Jul 08, 2010 15:33 ET

Linkin Park Announces September 14th Release for New Album A Thousand Suns
Lead Single "The Catalyst" to Impact Radio August 2nd; Band Partners With MySpace Music to Feature Fan Performance on New Album

LOS ANGELES, CA--(Marketwire - July 8, 2010) - Through their official website (www.linkinpark.com), LINKIN PARK has announced a September 14th release date for their new album A THOUSAND SUNS (Machine Shop Recordings/Warner Bros.). The album is co-produced by Rick Rubin (U2, Johnny Cash) and Linkin Park vocalist Mike Shinoda, who last joined forces to produce Linkin Park's 2007 release, Minutes To Midnight.

The band also announced that the first single from the new album will be "The Catalyst," which debuts on radio worldwide on August 2 and will also be featured on the band's MySpace Music profile (http://www.myspace.com/linkinpark). Prior to the song's release, the band and MySpace are teaming up for "Linkin Park, Featuring You," a unique promotion that gives fans a first-of-its-kind opportunity to collaborate with Linkin Park to produce their own song based on some of the tracks from the forthcoming single.

A winner will be chosen by Linkin Park and their submission will either be included on the band's new album or the winner will be invited to perform with the band on a song on the upcoming record.

Beginning tomorrow, July 9th, fans can go to myspace.com/linkinpark to download audio stems from "The Catalyst." Fans will be encouraged to adjust the stems and also record and produce their own additional tracks. Fans can use their own music production software to create their song and then upload it to the band via their MySpace page. Once each new version is submitted, the track will be shared in an embeddable player, which anyone can access to rate and comment, as well as click through to record their own tracks. The contest is live as of tomorrow.

The "Linkin Park, Featuring You" promotion is the start of a multi-phase global partnership between the band and MySpace Music. Throughout the next four months, Linkin Park fans worldwide will have access to live shows, exclusive content and special chances to interact with the band like never before through the MySpace Music platform.

"Our albums are the foundation of who we are as a band, and reserving a spot for a fan to play on one of our songs felt like a way to show our dedication to them," says Shinoda. "There are a lot of unknowns about what might get submitted for this contest, but that's what makes it fun. Our fans continually energize us with their creativity and dedication, so I think they're going to come up with something great."

The band (Shinoda, vocalist Chester Bennington, drummer Rob Bourdon, guitarist Brad Delson, DJ Joe Hahn and bassist Dave "Phoenix" Farrell) also recently announced that they'll be touring Europe this fall, beginning Wednesday, October 20th at the O2 World, Berlin and wrapping Thursday, November 11th at the 02 Arena, London. Ticket info can be found at www.linkinpark.com.

A celebration of sound and vision, each of these live performances is designed to be a transformative multi-media experience, complete with a unique blending of music and art and featuring never-before-seen visual technology. In addition, this tour's setlist, which will be packed with a plethora of the band's biggest hits, will be the first to showcase material from A THOUSAND SUNS.

European tour dates for Linkin Park are as follows (additional shows to be announced):

DATE VENUE CITY/COUNTRY
9-Oct Maquinaria Festival Santiago, Chile
11-Oct SWY Music & Arts Festival Sao Paulo, Brazil
20-Oct O2 Arena Berlin, Germany
22-Oct Schleyerhalle Stuttgart, Germany
23-Oct Tips Arena Linz, Austria
25-Oct Bercy Paris, France
27-Oct Lanxess Arena Koln, Germany
29-Oct O2 Arena Hamburg, Germany
30-Oct MCH Arena Herning, Denmark
1-Nov Hallenstadion Zurich, Switzerland
2-Nov Festhalle Frankfurt, Germany
4-Nov MEN Arena Manchester, UK
9-Nov LG Arena Birmingham, UK
10-Nov O2 Arena London, UK
11-Nov O2 Arena London, UK

www.linkinpark.com

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When you're a super huge band like Linkin Park and you go out on huge arena tours, very often, you secure insurance in case something goes awry and the band is forced to cancel a spate of shows. The insurance provides the band with a safety blanket, if you will, enabling them to recover profits lost as a result of the gig cancellations. Millions of dollars. Now, Linkin Park is taking legal action against well-known insurance house Lloyd's of London, claiming the company owes them big.

