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It's been quite a while since Mike took questions on Twitch, but he did answer some on January 11th for the first time in 2021!

- "Imagine you're going to do a Dropped Frames Tour, what would you play at the beginning and the end of the concert? What would be the biggest hit?" -> "Good question. That'd be crazy, right? How would I even do that? I wouldn't just make beats on stage, I wouldn't just play instrumentals. Right? Would I? Would I DJ? I don't think I'd ever DJ... I've been asked to DJ, like, "We'll give you this much money, come DJ this event." But I don't really DJ. Everybody in the chat says "Please DJ, DJ Spooky." "Booty Down" would be the hit, you're right. "Party Meow" would be a big one, "The Waltz" would go well, "Quarantine Tequila." We've got hits for a very specific audience, it's like if the whole audience got together it'd be like 1,500 people. If I went on tour with it, it'd be like one person in each city. That'd be amazing. "Neon Crickets", man "Party Meow" live? Come see all of the hits. I'd play the "Sleepy Track" from beginning to end in the middle of the show. That's why this thing we're doing here is so specific, you guys are all over the world and all over the place, and this is not something that's conducive to live shows or mainstream. I go down holes and do too much nerdy shit."

- "The Hundreds 15th anniversary Hybrid Theory jacket had a wingless soldier for the first time, was there any reason for it?" -> "Once in a while you'd see a wingless Linkin Park soldier. Originally it was because it was a mistake. I generated a couple of soldier designs and then Frank liked them and wanted to stencil them. So he cut them out and sprayed them, and took a picture of that. And then as a second layer, he did the wings separately and then superimposed them in the computer. So they weren't done together. They weren't actually done actually on the same cardboard or piece of paper or whatever. So, at some point he probably just used the soldier without the wings. Specifically, the one to the side, the one looking to the side. It got used without the wings. And then we didn't catch it, but we did catch it later and said, "Oh, I think we should always use the wings", and he's like, "Oh ok." So the idea of just using the soldier was just kind of a nod to that story, I guess. Good question. See what happens when you pay attention?"

- "Can you tell us more about the vegetable version of "Remember the Name" that you did for a film?" -> "Vegetable version? I did a vegetable version? I don't even know that I did a vegetable version. I don't remember this. Oh I see what you're saying, the Peter Rabbit version! We've gotta get clear on the actual video, on the actual clip in question here. Can you imagine you're watching Peter Rabbit and right in the middle of it, out of nowhere, absolutely out of nowhere in this CGI children's film? Dude come on. Just hold on, let me point out one part of the lyrics. 'It's not about the salary, it's all about the celery, and maybe some radishes, maybe some cabbages?!' That happened, that is a thing that happened, Peter Rabbit. They called me and they said, 'We want to use your song in our movie' and I'm like, 'How?' As usual, every time anybody's like, 'We want to use your music in a movie', I'm like, 'Maybe...? How?"'And they originally were like, 'Oh, we're going to have this fight scene where we're going to use it.' And I was like, 'That doesn't sound like something I want to do. It sounds like a very cute movie, but I don't know if that sounds like my thing.' And then I started talking with the director and they were like, 'We want to change the words though. Here's the scene.' And I was like, 'Oh, it's funny, it's a funny scene, got it.' So they rewrote the song for the movie, they rewrote that verse, rather, and sent it to me... and it wasn't awesome. The performance was really weird. Then I was like, 'Tell you what, I'll coach you on this, I'll tell you how to make it better, fix it.' Make it just a little more authentic to the song. Like, the pattern was all off, they had a person who doesn't rap do the thing and he missed the pattern of the thing. And then I was like, 'You know, you really have to have someone who can rap, who is also funny, do it.' And I suggested my friend Jensen who is the best, he's super super funny and he's a hardcore student of hip hop. So that's how that all came together, and then me and Jensen. It was a very easy thing to do, but every time I see it, it's the funniest thing ever. It's dumb but the birds are the ones rapping and the rabbits shoot the birds at the end. The thing is, I didn't initiate that and it wasn't like a hard thing to do. By the way for the record, they asked 'Would you do the voice?' and I was like 'No way! I would love to do a voice for a character but I don't want to just show up and rap a scene.' I couldn't imagine doing the 'cabbages, radishes' myself, it needed someone funnier, a funnier voice. If you actually ask me to do the voice of one of the rabbits, I would do it. But nobody is asking. Nobody asked! I don't know what's up!"

