sublimeric

Ironic, since Rubin was involved in the production of both. I blame him, due to his past track record of ruining albums (Californication & Death Magnetic come to mind), and because Chester himself says something to the effect of "Rick wants everything LOUD" on "Meeting of a Thousand Suns." I hope the vinyl is more in line with the iTunes mix than the CD. iTunes has the clipping and "blown-out-speaker" sound here and there, but it's still an improvement. I wish Mike would just produce, record, and mix/master everything.

Great to see LP kicking ass so far with the ATS performances. Pleasantly surprised to hear them nail this song twice in a week (KROQ & NYC)

How is the audio quality of the LP.com tracks? I bought the "Deluxe" version on CD/DVD, MP3 version on Amazon, & the regular iTunes album. When comparing the tracks in my audio editor, I noticed (and heard!) that the CD & Amazon versions had terrible clipping and distortion on every track from being mixed/mastered too loudly. iTunes clips at a few points here and there, but is nowhere near the terrible quality of the other two formats. Kind of sucks that I had to buy this album three times just to get a decent sounding version :-/

MySpace had people filming this, so hopefully it'll lead to something watchable, especially if teamed up with the DSP (was there one for this show?) I don't care for WID as a closer, but no big deal, considering people got to see a bunch of new songs for the first time at an official LP concert. That's good enough.

Thanks! The quality of the broadcast and LP's performance surprised me. I skipped the old songs and was bummed Mike didn't list the "5" songs they "jammed" on, but great show and good way to celebrate ATS day.

Just watched it, and even at 29 minutes, it seems like the trailer for the REAL "Meeting of a Thousand Suns." The band meetings were interesting, especially Chester "going Rick Rubin" at the end, but right when things get interesting it cuts away to something else. Not so sure I'll buy the deluxe version now, since it's just a 30 minute fluff-piece commercial for the album, but in conclusion, I will be extremely happy when the distorted editing effect is a thing of the past. Glad they put this on Hulu and saved me a few bucks that be re-routed for future concert tickets, DSPs, etc.

Amphitheaters are the worst, most non-nonsensical place to see a rock band...ever. Weather can severely screw with the atmosphere, the stage setup dumbs down production values, and if you don't want a seat you can either pay top dollar for a mini pit out front (great in the heat) or be 73 miles back on the lawn. At this point, LP should only be in arenas. Their shows are generally high energy and their music lends itself nicely to special visuals, like moving screens, "in the round" seating, etc. There are a few exceptions, like Red Rocks in Denver, Bank of America Pavilion in Boston, and other places where the scenery makes up for the shortcomings I listed, but there's also dumps like the Comcast Center in Mansfield, stuck right in the middle of nowhere. F that. Bring on arenas.

Just listened to it from start to finish and loved 97% of "a thousand suns". I don't know how the electronic part is going to resonate with me over time, but they definitely succeeded in making an ALBUM. the only downside is "the messenger". chester screaming over piano and acoustic guitar made my ears bleed a little bit. Mike was absolutely the strong point of "A Thousand Suns".

Blows away the catalyst, but still hating the vocal effects. I'm really looking forward to hearing the new stuff live and without some of the studio trickery.

Just as cheesy as any of their other non-live, non-animated videos. I wish they would just...stop. Or finally pull the trigger and become soap opera "stars".

...and I'm with him, but he's only 1 of 6 band members. He could easily be out voted.

That's lame if Rock Band won't have any tracks. The exclusive deals with either "GH" or "RB" are a pain in the ass, and I'm surprised that a tech-savvy band like LP haven't pushed harder to get their songs included in all of the top music games.

I'm not surprised by the shorter setlists, and it makes sense. Traditionally, American bands release an album, do an overseas "warm-up" tour of Festivals, Club gigs, etc, and then come back to the states to launch the *real* tour. In theory they could "get used to" playing live by using this ancient technique called "rehearsal", but having a live crowd is a better way to get instant feedback on what's working and what isn't. International fans will whine and bitch, and it's understandable, but it's not like a generic, shorter set is out of the ordinary for an American band of LP's stature. Limp Bizkit are doing the same exact thing right now. As for the "choose one song" poll, looks GREAT on paper, but before everyone gets their hopes up we need to consider that the people on this site and even on LPU make up a tiny percentenge of the overall LP fanbase. If they open this poll up to the casual fans that just hit LP.com, it could easily be a case of "In the End" winning by a landslide every night.

I'm kind of surprised that it took LP this long to give less and charge more. The package and price made sense at the beginning, and the LPU tour was ridiculously generous and cool. But they're a huge international band now. All good things must come to an end. They lost me the year they decided to be "funny" and make songs about the alphabet. :-p Very interested to see what will be different about LPUX. More content? Different M&G format?

I'd like a remastered version of "She Couldn't" and maybe a demo of "Pushing Me Away" (reanimated) with Mike singing Stephen's part. Definitely downloading this no matter what they put on it. $60 + whatever the CD price is + shipping is ridiculous for a 10 track disc.

I want "She Couldn't". That is all.

I hate the new LPU business model, regardless of what is on the CD. If they guarantee a meet & greet, or something special that people outside of NY/LA can take part in (think: LPU tour '03), the cost is justified. Otherwise, Linkin Park are just like Roger Waters, Rihanna, or any other Rolling-Stone-Cover-Wannabe that gouges the fans. Charging $60, or even $10, for the chance to buy tickets for a rock show makes as much sense as Ticketmaster you $2.50 to print your own tickets. LPU math: +$30 -package = LPUX Cool to see the responses being mostly positive though. One of the perks of being a fan of a major league band. Only in the music world can a "company" or "business" charge more while giving the customer less, and be met with rave reviews!

Agreed that great vocal performances from Chester seem to be few and far between, but when he's "on", there's nobody better. When I saw LP in Mansfield, MA in 2008 he killed it. I also like that his voice is less "gritty" then is was for the first couple albums and their tours. The "Lying From You" chorus is a good example of what I'm talking about.

If Mike's comment upset Brad so much, I can only imagine how he felt when they toured with Snoop :-p

Watch...there will be one song with back and forth vocals, a scream, and heavy guitars. They will only release it in Japan ;-) Thanks for the info everyone. I don't love "The Catalyst", but at least it's different. Looking forward to hearing the new stuff live and hearing what else they came up with in the studio.

I don't know why this was the lead single, but they never release the best song first anyways. My favorite songs from each album have all been the 2nd single (Crawling/Faint/Bleed it Out, and even New Divide if you count the Transformers soundtracks). I've listened to it a few times and only really dislike the verses. Chester singing/shouting about random shit in a digitized voice over a "Bleed It Out" techno beat. No thanks. The 2nd half gives me goosebumps and will be great live. I hope they change it up a bit like they usually do with the songs that aren't guitar heavy (see: "High Voltage").

I think all of the albums are extremely over-layered and over-produced, and LP are best heard in a live environment. Anxious to see how the new stuff is represented on future tours.

Thanks for the correction Geki. Replace my "ATS" diss with a "MTM" diss, because the same essentially applies. Going by the QWERTY example, though, I would love to see what would happen if they had a weekend to make an album, as opposed to being able to do 800 revisions of a song and nitpick/overproduce it to death over the span of 4 years.

I already chimed in that I'm not impressed, but like "Collision Course", "Reanimation" and "Minutes to Midnight", at least it's something different, and might make the band some new fans. It's just TOO different from the LP sound that I like. "QWERTY" was the ultimate tease, in my opinion. They wrote it on a single plane ride, and it kicks ass. Then they go in a studio for a couple years and come up with...this?