, but there was a Twitter message.

Wrote Cornell, "The 12 year break is over & school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again!" Billboard reports that the band has been fielding offers from "major U.S. and international" festivals, and Coachella would seem to be a prime landing spot. One complicating factor: Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron also works behind the kit with Pearl Jam, and the latter band has some touring commitments for 2010, including some summer dates at major European festivals.

Kanye is back. One of the biggest disappointments of 2009 -- at least for those who had designs on witnessing a pop spectacle -- was the collapse of Kanye West's attempted tour with Lady Gaga. Now the controversial hip-hop star says he's  back in the studio.

Writing an ALL-CAPS mission statement on his blog today, West promised to "bring you the best I have to offer with the same dedication that Kobe has on the court." But if you prefer your art with non-Lakers references, the Chicago-bred star also name-checks poets and artists Maya Angelou, Gil Scott-Heron and Nina Simone, noting, even if he can't spell all their names correctly, that "their work improved with time. They documented what was happening in culture. That is our responsibility."

West goes on, writing that "you can always look at our works and find truth and sincerity in a world of processed information." As far as Pop & Hiss is concerned, this is all good news, and evidence that Kanye won't be toning down the ambition, the grandiosity and the outspokenness that made him one of the decade's most defining artists.

The Nine Inch Nails pigs started marching Thursday night when Trent Reznor peeked up from the depths of married life with a message on his Twitter account.

The Twitter page @Trent_Reznor has remained quiet since October when Reznor returned briefly to drop two messages -- one about the anniversary of his first album release and another about a fan project compiling concert videos. Before that, there was a gap since July.

Despite the lengthy silence, Reznor maintains 636,520 followers -- fans still hanging onto the funny, stinging and smart messages transferred from the fingers of the electronic rocker.

He returned on Thursday, saying simply: "Is this thing on?" Minutes later, he addressed the much-publicized eBay auctions of some of his now-defunct band's gear. "Just clearing out some storage spaces for a new beginning," he wrote.

Once upon a time, Reznor was one of the most-buzzed-about stars on Twitter. Pop & Hiss has pulled out five of our favorite tweets from the 44-year-old musician.

Twitter continues to lose some of its most-followed music celebs. Days after teen star Miley Cyrus removed her account, perpetual ranter Courtney Love has disappeared from the social-networking service. Love's Twitter disappeared without warning, but its removal came soon after Love's teenage daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, laid into young Ali Lohan.

Cyrus, however, isn't disappearing so quietly.

With rumors that she left Twitter at the behest of her supposed love interest Liam Hemsworth, the tween star and their friends channeled all their non-tweeting free time into a short, cheesy rap. "I stopped living for moments, and started living for people," Cyrus sings, adding, "Everything that I type and everything I do / All those lame gossip sites take it and they make it news."

Cyrus admits to some withdrawals, as well as missing Dane Cook's latest updates, but promises no more "fake feuds" with Demi Lovato. If the result of Cyrus leaving Twitter is more charmingly bad videos like the one above, Pop & Hiss applauds the move.

Cyrus was leaving Twitter while she was on top. According to data from BigChampagne, Cyrus had the third-most Twitter followers among musicians as of Oct. 6, with more than 2.2 million users tracking her pimple updates. Only Britney Spears and John Mayer had more.

But Cyrus and Love aren't the only high-profile musicians to disappear from the site. British singer Lily Allen, who ranks No. 9 among active Twitter musicians, hasn't updated since Sept. 28, going quiet after taking heat for her views on Internt file-sharing. Earlier this year, Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor stopped updating his account, declaring on July 17 that "flesh and reality are calling." 

In May, rapper Kanye West ranted against the service, writing in his "Caps Lock" glory, "I'M TOO BUSY ACTUALLY BUSY BEING CREATIVE MOST OF THE TIME AND IF I'M NOT AND I'M JUST LAYING ON A BEACH I WOULDN'T TELL THE WORLD. EVERYTHING THAT TWITTER OFFERS I NEED LESS OF."

Although she wasn't nearly as blunt, it appears Cyrus would agree.

