LPLStaff

LPLive members Mark and Anthony, via Instagram Live, thoroughly discussing and breaking down Linkin Park's incredible "Hybrid Theory (20th Anniversary Edition)" release which was announced on August 13, 2020. Every single song, video, feature, and more was discussed in this hour and a half rundown, with our thoughts and opinions given on all of it. It was really a" midnight special", going until 1:00am+ on release day but we wanted to be sure and get our very first thoughts on the album recorded. And hey, it didn't turn out half bad for our technologically illiterate selves, ha. Anyway, we came away quite impressed - great job by Linkin Park and their team on this historic release!

Linkin Park recorded demos with Mark in the studio after the Xero tape. The Xero tape was recorded right to tape, so that's the ONLY version that exists for those exact performances of the song. So in 1998 they got money to get new gear, and recorded Esaul, Rhinestone, Pictureboard, Slip, etc with Mark - and likely all of these Xero songs except for maybe Fuse. We think this will be a studio quality Reading My Eyes, much much better than the Xero tape.

Yeah, not the band, the band's management, or Adam. Probably someone else at the label. Just how it is I guess, what can we do?

Agreed, have listened to the song so many times over the past day. The mastering really makes it sound so big. Such a unique song from the band.

As everyone saw on August 13th, Linkin Park released "She Couldn't" as the first official instant grat track from the Hybrid Theory (20th Anniversary Edition). "She Couldn't" is a demo from the 1999 recording sessions for Hybrid Theory that didn't end up making it on the album. From Linkinpedia: "She Couldn't" is very differently stylistically from other Linkin Park material at the time. It is over five minutes in length and features an extended instrumental breakdown. "She Couldn't" also one of the softest songs the band has produced, particularly from the Hybrid Theory era. This is also an extremely rare case of a Linkin Park song sampling music from another artist. "She Couldn't" samples Mos Def's vocals from "B-Boy Document '99" by High & Mighty where he says, "won't be long 'til everybody knows." Although the demo CD was advertised as being from 1998, "B-Boy Document '99" was released on August 24, 1999, on High & Mighty's album Home Field Advantage, meaning the song had to have been written around that date at the earliest. The track was also present on The Urban Network's 1999 compilation Rapology Sixteen which featured illustrations by Mike Shinoda.[2] It's possible this CD is where he first heard the song. On July 3, 2009, after LPLive released the full CD for free download, Mike posted on his blog about the song, "Many of you have asked about an old demo that is floating around. The song is called “She Couldn’t.” We recorded it in 1999 during the making of Hybrid Theory, but it never made an album and was never released by us. For legal reasons, that’s all I can say about the song, but I hope this clears things up!" The leaked version of the song on the demo CD features static throughout the song as the initial pressing of the CD was faulty. Yesterday, Mike Shinoda talked about the song at length, more than any time in the song's history. On Twitch, he said, "Before we get to the box set, let me say something about "She Couldn't", which I know was floating out there on the Internet and never had an official release. A lot of people are going to be hearing it for the first time. Here's a thing about that song. And I didn't pick that, I don't know who picked that for the first track. It's not a single, we're not doing singles. But in terms of having a track come out with the announcement, that song was one of the first songs we wrote with Chester. It was one of the really early ones we wrote from scratch with that configuration of the band. And here's some things that are in it - not really any distorted guitars. It's got the beats, it's got the electronic sounds, it's got a sample of Mos Def from a High & Mighty "Rawkus" release. Which by the way, shout out to Yasiin Bey, to Mos, for clearing the sample. So, it's got those things in it and the theme of the song, lyrically, the song is about the outsider and being there for somebody. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, I feel like that song is a foreshadowing of not just of Hybrid Theory, it's the foreshadowing of the next ten to fifteen years of the band. Like, we had everything we were from the very beginning, right? Think about that. Everybody knew us for the Hybrid Theory sound. Even before we released that, we had that song. And we had other songs like that. So that's the thing I thought was so dope. I didn't choose that song to come out first but that's something that I thought was so dope about that song." Later that day on Twitter, he added, "Glad you like it! We didn’t re “mix” the audio, we just mastered it. That basically means we preserved the integrity of the original mix, but mostly adjusted EQ and overall volume." The song was mixed by Mike Shinoda and mastered by Brian Gardner. Finally, that night, Mike posted a photo of Chester from the album photo shoot and said, ""She Couldn’t” is one of the earliest demos we made when Chester joined the band. Two things stand out about the song, to me: 1.) The programmed beat and focus on synth sounds and vocal loops (rather than heavy guitars) foreshadowed a future of the band many years after Hybrid Theory. In searching for our “first sound,” we set the groundwork for our later evolution. 2.) The softly-sung “you’re not alone” refrain reminded me that, although we debuted with a song screaming “shut up,” what most fans came to find out was that empathy and community were just as integral a part of LP’s DNA from the very beginning. Sincerely, thank you for the excitement about the #hybridtheory20 package. We’re so grateful to have had you with us all these years." The track today, August 14th, has made rock headlines across the world. Kerrang did a "First Reaction" article about the track and had this to say: "It’s very Hybrid Theory, isn’t it? Well, obviously, given that She Couldn’t is a song taken from the recording sessions from that album. But despite its softness and lack of the heavy guitars of One Step Closer or Crawling, despite its length and willingness to run at its own pace, rather than the no-second-wasted efficiency of the rest of that album, you could slot this anywhere in the album’s second half and it wouldn’t jar. It may be the one that got away, but it doesn’t sound like something that didn’t work, or of a band still finding its feet. By this point – basically the start of the story – Linkin Park already knew damned well who they were. If She Couldn’t tells us anything, it’s that in that time, Linkin Park were so creatively fecund and focussed that they could make anything fit within their world, even at a stage before they’d sold a single record. It’s a reminder that, when they exploded, suddenly and enormously, it was because their music already had personality and identity, expertly crafted until it was exactly how its creators wanted it. And as She Couldn’t amply demonstrates, while Hybrid Theory is nu-metal perfectly formed and distilled, it also had its fingers reaching out into so many other sounds, not just as embellishment, but strong roots that fed nourishingly into the Linkin Park machine." It's great to finally have the song in such awesome quality! Shout out to the visual creators at Warner who did the video for the song, which is really cool as it shows the photo shoot of making the album in sync with the music. "She Couldn't" has truly come full circle.

