Things I’ve Heard Lately

Been meaning to write this post for most of the last week, but life keeps on happening and delaying my writing it.

So Linkin Park has already been confirmed to be working on the soundtrack to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and they released their new single/song from the film last week. According to Mike Shinoda, “New Divide” is supposed to capture the spirit of the film. If that’s the case, my excitement for Revenge of the Fallen just went into a nosedive. “New Divide” is empty, bland, and representative of everything that makes people hate Linkin Park. Lyrically its devoid of anything exciting or original. It sounds like a rehashed version of “What I’ve Done”. I get why Chester Bennington is considered the leader of the band, but let’s face it; everything truly awesome the band has ever done was a result of Mike Shinoda’s creative aptitude. There’s a fairly interesting breakdown late in the track, but beyond that it sounds as uninspired and devoid of substance as….well, your average Michael Bay film. Coincidence.

Linkin Park – New Divide [iTunes] (YSI)

In the continued attempt to get people to take Chris Cornell’s latest record seriously, California’s DJ Skee teamed up with rapper Prophet to make a mixtape based around Chris Cornell’s Scream. Scream: The Mixtape is best described as a 100-minute long treatise on how rap, hip-hop and rock can all interact together. Featuring samples of music from Cornell, Run-DMC, a tremendously fun take on Silversun Pickups’ “Panic Switch”, a wonderous backhanded use of Trent Reznor and his voice and music (remember Trent was less than kind towards Scream). The remixed versions of Cornell’s tracks are entertaining and damn good, and even the snippets of other tracks are fun as all hell. If there’s a full version of “Panic Switch” with Prophet rapping over it, I want it like none other. Scream: The Mixtape has gotten pulled down from most cool places, but check the comments soon and I’ll try to have a copy of it there.

==TJ==