From mikeshinoda.com:

Imagine opening your birthday presents by yourself, alone. Imagine having no one to look in the eye, sharing the excitement of each new thing.

Now imagine opening those presents, surrounded by the people you love. There’s something better about sharing an exciting moment with other people.

Growing up, when one of my favorite bands released a new album, it was an event. I used to leave school at lunchtime with my friends to drive to the store and buy it. We would rip open the packages and put one in, and listen to it together, eating lunch in the car. We would shout over the music, rewind our favorite parts, play songs over. It recently occurred to me how sad it is that so much of that experience has been lost. Albums leak, release dates are spread out over the course of weeks, and often, people hear an album alone, on pathetic computer speakers. True, they tweet, text, and chat about it, but the magic isn’t as magical.

Our new album LIVING THINGS comes out in the US on June 26. It hits the shelves in a number of other countries on June 22. And it’s no secret that the album will likely leak a week or two prior. We want to issue a challenge to our fans: make the LIVING THINGS release date a special event for yourself.

When the album leaks, ignore it.

You’ll only have to wait a few days. Then, at midnight of the release date in your country, listen to the album from front to back. If you can, listen to it with friends. Have a party. Drive somewhere. Enjoy yourself. If you decide to download the album leak rather than purchase the album, fine. This challenge still applies to you. This is not about downloading, it’s about deciding to have more fun.

However you get the album, document the day. Take photos of you buying the album and putting the CD in your car, downloading it and listening to it on your iPod, streaming it and playing it on your stereo. Tweet your photos to us @linkinpark with the hashtag #LIVINGTHINGSRELEASEDAY. We’ll retweet our favorites.

We want LIVING THINGS release day to be as special for you as it will be for us. Challenge yourself to hold out, and we’ll all share in the excitement together. For the record, I’ll be celebrating on the 26th, so if you want to celebrate with me, come find me on Twitter.

From myspace.com:

Recently Myspace was invited to stop by NRG Studios in North Hollywood to get an exclusive sneak peek at Linkin Park’s upcoming fifth album LIVING THINGS, which will be out on June 26 via WBR. Guitarist Brad Delson played host, noting that this disc is an “amalgam of our first releases, which is the sound people know us best for, and that experimental stuff.”

Delson, who also mentioned that the band listened to a lot of folk music and early Americana during the recording process, added that the shift in sound on this release is due to the fact that the musicians used “a lot of tools we had put aside that we felt comfortable using again.” He added, “It’s a random process where we’re deconstructing things and putting them back together… We just use whatever sounds we think will be best for the record and then figure out how to play them later.”

While we can’t actually let you hear any of the new tracks we can offer a glimpse into what’s to come (and what the heck Delson is talking about).

Track: “Lost In The Echo”
Sample Lyric: “We got lost in the echo.”
Word We Wrote Down To Describe It: Epic
What You Can Expect: A grandiose, swelling number that harkens back to early single “In the End.”

Track: “In My Remains”
Sample Lyric: “Like an army falling one by one”
Word We Wrote Down To Describe It: Slick
What You Can Expect: A heavy rocker that slowly builds from a sparse, electronic backbone.

Track: “Burn It Down”
Sample Lyric: “We’re building it up to break it down”
Word We Wrote Down To Describe It: Single
What You Can Expect: Listen for yourself below… Plus, check out the brand new video for the track.

Track: “Lies Greed Misery”
Sample Lyric: “Now let me show you exactly how the breaking point sounds”
Word We Wrote Down To Describe It: Aggressive
What You Can Expect: A thrashing, in-your-face number garnished with a hint of dub-step. Check it out below…

Track: “I’ll Be Gone”
Sample Lyric: “It’s time you let me go”
Word We Wrote Down To Describe It: Ballad
What You Can Expect: An anthemic radio number that features heavy drums and urgent vocals.

Track: “Castle of Glass”
Sample Lyric: “I’m only a crack in this castle of glass”
Word We Wrote Down To Describe It: Ambient
What You Can Expect: A combination of synth and acoustic guitar that creates an atmospheric rocker.

Track: “Victimized”
Sample Lyric: We didn’t write one down because we were so shaken by the track’s aggression.
Word We Wrote Down To Describe It: Metallic
What You Can Expect: Linkin Park’s heaviest song yet, a screaming, heavy rock song that may surprise you.

Track: “Roads Untraveled”
Sample Lyric: “The love that you lost wasn’t worth what it cost and in time you’ll be glad it’s gone”
Word We Wrote Down To Describe It: Heartbreak
What You Can Expect: A piano-driven ballad that even features some chimes.

