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I don't know that I would read much into Brad's quote at all there - he really just kind of gives a diatribe about recording Meteora and ends it with "btw this song didn't make it." Even the way he says "it was certainly part of the journey to get there" sounds completely flippant.

The fact of the matter is that there's no way to know which ones have vocals and which don't until the box is out. It's informed speculation, to a degree - Mike's pushed the first three songs on the demos disc as being the songs with full vocals, but while that doesn't necessarily mean none of the other unheard songs have vocals (or that A6 does or doesn't), we simply don't have the info either way. There's nothing wrong with playing the guessing game with it, and most of the other songs on the box seem to follow the naming pattern used for instrumental demos (single word, abstract and somewhat without meaning), but I think we need to stay away from making definitive statements about any of them that we haven't heard. No one on here's going to have inside info to that level.

I haven't listened to a Howard Stern interview in a long time, but I still wasn't really surprised that he went in the direction he did. Like others have said, that's his style, he's not interested in hitting PR talking points or having a light conversation, he pushes because that's what he's always done. He's far, far softer than he used to be, which is a definite positive - if he did this interview in 2005, for instance, it would have gone in a very different direction. As it stood, I thought that Howard approached his questions respectfully - I saw some people elsewhere suggesting that he was trying to bait Mike into badmouthing, or trying to instigate, and I don't think that was the case at all. Addiction is something that a lot of people have firsthand experience with, after all - it read to me like Howard was simply asking these questions from his point of view, the way he would see things like Chester getting completely fucked up after shows, or something like that, and he gave Mike the space to make it clear how he saw those things. The one thing I would criticize is that Howard stepped on Mike's toes pretty frequently, particularly during that section of the interview, but that's just how he is, he hears most of an answer and plows right into a follow-up the moment it comes to mind. I'd go so far as to say this is going to stand as one of the best interviews Mike will do on this promo cycle, and I'm really glad that Mike asked to be on the show. Obviously, we don't need Mike to be interrogated about Chester's demons on the regular. But I think it's something important to discuss, at least once, in an interview like this, to paint a more complete picture of the person Chester was. It was surprising to hear Mike talk so frankly about Chester's substance abuse during LP's early career, and that Chester could be a nightmare to deal with in those early days, but he was being real, and I don't think you can ask for anything more than that. The discussion on grief was enlightening, too, and Mike had some really insightful things to say on that front, especially the emphasis that the stages of grief aren't linear and aren't one-time-only affairs. Hearing that he could be angry at Chester for how he passed was really humanizing, as uncomfortable as it might have been for Mike to discuss. Howard has a dim view of depression and suicide, but I don't think there was any malice there, either, and like I said before, he gave Mike the space to clarify how he felt about it all. On a lighter note, Howard's interjections during the two premieres were pretty funny, especially his "wow"s over and over on More the Victim - it's really obvious that that really was his favorite of the three, lol.

There is no evidence. People are just throwing out wild speculation trying to tie down every title we have, as if we'll be able to put everything together before the box is out, and it leads to nonsense assertions like this. It's okay to not know things! Just relax. I think the reveal that More the Victim is the finished version of Cumulus has given people brainworms and now everyone thinks that Lost and Fighting Myself have to be finished versions of other instrumental demos. That doesn't have to be the case, guys.

It could end up on streaming, but I think the only reason we're getting this original mix is to juice sales of the deluxe CD. I bet that was easily the worst-performing part of HT20, and in Warner's eyes that's a problem. If you can easily make it more worthwhile to the diehards, why not do it? Aside from it being shitty, I guess.

I would imagine it's a variation of the instrumental from the long version, or it might just be the same instrumental straight up. The short version from LPU 2 definitely felt like a way to "salvage" the track and give it some flair to make up for it being a minute long.

After a few listens, the way I would describe how I feel is "intrigued." Kind of hard to place my feelings - it's really great to hear any unreleased Chester vocals, and he's in great form here, of course. Maybe it's the novelty of this song being unreleased, but something feels a little more experimental than the "softer" songs that made the cut for Meteora - I can maybe picture this in the track list, but as it stands, I wouldn't sub anything out for it. Think the band made the right call leaving this one off. It does make me wonder, though, why they never issued any of these proper b-sides on the singles. I know the practice was already falling out of favor by 2003, but were they really going to just leave these in the vault forever? In any case, it's just really great to hear this at all. I can't wait for the rest.

You miss the part where this video is being produced by an NFT platform, bud? I didn't say AI was a web3 thing.

A little late on this topic, but it's definitely disappointing to see that Mike's bringing the web3 shit to Linkin Park material. I would have much rather had a music video that was fully done by, you know, real people, or even just a She Couldn't-style video with photos from the era spruced up a little. Not to mention the main character of the video, according to this article, is from an "NFT-driven web series" done by the production company, so on top of everything else, including interspersing AI-affected footage of Chester from Live in Texas (weird!), this video is an ad for an NFT peddler! Gross. I can at least appreciate that Mike has a genuine interest in cutting-edge technology and how it intersects with art, but I really do not like that we're at the point of using AI-generated material to promote LP directly. That's all I've got on that.

