The Hidden Gems Thread

You know that feeling of having completely forgotten a song exist? Or not even having been aware of it in the first place?

The purpose of this thread is to dive head first into those feelings!

In the LP universe, there are a bunch of obscure material, that most casual won’t know, that new listeners may not know, and that even the core fanbase may have forgotten about. With this thread, the aim is to put the spotlight on those, possibly contributing to wonderful (re)-discoveries!

Guidelines here:

• You can put the spotlight, once a week, on maximum 3 songs/demos you think are worthy of being discussed or shared. Those limitations are a bit arbitrary, but the goal is to keep the thread breathing, with a bit of time to discuss the latest entries, and alive for a long while. So again, in summary, there can be many entries per week, but max 3 per individual.
• Not target of this thread:
  • Official studio/remix/demo albums, including LPU CDs. Those are well known and easy to keep track off in a music library
  • Side-projects official material : Fort Minor, DBS, Post Traumatic, Dead Sara, Grey Daze, etc. Same remark as above.
  • Fan remixes. Too wide spectrum.
• Focus is thus on
  • Standalone LP releases that have possibly vanished out of the collective mind
  • Features - Songs where Mike, Chester, Emily or any other band member have contributed during their time with Linkin Park/Xero. Those tend to be easily forgotten, but are often somewhat representative of a specific vocal style during a specific era of the band
  • Obscure demos that have made it to the internet one way or another

If you’d like any change in the guidelines, feel free to share! For now I’d like to start following the above rules, but we can adapt of course.

Thread is on. Don't hesitate to share your entries, and discuss!

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My entries for the this week:

1) Lockjaw

• Era : MTM
• Year : 2008
• Duration : 2:29
• Context : Lockjaw is short instrumental Mike made in 2008 as part of a promotional campaign for Protools. He wrote briefly about the track on the blog he was maintaining at the time. The song was released to LPU members around Christmas of that year
• Description : Lockjaw is a short moody piano-based instrumental piece, that echoes some of the MTM material (What I’ve Done, Pale). It’s built around a piano loop and some signature Mike beat, slowly evolving into an alternative rock climax

2) Spotify

• Era : THP
• Year : 2013-2014
• Duration : 4:16
• Context : Spotify was part of a leak that surfaced in 2019, containing studio seeds from past album sessions. While most of them were shorter samples and loops, this one goes on for more than 4 minutes and is pretty much a full-on instrumental
• Description : Spotify is a track that is easy on par with a lot of the demo instrumentals we’ve gotten through the LPU releases. It’s a fast tempo alt-rock tune, that starts to shine the brightest when it reaches its bridge, delving into post-rock territories and climaxing with waves of triumphant guitar layers.

3) Apes Bounce

• Era : THP
• Year : 2013-2014
• Duration : 5:20
• Context: Apes Bounce was part the same leak as Spotify, and while less of a full demo than the prior, it also goes on for a longer duration, above 5 minutes!
• Description : technically, this is simply a collection of guitar riffs, yet loosely structured in what could be a song (intro, verses, chorus, bridge, outro). Some cool bouncy stuff is be found on this track, with a couple riffs that could have been decent contenders for inclusion on the album. Hence why I included it in my 3 entries this week

Note : I didn't include youtube links for Spotify and Apes Bounce because those are unofficial releases / leaks, but they're pretty easy to find online. If those can be included in the above desciption for convenience, let me know!

 

THIS has been my favorite Linkin Park song for years:

It's MUCH better than the version of the song officially released on the Hybrid Theory EP in my opinion; the guitars in the chorus sound chunkier, there's a cool vocal harmony during the chorus that is not present in the EP version, Chester's screams have a greater impact than the weird yodel-y sound that he does in the EP version, and even the verses hit harder as Mike's rap is more aggressive and the double-tracking works wonders. The only thing it's missing compared to the EP version is the "everywhere I look around I see how everything ought to be" part by Mike, and the extension of the final chorus (which has a great ominous vibe to it in the EP version).

 

^ I remember being a bit bummed that version of Part of Me wasn't included on HT20. It's a banger.

This arrangement of the song was a contender for inclusion on HT, but I think what played against it (and other HT EP songs) is that those tracks had already been released in some form and the band probably didn't want redundancy.