-- Todd Martens

Related: Demi versus Perez? See Twitter, where celebs rant

Today is a holiday of sorts in the Twitter universe. Happy "The Fragile" Day!

Nine Inch Nails fans are reminiscing about the 10-year anniversary of the band's two-disc record  "The Fragile."

Using a Twitter convention called a hashtag -- that is, a search term preceded by a pound sign -- "#TheFragile" became a top-trending topic of chatter on the social network.

Due to a mix of devotion and Web savvy among fans, Nine Inch Nails is one of the few acts that can peak on Twitter's most-talked-about list with any regularity.

Others in their company are Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers -- dubious company, to say the least. (Though, it would make a pretty easy game of "which of these doesn't belong.")

On the band's own Twitter-like iPhone app for posting short, location-tagged updates, fans are buzzing about the anniversary. User TenMileSky writes, "I hope everyone is reppin a NIN shirt today."

Shortly after "The Fragile's" release on Sept. 21, 1999, the album received a bundle of overwhelmingly positive reviews. Many critics loved the grandiose hit  "The Day the World Went Away," which the band revived recently on its farewell tour.

But not every writer was enamored with frontman Trent Reznor's third studio album. Indie pulse-keepers Pitchfork gave the record a biting two-out-of-10 rating and an equally brutal review. That particular wound is apparently still stinging some fans.

As Trent Reznor stepped up to the mike during the fourth encore Thursday night at the Wiltern, he reinforced the plans that crushed fans and fueled skeptics -- that Nine Inch Nails is done taking their act on the road.

"To be clear, we're just not going to tour anymore as Nine Inch Nails," Reznor said to an emotionally drained crowd.

"I'm going to miss them," he said, turning to his band members. "It's been great to play with you and know you as friends and hang out with you and be cramped in a bus and smell each other's farts all day."

It certainly felt like the end. But Reznor etched a bit of a silver lining before launching into a powerful performance of "Hurt."

In the first L.A. concert of its farewell tour, the band played 'Downward Spiral' in its entirety, then performed other, mostly older, material with the same relentless power and fury.

"Nothing can stop me now," Trent Reznor snarled as he lunged toward his audience during the song "Piggy" at the outset of Nine Inch Nails' sold-out show at the Hollywood Palladium on Wednesday. The statement held some irony, given that Reznor has announced he's retiring his band, as a live act at least.

It's been 15 years since "The Downward Spiral," the concept album about loneliness and despair that contained that song, became the most successful industrial music album in history and catapulted Reznor squarely into the mainstream spotlight. Now that the front man has decided to say goodbye to the stage, he's reaching back to the seminal collection.

At the first of the series of L.A. shows being billed as NIN's last, he led his band through "Downward Spiral" in its entirety, then continued to run through a selection of almost exclusively older material.

Reznor might be in a very different place in his life from when he originally wrote and performed those songs -- he's since recovered from the substance abuse that gripped him in those dark days -- but they retained the same relentless power and rage.

A posting on the official Nine Inch Nails website this morning announced that tonight’s show at the Music Box @ Fonda has been canceled. It was to have been one of a string of shows scheduled as the last ever Nine Inch Nails performances before an extended hiatus. (Read a full review of last night's show here.)

The first signs of trouble came to light toward the middle of last night’s performance at the Hollywood Palladium when Trent Reznor announced from the stage that he was “really sick, and I can’t hear at all. Everything sounds like the inside of an AM radio. But we’re trying.” He finished the rest of the two-hour performance (including a surprise two-song cameo from electronic music pioneer Gary Numan) without incident.

“We're very sorry to announce that Trent is ill, and on his doctor's orders we will not be able to perform tonight's show at the Henry Fonda Theater,” reads the website posting. “This is the only information we have at this time, we're posting this early announcement as a convenience for those of you who had plans to attend. Reimbursement details will be posted as soon as we figure them out; likely within the next 24 hours.” The fate of the remaining shows scheduled for the Wiltern and the Echoplex have yet to be determined.