I very much doubt it's going to be new music, if it's anything of substance at all. M20 is establishing that the demos still in the vault have immense value being sold in anniversary box sets rather than as fan club compilations or whatever, so I think a b-sides/demos thing is out. Maybe a big remix album? Or a live compilation/big-time live release, though I don't know that bands even do those any more. Honestly it's kind of stumping me what this could possibly refer to. Maybe we're getting that greatest hits album after all these years?

Discords are simply not the place for oldheads. I'm gonna make myself sound 1000 years old, but the pace of each channel is way, way too fast to keep up with - you're either right there, right that second, engaged in whatever conversation is happening, or you've missed out. No in between. ESPECIALLY for an official Discord centered around a band with a huge online presence like LP. The ephemeral nature of a Discord really bothers me, especially when you get little tidbits from the subjects of the server that are there and gone in an instant under a sea of shitposts because no one noticed that Mike posted something. The Nine Inch Nails Discord has this same problem - Trent, Atticus, and other band people will just drop in sometimes, and if you're not there for it, you better hope someone screencapped their comments, because finding them after the fact is basically hopeless. It's good for the younger fans, I suppose, to bask in an environment full of people in their age bracket rather than having to try and break through to the dinosaurs on here (me included) or, god forbid, the subreddit. But it's definitely not my preferred method of engaging in the community - I much prefer posting here once every seven months.

We'll at least get Live in Texas in full in the digital download/on streaming, which is a pretty good consolation prize.

If this image does in fact hold the full contents of the M20 box, I admit to being just a little bit disappointed that there doesn't appear to be a cool physical trinket like the laminate and cassette from HT20. Even so, a big-ass print of the Meteora wall alongside the three lithos is a great addition, and the 20th anniversary art is all gorgeous. Really emphasizes the contrast between the beige cover and blue...rest of the album's artwork. Makes me wonder why the cover ended up being beige instead of blue, but I've been thinking about that for like 17 years now so I guess it doesn't actually matter that much.

Not to be the Warner dickrider guy (again, I guess), but I'm pretty much completely sold on the contents of this one. Four full shows on DVD, Live in Texas on vinyl, a demo disc with seven BRAND NEW demos we've literally never heard of or about before, another show on vinyl...not sure that this tops HT20, and I'm not sure that anything really could given that Hybrid Theory is Hybrid Theory, but this seems like a hell of a follow-up to me. It's always seemed to me like vocal demos from the Meteora sessions are few and far between, so to actually get one of those and see it be the headliner of the box is sweet. Maybe one or two of the other ones will have vocals too! Who knows. We'll see! Did those product pages have any kind of art besides the one shown on page 2, like an image of the box or something? Given that this is coming out in two months, I feel like this is the right time for it all to go live - maybe it's just a day early or something and we'll get all that info tomorrow. Regardless, I'm stoked, this is a day one buy, it's a great day for the community. Best of all: Finally, Meteora on 1LP rather than split across two for literally no reason. Sanity prevails!

Really nice to hear bars again from Mike. In retrospect, three Dropped Frames volumes was probably the right call, because I got tired of the endless beats a while ago, and I'm not going to say anything about Mike's NFT fixation this year. This was a nice change of pace from all of that, even as short as it was.

LMAO. This was an insta-pass when it was revealed to be piss-yellow, SotD still being wrong just makes it even easier.

Hybrid Theory is fine, but MTM sucks shit. Yellow? Who the hell signed off on that color? Also, these big box retailers doing exclusive reprints is part of why the vinyl market is so comprehensively fucked right now. These are going to sit on shelves and waste away just like everything else Walmart is throwing into the vinyl ether. Ugh.

This still should not be on 2LP. 9 minutes a side, that's basically a workout, having to get up and flip it then swap it out that quickly.

The proper full link is on page 2. Here it is: https://www.dropbox.com/s/uwnl7kd1as8ggjq/The_Complete_Rosewood_Fall.zip?dl=0 That link will not go down, ever. I should probably just remove the link in the 2014 post.

Did we really just discover even more Hybrid Theory demos? Do those titles potentially correspond to things we've heard?

That's a shame, but this was such a goofy reissue anyway. Completely incongruent vinyl color, still inexplicably splitting a 36 minute album over four 12'' sides at 33rpm...none of that was gonna stop me from buying it, but come on, lol.

Wait what? What's this about someone uploading Rhinestone from the audition tape? Is it different from the Zomba/HT20 version we have?

Finally the good guys win.

It's not missing, it's at the very right edge. The colors just make it hard to see, and it butts right up against the white border.

The note about Kyle is kind of funny but also kind of like, I don't know, maybe a little cynical? Like, what would Kyle's goal be in not clearing CHB? He'd know he has zero leverage to demand a bigger cut for that song, so it's take whatever Warner offers or nothing, you know? He must know that this fanbase absolutely will not have any chill about Deftest and this 3-track sampler, though, lol. Any attempt to downplay it is utterly futile.