I think Rock am Ring is good because it's like "the" iconic international venue for LP, all the RaR shows are totally epic and its regarded as a fucking amazing place to see LP. I think the quality we are going to get, based on the trailer, is going to be an upgrade. Maybe even some different angles. Looks very, very nice. Agreed about indoor club, outdoor festival, indoor arena variety. Can't have too much of the same. Imagine if they had included London Docklands 2001 and left off Fillmore San Francisco or something. I'm glad we get a club show. It's a compilation of two Projekt Revolution 2002 shows to form a concert.

LPFuse fansite in 2006: FACTS OTHER LP SITES DON'T TELL YOU: Towards the end of the "Making of Breaking The Habit" DVD, a black and white montage is shown. The full length clip, intended to express emotions, was supposed to appear on frat party 2. Wow. Photo: http://web.archive.org/web/20060623004309im_/http://www.lpfuse.co.uk/gfx/bth_hand.jpg It's right here: https://youtu.be/JcEHMh2tmXk?t=944 But this is Breaking the Habit live in 2004 with fans singing in the crowd too. So it seems unrelated to this DVD we are getting. Looks like they had a lot of footage they shot for Meteora, which turned into LPTV episodes in 2007.

Chair and Hurry I mean. They are significantly shorter.

Chair and Hurry are probably incorrect lengths, right? As far as Sad, Mike is the one who edited it down for release for LPU 9 so no surprise they are going with that one.

Fuse was likely not recorded in studio after the Xero tape. That's why. Same about Reading My Eyes with Chester, probably never recorded it with him. Part of Me is the only song that logically seems to be left out for some reason, yes.

