onionmaster

Thanks. It does seem strange to me they never did another version of Step Up when they often did it live. For that matter it's also weird to me that there don't seem to be any existing demos of High Voltage given that it was worked on in the Hybrid Theory sessions and the lyrics changed. Also, has it ever been said if there is a longer version of Technique? The subtitle (Short) has always seemed intriguing.

This is great. I was wondering though, why do some demo CDs include demos of Carousel and Part Of Me as well as the usual And One, when they are supposed to date from after the HTEP was released?

When I was younger, I loved It's Goin Down and got the single when it came out. For a long time I thought it was a Linkin Park track featuring the X-Ecutioners that was put out under the latter's name as a way of keeping the release low key (it is not uncommon for rappers to do 'featured tracks' as a favor for others and vice versa.). Also X-Ecutioners were involved with Reanimation later the same year. For a long time I thought that Brad played guitar on it. Then Wayne Static as he appears in the video. Apparently neither of them actually play on the song. The video confuses matters further by featuring Phoenix and Rob 'playing' bass and drums respectively, but they didn't play on the actual song. And a second one: I thought that Minutes To Midnight, especially "Leave Out All The Rest" and "Shadow Of The Day" was an attempt to cash in on the popularity of emo. It was really only after "She Couldn't" leaked that I realised they always had this sort of song in them but had done mostly nu-metal.

I didn't mean it like that. I like the samples. It's just hypothetical, if they wanted to release it officially and the samples were what was stopping them, it wouldn't be too big an issue if they took them out. It is of course fantastic that LPLive made it available. It would just be nice to have a version of the song without the static that affected the CD-Rs that it was on. I know there isn't much and it's mostly towards the end, but nevertheless.

In the LPTV Making Of New Divide, Mike says that in addition to Megatron (the working title of New Divide), he also did "an Optimus, a Starscream and a Bumblebee". It would be interesting if they could release these. I wonder if they were worked into other songs or entirely unique. I doubt they were very developed aside from the backing music but it's still cool he was that prolific. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBETBxHv-vY

I figured it was possible for them to have been worked on during the 1999 session but not necessarily be entirely new recordings, perhaps for budget reasons. I know they often kept the programming, for example. It's not inconceivable that they took the Wakefield vocal versions and got Chester to record proper multitracked vocals during those sessions, which were as they put it, a 'warm up' for proper Hybrid Theory sessions. I know it's Mike doing the low parts in So Far Away, but it sounds like Mark in Slip. I can't imagine Mike would mistake Chester as joining the band in 1998 given how good his memory is. Similarly, I can't imagine Chester would remember what demo tape it was he actually received (unless it's been mentioned). I mean if we go with the theory that they rewrote parts of "Blue" into "Crawling" and rewrote "So Far Away" into "Carousel" then the speed at which they recorded new tracks makes more sense. Have asked Mike on Twitter, if he responds I'll update.

My theory is that So Far Away, Slip and Blue were recorded in 1998 whilst Wakefield was in the band but never released as a demo tape because Wakefield left. They instead would have used this material to shop around to potential singers, but struggled to find a singer until 1999. It clearly wasn't the same Xero demo tape we all know because Chester mentions it had vocal tracks on one side and instrumental tracks on the other side. It might have been the same tracks and then instrumental versions of the same, but I kind of doubt they'd shop around year-old material. In particular it sounds to me like Mark is on the chorus of Slip with Chester (Chester sings the high parts, Mark the low ones). I don't think Chester would go to the trouble of doubletracking his voice at that stage and it doesn't sound like Mike. I mean that doesn't really explain the fact that Chester said he recorded his vocals onto the instrumental tracks, but maybe he tried it with the vocal tracks to see how his voice fit in? It seems two months is an incredibly short amount of time to record an EP and other demos. So basically I think these are 1998 Xero demos but the Chester vocals are 1999.

1. Pictureboard (Samples preventing its release removed or replaced) 2. She Couldn’t (Alternate Demo without whatever was stopping them releasing it [Probably samples]) 3. Technique (Uncut) 4. Cumulus (Vocal Version - they say they attempted vocals for it on several albums but could never make it work, there ought to be a few guide vocals lying around) 5. A6 (Vocal Version - with the lyrics that Brad mentioned) 6. From The Inside (Demo) – It can be heard during Frat Party At The Pankake Festival and the notes are slightly different. 7. Figure.09 (Alt Mix) (With Mike singing the verses instead of rapping [Mentioned in Meteora Booklet]) 8. Thoughts That Take Away My Pride 9. Shifter 10. Nocturnal 11. Grecian 12. My December (Team Sleep Remix) There are plenty of tracks from the MTM, ATS and LT sessions that could be included but i can't think of any tracks that I want more than the above list. Sometime I'd really like them to do a release of the Xero tape from masters (if they still exist), release the Chester audition versions, or do an entirely new recording of them. The live Reading My Eyes is great but I just prefer studio tracks. It'll be the 20th anniversary of Xero in a couple of years.

About the "The Catalyst ("Bobby Bloomfield" DIOYY? Remix) - The Catalyst EP" Is this the same mix as "The Catalyst ("Guitarmageddon" DIOYY Remix)" - Waiting For The End USA single? If not than the latter could be added.

I agree, it's a different recording entirely, although the rap verses are largely similar (but different recordings). The chorus is the most obvious thing, chorus in the original is vocoder "High voltage, you can't shake the shock, cause nobody wants it to stop, check it out" and chorus in the rerecorded version is rapped "High voltage, the unforgettable sound, high voltage, bringing you up and taking you down, high voltage, coming at you from every side, high voltage making the rhythm and rhyme collide". The other thing is that Chester sings a few lines at the end that aren't in the original "Sometimes I feel like a prophet, misunderstood under the gun, like a new disease. The other thing about the rerecording is that it has parts of Cure For The Itch at the start, and was probably intended to crossfade with it. They took it out, probably because a version of it had already been on the Hybrid Theory EP. Maybe it was supposed to be the original closing track but they wrote Pushing Me Away at the last minute and they kept with 12 tracks for marketing reasons. The full version hasn't turned up on any promo CDs but it's a popular thing for fans to recreate. I wonder if there are any currently unknown internal promo CDs before the Studio Finals that include something like this.

I didn't notice it mentioned, but the From The Inside single mix has a cold ending - on Meteora it crossfades into Nobody's Listening.