Justin

and LP won't go for it since they've consistently said from the start that they're not looking for a soundalike, let alone someone who, while he is a great vocalist, has made a career off of doing his best CB impression.

I remember someone asked Mike on Twitch if he would mind people using the leaked LP stems to make remixes or original music, and his response was pretty much "I have no problem with that at all, unless you start using our work to make money off it somehow. That's not something I'd be alright with." So it's not surprising that he's not super stoked about a band touring the world by playing LP's music exclusively lol

On one hand, there's obviously a demand for LP material in a live setting that LP themselves aren't fulfilling that this tribute band is. On the other hand, I can see the members of LP feeling weird about it because these guys are touring the world and playing arena shows off the back of LP's body of work. It's like they skipped the grind of making the music and working their way up from the club scene, etc. and they're just touring successfully exclusively off of material made by someone else. Mike was definitely, in his typically measured and professional way, saying "I wouldn't know about that stuff because I made original music. I was never in the business of copying others." It reminds me of when he was asked about Dimitris Papasinos. Like he's not gonna be rude or shit on anyone, but he'll also make it very clear that he's not into it.

Did we ever find out who “Randy” is from Collision Course? As in “You’re wasting your talent, Randy!” from the beginning of Big Pimpin’ / Papercut.

Agreed. Also it's weird for anyone to imply that the band themselves requested that the video be a YouTube Premium exclusive. That's almost certainly a Warner/Google thing.

I love how someone in the comments quoted Get Me Gone, which is about print interviews specifically. Jay Gordon is literally on video saying these things. That quote does not apply in any way.

Being “not stoked” about it is fine. That’s your opinion. I also would love an official acapella/instrumental release of Lost as well as all of LP’s albums prior to LT. With that said, your opinion is still a lot different than somebody calling it a “shitty cash grab” which is what Astat was responding to.

How brutal is Fortnite for people to be voicing concerns about watching Chester be shot and killed repeatedly? Isn’t it a kids game? It’s not like we’re talking about GTA here.

I agree. I think the song and video for FF is beautiful and truly moving... and for QWERTY I hope they find the appropriate footage for us to just rock the fuck out.

If we’re being realistic about “opening the vault”, we’ll probably get a slow drip of material from it forever. The Beatles’ full rooftop concert, their last live performance as a group, wasn’t released until 2022. It took 53 years. LP will have enough live material for many decades worth of occasional special releases, and that’s probably how it will go.

Nobody here is being malicious or attacking the band on a personal level. Saying “I don’t like the artwork” is not a cruel comment that warrants telling someone they don’t deserve to be a fan of the band.

Some people are posting to various sites that it's "confirmed" that we're getting Out of Reach and Ricochet because they "discovered" those songs on Genius. Others are in turn pointing out that anybody can add things to Genius, and seem to be thinking NJPLP is adding fake songs to Genius and claiming that those songs will be on the upcoming release, which obviously is not what's happening. Also, on an unrelated note, I think the people criticizing the sound of Friendly Fire are out of line. It's an outtake from the OML sessions. Of course it's going to sound like that era of the band. It also did not make the cut when the track listing was decided. Obviously there's a reason the song didn't make it. With OML being only 10 songs and about 35 minutes, it's not like they had too many songs or were running over time. So pointing out that you don't like the sound of the song, or that it sounds too similar to other songs on OML, may very well be things that the band members themselves thought when they decided to leave it off of the album. FF is being released now because of its status as a fully completed song with Chester's vocals. Whereas before this song may have gone into the vault forever or shown up eventually on an LPU release, it now has historical significance.

Why would his mic be that low, and then stay that low? Lol it would've been cool to be able to hear him.

Mike can't just post LP stems for free. He's not the only writer on most of those tracks, and Warner would have to give approval. Also, Mike didn't say "If enough people want it, maybe I could put it out there". He said he wouldn't mind it being out, but it's Warner that would need to see the demand for it in order for it to be released.

Could you credit the album like "Linkin Park and Various Artists"? Then the songs would be listed like "Faint [Jakub Patok Remix]", "Lying From You [Xefuzion Remix]", etc.

For all we know, one or more members of the band had a John Deacon-like reaction to Chester's passing. John Deacon was the bassist for Queen, and after Freddie Mercury died he only played with the band 3 more times and then retired from music completely. Even when Queen continued on, he declined and said it's not the same without Freddie. His desire to be in a band and play live music died with Freddie, basically, which is sad. If anybody in LP had a similar response, I don't think Mike and the others would be keen to replace them and move on. It's not like Phoenix, Rob, Brad, and Joe are just sitting by the phone waiting on a call from Mike to assemble. All 5 of those guys need to be on the same page and with one accord for LP to move forward however they choose, and obviously that hasn't happened as of yet.

Between Kyle claiming he played bass on some songs that literally don't even have live bass, LP labeling their demos with the wrong years, and Mike not being able to clearly remember any of this to begin with, there's a good chance they give Kyle a settlement and it doesn't go to court. It's too messy.

Mike is a control freak, sure, but that applies more to the band's image and music and overall presentation. He doesn't control the payroll of Warner Records and it wouldn't have been Mike's job to clear everything up financially with Kyle in preparation for HT20's release. Linkin Park is not an independent band. They are signed to Warner, and Warner has people who are meant to take care of that stuff in order to protect the company from potential legal issues like the one they're now facing. If the goal was to not acknowledge or downplay Kyle's contributions to the band in order to make sure he doesn't get paid, which would be a super dick move considering the fact that we're talking about a percentage of a few tracks of HT20 and nothing on HT itself, then Mike wouldn't have openly discussed Kyle multiple times on Twitch in 2020 including talking about specific parts that Kyle wrote and recorded on songs that made it onto HT20. He'll probably accept a settlement from Warner long before it goes to an actual trial.

All due respect to whoever greenlit this EP and put it together, but it feels extremely pointless lol.

Seems like he’s going the “drop a single whenever I feel inspired, make a song, and that song is ready” route rather than crafting an album and releasing that. I wish he would drop an album and tour, as doing a single once every whenever is not going to sustain his popularity in the mainstream, especially with no touring to promote his music. I still regularly will recommend his music to people, but it’s been 6 years and he’s dropped one album and a few singles. Not to sound dramatic, but with Mike insisting that there are no plans for an MS album or tour it’s starting to feel like he’s semi-retired at this point and is more comfortable working as a producer/writer with younger artists and just dropping a single of his own here and there.

Mike would never be so crass as to reveal any information about the future of Linkin Park, let alone confirmation that the band is over, in a solo single.

This is really cool. Thank you!

I don't think he would intentionally get people hyped and have the reveal be that Linkin Park is officially over lol. That would be a huge buzzkill no matter what else that announcement would entail. IF that ever happens, I think the band would be straight forward and direct about it. I don't think Mike would package that announcement as part of an announcement for new MS solo music.

Are they going to want to make new music and tour in their 50's, though? Mike, yes. Not sure about the other 4 guys, though.

I'll be honest I was hoping for an old school Astat post for exactly this reason. To my ears, most of the album sounds the exact same...