linkinpark.com have sent Wretches & Kings to all who pre-ordred. Check your inbox right now and let us know what you think of the track on our forums!
AOL have also posted the song for listening too. Stream the full track here.
According to LinkinPark.com, "A Thousand Suns" track "Wretches & Kings" will be sent out tomorrow to anyone who has pre-ordered A Thousand Suns from the website.
If you pre-ordered A Thousand Suns from linkinpark.com, we are sending you a new song some time on Thursday (9/2). Check your emails to receive a high quality MP3 of "Wretches & Kings." If you haven't pre-ordered the album from us, you can do so here to get the song too. Check it out and let us know what you think.
Hope you enjoy.
-Chester
If you thought you've seen the last of the ATS related interviews, think again! German website Laut.de just posted a particularly long one with Mike and Rob where they discuss various aspects of the album in-depth with an interviewer who misses their old sound. A great exchange between the band and the interviewer. Read the translation below.
27 hours 20 minutes flight time for the interview. Sometimes it is better to not calculate whether the effort is worthwhile for a specific action at all. But when you get the offer to interview Linkin Park, it's something you don't consider for long.
Some decisions just got easier to make and even though the chaos of this trip is relatively high, it's been almost smooth at the stage. So I'm sitting on a Wednesday afternoon in July at 14:00 (local time) in a hotel suite and get the chance to listen to six of the new songs from "A Thousand Suns".
Only the single "The Catalyst" has already been mastered, three more have not even a track title. But it quickly becomes clear that the new album will make for some surprises - and certainly also for some fans disappointment. For what matters, the inclusion of rock guitar is definitely not too much of a factor going by these numbers.
After two passes, I am finally invited to the next suite, where already seated are drummer Rob Bourdon & Mike Shinoda on the table and have just finished their lunch. Both seem in good spirits, Mike seems very interested and very polite. Soon comes into a good conversation, and in the end the journey has been worthwhile.
Continue Reading...
Joe Hahn has posted some images of the skate deck you have been able to purchase through linkinpark.com, although not entirely news, we thought it looked awesome enough to share. Check out the images below.
 Click to view the full-size image |
 Click to view the full-size image |
 Click to view the full-size image |
In promotion of A Thousand Suns, Phoenix recently spoke to ARTISTdirect about the album, the creation process, particular tracks on the album and a number of other topics, check out some excerpts below or read the detailed interview in full here. Spoilers Ahead.
Did you view A Thousand Suns as a whole piece from the get-go?
More than anything, what dictated how the album turned out was the process. In the studio, there were moments when Mike would bring in a demo idea. I'd listen to it, and I wouldn't know if I liked it or not on that first listen. I'd need to hear it again in order to figure out what was going on and if I liked it. That was the music that was exciting. If there were sounds we'd never heard before or structures you couldn't necessarily figure out, they were inspirational. We gravitated towards the songs that felt different from anything we'd done before or heard anyone else do before. There are ties thematically between every track on the record, and there's synergy sonically with what's going on. Some of the songs are very different. Each song pulls the album in a different direction. The intention is to really round out the experience and create that immersive 3-D feel when you sit down and listen to the whole thing. Different songs accomplish different things. "Blackout" has a vocal style that's really aggressive and heavy with music that's really delicate at points. There are songs set up more traditionally in structure. Then there are songs set up with almost three different movements.
What's the story behind "The Messenger?"
It's a really stripped down acoustic track. Chester's vocal performance is one of my favorites that he's ever done. His performance is pretty powerful and moving. For the entire album, you get this barrage of sounds and information. It's almost analogous to the technology and the world we live in. You're getting pounded on with what you're hearing and you're not sure of what's going on. The end is just a breath of movement and a step away from that. It's really stripped back and more personal.
Read it in full here.
ESPN played a little of Wretches & Kings during a College Football promo today. Well, the LPAssociation captured it for you and you can check it out below.
In promotion of A Thousand Suns, Mike & Phoenix recently took to Germany for press and interviews. Check out video clips from Gamescom, and read a translated text interview with RTL below regarding A Thousand Suns, living in LA and... asparagus?
Hi Mike and David, nice to meet you! First of all, congratulations on the new album! It differs in style so much from its predecessors. Is such a change of style a risk?
David: That was certainly our concern. This album is an attempt to expand the creative process and to bring things to the studio which have never been tried before and never heard. That was the decisive and exciting aspect here. All albums are snapshots yes, but that does not mean that we do not find good in them, but everything was fresh and new to this recording. But if one makes only the same thing and always stays just the same way, you're losing part of the art, as it is always less exciting and ... so boring.
You have a huge following - but how is it the other way around, what music would we find on your iPod ?
Mike: We hear a lot about different things. If you are on my iPod and you press "play", you can hear some songs for five days, without that one being repeated.
