Catharsis with Linkin Park

From boston.com:

Maybe it’s the brutal weather and its attendant aggravations — the shoveling, the icy roads, the frozen pipes — but there was something deliciously cathartic about the moment Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington began repeatedly shrieking “put me out of my misery’’ while performing “Given Up’’ Tuesday night at the TD Garden. You could feel a ripple of eager agreement move through the crowd.

Given the abysmal traveling conditions and the failing health of commercial arena rock in general, it was a fairly sizable crew. Filling about two-thirds of the venue, including a packed general admission floor, the all-ages audience enthusiastically latched onto the opportunity to collectively blow off some steam with a finely calibrated soundtrack of howls and murmurs, big riffs and meditative burbles, stomping backbeats and intricate grooves provided by the California rockers.

Performing on a stark, multilevel stage that jutted into the floor in front of a massive video screen that projected images in austere black and white, the band alternated between its brawny, insidious radio hits of yore and the more measured, electro-leaning tracks of its current album “A Thousand Suns’’ for 100 sweaty minutes.

The former drew the biggest response as fists pumped and small mosh pits broke out on the floor during the fervent, angst-ridden yowls of “Breaking the Habit,’’ “Bleed It Out,’’ “In the End,’’ and the still bracing “Numb’’ with its simple, icy synth figure sending shivers as a flailing Bennington unloaded his inner turmoil and rapper/instrumentalist Mike Shinoda served as cool counterpoint.

While the response was more muted to many of the newer tracks — save singalong sing-song single “Waiting for the End’’ — LP made a strong bid for approval with the percussively seductive “When They Come for Me,’’ the percolating, almost Depeche Mode-esque “Burning in the Skies’’ and the glimmer-of-hope anthem “Iridescent.’’

Aussie-British-American collective Pendulum opened with a frantic, techno-metal-pop hybrid that evoked everyone from Prodigy to Oasis to the headliners.

Linkin Park Live EP on iTunes

From mikeshinoda.com:

A live EP from this tour (recorded at our show in front of the Puerta De Alcalá in Madrid) has now arrived on iTunes. Go HERE to listen or buy. Thanks for supporting the band, and we’ll see you out here on tour!

Mike LPU Chat 02/02/2011

From mikeshinodaclan.com:

Mike was just on the LPU chat. Here is the summary:

* Linkin Park got out of Boston okay and they’re now in New York
* Mike had HORRIBLE turkey meatloaf on amtrak (train in Boston) and told off the train guy when he was bugging him
* Mike was wearing a winter hat because of the snowstorm in Boston and people thought it was funny.
* Burning in the Skies, WILL NOT be a US Single.
* He was making up other ways to say “motherfucker” which lead to “motherfricassee”
* After the US tour they’re going to tour in Europe and Asia, and he’s gonna put in a word for the Canadians (meaning try to get LP to go to Canada
* And he wants people to learn the “Dream Hands” dance and flash mob it at a M&G
* Also there will be a LPUTV released soon, it will be about the Summit in Sydney about 7 minutes long

Fuse Video: Linkin Park Through The Years

From mikeshinodaclan.com:

Fuse has uploaded this compilation of their Linkin Park interviews over the years, they talk about Hybrid Theory, Meteora, Minutes to Midnight, Projekt Revolution and A Thousand Suns.
Watch it here.

Valentines Day at Club Tattoo (free LP autographs!)

Saturday February 19 at 6-8pm there will be a free autograph signing event with Linkin Park inside Club Tattoo Las Vegas located at Planet Hollywwood Miracle Mile. The event is free. First come first serve.

source: linkinlady.net

Linkin Park Blogs From The Road, Preps For ‘Saturday Night Live’

From mtv.com:

As MTV’s POSTED Artist of the Month, the men of Linkin Park were nice enough to send us this missive from the road. Linkin Park, seen above rocking out in Atlanta, are currently touring the U.S.A. in support of their A Thousand Suns LP. And this guest blog post by bass player Dave Phoenix Farrell, gives you a behind-the-scenes look at all that goes into making a Linkin Park show an epic event. Plus, check out a video interview with the band to find out about their charity, Music For Relief, which they founded after the 2005 South East Asian Tsunami. And take in some incredible photos of the band playing live in Detroit and Chicago.

We’re currently in the middle of our North American tour, and the shows have been really great so far. This is our first tour in the States since 2008, and it feels good to be back and playing shows here. Since our last tour here, we’ve played in 21 different countries on five continents.

Performing the songs from our new album has been a lot of fun and a whole new challenge for us. Chester and Brad each have percussion responsibilities on a few songs, and everyone except Rob have backup vocal duties. Before our first show of the tour in Sunrise, Fla., we had a rehearsal to run through some of our more challenging songs — “Burning In The Skies,” “Blackout” and “When They Come For Me.” A bunch of contest winners stopped by and watched us run through the songs over and over.

We’re off to New York now for a show at Madison Square Garden later this week, followed by a performance on “Saturday Night Live” with host Dana Carvey. Check back for more updates and follow me on Twitter (@phoenixlp) if you are a fan of awesomeness.

