TOBACCO Recruits Nine Inch Nails Frontman Trent Reznor for New Hot, Wet & Sassy Single "Babysitter" (Ghostly International)
Tom Fec is a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based musician, experimentalist, and label owner of his own imprint, Rad Cult. Fec is the frontman of Experimental/Psychedelic Pop band Black Moth Super Rainbow, sometimes, known as Satanstompingcaterpillars. Since about 2008, Fec has released a plethora of music as TOBACCO, as well as Sbarro Hottopic. Tom Fec has, additionally released music as Demon Queen with Zackey Force Funk, The Allegheny White Fish with his brother, Ken Fec, and most recently, as Malibu Ken with long-time collaborator Aesop Rock. Fec's beloved recordings as TOBACCO have often featured a crew of unlikely collaborators, including Beck, emcee Beans, Felt (Slug & MURS,) The Flaming Lips, High Tides, The Hood Internet, Notrabel, Serengeti, and sole & The Skyrider Band. Now, TOBACCO has announced a new album, Hot, Wet & Sassy—Fec's first proper album since 2016's Sweatbox Dynasty—to be released on Ghostly International this Fall. Earlier this morning, TOBACCO & Ghostly unleashed the second single from Hot, Wet & Sassy, "Babysitter," featuring yet another unlikely collaborator, Nine Inch Nails (NIN) frontman Trent Reznor. Tom Fec & Trent Reznor, actually, have quite the interesting history together: Reznor once dubbed Sweatbox Dynasty the "RECORD OF THE YEAR" and took not only Black Moth Super Rainbow, but TOBACCO, as well, on the road as NIN's openers during their 2017 I Can't Seem to Wake Up Tour.
"I've always been an album guy and my albums are my zone, so Trent being on this one is one of the more meaningful things to me," Fec recently told Rolling Stone. "Now, he's melted into it. "Babysitter" is like one of those experiments I need to do every once in a while, to see how far I can push it within the constructs of writing a song, without just making noise. [It's] edging. Probably not that different from how Taylor Swift does it," he continued. It's interesting to hear TOBACCO & Trent Reznor together on the same song, but, to be completely honest, it's a bit hard to discern which voices belong to Fec and/or Reznor on "Babysitter." Both "Centaur Skin" & "Babysitter" are currently available to stream on Bandcamp, along with Hot, Wet & Sassy's album pre-order in a multitude of different formats and exclusive bundles. TOBACCO recently self-released a cover of Eric Carmen's 1987 Soft Rock mega-hit, "Hungry Eyes," which was originally included on the iconic Dirty Dancing Soundtrack. TOBACCO's Hot, Wet & Sassy is out Friday, October 31, 2020 on Ghostly International. Hot, Wet & Sassy is now available for pre-order on 125 super-limited edition MiniDiscs, via Tom Fec's own Rad Cult, as well.