Linkin Park

Linkin Park

Linkin Park is a rock band from Agoura Hills, California. They achieved mainstream success in 2000 with their debut album, Hybrid Theory, which has since sold fifteen million copies. The band’s following studio album, Meteora also garnered success, topping the Billboard 200’s album charts in 2003. The band’s latest album, Minutes to Midnight, is slated to be released internationally on May 14, 2007 and on May 15, 2007 in the United States.

Band history

Early years

Originally consisting of three close high school friends from Agoura High School, Linkin Park’s foundation was anchored by Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, and Rob Bourdon. After graduating from high school, the Agoura Hills natives later began to take their musical interests more seriously, recruiting Joe Hahn, Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, and Mark Wakefield to perform in their band, then titled Xero. Though limited in resources, the band began recording and producing songs within Shinoda’s make-shift bedroom studio in 1996. Tensions and frustration within the band began to increase after the band failed to land a record deal. The lack of success and stalemate in progress prompted Wakefield, at that time the band’s vocalist, to leave the band in search for other projects. Later, Farrell would also leave the band in order to tour with Tasty Snax and other bands.

After spending a considerable time searching for Wakefield’s surrogate, Xero, now known as Hybrid Theory, recruited Arizonian vocalist Chester Bennington. Jeff Blue, the vice president of Zomba Music, referred Bennington to the band in March 1999. Bennington, formerly of Grey Daze, became a standout among applicants for his unique and vivid singing style. The newborn chemistry between Shinoda and Bennington helped revive the band, inciting them to work on new material. The band’s renaissance culminated with a change in name; from Hybrid Theory, the band changed their name to Linkin Park, a play and homage to Santa Monica’s Lincoln Park. However, despite these changes, the band still struggled to sign a record deal. After facing numerous rejections from several major record labels, Linkin Park turned to Jeff Blue for additional help. After failing to catch Warner Bros. Records on three previous reviews, Jeff Blue, now the vice president of Warner Bros. Records, helped the band sign a deal with the company in 1999. Now aside with Warner Bros. Records, the band released their breakthrough album, Hybrid Theory, the following year.

Breakthrough success

Linkin Park released Hybrid Theory on October 24, 2000. The album, which represented nearly half a decade’s worth of the band’s work, was edited and polished by music producer Don Gilmore. Hybrid Theory was well received by music fans; The band sold more than 4.8 million records during its debut year, while singles such as Crawling and One Step Closer established themselves as staples among Alternative Rock radio playlists during the year. Additionally, other singles from the album were featured in movies such as Dracula 2000, Little Nicky, and Valentine. Hybrid Theory was also nominated for three Grammy Awards, including best new artist, best rock album, and best hard rock performance (for Crawling). MTV also awarded the band their Best Rock Video and Best Direction awards for In the End. Through the winning of the Grammy for best hard rock performance, and for Best Rock Album, Hybrid Theory’s overall success had catapulted the band into the mainstream's attention.

During this time, Linkin Park received many invitations to perform with many recognized tours and concerts including Ozzfest, Family Values Tour and KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas. The band also formed their own tour, Projekt Revolution, which featured other notable artists such as, Cypress Hill, Adema, and Snoop Dogg. Within a year’s stretch, Linkin Park had performed at over 320 concerts. The experiences and performances of the precocious band were documented in their first DVD, Frat Party at the Pankake Festival, which debuted in November 2001. Now reunited with former bassist Dave Farrell, the band began work on a remix album, dubbed Reanimation, which would include works from Hybrid Theory and Hybrid Theory EP. The album debuted on July 30, 2002, featuring the likes of Black Thought, Jonathan Davis, Aaron Lewis, and many others. Reanimation claimed the second spot on the Billboard 200, and sold nearly 270,000 copies during its debut week.

Meteora debuts

Following the success of Hybrid Theory and Reanimation, Linkin Park spent a significant amount of time touring around United States. The band began to work on new material amidst the saturated schedule, spending a sliver of their free time in their tour bus' studio. The band officially announced the production of a new studio album in December 2002, revealing their new work was inspired by Meteora, a historic monastery in Greece. Meteora featured a mixture of the band's previous nu-metal and rapcore styles with newer innovative effects, including the induction of a Japanese Flute and other instruments. Eponymous to Meteora, the Linkin Park's sophomore album debuted on March 25, 2003, instantly earning worldwide recognition.