Landing right at 7:00 AM PST, Linkin Park has unveiled the highly anticipated Hybrid Theory 20 release via linkinpark.com! The band has teased demos, unreleased songs, and more for a week on their throwback website marketing campaign, amping up fans for today's big announcement. Welcome to Hybrid Theory 20! It's incredible to think it's been 20 years since Hybrid Theory was released. All gratitude to our fans who made this epic journey we started 20 years ago possible. We dedicate our music to you. We rededicate our Hybrid Theory to you. #HybridTheory20 - LP Track Listings: The band's first pre-release song from the album will be "She Couldn't"! DVD video content includes: - Live at the Fillmore 2001 + Live at Rock am Ring 2001 - Frat Party at the Pancake Festival - Live at Projekt Revolution 2002 + "The Sequel to the DVD with the Worst Name We've Ever Come Up With" (aka Frat Party 2) Incredible! Preorder now on linkinpark.com!

Yes. Same sessions is the guess. Pictureboard, Slip, probably some Rapology stuff, Esaul, etc.

LMAO BIG FAN OF THAT IDEA ACTUALLY

They will be able to get a #1 album from this release. A big part of that is streaming. It most certainly will be on streaming. You'll want as many songs on streaming as possible for that.

The fact that he was in the band (Xero) with Mark, played live with them, recorded music, etc.... he is on the song.

Disagreed huge based on LP always offering a pre-release song.

He was the bass player for shows and music. Not sure if that's because Dave was doing Snax stuff or what. And then Xero decided to hold auditions for another bass player, he auditioned but so did Dave and they picked Dave. That's the story this guy tells on his SoundCloud. We've never heard of him before yesterday. Of course we contacted him yesterday to get more of his Xero story but he's not going to reply, he's a huge multimillionaire/businessman. edit: Why would any logical person take a file that's been taken down, upload it elsewhere, and post it here? LOL

What are you talking about? The band's demo CD.

Yeah they'd absolutely do at least a show, maybe a tour for it. No doubt. And a release.

Wow, it's finally happening. The first new music release in 3 years.

Yeah, great question. Truly don't know the answer to that, if they think it's too amateur or not. We will find out very soon probably haha So, we technically do have re-recorded Xero songs with Chester in the sense that we have Esaul from LPU 11 (+ the other Esaul demos), and Rhinestone demo. Pictureboard, if that's on there with Chester, too. Mike said they did not record Stick N Move again with Chester, so the one on there surely has to be Mark's unless it is the audition tape of Chester. This week will answer a lot.

Mike said the Xero tape was recorded straight to tape and copied from there. For those exact versions of the songs, that's all that exists. Check the Xero page on Linkinpedia - that info is directly from Mike who emailed it to Derek of LPA a few years ago. Derek sent it over to us. But what we do know is the band got the Zomba deal right after that and got tens of thousands of dollars of new gear. They immediately started recording demos with that gear. Rhinestone, Slip, Pictureboard, Esaul, etc. Probably the Rapology stuff, or at least some of it. So, the stuff on the HT20 demo CD could certainly be Mark's stuff - if they re recorded Reading My Eyes and Stick N Move then that's totally possible. Some of these instrumentals like Esaul and Rhinestone (likely Slip) were used for Chester to sing over when he joined the band - same instrumentals.

What do we think guys? Announcement today? Tomorrow? Friday?

That's about all we can even say about this. What in the world.

Yeah sorry, no leaks yet of this stuff. We used to be so pro-leak but I mean this is the first thing the band has done in over 3 years, let it ride out. Announcement is likely this week with the preorder. Let's have some fun with it. The band and their mgmt have been so classy and kind to us, the last thing we'd do is let all the leaked stuff flow freely over here. Not trying to act like a dictator but just wanting to let things happen like they intended. We're about to get everything Last thing we want is the band or their team to say "damn everyone got all of the leaked stuff from LPLive and posted it everywhere online"