- "Is there any connection between your artwork for Hybrid Theory 20 and your Meteora cover photo?" -> "I mean, like a loose connection, not like an intentional connection. The original vibes are all stencils and street art like that. Early 2000s street art."

- "The "Final Masquerade" video depicts an apocalyptic scenario even though the song came out in 2014. I feel the lyrics can relate to the health emergency in the world. What do you think?" -> "Yeah, that was kind of the point of the video. Kind of... things are a bit of a mess."

- "Hey Mike, on the back of the "My December" t-shirt it has the lyrics "These are my snow covered dreams", I thought it was always "These are my snow covered trees."" -> "Um, that's wrong, right? And then I think there are a few lyric screwups around the Hybrid Theory thing because they were moving very quick on the production of those items and we missed some stuff. But it's kind of fun, like those are good collectors items. What was the one that was all fucked up? Was it Crawling? Isn't it trees...? I don't remember what it was, I have to listen to it. How many minutes in is it, I don't remember. I've gotta look it up. The lyrics aren't coming up on Apple. Snow covered bees? 1:40, thank you. Trees, 100% trees, you couldn't tell? Yeah, trees. I think dreams would be too psuedo poetic. We're talking about home, right? Dreams would be a little less... it's painting the picture guys. There you go - trees."

- "Do you still trust Brad or Dave throwing a Coke or whatever since Brad threw a Coke and Phoenix almost killed you with his bass?" -> "I know you guys, being on the road is dangerous business."

- "My teacher played Kenji in class to teach about World War II. How do you feel when your songs are used to teach in the academic field?" -> "I love that. Please, as much as possible, wherever applicable. All good."

- Mike in a longer answer about other collaborating with Slipknot on the "Produce Me" thing (saying it wasn't the point of it to work with bigger bands) talked about Metallica: "We toured with Metallica a bunch. Playing for them... winning over Metallica fans at a concert is one of the hardest things to do. Sounding like Linkin Park sounds and then playing before Metallica was a miracle and a lot of hard work to go into those shows and have Metallica fans leaving and going like, "I like that band, they were cool." It was no small feat. And it didn't work 100% of the time, we had a couple of shows where too many of the fans were like... not having it. Notably, Ireland. We played some show in Ireland opening up for them and we hadn't set up enough introduction to those fans. Those fans didn't really know us too well and we opened for Metallica, they were literally flipping us off, turning their backs against us and throwing stuff at us."

Julien-K - "Unauthorized Live In Europe"

Tracklisting:

01. Intro
02. We're Here With You
03. Surrounded By Cowards
04. Fail With Grace
05. Palm Springs Reset
06. Colorcast
07. Nights Of Future Past
08. Flashpoint Riot
09. Someday Soon (Remix)
10. Breakfast In Berlin
11. Cruel Daze Of Summer
12. I'll Try Not To Destroy You
13. Maestro
14. Kick The Bass

In an almost unbelievable move, this album is now coming out from the band. Patreon first (where it is out now) and then to everyone else via streaming etc.. 6+ years later.

It ends very abruptly.

Mike has posted a series of videos on his Tik Tok account asking for fan vocals on a few tracks. He recently made these songs in his CoronaJams streaming sessions on Twitch.

