Clearly, Chester Bennington’s frowny-face reputation can’t be erased, no matter how hard he tries; why else would the Hollywood Reporter’s photo editor pair the happy news with that picture in which the LP singer looks like an apoplectic five-year-old wailing for a juicebox? More »
Linkin Park’s Minutes To Midnight sold 623,000 copies this week, breaking the record for the highest first-week total of 2007 and entering the Billboard chart at No. 1. The album also moved 84,000 digital copies; that total set a record for the highest single-week digital albums tally, according to Billboard.biz. (See? Linkin Park fans aren’t just harassing Chester Bennington online!)
The first-week sales figures for Linkin Park’s Minutes To Midnight will be revealed tomorrow, and despite middling reviews, there’s wide speculation that it’ll shatter the 2007 first-week-sales record set by Norah Jones’ Not Too Late, which moved 418,000 copies back in February. More »
The latest issue of Wired has a lengthy, utterly creeptastic story about Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington, who was cyberstalked by an employee of Sandia National Laboratories–a federal nuclear-research facility–for more than a year, and how the woman who did it–changing passwords and sending out spoofed e-mails all along–found out how to access his personal information:
The stalking started after she saw Chester’s email address inadvertently CC’d in a mass mailing to promote a tattoo parlor he owned in Tempe. Using Chester’s birthday and zip code to access his Mac.com account, she started guessing passwords until she found the right one: his middle name, Charlie.
Pay close attention to this Saturday Night Live performance by Linkin Park, because around the 50-second mark, you can actually witness the last sad death-moan of rap-rock: As the rest of the band members try to pretend that they’re not playing a fourth-tier 3 Doors Down song, the DJ throws in a… More »
Welcome to On The Shelf, Idolator’s weekly look at new releases hitting store shelves on Tuesday. Like it or not, the big album coming out tomorrow is Linkin Park’s 98% rap-free effort, Minutes to Midnight; after the jump, we give that album a once-over, along with new efforts from Wilco, Megadeth, Gretchen Wilson, and Rufus Wainwright.
– Despite vicious Internet rumors to the contrary, Kelly Clarkson’s new album will be out in July. [Billboard] – George Michael pleaded guilty today to charges of driving while on drugs. He also pleaded no contest to long-standing charges of reckless whispering. More »
Kevipod Music has an MP3 of “What I’ve Done,” the first single from Linkin Park’s forthcoming Minutes to Midnight. More »
From Billboard. Yeah, we’re thinking it’s about time to call it an evening. Linkin Park Inspired By Prog Rock On New Album [Billboard] Earlier: The Ugliest Album Cover Of The Year: We May Have A… More »
– Jewel’s efforts to rebrand herself as a country singer keep going as she signs on to host the next season of Nashville Star. Try all you want, honey, but we’ll never get “Intuition” out of our head when we’re in Rite Aid’s razorblade aisle. More »