Meteora sold more than 800,000 copies during its first week, and ranked as the best selling album on the Billboard charts. Music videos for some of the album's singles, including Somewhere I Belong, Breaking the Habit, Faint and Numb, received significant radio attention. Eventually, Meteora sold nearly three million copies by October 2003. The album's success allowed Linkin Park to form another Projekt Revolution, which featured other bands and artists including, Mudvayne, Blindside, and Xzibit. Additionally, Metallica, a famed heavy metal group, invited Linkin Park to play at the Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003, which included well-known acts such as Limp Bizkit, Mudvayne and Deftones. The band released an album and DVD, entitled Live in Texas, which consisted of audio and video tracks of some of the band's performances in Texas during the tour.

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Bennington appears on the band's behalf at MTV Asia Aid

Meteora also earned the band additional awards and honors. The band won MTV's awards for Best Rock Video (Somewhere I Belong), Viewer's Choice Award (Breaking the Habit). Linkin Park also received significant recognition during the 2004 Radio Music Awards, winning the Artist of the Year and Song of the Year (Numb) awards. Although Meteora was not nearly as successful as Hybrid Theory, it was the third best selling album in America during 2003. The band spent the first few months of 2004 touring around the world, first with the third Projeckt Revolution tour, and later several European concerts.

Side projects and charity work

The year 2005 marked a rather quiet year for Linkin Park. The band established Music for Relief, an organization dedicated to helping those affected by the 2004 Indian tsunami. The band played two shows in 2005, one in California for Music for Relief, and one during the Live 8 series of concerts at the Philadelphia, PA venue. In May, the band demanded to be released from its contract with Warner Bros. on the grounds of “a lack of confidence”. The band was recently in negotiations with the label over a new record contract. Linkin Park had four albums left outstanding on its 2000 record contract. In December 2005 the band announced that they had finally reached a settlement with Warner Bros. Records.

In July, Shinoda announced a hip-hop side project, Fort Minor. Shinoda explained the project as a way for him to return to his hip-hop roots.
Shortly after Shinoda's announcement of Fort Minor, Bennington was also revealed to be working on a solo project of his own. The project features Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck of Orgy both playing guitar (as well as producing). Little is known about Bennington’s side project other than its name, Dead By Sunrise (Snow White Tan was the previous name of the side project). Chester delayed the album due to work on their new album.

Linkin Park’s fifth installment of the LPU fan club launched on November 21, 2005. The CD shipped with the fifth fan club package featured live tracks from the band's performance during Live 8 plus several songs with Jay-Z.

In December 2005, Mike Shinoda (who also produced Hybrid Theory EP, Reanimation and Collision Course) was confirmed as the co-producer for the next Linkin Park album. On February 8, 2006, the band announced the producer for their third studio album would be Rick Rubin, who has worked with such bands as The Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, System of a Down and many others.

During the Grammy Award Ceremony 2006 Linkin Park joined with Jay-Z and Paul McCartney, where they performed the song “Numb/Encore/Yesterday”. The band went on to win a Grammy award for Best Rap/Sung Collaboration.

Linkin Park performed live in August 2006 at Summer Sonic, hosted by Metallica in Japan. A new song, tentatively codenamed "QWERTY" and also referred in various websites as Behind Your Lies, leaked on numerous websites after being played at the concert. “QWERTY” (live and studio version), Reading My Eyes (live) and other exclusive live and studio tracks were released on Linkin Park Underground V6.0 Limited Edition Fan Club CD.

On August 29, 2006, the entire catalog of Linkin Park, including their collaborative work, was added to the iTunes music store. Linkin Park had been one of the few remaining major-label bands not selling digital versions of their music.

Linkin Park spent the majority of 2006 writing and recording their third album, and in various interviews described the musical direction of the album. Lead singer Bennington stated, "we're straying away from a lot of the predictable sounds we've had in the past, but there's no question in your mind when you hear it that it's Linkin Park...We've always said we write the music we write so that we can spread our wings as far as we want and try new things and go anywhere. I think we're really going to prove that with this new record." Regarding album co-producer Rick Rubin, Mike Shinoda stated, “Rick is one of those guys where you can go through any door you want to go through. We’re trying everything, just messing around with it until it sounds good”.

Minutes to Midnight

Main article: Minutes to Midnight (album)

On March 6, 2007, Warner Brothers announced that Linkin Park’s third album (not including the Remix albums Reanimation and Collision Course or the live album Live In Texas), titled Minutes to Midnight, would be released Monday May 14 in all countries except the United States, which would receive the album on Tuesday May 15. The first single was released April 2, and is titled “What I've Done”.