On track one from December 14 ("Freestyle"), Mike says, "Hey guys, trying something new, I made this track on Twitch today, let's see if you guys can do any vocals over it." The description says, "Rappers and singers, let’s hear your vocals on this track 🎤🎹🎧 #duet"

For track two on December 15 ("Hanukkah Freestyle-Trap Kletzmer 1.2"), Mike says, "Alright guys here's the track from Twitch from today, feel free to do any vocals or any instrument on top of it." The description reads, "New track for you to #duet with. Made live on Twitch (weekdays 10am-noon PST, Twitch.tv/OfficialMikeShinoda)"

For track three on December 20 ("KarmaKon"), the description reads, "#duet with this and add your vocal, instrument, or dance. Let’s see it. #Rapper #Vocalist #Instrumental #Hiphop #Producer #music #musician #performer"

Film Daily has posted a new interview with Jeff Blue and it includes bits about Linkin Park.

A few excerpts:

"When Chester sang his first note on his demo even over the phone, I was certain he was the guy. His tonality and cadence, energy, identity….it was everything together that made me realize even before I met him, even before I knew what he looked like, that he was the right singer for Linkin Park."

"The band and I overcame so many roadblocks, 44 rejections, tremendous politics, changing band members, changing label heads, and almost getting dropped during the creation of the album. It is a testament to the band that they had the perseverance and fortitude to push ahead and create one of the best rock albums of this century. 

All the stars aligned when I found Chester, but the success must be attributed to Linkin Park and Mike Shinoda, as well as the team at Warner Bros, especially the radio and marketing department. I am proud of how well all pulled together against the odds."

Check out the full interview here.

Long time Linkin Park fan kattoda has created a fully animated music video for Mike Shinoda's "Hold It Together", the song that infamously had all of its music video footage lost.

From Linkinpedia: The "Hold It Together" video was filmed in Prague and Luxembourg on the 2019 Post Traumatic Tour. Mike said in 2020 about the video, "That's the Hold It Together video. Some of you were coming to the shows and some of you saw us filming the video and we got so much of it done. We had this whole scene... it was this whole idea partially inspired by the Missy Elliot videos from the early 2000s, it was Hype Williams, he did all of these weird, jittery things. I was doing it in reverse, some of them we were doing takes in fast forward. I had memorized the chorus in reverse and I did this whole thing where set up this shot, we had multiple cameras shot, handheld, it was on stage and I did this whole thing where I came to the stage. So at the end of the show, the show's over, crowd's there. Then I leave the stage and then from off stage they all get in position and we did this whole choreographed thing with like streamers and lights and I don't remember what else, and me walking backwards to the stage.

Played in reverse it was SO cool because I was talking to the camera and then I was doing the words and I finished on the stage. Then the streamers went back into the things, like the poppers went in. It was great, we couldn't believe it, we had one take to get it right and we got it. And then at the end of the tour the hard drive was accidentally confiscated by the airport police. We believe. We believe that what happened is that it was in Chady's bag and then all of a sudden it wasn't, and it was his mistake to not back it up. So.... it sucks. And that was just one of the scenes, we had done a bunch of scenes with the crew. And you can't recreate those moments. It's not possible. So, that's a bummer."

In the video description, kattoda says, "Hi! I’m kattoda and this is my very first animated music video. When I first heard ‘Hold It Together’ I immediately started imagining this story. But I never thought of actually making it into a video. Until I heard Mike saying that they lost all the footage for the Hold It Together music video. So I decided to spend my time in quarantine making this video, and I really hope you enjoy it"

Mike of course, in typical Mike fashion, has shared the video on his social media saying, "Wow, @kattoda_draws did a whole music video for HOLD IT TOGETHER. Watch!"

Great job kattoda and we're glad that the missing song from the Post Traumatic music video series finally has a video!

Linkin Park recently retweeted a tweet from The Game Awards which used a new remix of "My December."

