LPLStaff

But then we have the legend of Friendly Fire

We tried to ask Mike if that CFTI>HV was planned but he only replied that the reason the strings sound similar is because he used the same keyboard rack on both. Lmao.

Today's discovery on Linkin Park's "Old Band Computer" website, in their marketing campaign for Hybrid Theory 20, is worthy of its own news post and thread. In fact, it's possibly the biggest discover for the band's fans... ever. Call them what you want - the kings of the plot twist, the master of trolling, whatever, but the move today by Linkin Park was iconic. The long-rumored demo "Pictureboard", which the band teased in website updates as being on the tracklisting for a Hybrid Theory 20 CD, has received a major update and likely not the one you were expecting. In possibly the biggest plot twist in Linkin Park history, the band confirmed today that the song is actually the "In Yourself"/"Be Yourself" jam from mid-2001. What? Indeed - in the August 11, 2020 website update, fans could access a folder on the desktop which was titled "In Yourself Jam" with a file inside - "Demo_Pic_Board.mp3." As many of you already know, the jam was (most famously) played before "And One" at Linkin Park's Rock am Ring 2001 show. Have a listen. Fans gave the "jam" the title "Be Yourself" (or, "In Yourself" as some heard it) because Chester sang "be yourself" at the end of it. It has gone by both names for almost two decades in the fan community. People have speculated high and wide as to what the jam COULD be. Nonetheless, it was assumed by most everyone that the band wouldn't remember this almost 20 years later.... and hope was seemingly lost. So what exactly is "Pictureboard"? In case all of that sounded foreign to you - "Pictureboard" was a song written when Linkin Park was still called Xero and had Mark Wakefield on vocals. Along with "Pictureboard", the band recorded demos of songs like "Esaul" (what became "A Place For My Head"), "Rhinestone" (what became "Forgotten"), and "Slip". It was re-recorded with Chester Bennington after he joined the band, but the song has never been released in any form. How do we even know about "Pictureboard"? The song was first mentioned by Mike during a private LP Underground chat in 2005 for an LPU winner and ten of their friends: "a place for my head used to be called esaul and there was a song called pictureboard which we actually played on stage one time probably 5 years ago with linkin park. we played it after we changed our name. i think that was the only time we played a xero song that wasn't on hybrid theory after we changed our name." Mike's commentary about performing it live is supported by the fact that a 2~ second clip of the strings on the song are actually on Joe Hahn's "Tasty Gas Station Breaks From the Orient" vinyl that he used on stage live while touring for Hybrid Theory; Mike's quote checks out. Why hasn't "Pictureboard"been released before now? "Pictureboard" was once rumored to have been considered for the LP Underground 9 demos CD in fall 2009. However, we all know the track didn't end up on the album, so here we are over a decade later in 2020. It even has an entry in the BMI database, where songs get registered for music publishing. The fact that Chester is on the BMI entry means that the version that was registered was recorded with Chester. All this did was fan the flames of the fan community in their desire to hear the track. During an LPU chat on November 19, 2011, Mike revealed the reason: "Pictureboard has samples in it. Can’t give to LPU." However, we are not sure what sample that actually is. In the 2015 LP Association podcast, Mike reiterated that it can't be released due to samples in the song, and stated, "It's not worth it, man. You guys think it's like this imaginary holy grail of a song. It's really not that great." When asked if the song was worked into something else, he said, "It did not. It got played back then and then there's a sample in it so we didn't play it anymore so we didn't want to deal with it anymore. So that's the story on that. I don't know if it was played as an intro to another song. Not a record, I'll tell you that much." It has taken on legendary status in the Linkin Park community, even though fans know it's not the greatest song of all time for the band. It's just one of those super old songs that fans have known about for so long that hasn't ever been released.... and here we are. Think of "Carnival of Light" by The Beatles. This is LP's version of that song. Just because it has been talked about for so long and never released, it has built up a hype of its own. It has almost become a meme in some parts of the fan community, with posts on message boards stating in a nonsensical way to almost any news post or live show update, "I will the song Pictureboard!" over time as a joke. So what happened today? Simply put, today was a big deal. The jam mentioned above - "In Yourself"/"Be Yourself" - was performed at least three times in 2001, but likely four or more. It was just a very short jam the band did between songs. It honestly wasn't even much of anything, but it was enough to catch the ear of fans as Rock am Ring 2001 is one of the most popular shows the band has ever performed. As staff member Astat said years ago, "This little interlude is one of the most mysterious things in Linkin Park's live concert folklore. It was randomly played by Brad, Rob, and Phoenix at the June 2nd, 2001 Rock Im Park show in Germany, in what sounded sort of like an improv jam, but it also seemed like the three of them knew their parts a little TOO well, so it's long been suspected that this is part of an unreleased early Linkin Park demo, possibly the long-fabled "Pictureboard" track. The title "Be Yourself" was given to this piece by fans, due to Chester repeatedly singing that phrase over the ending of it (it's been erroneously called "In Yourself" for years). This interlude was subsequently played again at two more shows on June 3rd and June 8th, only to disappear as suddenly as it appeared! No further information about this piece has surfaced over the years." On a May 2001 setlist, the band lists a "MELLOW Interlude", which we think is referring to the "Pictureboard" jam. So today Linkin Park dropped perhaps the biggest plot twist in its fan community's history. This little jam played live 3-4+ times in 2001? It was "Pictureboard" all along. And they revealed it right in the middle of the #HybridTheory20 campaign, as they were busy confirming other demos, unreleased song titles, and more. This one, undoubtedly, was for the hardcore fans and took Twitter by absolute storm when the band updated its website around 9am PST. Just a sampling of comments on Twitter included: "One of my favorite shows to watch and was pictureboard I’m speechless", "Talk about being bamboozled whatttt. The helllll?!", "maior plot twist da história do @linkinpark: In Yourself é a Pictureboard... meudeus!", "This is the hugest deal in a fucking while", "I didn't know it, but one of my most watched live performances of LP was Pictureboard. Unbelievable.", "For years I've been wanting to listen to pictureboard! And now, I get to know that it has been out since 2001. Linkin Park sure knows how to amaze and surprise the fanbase.", "Don't f*** w/ me WHAAAAAAT", "Me: I'm really good at plot twists in my writing. /// Linkin Park: Ah ah ah! You wish!", "Holy shit. I'm floored.", "i literally screamed "WHAT"", "Wait wait wait. WHAT?! FOR REAL?!", "YOOOO this is wild. One of most famous LP mysteries finally solved. WILD", "I can't believe it. In absolutely shock.", "What a time to be alive!", "I stan them since day 1 and I didn't know this" Can you believe it? How did they even know that fans have been discussing this song for so long? Someone paid clearly paid a LOT of attention to fan discussion if they included this in the marketing for the album. Someone went above and beyond to find this out deep on a fansite, learn about it, and find a way to put it in the promo campaign. Hats off! Will "Pictureboard" be released? If the Linkin Park teasers on the band's website are any indication, it's likely to be on the demo CD for the album! Track 2 is titled "PB (Edit)" which certainly means it could be included! We will just have to wait and see. It all could be building up to a release of the song in October. Stay tuned!

