| "The Hand That Feeds" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Nine Inch Nails | ||||
| from the album With Teeth | ||||
| Released | March 28, 2005 | |||
| Format | CD, DVD, 7", 9", 10", 12" | |||
| Genre | Industrial rock | |||
| Length | 3:38 | |||
| Label | Interscope – HALO 18 | |||
| Writer(s) | Trent Reznor | |||
| Producer | Trent Reznor | |||
| Nine Inch Nails singles chronology | ||||
|
||||
"The Hand That Feeds" is a song by the American industrial rock group Nine Inch Nails, released as the lead single for the album With Teeth (2005). It is the highest charting song by Nine Inch Nails on all charts except for U.S. Modern Rock Tracks, where it stayed at number one for five weeks, because the single that followed, "Only", stayed at number one for two more weeks (non-consecutively), and the Billboard Hot 100, where "The Day The World Went Away" peaked at #17. It is, to date, Nine Inch Nails' only single to hit the top 10 of the UK Singles chart and the U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, where it peaked at #2 for two weeks.
Contents |
Though several stations played a leaked copy of "The Hand That Feeds" in February, official radio play of the song began on March 14, 2005. "The Hand That Feeds" was released for sale on both iTunes and Napster on March 22, 2005. Upon its release, it topped the iTunes Top 100 songs list.
A music video was made for this song. It was directed by Rob Sheridan and was released on March 17, 2005 on the NIN official website. A second video for this song was directed by Ian Inaba, but was shelved and was never completed.
The April 15, 2005 update to the current section of nin.com included a link to a multi-track Garageband file of the song. This file allows anyone with the Macintosh program Garageband to remix the song.
NIN was due to play this song at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, but dropped out due to conflicts between Trent Reznor and MTV concerning the band's plan to incorporate an image of George W. Bush into the performance. An announcement made by Trent Reznor on the NIN website on May 26 stated:
"Nine Inch Nails will not be performing at the MTV Movie Awards as previously announced. We were set to perform 'The Hand That Feeds' with an unmolested, straightforward image of George W. Bush as the backdrop. Apparently, the image of our president is as offensive to MTV as it is to me. See you on tour this fall when we return to play in America."
The following day, MTV stated,
"While we respect Nine Inch Nails' point of view, we were uncomfortable with their performance being built around a partisan political statement. When we discussed our discomfort with the band, their choice was to unfortunately pull out of the Movie Awards."
Nine Inch Nails was eventually replaced by Foo Fighters at the ceremony on June 9.
During the performance of The Hand That Feeds in Jacksonville, Florida on 10/29/08, a photo of George W. Bush was displayed behind the band, and as the band played the photo gradually morphed into John McCain.
The song was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance for the 48th Annual Grammy Awards in 2006.[1]
One of the blog entries on the NIN website made during the early recording phase of the new record (working title was "Bleedthrough", now known as With Teeth) stated that Trent always loved The Kinks. Their influence can be felt strongly in this song. The song's riff is a modified version of the one from the Kinks' classic "You Really Got Me".
The song is included in the videogames Rock Band, Midnight Club 3 and as downloadable content in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. The song also appears in the trailer to Red Riding Hood.
The music video for the song was directed by Trent Reznor and Rob Sheridan and debuted on the official Nine Inch Nails website. The video features the live band, featuring Aaron North, Jeordie White, Jerome Dillon, and Alessandro Cortini, performing the song. The video features the use of the pan and scan technique, resulting in video distortion such as pixelization and interlacing.
The single for "The Hand That Feeds" was only given a wide release in Europe. The European releases include a 3-track limited edition CD, a 2-track standard CD, a 9" vinyl and a DVD single.
In the United States, "The Hand That Feeds" was released on various vinyl formats. A limited edition 10" picture disc and a 7" promotional disc (the latter available at With Teeth listening parties) contained the title track and the b-side "Home." Additional 12" remix records, containing mixes by Photek and DFA were also available.
Available as 2-track standard release and 3-track limited edition digipack
Includes poster
| Chart | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Hungary Singles Chart | 5 |
| Austria Singles Chart | 41 |
| Canadian Singles Chart | 2 |
| UK Singles Chart[2] | 7 |
| Italian Singles Chart[3] | 15 |
| Denmark Singles Chart | 15 |
| Finland Singles Chart[4] | 15 |
| Norway Singles Chart[4] | 17 |
| Swedish Singles Chart[4] | 36 |
| Swiss Singles Chart[4] | 67 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Club Play[5] | 30 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Songs[6] | 10 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Digital Tracks[5] | 8 |
| U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks[5] | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks[5] | 2 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100[5] | 31 |
| U.S. Billboard Pop 100[5] | 31 |
| Preceded by "Holiday" by Green Day |
Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one single May 28, 2005 |
Succeeded by "Beverly Hills" by Weezer |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||