The remix likely was done only for the trailer instead of for a full-fledged remix, but it was nice seeing the track used in the promotion of a big event. Regardless, the trailer is well done and specifically, Chester's acapella sounds great. At this time it is unknown which person did the music for the trailer / remixed the track.

Mike has released his new "Sleep For Students" compilation, of thirty separate tracks. Created on August 28th, 2020, Mike took a fan suggestion on Twitch to create a long and relaxing "sleepy time" track. Reminiscent of "Ghosts" by Nine Inch Nails, or even Mike's "Minutes to Midnight" website clips, the tracks are fully instrumental and weave in and out of different ambient sounds Mike has created.

Mike said on September 9th,  "Yeah we're working on it, I don't have definitive news yet. But Sleepy Jam is on the horizon, I want to get it out as quickly as possible so you guys can start using it for your sleepy time music. Remember if I told you if I put it on streaming services that it'd make royalties when you listen to it? My concept is actually, I have a scholarship at ArtCenter College of Design that I funded forever ago, and I realized, 'Ah I'd really love to do something with the income from the Sleepy Time Jam that's really cool.' I want to try to send those royalties there, I want it to help fund the scholarship. When you are doing something like that, if I donate it from my royalty income, it gets taxed on the way to me and then I can donate my portion to the school. So I'm like, 'Is there a way I can do it where just donate the album itself to the school?' So if it makes $1,000, then the thousand dollars is taxed and then a portion of a thousand dollars goes to the scholarship. So I'd rather the whole thing go, if it's possible. My scholarship at ArtCenter, it's big enough for a graphics or illustration student based on financial need and merit. So they have to be really good and they have to need the money, and they need help going to school. So we'll figure it out, that's why it's taking an extra second. We aren't going to just put it up on SoundCloud or let you download the thing, I want to do something like that with it. It's complicated enough... the government doesn't want you to use charitable donation as like a tax loophole basically. So you've gotta do it the proper, legal way and I'm not super educated on how that works so we’re figuring it out. So that'll be that with the Sleepy Time Jam."

Later in September about the album cover, he said, "I started it black and white, and then I added a little textures on the edges, and then I started just lightning and coloring it, so I wanted it to be more sleepy and chill. Yeah, I like it, it came out pretty good."

The album can be purchased at AcousticSounds.com.

Mike was recently interviewed by Strombo on Apple Music, and here's the recap.

- Strombo said on Summer Sanitarium 2003, he was interviewing Mike and Chester in Toronto. When it came time to end the interview, they discovered Fred from Limp Bizkit wasn't going to come off of his bus to do an interview so Mike and Chester gladly stayed an extra 40 minutes to fill the time with a very long interview, just before Linkin Park had to go to Boston for the next show of the tour.

- Mike was not a big fan of the idea of releasing a Hybrid Theory 20 package. LP management pitched him the idea but he was like, "I wasn't into it in the beginning." He said, "Really? 20 years? I don't know. Why now?" He said once old photos, flyers, etc came up, he then liked the idea. 

- Mike tells a story from when he and Brad talked in 1998 about having good musical ideas and it'd be a waste if no one heard them. He said they decided from the ground up, the way the band records and sounds they use, they wanted to find ways to push the boundaries with sounds and make people a little uncomfortable when listening to it. Rap/rock was starting at the time but a lot of it was "macho." 

- The band would mail out street team materials with cassette tapes, etc before they toured and on their first tour ever they would show up and see 20-30 LP fans in line outside the shows.

