Timothy Smith (American, b. 1979)

Canal, 2010

Option 30: self-titled (1997)

Nine Inch Nails. It’s what made me the industrialist I am today. Every major release minus Hesitation Marks (2013) and Add Violence (2017). Most singles, remixes, and guest appearances. Key Wax Trax and Invisible appearances. Many front pages, five t-shirts, three videos, and one live experience. It’s the one artist I have the most of. All things Ministry, Atari Teenage Riot, and Skinny Puppy have come very close, but it’s Nine Inch Nails that changed the course of my life. It all started when my cousin Criss and I accidentally found the “Closer” music video (‘94) on MTV and we were mesmerized. Friends enticed me to change allegiances from golden-era hip-hop to alternative. Raygun Magazine introduced me to David Carson if not for Trent Reznor’s front-page appearance. I even had some great summer experiences and major fall-outs revolving around their live performances. I’m at the point where I thought I knew everything about Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor - or so I thought - until I found @sheisthesisterofnight​, a Roman (read: real-deal Italian) goth-girl follower who is capital-O obsessed with him. She name-dropped Option 30, one of Reznor’s many musical involvements before Nine Inch Nails, and she’s the very reason why this post happened.

Reach further back than 1989′s Pretty Hate Machine. We’re talking about Slam Bamboo, The Innocent, Lucky Pierre, and even Cool Down Daddy. Of all the already-mentioned projects, I fell into the Option 30 rabbit hole and haven’t escaped since. Reznor got his start in the Mercer / Warren-stationed band when industrial had yet taken off in the states and synth-pop / new wave was globally present. Reznor was a product of those latter genres noting The Cure, Bauhaus, Adam Ant, Gary Numan, and (later on) Depeche Mode as some of his influences, so Option 30 could be considered his first musical endeavor. Guitarist / vocalist Timothy K. Smith would form The Edge with bassist Jim Nordstrom, drummer Tom Stein, and guitarist Dan Webb before using another local band UXB as a bridge before Smith himself, Nordstrom, Reznor and drummer Todd Nero came together for Option 30. From that point on, there wouldn’t be anything else Reznor would to do in life aside from being a janitor at a recording studio.

It’s forgiven that not many Nine Inch Nails fans would possess anything Option 30 hands-on as they only achieved local fame and no physical material ever enjoyed a major print run. It was only in 1997 that Shriek Records released a compilation album combining their Eighties live performances, original songs, covers, and a radio interview. Back then Reznor didn’t go through any major-label drama or personal turmoil stemming from loss and drug addiction. His ferocity and violent ideas didn’t exist yet to conceive what would be Nine Inch Nails formative years. No. You get the opposite. He’s affable, funny, and dare I say it…easy-going? During the Edinboro radio interview, his shoulders are free from burden. He jokes with the band and has a great time. It’s a far pitch from the Reznor of burning rage, frustration, depression, reckless abandon and on-stage destruction that everyone still holds on to. What you’ll have here is late-night pop-rock and native new-wave nods in its kindest form. 

The only live performance to be found opens up with the eponymous Icehouse cover, one of three to be exact. The next track is the last thing you’d expect Reznor to ever do: with “Time And Chance” it would be the one and only time Reznor would ever partake in reggae. He’s always been synonymous with industrial, so imagine that huge disparity between 1994′s The Downward Spiral and a piece-of-cake Marley-esque tune.

Re-visiting the alignment with new wave and synth-pop, Option 30 commit two more covers in Falco’s “Der Komissar” and Thompson Twins’ “Lies”. It seems that Reznor’s vocals misses the bullseye lacking that same punch found on the originals. It feels like the band isn’t performing at a small venue but instead ‘unwinding’ at a bar’s karaoke night during happy hour on Friday, but it’ll still win because Trent. Not to say that there aren’t any more originals. On the contrary, there’s plenty. Nothing else says pop than “Abomination” where basslines take precedent, the dash-beat “Just Out Enough To Be In” that’s heavy on guitar grooves, and the socially conscious “Equal Rights”. (Reznor would later take on politics on “Head Like A Hole”, 2007′s Year Zero and sporadically throughout the e.p. trilogy). 

One song specifically, “Old Habits Die Hard”, no doubt reminiscent of The Police’s “Message In A Bottle” (’79), is my favorite on the record hands-down. Maybe because it carries that late-Eighties Night Flight feel to it and that’s an experience I do the personal math for myself, so chances are no one would understand. Then again, one of Nine Inch Nails first-ever live performances was on Dance Party USA which also aired on the same network with Night Flight. The planets have lined up again, have they?

As a final, “Pandora’s Box” ends Option 30’s earliest retrospective on a good note with Timothy Smith on the mic-. Reznor simply opted out of vocal duties for the final track. He’d leave Option 30 in 1984 over lack of involvement to pursue other musical avenues (most likely with The Innocent), and the group still had a life of its’ own until the end of the decade releasing two more compilations of live performances, covers, and originals. Smith would change trajectory switching up rock for fusion, jazz and funk; creating projects large and small and oftentimes with his own family. By then, Reznor had already started Nine Inch Nails releasing Pretty Hate Machine, “Down In It”, and “Head Like A Hole” (all 1989) featuring Richard Patrick who’d later begin Filter. He’d find himself in the middle of the greatest industrial convergence having been associated with the Wax Trax label, Ministry, and even Pigface while being embroiled with the TVT label over creative control. All that before creating a legacy with The Downward Spiral, Marilyn Manson, motion picture soundtracks with Atticus Ross, Coil and David Bowie worship, How To Destroy Angels, Apple, induction to The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and endless nominations, awards, and achievements. Sadly, Smith passed away on Halloween 2009, leaving a legacy that’s been posted on Bandcamp all at no cost and still lives on through his brothers and children.

Miss USA, Miss Teen USA & Miss America for Essence Magazine 👑

Timothy Smith (American, b. 1979)

Lighthouse, 2015

Timothy Smith (American, b. 1979)

Landscape, 2010