Nine Inch Nails

From: Cleveland, Ohio

Active: 1989-present

I first heard of them: my senior year of high school, when some of the guys in the ROP Graphics classes started wearing  NIИ  logos on their jackets

Sound: when my 16-year-old brother made a camcorder movie, the scene of a guy getting bludgeoned to death was scored by playing a Nine Inch Nails song on a boombox

Further listening: Here's a song that a guy in my dorm introduced to me by putting on the CD and then going into (voluntary) convulsions for four minutes:

"Wish" (1992)