- About Chester passing away and how Linkin Park is dealing with it: "It's more like losing a brother or best friend. Not only did we spend an insane amount of time together, but also we built something." / "We built that together - it's an identity. Like, who are you? We are Linkin Park. And we did that together. Linkin Park is a part of all of our DNA, so when that got fractured and taken apart in a sense, I don't think anybody could really understand because you can't really relate that to anything else, it's not just family, it's not just friends, it's not just brotherhood, it's not just business... it's all of those things wrapped together. For better or worse, that could be something that is not very healthy but you also can't do it any other way. In order to be a band, and be this successful, and exist for this many years as like a highly functional unit of guys, it had to be that way. With that said, I think that there are parts of our relationships and our well being that we are doing so well... I'm super proud of everybody and how everybody's done and coped with things and adapted. And also parts where it's like, "Yeah, we could probably do better." Whether it's just like having bad days or... I don't know. It's a very personal subject. I don't think any of us are at liberty or would even be able to explain this to anybody. You could spend years on it and still not crack the surface of what all of that emotion is."

12 minutes ago, JediAHoles said:

If they don't want fans getting excited and asking them about stuff, why post anything at all?

Sometimes reading text makes it seem like the mood is more intense than it really is. He was in a fun/joking mood as usual.

On October 26th, grandson tweeted: "GRANDSON X LINKIN PARK" , uploading a picture with is name written with the Hybrid Theory logo generator both on Facebook and Instagram which sent social media into a frenzy, getting thousands of interactions quickly.

Days ago he also tweeted "SHUT UP WHEN IM TALKING TO YOU", so fans are now speculating about a possible cover or remix of One Step Closer.

Mike was asked about the tweet today on Twitch and had this to say: "I do not have a comment on the grandson tweet. Leave me alone. You guys are relentless. I just wanted to get that out of the way so that we can actually get down to business today and make something without you guys spending the entire morning doing that. So just... I'm putting it out there. I'm not answering."

He then added, "grandson tweeted an image. I'll tell you what it's not - some of the fans were like, "It's a brand new Linkin Park song featuring grandson!" and then some people threw in other names too. It's like, sure. You know it's not that. It's fun, it's going to be something fun and exciting. It is something, but it's not that. Yeah, grandson is a great kid. Jordan."

Fever 333 also tweeted with the caption "333 X LP", grandson retweeted announcing: "TOMORROW".

Jason Aalon from Fever 333 commented during a live stream saying that it's "Something very cool with a little bit of collaboration-ish, kinda like a tribute. Just thought it would be cool to honor it."

What do you think we'll get tomorrow?

1 minute ago, PictureboardSoldier said:

Can someone fucking upload it immediately or is everyone just going to be a fucking asshole on here like usual and hoard shit for themselves 

Hi troll. No one has your "fucking" song.

General thread for a potential 8th Linkin Park studio album, if the band makes a comeback and does end up releasing one.
Collecting everything here - and feel free to post any relevant news, topics, quotes, discussion, etc. about the future of Linkin Park in this thread.
 

- January 25, 2018 - Mike via Twitter
"I have every intention on continuing with LP, and the guys feel the same. We have a lot of rebuilding to do, and questions to answer, so it’ll take time."

• April 15, 2019 - Joe via Yonhap News
"And… Now the band has started talking about making new music together." ((("Will Linkin Park come back?"))) -> "Maybe in about 10 years? (Laughs) It might be sooner. I don't want to set a deadline. We just want to focus on the present and talk about music. We aren't discussing detailed plans. I just want to go back to those days when I made music in the garage."

• April 19, 2020 - Dave, via Instagram Live (LAFC)
"We're not done. Band wise  or team wise, we're not done. [...] Band wise, we are always kind of writing, we are always working on new music. Right now, with what's going on in the international situation, we're a little bit on pause on all that."

• April 21, 2020 - Dave via Facebook Live (Dan Really Likes Wine)
"So at this point, globally, we are all doing a version of the same thing. For us with the band, we have been writing before this all started. Casually at this point we are doing Zoom meetings to eat lunch together and say hi. But we are not able to get together and write or do that whole bit. We're working at home a little bit, working up ideas. I've been playing a lot of drums just to do something new. I've been doing that for the last year, year and a half, and I've been purposely making as much noise as possible to create my own space in the house."

