Copyright 2009 Nine Inch Nails !!!DO NOT STEAL!!!!

On 1 April, 2009, Trent Reznor announced Strobe Light, which was apparently Nine Inch Nails' brand-new album, featuring various artists. The website featured a repeating tempo accompanying the page, and a rapidly flashing GIF image at the top, "strobing" to match the album's name.

The album was an April Fool's day joke, and has been mentioned on several April Fool's since.

Tracklisting

"Intro Skit" "Everybody's Doing It" (featuring Chris Martin, Jay-Z AND Bono) "Black T-Shirt" "Pussygrinder" (featuring Sheryl Crow) "Coffin On The Dancefloor" "This Rhythm Is Infected" "Slide To The Dark Side" "Even Closer" (featuring Justin Timberlake and Maynard James Keenan) "On The List (she's not)" "Clap Trap Crack Slap" "Laid, Paid And Played" (featuring Fergie of the Black Eyed Peas and Al Jourgensen) "Feel Like Being Dead Again" "Still Hurts" (featuring Alicia Keys) "Outro Skit"

Release information

The text accompanying the download page was:

FREE DOWNLOAD AVAILABLE NOW! To download NIN's new full-length album Strobe Light, PRODUCED BY TIMBALAND, enter a valid email address in the fields below. A download link will be sent to you immediately. Your credit card will be charged $18.98 plus a $10 digital delivery convenience fee. Your files will arrive as windows media files playable on quite a few players with your name embedded all over them just in case you lose them. You will also receive an exclusive photo and a free email account with our partner Google's Gmail service.

Your email will be kept confidential and will not be used for spam, unless we can make some money selling it.

This "release" was an April Fools' joke on Reznor's fans, and was a parody of the current music scene's obsession with particular artists, production by Timbaland, and also a tongue-in-cheek poke at his own song titles and public image. Reznor may have been referencing Chris Cornell's album Scream, which was produced by Timbaland, noting a particular (tweet).

Any attempt to download the album would redirect the user to a faux "Blue Screen Of Death" (here), a mock at the Windows error message.

The embedded music beat on the is page likely a default beat from some type of music related software and not anything composed by Nine Inch Nails or Trent Reznor. The embedded file for the song is called "ACIDDANCE.mid" (here).

Fan Release

On April 1st, 2019, a fan-made album was released with the same name. It is comprised of mashups and follows the same tracklist as the one originally teased. It was uploaded to Bandcamp (here) and archive.org (here.)

Interpretations

Go Fight has interpreted "Pussygrinder" from the album.