He might mean the demo of Part of Me. The one where Chester screams "cut myself free." But there isn't a 13th track on this CD. It's only 12.

IT WAS PICTUREBOARD THE WHOLE TIME?

Yeah. They are from that time period. No idea what the release has BUT that's about 99.99% that those 2 songs will appear in some form. Understand the argument, but if the demos are labeled as 1997/1998, there is no issue there. It's a big part of the band's history. It all makes even more sense when you understand Mark and the band are still close and have a great relationship. He works in the music industry too.

That's a clip from the BBC Session in 2001. https://lplive.net/shows/2001/20010112 There's like 3-4 more seconds of that in the Hybrid Theory Spain EPK I think. If not, I can't remember where else it is. But yes, that's from the studio session in London recording those 4 songs for radio. Footage making HT may not exist in any form. But they could put something like this BBC video out, that'd be absolutely awesome.

Bands usually don't do more than 1 big blowout release for an album. Just one and that's it, all said and done. HT30 won't happen, it'll be ATS20 by then which should (if things go right) get the same treatment as HT20. By setting the bar high with HT20, they have set it up so every album on its 20th anniversary can get a great release. Metallica, for example, doesn't do a big release every 10 years for an album, it's just one big one they explode and close the door on. If LP is going to do something, now's the time. Could easily see this being 4 CDs, a DVD, a vinyl, merch, art. Something epic. We'll see. Maybe it's announced THIS week.

It seems like, just by looking at this a few days into a teaser campaign, that they really went above and beyond with this. Imagine if there is other stuff involved, like you said, that we haven't seen. Extremely impressed so far. Chester audition tape and the super rare demos (Pictureboard, She Couldn't, and several unreleased ones)... that's just unbelievable. If this was 2014, the thread would be 25 pages by now.