• May 29, 2020 - Mike via Twitch
"Someone is asking if Linkin Park is over. That's a deep question man. As far as I know, Linkin Park is not over. But Linkin Park is also in quarantine, like everybody else."

• October 23, 2020 - Brad via Spin
“When asked if Linkin Park are working on new songs for their eighth studio record, Delson smiled widely — knowingly. “I think everything is open,” he explained. “Certainly, a lot is undefined, but I think the possibility is wide open.”

• October 2020 - Brad via Space Shower TV
"We can see each other over Zoom. We've actually been doing some really cool press for this Hybrid Theory release, so... While I haven't been with those guys in person recently, in this kinda way we can be together."

• October 26, 2021 - Mike via Tuna on Toast with Stryker
“For me, I’m like, ok physically I could still tour. That part’s good. Hopefully that doesn’t change any time soon. But now is not the time [for the band's return]. [...] We don’t have the focus on it. We don’t have the math worked out. And I don’t mean that by financially math, I mean that like emotional and creative math. [...] Our bar for like, the threshold for what would be acceptable is high. Just like always. For our band, anything that we do, it’s like it’s gotta be, it’s gotta clear a certain bar. So there’s no, nothing has cleared the bar."

• April 22, 2022 - Mike via Twitch
"There is a piece of Linkin Park news. I don't want to spoil anything... it's very very minor, let me put it that way. The only Linkin Park news I have for you is that... yeah, we talk like every few weeks, like I talk to the guys, or some of the guys. And there’s no tours, there’s no music, there’s no albums in the pipeline, ok? So, let me just tell you that. So, just keep in your minds that that is not happening. I'm just gonna say that much, for now, ok. I say that because anytime the band says anything or does anything, everyone is, like... tries to start up the hype train and we're like, 'No, no, no, no, don't start up the hype train', you're gonna disappoint yourself, so don't do that."

• May 3, 2022 - Linkin Park via Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (Launch of "Notes From The Band" newsletter)

"Hey Everyone,

Two decades in and our LP community continues to inspire us. Your passion and dedication is the lifeblood of what we’ve built together with you. And it doesn’t go unnoticed. 

We thought it was about time to begin sharing a little more regularly with you. Starting this mon, we’ll be putting (digital) pen to (digital) paper to share NOTES FROM THE BAND––tiny snapshots into our daily misadventures, from us each month. There’s no concrete plan, but that’s what we like about it.
Until then…

All our best,

Rob, Brad, Dave, Joe & Mike"

• February 10, 2023 - Mike via KROQ with Nicole Alvarez
"I'll say this way. Normally, I'm really trying to just manage expectations a little bit, especially lately in the last few years. It's like, there are certain things that are going to be on the table, certain things that are off the table. With this release, shockingly, I was like, 'I don't think there's very much to say it's off the table. Touring is the only thing, we're not touring right now. But the rest of their immagination, where I know their heads are gonna go, it's like, 'Oh, is there this? Is there that? Can we do this? Can we do that?'... I think to a lot of that it's a yes."

"There's just more music. So, I've got stuff I've produced that are other people's songs, got my own song, and we got the Linkin Park stuff. And that's not even everything that we're gonna be doing around this for Linkin Park fans. So, this is a great time to be a Linkin Park fan."

13 hours ago, MS2000 said:

Did he mentioned this show? could you send the link pls? MTV may have the full lenght concert, but i don't know if we will ever see it

He has mentioned it twice this year, the most recent one was like 2 days ago.

The Meteora list will be impossible for live shows. Astat's list is great but already misses MFR 2005. You have to do a PR 04 show. You almost have to skip Rock am Ring 2004 because of how much other content there is. Reading 2003 is an absolute must.

Perhaps the two MUST HAVE live items though are a PR 04 show and Summer Sonic 2006. Work backwards from there.

1 hour ago, MS2000 said:

Of course one of the biggest LP concerts, Chimera Festival in São Paulo back in 2004.