Track: “Skin To Bone”
Sample Lyric: “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust”
Word We Wrote Down To Describe It: Hypnotic
What You Can Expect: An electro-driven rhythmic number that goes hard on the experimentation.

Track: “Until It Breaks”
Sample Lyric: “You woke the devil that I thought you’d left behind”
Word We Wrote Down To Describe It: Introspective
What You Can Expect: One of the softer tracks on the album, centered on synth melodies.

Track: “Tinfoil”
Sample Lyric: This track is instrumental, so…
Word We Wrote Down To Describe It: Ambient
What You Can Expect: An intro between tracks that also delves into experimental noises.

Track: “Powerless”
What You Can Expect: Unfortunately the CD didn’t work so we didn’t get to hear this one.

From mikeshinodaclan.com:

Tower Records in Japan have revealed the track times for Linkin Park’s upcoming album LIVING THINGS. The total running time is 36:58.
01. LOST IN THE ECHO 03:25
02. IN MY REMAINS 03:20
03. BURN IT DOWN 03:50
04. LIES GREED MISERY 02:26
05. I’LL BE GONE 03:31
06. CASTLE OF GLASS 03:25
07. VICTIMIZED 01:46
08. ROADS UNTRAVELED 03:49
09. SKIN TO BONE 02:48
10. UNTIL IT BREAKS 03:43
11. TINFOIL 01:11
12. POWERLESS 03:44

From justjared.com:

Linkin Park are nominated in the category “Choice Rock Group” for this years Teen Choice Awards!

Choice Rock Group
The Black Keys
Foo Fighters
Foster The People
fun.
Linkin Park

From dailyrecord.co.uk:

LINKIN Park have gone back to their roots for their fifth album – but won’t be getting out the hair dye.

The Grammy award-winning, massive-selling rock/rap group have often been derided for their earlier nu-metal sound, and were even called a rock boy band.

This was probably due to the massive success of their 2000 debut Hybrid Theory, which went on to sell 24million copies worldwide.

Since then they’ve shed much of the rap elements and heavy guitars, and become a stand-out rock band.

They’ve also ditched some of their more outlandish looks and co-frontman Mike Shinoda claims he’s no longer embarrassed by Linkin Park’s past.

Mike, 35, said: “I got over being embarrassed. I’m comfortable with Linkin Park in all forms.

“I know at one point I had bright red hair and I had bracelets from my wrist up to my elbow and I was wearing size 50 pants. I wouldn’t wear that today, but I’m not embarrassed about wearing it back then any more.

“That was what was going on at the time. That’s just what we did. I’m not going to run from it.”

Despite being one of the biggest rock bands on the planet, Linkin Park have never partied like they were the new Rolling Stones, and again Mike doesn’t make any apologies for not following the rules. He said: “We’re no motley crew for better or for worse. The guys tend to be a little more family-oriented.

“I’d rather get up early and go out and do something than stay up late and screw up my body.”

The six-piece band consist of Mike, who sings, plays rhythm guitar and keyboard, co-singer Chester Bennington, drummer Rob Bourdon, lead guitarist Brad Delson, turn-tablist Joe Hahn and bass player Dave Farrell.

They are releasing their latest album, Living Things, next month.

It follows Hybrid Theory, which went to No4 in the UK, 2003’s Meteora and 2007’s Minutes to Midnight, which both went to No1 in the UK. It also comes after 2010’s A Thousand Suns, which, despite its mainstream and more experimental tone, went to No2.

Earlier comments about going back to their roots had fans thinking they were back to nu-metal. Not the case.

Mike explained: “We had been avoiding the sounds we used to make our first two records for a long time.

“One of the reasons that I was uncomfortable doing those things, like writing a song with the trajectory or the story arc of our oldest stuff, was first of all I felt like it was lazy.

“We’ve already done that and we’ve done it so many times, and it’s been so successful that to do it again felt like – you know it’s going to be successful, so why are you being lazy?

“Go find something that you haven’t done before.

“Don’t do the same thing over and over again.”

The song titles on Living Things certainly sound like a band that are downbeat but Mike sees it is an album about connections.

Certainly, first single Burn It Down, “We’re building it up, to break it back down” suggests new life.

He said: “I liked the juxtaposition of this title versus what the last album was about.

“The last one was more focused on a worldwide view, what we as human beings are doing to each other, what we’re doing to the planet.

“I knew that on this record before we even got halfway done with it, it was clear that this record was about individual people like me and you, not about everybody.”