“We have put more into the new album than anything we have ever done before”, says bassist Dave “Phoenix“ Farrell. The band spent over 14 months in the studio and wrote more than 101 song demos in the making of Minutes to Midnight, an album which vocalist Mike Shinoda sees as, “a breakthrough in the development of the band's sound”.

"This was a year-and-a-half long process of really hard work and experimentation in the studio that yielded about 150 rough songs", guitarist Brad Delson told Billboard.com. The band recorded 17 tracks and is now whittling down which ones will make the final cut. “Not only is this album incredibly diverse, but the depth of the material is really strong”, Delson says.

The title is a reference to the Doomsday Clock, and lead singer Chester Bennington said that the band is writing about "things they wouldn't have touched a few years back."

Mike Shinoda explained that Minutes to Midnight is composed of sounds made by a practically Arcade Fire-esque array of instruments including banjos, marimbas and vintage guitars and amps. “People have always tried to lump us in with the whole rap/rock stereotype, but we don’t intentionally want to be part of that scene. We’ve always had our own personality and I think it really shows on this record.”

While there are no special artists featured on the album, Shinoda shares a co-producing credit with the Grammy award-winning producer Rick Rubin, “I was raised on his music and to now be working with him, to be mentored by him, is such a huge thing.”

Linkin Park recently performed six songs for AOL Sessions, which will be available on AOL starting Friday, May 4th. The live set will consist of three new songs, as well as three older songs."What I've Done",which was performed on the AOL music sessions, was released on April 16th.

The video for “What I've Done” premiered on MTV and Fuse, the week of April 2. What I've Done made a huge, "Hot Shot" debut on the Billboard Hot 100, where it debuted at #7 for the chart week of 04-21, making it by far the band's highest debut for a single on the chart. "What I've Done" also debuted at #1 on Billboard's Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, only the third song ever to do so, following What's The Frequency, Kenneth? by R.E.M., and Dani California by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The song also hit the top of the iTunes Music Store, along with the music video.

Linkin Park was featured in the MTV Battle Of The Videos facing Evanescence and Lil Mama. After two weeks went by, the voting ended, with Linkin Park's video for "What I've Done" winning the battle, after taking 56% of the votes. On April 19, What I've Done was presented as the winner, and the video was shown.

They will be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live, on May 12th.

Band members

Current

• Chester Bennington – Vocals (1998–present)
• Rob Bourdon – Drums (1996–present)
• Brad Delson – Lead guitar (1996–present)
• Dave "Phoenix" Farrell – Bass guitar (1996–1999, 2001–present)
• Joe Hahn – Turntables, Samples, Beats (1996–present)
• Mike Shinoda – Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards/Piano (1996–present)

Former

• Mark Wakefield – Lead vocals (1996–1998) Singer of the band. He was replaced by Chester Bennington in 1998.

Stand-ins

• Kyle Christener— Bass guitar (1998–1999) Stand in bass player during Phoenix's absence from the band during the Hybrid Theory EP.
• Scott Koziol— Bass guitar (1999–2001) Stand in bass player in the Hybrid Theory album. Records on the song One Step Closer and appears in the video.

Discography

Main article: Linkin Park discography

Albums and EP's

Date of Release	Title	Label	US Billboard Peak
1997	Xero Sampler Tape	Independent Release
1999	Hybrid Theory EP	Mix Media
October 24, 2000	Hybrid Theory	Warner Bros. Records	#2
July 30, 2002	Reanimation	Warner Bros. Records Machine Shop Recordings	#2
March 25, 2003	Meteora	Warner Bros. Records Machine Shop Recordings	#1
November 30, 2004	Collision Course	Warner Bros. Records Machine Shop Recordings Roc-a-Fella Records	#1
May 15, 2007	Minutes to Midnight	Warner Bros. Records Machine Shop Recordings

Videography

Main article: Linkin Park videography

Music Videos

Linkin Park has developed an extensive music video catalog. Band member Joe Hahn has directed a number of them.

The majority of Linkin Park’s music videos are extremely cinematic, taking advantage of computer animation, cinematography, and special effects. Some of the videos involve plot lines portrayed by hired actors in addition to vignettes of the band's performance. The music video for "Breaking the Habit", well-recognized for its use of anime, won the Viewer's Choice Award at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards.

DVD/VHS

• Frat Party at the Pankake Festival (2002)
• The Making of Meteora (Limited Release) (2003)
• Live in Texas (2003)
• Breaking The Habit (2004)
• Collision Course (2004)
• Live 8 (2005)

External links

• Linkin Park's official site
• Template:Last.fm
• Linkin Park at AllMusic