And what songs are these?
Mike: What I hear at the moment is a lot of music from the 60's and 70's. The Who, Beatles, Jimi Hendrix. This is certainly not the first thing that comes to people's mind when they hear Linkin Park ... but in ten years you might think not only of a certain style, but a sound where "Linkin Park" only comes to mind. I hope so!
Speaking of Beatles: You've actually sung with Sir Paul McCartney at the Grammys together ... It looked kind of spontaneous, but it was not, I guess ...?
Mike: Oooh no, that was all very planned. With Paul McCartney, he is not as spontaneous with his times on stage (laughs)... It was an honor for us. Man, that was so great...
David (smiles): Well, frankly, that was a little scary. Especially for me, I was a nervous wreck when I met him. You do not know how he will come in on the song, we just have to run as it is, I just knew we were performing a song with him. And the guy is Paul McCartney! (Laughs) We started to do the "Yesterday" rehearsal, and there was a moment where I was afraid to play with the band because he could be hearing us. My head was just "Oh boy! Who knows if he can hear you, just play ... you hope you play your part well enough ... otherwise you are thrown out of the band - by Paul McCartney - what do you do then?!" But he was a really nice guy, gave me compliments for playing, one of my greatest moments.
What makes a really good song for you?
Mike: If I challenge one song, it does not mean that they have to be complicated, but good, like in a film. I want as a spectator - and in music as a listener - are to be taken seriously.
David: You can easily communicate with music, it's almost as if people can share an experience with someone. Whether classical, pop, rock, you understand when listening to the person who wrote it. Any music that transports the emotions, is good for me.
Mike: (Interrupting): Okay, stop, wait. I trade my answer.
Celebrities are under pressure a lot, especially in Los Angeles, constantly by paparazzi. Many have their own way to deal with it, how do you?
Mike: We do not have that many paparazzi around us, as you might think! We thank God for allowing us to keep in a position that gives us a little distance.
Is LA a Celebrity Mecca?
Mike: Oh yes, to live there definitely helps. You know, if you are on one side of the road and go across on the other, Denzel Washington will be there running, Then they all go over to that side all at once. And I can go to a restaurant alone and no longer they will bother me. Exception is, for example, in Japan ... We look different, we are bigger - there you draw the attention much more on ourselves.
Do you read yourself over in the press and the gossip pages?
Mike: Sometimes. Everyone in the band is in there, but I think it's good to know what people say about me. But I rate it not too much, but have a more "clinical" view of what is written so.
David: I avoid things to read about me (smiles). I'd rather read the gossip about Mike's life!
You are now on tour. Do you see differences between the American and European audiences?
David: Yes, we start in Germany where they have more shows planned than in any other country which is our response to the large fan base here and also we have been having a lot of fun. Well, that, with the difference ... funny, it always seems to interest many people! No matter where you go there, the audience is different every time. People move differently in each country, sing differently, express their enthusiasm from completely different ways! Especially in England that is funny, because to get there in some stadiums is like in a football game. The crowd's singing football songs, until we come out...
Is your love for Germany the same as the asparagus?
Mike: Ha, yes, this is something of a joke in the band ... we have found out recently, even though we've been coming here for so long. (Both can't stop laughing) For the past year or two, we would come here, to have this "asparagus time"! The times you have to imagine we have been coming here, for over ten years and then have found out "hey, something like this did not exist and the..." Man, that stuff tastes really good!
Fans will now have the last word: Do you want your fans to say something?
Mike: Yes! It is very important to tell them something ... Many people do not listen to CDs in one piece, using the motto "a song here, a song there." Sure, you can also do that with our album, if you will, but we have designed it as a whole. What a journey, we bring you! If you can hear it as such, you will notice that. This is our advice to all fans. So to all out there: Be curious and try it out!
We will! Thank you for the interview.
UK based Kerrang! magazine has this week featured Linkin Park. The double page spread is viewable below. You may remember that last Tuesday Kerrang! also featured an in-depth interview with the band in which the scans are available in our gallery.
Mike Shinoda claim’s “words aren’t going to do it [A Thousand Suns] justice.” Read the full article below courtesy of the LPA!
 Click to view the full-size image |
MTV have posted impressions on the new Linkin Park album, A Thousand Suns. They compare it to their other releases and talk about the sound and structure of some of the tracks. Check out the review below. Spoilers Ahead.
According to legend, in August of 2000, a group of clearly terrified Capitol Records executives were outfitted with headphones, loaded into a series of unmarked vans and driven down the Pacific Coast Highway, where they listened to Radiohead's Kid A for the first time. It was an inspired — not to mention particularly apt — premiere for the album, and though the whole thing is rather apocryphal, it certainly made for nice copy at the time.