Sounds like LP does not have a recording of that show judging by what Mike has said on Twitch.

On 8/27/2020 at 3:24 AM, rd1994 said:

Anybody have a clue what the transition from Don't Stay to Somewhere I Belong is? It almost sounds like a clip from a countdown or something

On 10/20/2020 at 12:56 PM, blackout said:

 

Thank you. I'm glad that someone came up with more extensive and logical explanation to me because it all didn't make sense to me. Now I get it fully. 

 

One thing that I maybe don't understand is why they decided to continue working on such songs like Carousel of Part of Me. They definitely had the intention to put one or two songs from HTEP on HT. However, I wouldn't have liked it personally - the vibe of the EP is much different than the album and songs from HTEP kinda belong together nicely where they were initially.

 

But then again, wouldn't it be more logical to throw more money at demo CDs than at HTEP? HTEP seems to be a very underground release while the demo CDs contain much stronger material (Papercut or POA early versions) and were sent to various labels. I don't doubt the facts that you presented, just thinking out loud. 

No. Because for the HTEP they entered a professional studio with Mudrock. The demo CDs were recorded by the band using their own gear. They only worked with Don Gilmore for 6~ish weeks in mid 2000, they were recording everything themselves before that. That's why the HTEP sounds better. Those demos for Part of Me and Carousel were recorded after the HTEP for possible inclusion on HT (glad they didn't go with them; Don also vetoed Stick N Move) so that is why they don't sound as good.

The demo CD stuff was just showcasing what they were working on before Warner sent them in the studio with a real producer for the debut album. I agree that the creative streak they hit with Chester was really impressive - Papercut, Dust Brothers, Plaster, Crawling, Points, Untitled... all of those were brand new songs that absolutely kicked ass. The fact LP created those so quickly is mindblowing.

Remember the 8 track demo CD was almost released as a long EP before they recorded Hybrid Theory. Thank goodness they didn't do that because it would have ruined the surprise of the album. She Couldn't was also on that one. I wonder why Rhinestone and Esaul weren't on that and She Couldn't was. Maybe they were saving those two for the album, or they didn't think they were in the 8 strongest songs they had. We'd never know the answers to those questions unless we asked the band literally in February 2000 lol

Correct. Billboard 200 IMO doesn't matter as much, but some will argue it matters the most because it has streaming included. But that's where viral songs lead the charts. HT20 isn't going to have anything go viral like Fleetwood Mac had with TikTok. Album chart and being #2 is legit, because this is a box set. IMO that's what you should focus on. No way LP was going to top the Billboard 200 with this, there wasn't even a lead single.

Would love to hear "No Roads Left" and "In Between" with Chester on vocals. If the band said Mike sang both of them better, then his versions probably really are better. But it'd be cool to hear, because the MTM era was so good. Those seem like obvious inclusions on an MTM box set, if they ever did one.

Holy grail list probably is something like this:

1. "Thoughts That Take Away My Pride" from Meteora (probably not even the song's real name lol, could be called something like "Make Them Disappear" or a random title). The only known extra Meteora song with vocals. It's entirely possible they have other demos with vocals (A-Six?) we don't even know about. Like "Could Have Been" on HT20.

2. "Friendly Fire". Most certainly a a full OML song with Jon Green, which Mike said is actually an awesome song, is at the top of this list. All of Jon's songs with LP have been good.

With "Pictureboard" being released, the list certainly went down a notch... it was the biggest item out there but we do have 2 left that are on that level. Seriously after those 2 there are probably not GREAT songs left that we *know about*. Can only imagine what the band has from MTM, ATS, THP, OML with vocals / semi or mostly completed that we've never even heard of. "Friendly Fire" is probably great since Mike was right about "Pictureboard" not being that good.