That doesn't mean the sample is gone, necessarily. Look at Mike's track record with editing LPU demos. Faint, Sad, and Across The Line were all chopped up on the LPU 9 CD. That's just ONE CD of LPU songs, imagine what the rest could look like. Homecoming probably had vocals. They probably removed a ton of scat vocals from MTM stuff as well. It's just standard practice that Mike "cleans up" a demo before its release - Pictureboard could very well have the samples and the band paid to clear them. We will see. It's just speculation at this point, but he could have just chopped the intro or outro of the song like he did on LPU 9. Or, the band could just pay to clear the sample. With a release this big, the sample still might be in it. It samples "B-Boy Document '99" by High & Mighty. https://youtu.be/qQ3Xru8oHfE?t=171 Might not be expensive to clear the sample. It's entirely possible Chester never sang on Fuse and the band just abandoned that song.

Literally spent 15+ years just trying to get the names of the songs on the tape. That's it, just the names. It was important to know what songs were there. This could be it. Absolutely crazy. If that's true, Linkin Park just outdid every band's box set with this providing there's other good content too.

Woah. If they release Pictureboard and She Couldn't on here, that's incredible. Chester audition tape? Insane. Take my money.

We've got an update! Emails!

The devs are definitely checking Reddit, fansites, social media, it's very easy to do and to be able to fix stuff. It's a good start, let's see where things go from here.

It looks like it's time to start the #HybridTheory20 celebration! Linkin Park's official website has been updated.... or rather, taken BACK to a 2000 version! The original website intro is hidden as a teaser in the Sasquatch Browser and it looks like there's a LOT yet to come! Check the readme.txt file and you'll see a message from Mike asking for help from fans. Let's get going! "READ THIS BEFORE YOU DELETE ANYTHING Hey here's some more info on what I need your help with on this thing. I just booted it up for the first time in like 20 years and it's a mess. I'm having a hard time locating the files we need for that thing I told you about, can you help me dig through it and find anything we could use? Places to start: 1. I tried getting this thing to connect to my old server but no luck, maybe you can figure it out. 2. I think my old email account is still set up on this, maybe a few of them are in there? 3. I have no idea what the passwords are for most of this stuff, I'll keep digging on my end but there's a chance they might just be gone. GOOD LUCK, YOU'LL NEED IT -m" Check the MShinoda Music Server and you'll see some files! [Update]: August 9, 2020 with four more songs! SONG TITLES on LinkinPark.com: 01. Dialate - Completely unknown/unheard song. Unknown if Mark or Chester sings the song. 02. PB (Edit) - Could be the legendary song "Pictureboard" which is unreleased, but teased by Mike several times dating back many years. 03. She Couldn't - Demo leaked by LPLive in July 2009, never officially released. Version leaked has static on the end of the song, a release on Hybrid Theory 20 would be a huge quality upgrade. 04. Could Have Been - Completely unknown/unheard song. Unknown if Mark or Chester sings the song. 05. Reading My Eyes - Xero song from 1996 on the 4 track cassette demo. Could be a re-recorded studio version with Mark from 1998, or a Chester audition version. Unknown if Mark or Chester sings this song. 06. Rhinestone - "Forgotten" demo. Xero song from 1996 on the 4 track cassette demo. Could be a re-recorded studio version with Mark from 1998 (leaked in 2019), a Chester audition version, or a Chester studio version (previously released). Unknown if Mark or Chester sings this song. 07. Esaul - Xero song from 1996, turned into "A Place For My Head" eventually. Could be a re-recorded studio version with Mark from 1998, a Chester audition version, or a Chester studio version (previously released). Unknown if Mark or Chester sings this song. 08. Stick N Move - "Runaway" demo. Xero song from 1996 on the 4 track cassette demo. Could be a re-recorded studio version with Mark from 1998, or a Chester audition version. This song was not re-recorded with Chester in a studio version after he joined the band. Unknown if Mark or Chester sings this song. 09. Carousel - Since it isn't grouped with other Hybrid Theory EP songs, this is likely a demo from the Hybrid Theory demo CDs (7 track, 8 track, 9 track). Could possibly be unreleased. 10. Points Of Authority - Unknown if this is a demo on one of the Hybrid Theory demo CDs or is unreleased. 11. Crawling - Unknown if this is a demo on one of the Hybrid Theory demo CDs or is unreleased. 12. Super Xero - "By Myself" demo. Unknown if this is a demo on one of the Hybrid Theory demo CDs or is unreleased. Wow! This is already shaping up to be huge!