I only mention that because in August of 2010, a clearly relaxed Warner Bros. publicist sat me down in her office and allowed me one of the first listens to Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns. There were no headphones or unmarked vans or winding, windswept vistas — budgetary cuts, one can only assume — just an iced coffee and a notepad, which was sort of a shame, because if ever there was an album that deserves the Radiohead treatment, it's this one. Since, as you'll probably discover in the coming weeks, A Thousand Suns is most definitely Linkin Park's Kid A.
Well, maybe not technically, but, at the very least, spiritually. Like Kid A, Suns is an album of great ambition and equally great scope, a fearless effort that takes the band to places they've never been: darker and doomier places, louder and (in sections) heavier places too. Like Kid A, it is so completely different from the band's previous efforts that it will almost certainly stand as the line of demarcation between everything that came before and everything that will come after. And, much like Kid A, there just aren't a whole lot of guitars on it.
Instead, A Thousand Suns is washed in ominous electronics, jarring percussion and an unshakeable, unyielding post-millennial tension. The latter is nothing new for the band — their 2007 Minutes to Midnight dealt, in parts, with the politics of George W. Bush and the tragedy of Katrina — but here, they've steeped the entire album in a thick coat of dread. It's a transition underscored in the repeated refrain of "God bless us every one/ We're a broken people living under loaded gun," first heard in opening number "The Requiem" and then later on in lead single "The Catalyst." And in moments like the beginning of "When They Come for Me," when chirping crickets are gradually drowned out by the sound of artillery, or, most notably, in the use of recorded, world-weary speeches by scientist Robert Oppenheimer, political activist Mario Savio and Martin Luther King Jr.
Each of the speeches are appropriately monolithic — Oppenheimer's famous quoting of the Bhagavad Gita after the first testing of the atomic bomb in 1945, Savio's terrifyingly prescient "bodies upon the gears" screed in 1964, King's 1967 lament that the horrors of modern life "cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love" — and it's telling that they all come from the last millennium. Because, really what A Thousand Suns (which takes its name from Oppenheimer's speech) is trying to say is that none of these problems, these terrors or these specters that haunt us in 2010 are particularly new. Quite the opposite, in fact. We've just chosen to ignore the warnings. And now it might be too late. And that's another reason it reminds me so much of Kid A.
But that's where the similarities between the albums end. Because rather than hide their fears in a claustrophobic din (as Radiohead did), Linkin Park make the conscious decision to rage against them. They're not willing to go down without a fight, and it's in those moments — the massive roar of "Waiting for the End," the thunderous, squealing "Blackout" (Chester Bennington's best moment on the album) and the muscle-bound might of "Wretches and Kings" — that the album truly soars. And it bears mentioning that for all its mechanized morose, there are some decidedly uplifting moments too. Most notable among them is "Iridescent," which starts with just a piano line, then slowly heads skyward on interlocking guitars (they do in fact exist on the album) and explodes in a rousing chorus of "Remember all the sadness and frustration/ And let go."
It all ends with an acoustic-based number, "The Messenger," which features Bennington going full-bore and culminates in this lyric: "When life leaves us blind/ Loves keeps us kind." And perhaps that's the real message of the album, that no matter how far gone things may be, humanity isn't beyond saving. What separates man from machine is our capacity to love, and despite all evidence to the contrary, there are still things worth believing in. All of that may seem crazy, but Linkin Park seem just insane enough to buy into it. And they want you to as well. After all, at this point, it's about all we have left.
So while A Thousand Suns may be dark, sprawling, discordant, ambitious and an all-out game changer, Kid A it's not. This one's optimistic.
Another fan who attended the Linkin Park "A Thousand Suns" pre-listening event yesterday has written a first impression review of the album, check out the detailed notes in his words below. Special thanks for turtleguy556 for sharing them. Spoilers Ahead.
My "A Thousand Suns" Review From The LPU Listening Event At Warner Records 8/30/2010
I had the privilege of being selected to go down to Warner Records to be one of the 1st 20 people outside of the label to listen to the album yesterday so I decided to write a review to share my thoughts. The album is a journey from start to finish. It pulls you in from the 1st 10 seconds, and I was given chills at 5 different points during the album listen. Enjoy
1. The Requiem - Great intro with dark sounding synth fading in. Mike begins a haunting moan sound, which is followed up by a line from "The Catalyst" coming from a little girl sounding voice. The line is delivered with different notes in sections, that instantly give you and eerie feeling. The heads of Warner asked us who we thought it was but we all were wrong, and they told us that it was actually Mike with heavy electronic vocal effects on his voice. It is not an actual female vocal. Still haunting none the less.
.2. The Radiance - Quick short synth to fade into the next track, not much to review. Feels like a cont. of the 1st track rather than its own.
