Trumtram

It's a fun song. Not the biggest fan of the mix and the fact that they changed the guitar melody in the chorus as this is something that appeals to me on the OG version. I probably prefer the OG version because Chester feels more connected and raw on it. Still, a good effort.

Yeah, I think it reminded me instantly of "Crawl Back In".

To me it sounds like DBS. Even though it's something "new" I don't feel it at all. Still it will be nice to get this one :). And yeah, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise with all the label stuff...

20+ years and stuff still gets found. Great work and thanks for sharing!

This is beyond silly, honestly. The only hope I have from this strange musical direction is that Mike is working with a lot of vocalists and maybe one is among them who can fill the gap in LP's line-up. I think it's cool that he tries to give artists a platform and well produced music.

Thanks Mark, for clearing that up, really appreciate it! The whole NFT thing: Even if we are puzzled by it and think it's stupid, Mike was always ambitious with new technology since day 1. LP were pretty much revolutionary in the way they used the internet back in 1999/2000. So that doesn't surprise me.

Hmm? I always was under the impression that there were plans (maybe not finalized, but still) of them getting together und re-record stuff. I mean, sure, OML would have taken up most of Chesters capacities for 1-2 years. Sorry, if I got something wrong here.

Well, Grey Daze was supposed to get back together for this project so I guess that one is a bit unfair. Still, having all these items for purchase remains overkill, though.

I do

Ah, Meteora, 18 years already, damn... After listening to HT for years at this point back in the day (at one time even backwards because it felt "fresh" :D) I highly anticipated the new album. Almost everyday I would check lp.com for a new studio diary. When LPTV episodes started to drop I would hurry back home from school every tuesday to watch the newest episode with the hopes of getting some glimpses of new songs. I would rewatch those episode over and over again for it's small snippets. "Breaking The Habit" got hyped by the band beforehand for how experimental it was and they were right. When the website relaunched and it had the small snippt of "A.06" on its intro the hype built even more. Probably one of the most exciting moments for the community was the Nottingham show because it got streamed and therefore rips of a couple of new songs got available to a wider audience. I remember trying to not listen to those too much. When "Somewhere I Belong" dropped before that I listened to it on repeat for well over 100 times. I was so hyped. Also I was one of the lucky ones who attended the LPU tour in Hamburg which was the second live show after the studio. On the drive to Hamburg my dad had to endure SIB on repeat for hours :D. The show was amazing, even though it worried/annoyed me how the audience changed. It was obvious at this point that even more teenage girls got into LP (especially Chester and Mike). At the Hamburg show (and every show from thereon out) there would be girls protected by their parents, screaming at the top of their lungs for the "cute" vocalists... When we started to mosh during the support act (Emil Bulls <3) angry fathers tried to intimidate us. When LP took the stage they luckily had to retreat because shit got crazy. Still, this show marked the end for "old school LP shows" in terms of crowd rowdiness on a broader scale. Something I dearly missed everytime I went to see them later on. After the show I had the pleasure of finally meeting Jessica which was one of the big names in the LP camp during the HT days. Also there was the probably best meet and greet with the band. We were only like 20-30 people? I really like to think back to this show. I can go back to Meteora everytime. I like it as a whole (yes, "Hit The Floor", too, nice vibe, nice flow). One criticism that always remained was how many times they had the rewrite songs on that album but after learning a lot more about the making of HT I think it's easy to conclude that this was always the case for the band. Though, the lyrics felt too "easy" at times compared to HT. Still, whenever I pop this album in I feel like the 17 year old LP maniac all over again. Happy birthday!

Glad I'm not the only one feeling that. In such a situation one could do one of two things: Take feedback and try to improve on it or ignore it because everyone else is just (naturally) wrong. Either way, the result is telling.

Basically that Mark felt like the weakest link because his performances weren't good (live and during recording). According to Jeff he lacked the quality of being a front man. So Mark got thrown out of the band rather than quitting because of anxiety issues, so the band could become a overall better package. It could be connected of course but it felt more drastic in Jeff's side of the story than what Mike told us. I mean sure, Mike doesn't need to go: "Well, he sucked so we threw him out of the band" but he made it seem much more "unfortunate" rather than it being a necessity at the time to take the next step. Which is obviously understandable with them being close friends.

