Excellent job with the interview. What I liked about it was that Mike didn't use vague phrases. He gave us some details.
Excellent interview. Just bought RECHARGED album last Saturday but I feel excited about their next 6th album!
I think Derek's post about rock from the 50's to 00's touches on exactly what I've been thinking.. I love me some "traditionally" heavy type music, but when Mike refers to a lack of "aggressiveness" in rock.. I imagine what Rockabilly did to a musical landscape comprised of mostly Jazz and Big-Band.. Or what Grunge did to an 80's esthetic comprised primarily of falsetto screams, linn-drums, and reverb.. So much reverb. I think it's less about the specific sound and more about the mentality.
Exactly, you elaborated perfectly on what I was trying to say. It's all about the change from big band to rockabilly, from hair-metal to grunge, and even about how The Beatles shifted from bubble-gum rock to psychedelic rock. How NIN helped pave the way for more 'aggressive rock' with albums like The Downward Spiral and Pretty Hate Machine. You know what I'm getting at here...I'm talking about those huge paradigm shifts that altered the rock music landscape. Those are what made up the history of rock and roll: the innovators who produced a sound that forever changed the genre. Lately we haven't had anything like that. Even the artists who were responsible for such movements lately haven't been doing anything that exactly feels "fresh" or "new". Don't get me wrong, it sounds great...but it's not that jolt or that kick in the ass that rock music needs right now. You go on Spotify and pull up Rock or Alternative Rock, and you're going to find a lot of artists that feel like they were literally cut out of the same exact mold. We don't need copycats right now in rock music, or these pop bands pretending they're rock bands and releasing totally bullshit music. No, we need a band (or even a few bands) to totally push the needle forward, create something new and exhilarating and stir shit up. THAT'S what rock music needs right now. It doesn't exactly need a backbone or experimentation. No, it needs innovation.
http://mikeshinoda.com/2009/01/26/the-beatles-seven-in-four/ As the story goes; Linkin Park then came out with their most ambitious record to date a year later, forever changing who they were as a band. Probably won't come till early afternoon according to Lorenzo.
Precisely. I like plenty of contemporary alt-rock bands, but I'd hardly call any of them ground-breaking or experimental. Take Incubus, they craft songs really well, and do a good job of keeping their sound fresh, but I've never felt they're pushing boundaries of music. Honestly, I'd say Radiohead is still the most cutting edge band of today, despite the fact that they're from the 90s. Linkin Park has potential to be like that, but they need to get back on the track of ATS. Even ATS itself, while it showed potential, the band was still wearing influences on their sleeves a little too much for it to truly be considered ground-breaking. It was certainly on the right track though...too bad LT was a step back
Yes. ATS went where other bands were before... It was a new ground for LP but nothing that we hadn't heard before. ...and yes.
Maybe I'd mind LT if its second half were the same as the first. "Until It Breaks" is one of my favorite Linkin Park songs.
Yeah I was impressed by Until it Breaks. I never thought LP would do something that sounded so offbeat and idiosyncratic.