Phoenix

Watch videos here.

SHOWS IN EUROPE ADDED

From LP Newsletter:

June 14: Stockholm, Sweden – Ericsson Globe Arena | LPU PRE-SALE
June 19: Oberursel, Germany – Hessentag State Fair Festival | LPU PRE-SALE

ON SALE NOW:
June 12: Donington, UK – Download Festival | TICKETS
July 1: Arras, France – Arras Main Square Festival | TICKETS
July 2: St. Gallen, Swizerland – Open Air St. Gallen | TICKETS

Melrose Night on 03.02.2011


Melrose Night: popular food trucks and shops open late as well as offer promotions on the first Thursday of every month on Melrose Avenue. (check for participants and promotions)
Time: 6PM-10PM
Location: Melrose Avenue b/w N. Ogden St. and Stanley Avenue
Parking: Sportie LA lot (7753 Melrose Avenue) or street parking


SURU Joe Hahn of Linkin Park and Noel’s store selling high end men’s and women’s street wear, exclusive toys, and artwork | 10% off entire purchase
7662 Melrose Avenue


See some pics of the first Melrose Night HERE!

more information on melrosenight.com

Change does Linkin Park good

From boston.com:

“I don’t think we ever do anything half-assed.’’ That’s how Mike Shinoda explains the sonic change-up his band Linkin Park made on its 2010 album “A Thousand Suns.’’

On the phone from a Chicago tour stop, the Linkin Park rapper-songwriter-producer says he and his bandmates in the multiplatinum rock group started down this new road with their previous album, “Minutes to Midnight.’’ But this time, they knew a radical alteration to the rap-rock hybrid they’d come to be known for since the turn of the century, with hits like “Breaking the Habit’’ and “What I’ve Done,’’ was necessary. Instead of channeling all of their angst into buzzsaw riffs, keening screams, and brawny raps, the band, with returning coproducer Rick Rubin, explore more electronic, ambient, and, frankly, mellower paths.

“We’re not trying to offend fans of [early albums] ‘Hybrid Theory’ and ‘Meteora.’ We’re trying to make music that’s challenging for us, that’s coming from an honest place,’’ says Shinoda. “We realized that [the old sound] was the thing that was selling, but we decided to take a risk.’’

Linkin Park brings sounds both old and new to the TD Garden on Tuesday.

Q. You worked with Rick Rubin again on “A Thousand Suns.’’ How was that? Was he on board with the new direction?

A. On the last record we were trying to break outside of the confines of a sound that we had established ourselves and we no longer wanted to feel like we had to make that thing over and over again. We wanted to do something different, so he was trying to give us the moral support and the tools to find new ways to make new sounds. On the new record we were already comfortable with being uncomfortable. We almost did the record ourselves but we took a meeting with Rick and it just fit. He understood the demos. He understood where we wanted the record to go.

Q. What’s been the reaction to the record? I think it’s your most interesting one yet, but I’m wondering if I’m in the minority on that.

A. I would say that you’re not at this point, which I’m happy to say. I feel like we really lucked out that the touring worked out the way it did, because the US got some extra time to get used to the album — because it’s a different record. It’s full of ideas, it’s a dense record, sonically and thematically; and to be honest, I’m surprised when I hear people say that they loved it on first listen. More often than not, you hear people say that they had to get used to it or grow into it. And that’s fine. We thought that was the kind of record we were making.

Q. There’s definitely a faction of your audience, especially the metal fans, who have been vocal in their displeasure. But do you think you’ve gained any new listeners?

A. I literally heard somebody say, “When I saw that it was Linkin Park and I listened to the record, I didn’t like it because it was weird. And then I heard this great new song on the radio and I didn’t know what band it was by and I loved it and I went to buy it and it was Linkin Park.’’ They had the weird baggage of old Linkin Park in their minds, and as soon as they got rid of that baggage they liked the new album. That’s what we need right now, people to have an open mind that Linkin Park isn’t about one thing.

Q. You guys have been together for over 10 years, what’s the secret to a lasting musical marriage?

A. I think we’re really lucky in that sense. I don’t know if we’re an anomaly or not. We’re good friends and we still get along in the studio and touring. We even occasionally hang out on our time off which is, believe it or not, for a lot of bands pretty rare.

Q. Pop, dance, and hip-hop have become increasingly dominant in the last few years, with rock losing its profile somewhat. Why do you think that is?

A. I’m not a chart guy, I don’t follow the trends. I know what I like, just as anybody else does, and I haven’t been listening to as much straight-up rock in the last couple of years because it’s boring. The rock bands that I do like — Phoenix, the Temper Trap — tend to have something special about them that rounds out the experience and makes it more original and unique. There was a long period of time where bands were imitating stuff from the ’60s and ’70s, and that’s cute for a minute, but if you can’t bring something else to the table on top of that you can only hold people’s interest for so long.

Welcome to the United Center, Joe

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