"Deftest" was either vetoed by Mike or Mark, but was definitely revisited this year when going through the archives because why would Mike mention a 23+ year old demo so randomly like that? It must be quite bad. Would be cool to have for history's sake, for sure. But we only know of 2 more songs (listed above) that are probably awesome. No idea what is unknown that they have, but they probably do have some for each album that are badass.

Over the past few weeks in the Hybrid Theory 20 press, we’ve heard the band mention a “3 track sampler” for Xero before the 4 track. It’s the first we’ve ever heard of it. Mike on October 15 talked about the start of Xero on Twitch, revealing a new track previously unknown to fans called "Deftest."

About "Dialate": ""Dialate" was one of my first demos that I did with my friend Mark. At that point, it was certainly just me and Mark. There was no band, it was just me and Mark making stuff. And we made "Dialate" and "Deftest" and at some point after that, "Stick N Move." I think there were a couple other tracks that we doodled around with and didn't release or that we hated or whatever. Stuff that we didn't finish. I think most or all of that stuff is out, it's all in the Hybrid Theory 20 or in the LPU or whatever. But "Dialate" was that early."

He pulled up "Could Have Been" on YouTube and said: "So this is off of Hybrid Theory 20, this is when Chester first joined the band, essentially. So that's just live guitar mic'd up, MPC for all the rhythm tracks, and then bass through like a bass pod, an emulator. Like, one of the little laptop ones I think. We were just using like an SM58 mic. This is not live drums, this is MPC drums. Yeah this is an early Chester demo, we were playing around with the back-and-forth. So I think this one with the crazy bass stuff at the end, right? Yeah, so this is when we first tried out this guy Kyle as a bass player. Dave had left. So this is Kyle at the end. Like, he loved Primus and slap bass stuff, so he was gnarly. He loved all of that super fast slap bass stuff. So I thought like, "Let's give him a bass solo spot." And yeah, that solo was Kyle. That was interesting. I actually thought we weren't going to be able to put this track on Hybrid Theory 20 box set because we haven't talked to Kyle in that long. I was like, "Yeah I don't know how you're going to track that guy down... like, good luck. And I don't know if he'll approve it - he might be like, "Give me all the publishing, I want 100% of the publishing or else you can't have the song.""" And apparently I have to imagine he was cool, because it all worked out. I actually didn't talk to him. But yeah, that was that era, it was very much in transition and Chester was pretty new in the band."

On the stream on October 20th, Mike said, "LPLive is now trying to get locked on to Deftest as the new Pictureboard. Pictureboard is a pay off. Other demos, not so much. If you were to hear that, you would not be... I strongly suggest you don't start putting your attention on Deftest. That is not a thing to do. Pictureboard, you hear it, "Wow that's cool, I'm so glad we were so focused on that song." No I never said Pictureboard was a bad song. It has Chester on it. Deftest, Mark and I did like a four track cassette version of it and it sounds like shit. You guys don't want that, trust me. It's D-E-F-T-E-S-T by the way, not D-E-A-F, because Mark was a big fan of the Deftones. And we were just testing out ideas. So you can tell just right away, from the name itself, that it is not a grail. This is not an incredible fucking thing. Trust me on this."

But back to the Xero sampler... do we have a potential for a sampler existing with "Dialate", "Deftest" and "Stick N Move"? What do you think? Or is the band referring to the three song sampler as the band audition tape?

This is an absolute disaster with WhoSampled. Wow.

24 minutes ago, Hybridtheory said:

well, i still believe it's the full vegas show.

the scream for sure is the full of Vegas, if it was a mix they would have announced it, and the DVD also I believe is vegas.

I think a mix of San Diego and Vegas would be confusing.

well, we can only wait ...

It's a case of LP just not typing it correctly on the broadcast.

The entire thing is a mix of both shows. Probably because one of the shows had chaos with the crowd, etc (Check the show pages).

Stick and Move is with Chester.

Orders have begun shipping 2 days ago.

Our guess is Kyle. Could be Brad, it's definitely one of them.