Of course. That's what I meant by the tiered options. Just different stuff for different fans. For example, we'd never spend $500 on Recharged. Didn't even buy Recharged for $10, lol

Metallica's box sets are $200 and as of right now, are the gold standard in the music industry for how to do the best box set imaginable for a band. Truly incredible stuff, go look up Master of Puppets or any of their other box set releases - the amount of content is INSANE. Muse is $150. DMB Live 25 is $175 and is just 25 live songs picked by fans + merch. Beatles is $200. Didn't mean hardcore fans only, or mean to imply that only hardcore fans are the ones who pay $500. What I meant is that the higher priced packages are usually catered to those fans who are not casual fans of a band. $100 isn't enough for a box set release. It needs to be at least $200+.

Mike recently sat down with Travis Mills on Beat 1 to discuss "Dropped Frames" for about half an hour. If you have Apple Music or iTunes, you can check it out here. Deviating from the "Dropped Frames" questions, Mike was asked about Fort Minor turning 15 this year: - "This year we are celebrating The Rising Tied's 15th anniversary. You had collabs with Common, John Legend, etc. What was your favorite memory of making that record?" -> "Wow my favorite memory. I had a bunch of different things. I remember coming up with the beat for Remember The Name and being like, "Ok, everything revolves around this, the record revolves around this. This is what I'm shooting for." I also remember getting the verse back from Black Thought. I got a verse from Black Thought, it's one of my favorite verses he's ever done. Like I'm a fan of his and it's one of my favorite verses he's done, and it's on my record. That was bananas to me. It also made me so, like, almost embarrassed to be on the song (in a good way). Like there was a creative competition that I wouldn't go back and rewrite my verse, I think doing that at a time like that is inappropriate. I had already written my verse, he sent his, and I was like, "Ok, he killed it on the song." It made me want to step my game up in making the record. And I think some of the lyrics on other songs got better because of those collaborations. I just felt like, "I've just gotta be better.""

The simple solution to that is to make package tiers. $100 casual fan + $250 mid tier + $500 hardcore fan.

Mike's second song with AmirSaysNothing, the artist he toured with for part of the North American Post Traumatic Tour and who he produced a song "Clockwatch" for, will be coming out soon. As he did with "Clockwatch", Mike produced this track as well. This song had a music video shot on January 5, 2020 already with director Dylan Park. On July 28, 2020, Amir said that he received the final mix of his album "Engless Brightside." On August 3rd, he teased the album with a screenshot of the video, saying, "all the Linkin Park fans gonna love this, produced by Mike Shinoda and it ain’t Clockwatch ;)" More details soon on a release date.

It seems like Jeff Blue, the band's original A&R guy in the Hybrid Theory era, is getting in on the Hybrid Theory 20 celebration with a new book titled "One Step Closer: From Xero to #1: Becoming Linkin Park". From Amazon: "The dramatic story of the unlikely partnership that led to “Hybrid Theory,” the biggest-selling debut album of the 21st Century. From the unique perspective of the executive who discovered them, One Step Closer reveals how Brad Delson’s college internship was a catalyst for a group of young musical visionaries, led by Mike Shinoda, which gave rise to a band that survived countless rejections, exceeded everyone’s expectations but their own, and became the voice of a generation. This against-all-odds story chronicles the early days of Linkin Park, from their first demo and Whisky a Go Go performance as Xero, through their tireless efforts to perfect their iconic sound and the discovery of Chester Bennington. Jeff Blue was there when no one else believed—first as their publisher, then as their A&R guy. This is his memoir of that incredible journey. Riveting and inspiring, One Step Closer is a testament to perseverance, as well as a detailed behind-the-scenes account of the building of a dream and what it takes to make it. " The book will be released on December 8, 2020.