3. Burning In The Skies - Very singable. The chorus has Chester singing, "Swimming through the smoke of the bridges I have burned, I'm losing what I don't deserve." Those are the lines that stuck with me after hearing the song. Song has a good feel to it. It could turn into a radio song. Not very heavy, but I think people will connect with it.
4. Empty Spaces - Crickets intro with guns fired, and bombs exploding. The bombs fade into the beat of the next track...
5. When They Come For Me - Hard punching beat with Mike rapping throughout. Mike ending lots of verses with "Try to keep up motha effaaaa" Also makes reference "I'm not gonna tell you to forfeit the game."
6. Robot Boy - For this track I was expecting something very electronic due to the name. However, it was very melodic with Mike singing without much electronic influence.
7. Jornada Del Muerto - This track comes right on the heels of the previous. Almost sounds as if it's an instrumental with the vocal track reversed and warped. Another point where I got chills. The vocal track can't be understood by lyrics, but rather by tone. Almost sounds very exhausted. Also very eerie upon first listen.
8. Waiting For The End - The head of Warner told us this is the next single and he asked for our thoughts on it. It has Mike rapping in a Reggae style with Chester doing a very singable chorus. Has a great beat, and great vibe overall. This is the one track on the record that doesn't sound at all like Linkin Park. It sounds great still, but this song is very different.
9. Blackout - This is one track that is a standout. Electronic sounding beat, with Chester almost rapping. I wouldn't call it real rapping because he is changing notes for certain words as if he was singing fast. Then HEAVY screams that fit the electronic sound well. Chester screams BLACKOUT and it's DJ-ed and warped like something off of Reanimation, and sounds incredible. However, this is only 80% of the song. The last 20% turns into a bass driven pop sounding song that did not fit what Chester was doing moments before. It's almost as if it was a chorus to the song and they put it on the tail end. I thought it was the next track but it was still Blackout. I don't understand why they put it on the end, but it feels very out of place. It's not "BAD", just doesn't feel even remotely like the same song.
10. Wretches And Kings - This is the song all older LP fans have been waiting for and whining about. This could have easily been on Meteora. Hard guitar with effects and Mike rapping hard on the track, with Chester scream singing the chorus. I would have to say this is my favorite LP song they have ever done. The beat hits harder than you could possibly imagine. The head of Warner played the track again, this time at full volume, per request by us after the album was done playing. This song is reason to buy the album alone. It's like a reinvention of the first 2 albums. I'm glad, however that this is the only track that sounded as such, because it makes the track special, and not like anything else on the CD.
11. Wisdom, Justice, And Love - MLK speaks over distorted sounds, and slowly becomes warped into a robot-like voice.
12. Iridescent - This sounds like a big powerful radio single. Beat heavy, piano driven with soft vocals, and a soaring chorus. Huge finish with a choir singing with Chester, possibly group vocals from the band. The song is not heavy but is truly an epic song from start to finish. It builds up and takes off.
13. Fallout - This sounds like it should have been titled Robot Boy. It's Mike singing over a robot voice, and leads well into The Catalyst.
14. The Catalyst - Ok single to start out with, but it fits in better as part of the whole album, rather than by itself. As it fades it feels like it was in the right place on the album.
15. The Messenger - Acoustic Guitar intro into Chester singing alone singing like I've NEVER heard him sing before. Hitting some absolutely incredible notes. Powerful lyrics regarding angels. Chester really holds nothing back vocally on the track. The notes at times give chills. A perfect way to end the A Thousand Suns journey.
Linkin Park's music gets remixed and re-interpreted by Keaton Hashimoto in Glorious 8-Bit Splendor! Check it out here, exclusively on LPAssociation.com
Continue Reading...
Keaton Hashimoto and The Linkin Park Association are teaming up to create the first ever full-length Linkin Park fan created game featuring art, stages and themes inspired by the band's music! COMING LATE 2010!
Continue Reading...
Read and/or listen to our exclusive interview with bassist David "Phoenix" Farrell from 2006, featuring a shoutout to the site from Dave himself.
Continue Reading...
Download The Rosewood Fall's discography, hosted by permission of Jim Roach (former bandmate of Dave in The Snax) exclusively on LPAssociation.com.
Continue Reading...
- Meeting Of A Thousand Suns Trailer
- Linkin Park to play VMA's
- ATS Pre-Listening Fan Notes 08/30/10
- Noisecreep Exclusive On Set Catalyst Images
- Chester to Make Special Appearance at Ahi Extravaganza
- ATS Laser Light Exhibition Reminder
- KROQ Breakfast With Linkin Park
- MTV Article On Fan Reactions
- Absolute Radio Interview Mike
- LPTV: Chester's Lullaby