-- Scott T. Sterling

UPDATE: According to nin.com, the final dates of the "Wave Goodbye" tour have been rescheduled. The show at the Echoplex will happen on Sept. 6 as planned. The Fonda show has been moved to Sept. 8, while the Wiltern show (which will now be the last show) is set for Sept. 10. 

Photo: Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails performs at the Hollywood Palladium on Wednesday night. Credit: Ann Johansson

Remember cassette tapes? Now, remember when your Walkman ate your favorite LL Cool J album, disembodying the string of tape from the plastic case, leaving you with one less thing to listen to and a pile of black waste? Fond memories.

Erika Simmons, an artist from St. Louis, has turned those nostalgic frustrations into beautiful homages to music legends. Intently ripping into her cassettes, Simmons, 25, molds the lump of tape into sculptures of rock stars.

In the year or so since she started the "Ghost in the Machine" project, she has made works in the shapes of Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Trent Reznor, the Beatles and countless others. Her Michael Jackson artwork will be on display in a gallery at UCLA on Oct.  4 -- her first such show in the United States.

"The idea came from the idea of mind-body dualism and how your spirit lives in your body," Simmons said.

The photos of the sculptures on Flickr have drawn tens of thousands of hits each and international attention. Simmons charges between $800 and $4,000 for original cassette-tape artwork.

And she supplies her own cassettes. You can hang onto your bootleg REO Speedwagon tapes.

-- Mark Milian

Jimi Hendrix cassette tape art. Credit: Erika Simmons

In a week, Nine Inch Nails will roll into Los Angeles to play four nights at the Palladium, the Music Box @ Fonda, the Wiltern and the Echoplex. Barring some kind of Brett Favre-like fake-out, these shows are expected to be the band's last ever -- or at least for a while, according to frontman Trent Reznor.

We caught up with the rock group on Sunday, their second of four dates in New York. NIN played to a Webster Hall crowd packed wall-to-wall.

Fans reeled as the band played its sophomore record, "The Downward Spiral," in its entirety for what was believed to be the first -- and possibly last -- time. Reznor and Co. didn't stop there, following up with a slew of favorites spanning its 20-year catalog.

The show gives us a hint of what to expect when NIN arrives in their home base of L.A. Here are nine things to look out for:

If you didn't get tickets, there is (some) hope: Reznor seems to love treasure hunts. Last summer, the band started hiding envelopes around L.A., ensuring the finders free concert tickets.

Spinning off that game, fans in New York were being told via Twitter to search areas of the city for a band representative to score a free pair of tickets. It's probably a safe bet that they'll do the same in L.A.

They also sold a few tickets at the Webster Hall doors a couple of hours before the show.

Unusual set lists: Playing "The Downward Spiral" at Webster Hall was a testament to the likelihood of hearing song combinations that NIN has never attempted live before. At the same show, the band cautiously ...

Bands on the prowl for a quick and reasonable way to commission a custom iPhone app finally have a place to go. Music discovery service iLike, which gained a large following with its Facebook app, is providing musicians with an automated system for creating and managing their own downloadable iPhone applications.

Mobile apps have been all the rage recently. Some larger artists were quick to buy into "app fever." Death Cab for Cutie, along with dozens of other high-profile bands, have basic programs that closely mirror their websites, offering videos, tour dates and music samples.

Other bands have gone above and beyond. Nine Inch Nails, for example, released an iPhone app that, in addition to the normal media, has a sort of locational Twitter. The additional features make the software more "sticky," providing users with more incentive to return.

Although iLike offers more complicated, custom apps at a premium, the majority of the ones it will churn out are more like the former. They contain song samples, concert info, photos, videos, tweets and Facebook wall posts.

Already, more than 300,000 musical acts use iLike to manage their website profiles or Facebook app pages. The iPhone piece ties in with that system, meaning once a band uploads a tour date, it's blasted out to all three platforms.

Musicians pay $99 up front and, if they decide to charge for it, split the revenue 50-50 with iLike. Want to go the more altruistic route? The company says it reserves the right to place ads in apps for ...