According to TMZ.com, the suit seeks profits they would have made from the six shows they were forced to cancel back in 2008, when frontman Chester Bennington hurt his back assembling a toy for his kid. The band had filed a claim with the insurance company, but the firm denied it, claiming that Bennington's back ailment was a pre-existing condition, one he'd had well before the band opened its policy.

While details of the suit are scant, Linkin Park are said to be suing for millions of dollars.

Meanwhile, they continue to plug away on their forth record, which should surface before year's end. In various interviews, members of the group have suggested the new disc will be unlike anything they've taken on before, with some proclaiming it could spawn a new genre.

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Mike has uploaded nine of his ten scores he made for the 2005 VMAs. You can listen to them here or download them here.

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Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, was hit with a magnitude 7.0 earthquake on Tuesday. The quake destroyed much of the nation's infrastructure, as well as a massive number of buildings. The Red Cross estimates that the death toll is between 100,000 - 200,000 and as many as 3 million people may be homeless or injured. So far, there have been five aftershocks — two were 5.9 and
5.2 magnitude — and more are expected.

The full extent of the damage remains unknown. However, with 85% of the population already living in poverty, it is clear that Haiti is ill-equipped to cope with a disaster of this magnitude. At this very moment, there are millions in desperate need of food, water, temporary shelter, medical services and emotional support. They need our help.

Music for Relief has launched an emergency appeal for funds to help the survivors of this disaster.
Text RELIEF to 90999 to make a $5 donation to support recovery in Haiti.

HELP HAITI NOW!

For more information click here.
Thank you for your support!

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Dear EraseThePain.net members & visitors,

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TThere's a question that lingers when listening to the debut album from Dead by Sunrise, the new project from Linkin Park's Chester Bennington: What can he do musically in this setting that he can't in his day job? The answer, apparently, is quite a bit. Bennington's emotive vocals and a similar quiet-to-loud dynamic identify Dead by Sunrise with Linkin Park, but "Out of Ashes" is grittier and more punk-driven. This is best displayed on the punchy groove of "Crawl Back In," the blistering cadence driving "Inside of Me," the three-chord attack of "My Suffering" and the butt-kicking rock of "End of the World." Bennington and his Dead by Sunrise bandmates (who hail from the electronic rock band Julien-K) also display a deft touch with atmospherics and textures on tracks like "Too Late," "Give Me Your Name" and the goth-tinged "Let Down," among others. On the opening track, "Fire," Bennington searches for "a way to keep my pain from burning down to the bone." But his agony is the listener's sonic gain, so let it burn.

Consisting of material that Chester Bennington didn't want to hammer into the mold of Linkin Park's electronica-infused nu metal, Out of Ashes finds the singer exploring a moodier hard rock sound, teaming up with co-collaborators Julien-K (a production/synth pop outfit featuring Amir Derahk and Ryan Shuck of Orgy). The album has a more melodic, guitar-centric approach than Bennington's previous work. The Julien-K touch really manifests itself in atmospherics — rather than sitting in the forefront, synths are used more strategically, thickening the sound and filling in the empty spaces. The album's more rocking moments are reminiscent of Velvet Revolver, with riff-driven songs storming out of the gates at full gallop. "Inside of Me" wholly embraces that idea, grabbing the listener from the get-go and relentlessly barreling straight through to the end like some kind of rock & roll Cannonball Run. The album also features a lot of really satisfying melodic moments, making a downtempo shift from time to time and giving the listener a brief respite from all the action. "Fire," the album's opening track, is the star of the show. Bennington's vocals soar over the massive, triumphant chorus, kicking the album off to an epic start. As a whole, Out of Ashes is a solid record and a fine opening volley for Bennington's solo work. While it may not be a terribly adventurous record in the grand scheme of rock & roll, it's certainly a departure from his work with Linkin Park, and should make for a refreshing change for fans who want to see another side of the singer, as well as winning over people who aren't into his other work.

