Tapeworm

Tapeworm as of 2002 (left to right): Maynard James Keenan, Danny Lohner, Atticus Ross, Trent Reznor

Tapeworm is a defunct side project of Nine Inch Nails which existed, featuring various contributors, since the mid-1990s. No recordings were ever released, but the group was frequently referenced in interviews. After many years of rumors, Trent Reznor announced the end of the project in 2004.

History

After The Downward Spiral tours in 1996, Danny Lohner and Charlie Clouser approached Trent with music ideas that Trent felt did not fit in with his vision of the band, but instead agreed to collaborate and work on the material as a side project, with each member having equal say in decisions. The band eventually became a supergroup of sorts including, among others, Maynard James Keenan (Tool, A Perfect Circle), Page Hamilton (Helmet), and Phil Anselmo (Pantera).

By 2001, producer Alan Moulder had tracked "more than an album's worth" of demos, according to Reznor's post on the site, adding that the rough songs are "very unlike The Fragile, and may not even be released as NIN material,". However after 2002, Clouser left NIN and was no longer a part of Tapeworm. The group (at the time consisting of Reznor, Lohner, Keenan and Atticus Ross) booked time in a recording studio in an attempt to produce an album. An official Tapeworm website (Tapeworm.net, now offline) was created and showed pictures from various recording sessions.

In September 2003, Lohner told Kerrang! magazine that the album was "ready to mix" but had been held up by legal issues stemming from conflicts between Reznor and Keenan's record labels. [1]

Over time, the band began to break down, partly due to label issues and partly due to Trent's lack of interest in the project and announced the band was dead in 2004.

Writing on nin.com, Reznor stated:

"Tapeworm is dead for the foreseeable future. Let me try to explain as honestly as possible.
Tapeworm wound up being about Maynard, Danny, Atticus and me working collaboratively together.
We worked on a number of tracks and had Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle) play drums.
Eventually, however, things got in the way. Managers, lawyers, record companies, (A Perfect Circle) needs and frankly my own
enthusiasm for the material came into play to work against the project seeing the light of day.
The bottom line is this: If the music had been great, all of this probably could have been worked out.
Maynard is a dear friend and a great singer and writer. I'm sure we will work together in some capacity, but the planets were not 
aligned for that project.
My apologies for getting people excited about it, but I was, too." 

Contributors

Musicians cited to have recorded material for Tapeworm:

• Phil Anselmo (Pantera / Down / Superjoint Ritual)
• Charlie Clouser (Nine Inch Nails)
• Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle / The Vandals / Nine Inch Nails / Guns N' Roses )
• Toni Halliday (Curve)
• Page Hamilton (Helmet)
• Maynard James Keenan (Tool / A Perfect Circle)
• Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails / A Perfect Circle)
• Alan Moulder (producer, Nine Inch Nails / Smashing Pumpkins)
• Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails)
• Atticus Ross (12 Rounds / Error)
• Tommy Victor (Prong / Danzig)

Relationship to Puscifer and A Perfect Circle

Only one Tapeworm song was ever released to the public, "Vacant", which was performed live by A Perfect Circle on several occasions and eventually became "Passive" on their last full length release eMOTIVE. The band's live performance of the track before it's release has also been attributed to the demise of Tapeworm. It has also been rumored that the tracks released by Maynard's Puscifer side-project are actually renamed and reworked versions of the original Tapeworm tracks.