GoodCarpet

You are correct on that about DistroKid, but there's a couple things to note alongside that: 1: There are labels that distribute through services like Tunecore, ADA, and DistroKid, and this is a supported function of these platforms, and 2: ADA is, in effect, a fancy invite-only version of DistroKid. It isn't a label like Warner Records, it's a distribution platform for indie artists and labels that exists as part of Warner Music Group. It does provide more label-esque services than DistroKid or Tunecore, but artists/labels that distribute through ADA still retain ownership of their masters. I found the DistroKid HyperFollow link for Ziggurats (here) which was never posted publicly and the Wayback Machine has archives for this page dating back to April 2022, which makes sense for a URL that was never posted publicly to not have archives from its release. That plus the "196" UPC places a DistroKid upload dating to late 2021. Artists and their teams can still moderate their streaming pages for unauthorized releases (see: the waves of AI slop that get released on official streaming pages of mostly smaller bands/artists), so if Mike/his team wasn't the one to release it through DK, it would have been taken down by now. Add to that that, at the time, DistroKid tried to start a push towards Web3.0 stuff - something WMG wasn't associating with publicly at the time - and, given Mike's tech bro tendencies, that could have attracted him too.

Both releases have "QZ" prefixes on the ISRCs, which is a DistroKid prefix. They mix up the next three letters, but QZNWZ (normal release) and QZPLS (radio edit) are both DistroKid prefixes I have personally encountered. DistroKid UPCs at the time also started with "195" or "196", which the Ziggurats releases have too. On top of that, the YouTube streams for the individual tracks show "Provided to YouTube by DistroKid."

Hell yeah! This is my first LP show, so stoked!

As far as the EP not having any live drums, I strongly doubt that. Half of the EP doesn't: Technique, Step Up, and High Voltage (and Track 7). Neither do the later demos of Carousel and Part of Me that appear on later demo CDs. I listened again after seeing your message in the shoutbox, and my thoughts: The other three songs have drums that sound way too realistic for them to be programmed by 1999 standards. Nowadays it'd be a lot harder to tell with how realistic drum samplers like GGD and Superior Drummer are, but in 1999 those programs didn't exist and there was nothing like them. Also Mike's drum programming was not good for "natural" sounding drums at the time, they always sounded very stiff and fake. For an example of what I mean by stiff and fake, listen to the Carousel demo on Forgotten Demos and compare to the EP version. You can hear how the EP version's drums sound significantly more real, especially the cymbals and hats. That "stiff" programmed drum feel still exists in most of the Meteora demos too - similar to the Hybrid Theory demos, similar to the Xero demos - and I doubt Mike got crazy skilled at programming super realistic sounding drums, did it on three songs, and then never did that again until realistic sample libraries became a thing. There is one weird part - at about 2:55 in Part of Me, there's a snare roll that sounds like it comes in on top of a tom roll, which would be impossible to play with two hands. But also double tracking drums wasn't a new thing - Foo Fighters did it on My Hero two years prior.

To me, the first [?] sounds like "rhythm" and the second sounds like "revisiting the distance".

Such a good album, easy contender for album of the year for me. Hard to rank and this isn't definitive by any means, but right now my ranking is: 1. Good Things Go 2. Two Faced 3. Heavy Is The Crown 4. Overflow 5. Casualty 6. The Emptiness Machine 7. IGYEIH 8. Over Each Other 9. Cut The Bridge 10. Stained

Omaha show the day before my birthday! Hopefully tickets aren't egregiously expensive.

Cool bro. I also have friends in the music industry who, sonically, would fit in Linkin Park pretty well if the goal was to replace Chester, but instead of bitching, I'm celebrating "the chick singer" as you call her. Is she Chester? No, and neither are any of my friends or your "friends." But she has a powerful voice of her own - like Chester had - and fits well within the band's chemistry - like Chester did - and that's far more important than simply having "the guy that does the thing the same way the other guy did the thing."

Yeah they can go low! In fact, With You and Runaway off Hybrid Theory were both played on 7 strings in B standard. Don't Stay is in Drop B, I believe Somewhere I Belong is actually in A# standard on a baritone, and the new song, Heavy Is The Crown, has rhythm guitars in Drop A, which I believe is their lowest tuning thus far! That being said, Dave seemingly isn't tuning any lower than Drop C# on this tour and his part on Heavy Is The Crown is largely in the same octave as the rhythm guitars. Also, little fun fact, speaking of tunings and key changes: Lost in the Echo is being played in a higher key live - two full steps higher than the original - but where the original was in Drop D, Mike is now playing it in Drop A!

Also Mike Elizondo's name is there, the guy who Mike Shinoda said was their top candidate as a bass player when Phoenix left. But Phoenix is on there too. Really interesting that Colin and Emily aren't there, either.

The key is changed, in other words the pitch of the songs is different. Emily's vocal range sits higher than Chester's, so she can't hit the lower notes that he can. Some songs have a drastic change, like Somewhere I Belong, which was originally their lowest tuned song at Drop A# (I think, someone correct me if I'm wrong) and is now being played in Drop D or Drop C#, about 2 1/2 or 3 full steps higher than original. Some are less drastic, like Faint, being played a half step higher than original. That being said, some songs are played in the original key, like Lying From You. The benefit is that Emily can sing the songs easier, as the vocal melodies fit more comfortably within her range and she doesn't have to strain to hit the lower notes that are out of her comfortable range. A lot of bands do this, however they usually lower the key of their songs so they don't have to strain to hit higher notes. LP did this at the tribute show when Oli Sykes did Crawling. This is a rare instance of a band raising the key of the songs, hence why people are so thrown off by the changes.

No way. The rumor is that it's Healing Foot ft Twenty One Pilots. The full screenshot shows how fake it is.

Per this post on Jeff's Instagram 6 weeks ago: Someone commented asking "Sooo how come nothing ever came of this? Legal issues?" and he responded "no just time and family stuff just when I was starting the LP stuff. But I’ll get to it soon. Thx !" Still not hoping for much, but at least there's an update.

There are tons of ways to make actual tributes, people have been doing so for years. Throwing a song into a website and making someone else sing it is lazy and morally questionable at best. Like Wilderness said, is deepfake porn okay if you call it a "fan tribute"?

Lost was released in 2023 and is the newest single on it minus Friendly Fire. That's where the 2023 comes from.