I like both songs, "Stick 'n Move" and "Runaway". Especially the mood during the verse and Chester's performance on the latter are really enjoyable for me and set me back decades everytime I listen to it. Though I agree that "Stick 'n Move" would have been a cool song, too. But I have to say that I'm glad it became "Runaway".

Again we get the story of Mark's stage fright and since we still don't have the q&a with Jeff Blue online, there is a contradiction which I'm curious about. It might be possible that Mark suffered from stage fright which then impeded his performance which led to him getting kicked out of the band. But still I find it really interesting that Mike never mentioned anything close to what Jeff has written about in his book. Or put differently: Jeff never mentions stage fright. Thanks yor the write up and the cool infos!

What? Oh boy... Well, yeah. That seems a tiny bit excessive. Once again, comparing it to HT20 doesn't add up for a variety of reasons and is useless whataboutism. Anyway. Let's see what they come up with when "Amends II" drops...

Comparing this to the HT20 set doesn't work (whataboutism in general is no answer). Much of the contents were out beforehand, yes, but most of it was LPU stuff which was never officially available to the wider public. Plus it was a celebration for the original album with new unseen DVDs, a couple new demos, first time LP release of HTEP etc. With "Stripped" I find it irritating to release some of these versions on different releases for "Amends" (or even in the 90s) and then make an EP from those. Of course with limited vinyl stuff and everything. "Amends" was crazy in this regard but at least it was a special release, so I could see past that. This feels like leftover/rehashing for a quick buck. Having it for free on streaming platforms doesn't absolve it because that is just natural and counts for ALL music releases. It just leaves a slightly sour taste, that's all. And just to be clear: I critizised many LP releases in the past, too. Having special editions for 100s of dollars felt excessive at times. This is no "my team is better than yours" kind of stuff. We should be better than that ;).

Oh wow, I never really went for the "cash grab" argument, but this is... something I suppose.

I listened to the original version quite a bit and it felt like the same song version sound-wise.

Isn't that basically the same version as the piano version from the 90s?

Reminds me of "Coal" a bit.

That was a great read. I enjoyed the style and had to go through the whole thing in one day. I never really had an opinion about Jeff and his time with the band. But I guess we all should thank him and his efforts because he was probably THE key factor of LP becoming the band we all came to love. His perspective felt sincere and self-reflecting, coming to terms with mistakes he made under immens pressure. But I totally get why especially Mike didn't take this situation so well. Still, without Jeff this band probably would have never happened in any familiar shape or form. Personally the book was everything I hoped for and it amazed me how much information we still missed through 20+ years of the band existing. Reliving those days from an inside perspective made me smile a lot.

Holy shit! Nice to see you again ! And yeah. I vividly remember both 2000 shows as being our holy grail back then (+ Modesto 2000 for me personally). It's so funny that Mike brought this on himself again by mentioning something we didn't know about. But I after HT20 I'm so content with everything, I don't feel the need to holy grail this one.

This is so great!

Holy fuck. PR 02 is incredible. Wasn't there talks about a live dvd that got scrapped? Because this looks like a fleshed out production. It's so interesting because it seems like "Live in Texas" was a concept that got tried before. It's basically LIT in 02 at a arena show. The sound is awesome, clear but with some rawness to it. The setlist is great with so many highlights (OSC had me laughing out loud!) and finally having this incredible "My Own Summer" video is a holy grail by itself. I never would've thought that Mike was so prominent on it and did in fact do a large chunk of lead vocals. Crazy! Oh, and "My December" <3! And so much more! The editing is a bit messy at times, but many songs feel like they could be a live music video which makes the whole thing even more enjoyable. The transitioning in between songs is weird, though. Probably has to do with some cutting back and forth between shows. Nevertheless, what a great show and a true gem to have. Next up: Frat Party 2

Joe specifically talks about the 4-track they had to use for recording but mentions it for the songs after the 3-song demo. There might be something to this which is funny considering how we thought with HT20 this early chapter of the band might find rest :D. Of course this might be the case of Joe mixing stuff up like Mike did in the past. But we should at least keep this on our radar. Maybe Joe mixed up "By Myself" with "Esaul" as that one was worked on with Mark besides "Rhinestone".