Here are the highlights from July 29th when Mike answered some questions on the stream. Mike talked about some of his favorite film scores, mentioning Hans Zimmer, John Williams, and more. - "If you could collaborate with any band from the 1990s who would it be?" -> "90s? Smashing Pumpkins comes to mind. Oh, Rage, they did come out in the 90s didn't they? Massive Attack, I did a Massive Attack remix at one point." He explained that because of the way routing and expenses are set up, he can't visit everywhere on tour, giving Ukraine as an example on the Post Traumatic Tour. He doesn't know if "The Waltz" will be on Dropped Frames 3. - "Was the "High Voltage" remix (MS remix) done while writing Hybrid Theory or at a later time? Thought it was interesting the remix featured strings from "Cure for the Itch."" -> "So I had this rack mounted keyboard unit and I forget what it was, it was a Roland keyboard unit with these certain string sounds and I used those on a few songs at the time. I forget which ones I used it on. I used it on those two, I think I used them on "By Myself." I used them a couple of times, so that's why that sound popped up, because I liked that sound and I used it on a few things." - ""The Last Line (Ammosick)" was worked on during Minutes To Midnight and A Thousand Suns, then was released on The Mall soundtrack. What made you keep coming back to this one? It's a good quieter song by the way." -> "I felt like, I liked it and thought that it belong... it should have gone out during the Minutes to Midnight era. And then it just didn't seem to fit the thematic stuff on A Thousand Suns. So that's why. And then we were like putting The Mall thing together and we were like, "Oh we have that song, that song is so good, that will fit here." It just felt like it would fit." - "How did your high school or college classmates react to you becoming famous? Did they contact you after Linkin Park huge?" -> "Now of course, most of them did not reach out. I wasn't in touch with most people from high school. When I went to college, I was in touch a couple dozen people, maybe at most 30-ish. But there were certainly some people from back then that were like... there were some who were like, "Oh man, congratulations, that is so cool." And it was like, "Oh, that's really nice." But you've got to have boundaries. In terms of being in that situation, I've always had limited space for new friends. I love to meet new people and I love to get to know people, for sure, but I'm not the person to meet somebody at a bar and is then like, hanging out with them. I've joked about this with other friends before, like when I meet new people, I'm very social and I love hanging out with people. An introvert gets exhausted from being around people - I am entertained by hanging out with people, but there's a point where I get tired. I'm in the middle, more leaning extrovert. When I meet people and someone presents me with an idea of like, "Here's an idea of something you can do, or work with me on" then I do not warm up to those ideas quickly. It takes me a while." - "What inspired Linkin Park to give each album a different theme/sound?" -> "I have a theory that artists lean towards being either being the kind of artists that feel good about making the same type of thing each time and really establishing that sonic brand and doing it over and over. And that's how necessarily a bad thing, like, look at Japanese sushi chefs. They perfect its craftsmanship, they perfect this very specific and repetitive task. So a band like Metallica when they go outside of that, people like, "What are you doing?" Even when it's not them, it's like the engineering and recording of the thing. They make a similar thing when they make a record. And of course there's tons of variety in that thing. They're for example, not putting keyboard on the next album probably. They're not doing sampled beats. They don't give a shit that trap hi-hats are cool or whatever, that's not happening. And then there's like, us, on the other side of the spectrum. I sometimes wonder if some artists just can't think outside of... their brain like naturally makes a certain thing and they can't even create outside of that thing. I don't know." https://www.twitch.tv/videos/694360103

It sounds like we are getting close! From Kerrang!: Mike Shinoda has told an audience of Kerrang! readers that he and his Linkin Park bandmates have been putting the work in to create something special for the twentieth anniversary of Hybrid Theory in October. Speaking as part of a Kerrang! Face-To-Face video, Mike revealed that they’ve been working closely with key people from throughout Linkin Park’s history to celebrate the 20 years since they arrived back in October 2000. “We’ve done our best to go to a lot of people who are family, in a sense, and say, ‘What do you think we should do? What would be a good celebration of Hybrid Theory?’ and try our best to do a bunch of those ideas,” he says. “I would urge the fanbase to just let it happen,” he continues. “The Linkin Park fanbase is always one of the most creative and active fanbases out there. So always, the problem for me is that if I’m not allowed to divulge information because I want it to be a surprise, then the creative fanbase starts jumping out and imagining things. They come up with their own great ideas – and then once in a while those great ideas are better than our ideas!”

Happy Album Release Day! Mike Shinoda's second album from the "Dropped Frames" series is out now worldwide! "Dropped Frames, Vol. 2" comes one month after the first edition and will be followed up by at least one more rendition of music. As of today, Mike has at least 70 instrumental songs that he has composed on Twitch and Instagram Live since March... that is a LOT! Tracklisting: 01. Transitions 2:59 02. Crystalina 3:30 03. Julio's Revenge 1:49 04. Isolation Bird (feat. Money Mark) 3:03 05. Side Scrolling 3:24 06. Dungeon Crawler 1:33 07. Dog Whistles 2:14 08. Astral (feat. Elise Trouw) 2:24 09. Sunset Drive 2:39 10. Channeling, Pt. 2 (feat. Dan Mayo) 2:30 11. King Paprika 2:22 12. Party Meow 1:44 What do you think of volume 2? Do you like it more than volume 1? For more information on the album, check out the Linkinpedia page!