This side project by Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington is a grim affair, with hackneyed post-grunge arrangements propping up pity-poor-me sentiments telegraphed in song titles like "My Suffering" and "Crawl Back In" ("Sometimes I cry/Sometimes I feel like I want to die," Bennington wails). Ashes is slightly redeemed by ballads like "In the Darkness," which bears a resemblance to the winning emo turn Linkin Park took on the Rick Rubin- produced Minutes to Midnight (2007). But the album is oddly inert, lacking both the brute force and big choruses that raised Linkin Park to rap-rock godhead status.

Chester Bennington, 33, has a highly commercial gift: He’s still directly in touch with the pain, insecurity and turmoil of adolescence, and he expresses them without any fear of clichés.

“Sometimes I laugh, sometimes I cry/ Sometimes I feel like I wanna die,” he wails in “Crawl Back In” from “Out of Ashes,” the first album by his band Dead by Sunrise.

Mr. Bennington is no newcomer. He’s the singer for the rap-metal band Linkin Park, in which he splits vocals with the rapper Mike Shinoda. Mr. Bennington’s voice is versatile enough; it can be a thin, sustained whine or an aggrieved hard-rock rasp. But his ear for melody contributes to a tag-team combination of pugnacity and tunefulness that has made Linkin Park one of this decade’s best-selling bands. Linkin Park hasn’t broken up; Mr. Bennington has squeezed Dead by Sunrise into his other band’s time off.

Dead by Sunrise is his alliance with the musicians in Julien-K, a band that on its own leans toward electropop. (Julien-K also counts Mr. Bennington as a member.) But Mr. Bennington wrote the songs for Dead by Sunrise, and they are rockers, completely setting aside Linkin Park’s hip-hop and turning instead to grunge, emo and power ballads. Produced by Howard Benson, who pumped up the drama for My Chemical Romance, the elaborately layered tracks on “Out of Ashes” put synthesizers behind power chords and mesh programmed rhythms with drums, while Mr. Bennington’s voice answers itself — run through different effects — and gets multiplied into huge backup choruses.

Technically it’s spacious, state-of-the-art pop. It’s also shamelessly imitative, mimicking a Nirvana intro for “Crawl Back In,” echoing Green Day and Metallica in “My Suffering” and aping Pink Floyd in “Give Me Your Name.” Between writing its first songs in 2005 and finishing the album, Mr. Bennington went through a divorce, addiction problems and a new marriage, and the songs allude to all that, but only in the most generic terms. “Say goodbye to yesterday/ I made it through, I’m here today,” he sings in “Into You.”

Mr. Bennington strives to sound sympathetic, but after a song or two it’s clear that his only sympathy is for himself; there’s no humility, much less humor or proportion. As real as his prolonged adolescent angst is supposed to be, it quickly curdles into narcissism. (Dead by Sunrise is to perform Wednesday at the Gramercy Theater.)

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Dead By Sunrise will perform on the Late Show with David Letterman on Tuesday, October 13th. Letterman airs on CBS at 11:35 PM ET. The band will also perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Wednesday, October 21st. Kimmel airs on ABC at 12:05 AM ET.

Thanks to LPA for the heads up.

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Talinda Bennington twittered that DbS is shooting a new video. Which song is the lucky one? Vote!

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Mike Shinoda gave away some information about the fourth Linkin Park album. Shinoda says that there hasn't really been picked a producer and told something about the way Rick Rubin (producer of Minutes to Midnight) works. He also told us that the new record is going to sound different but still like Linkin Park and they're trying to fade the barriers (sounds familiar... didn't he say the same before Minutes?). Also, he told that there aren't plans for a next Fort Minor album and that that energy will be put onto the recordings of the new album. And finally, he told that the band wanted to release more music and that this started with the May release of "New Divide" and is going to follow with the October release of Dead by Sunrise's Out of Ashes.

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Newsflash

1. Chester has uploaded "My Suffering", the seventh song off the Dead by Sunrise album Out of Ashes. Mike Shinoda has blogged his comment about the song.

"Everyone's loves these four letters: F R E E"

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