Linkin Park to Finally Release Long-Awaited ‘Pictureboard’ Song From Early Days
Special anniversary edition releases allow bands to unearth some pretty amazing things, and for Linkin Park fans, there was much hope that the oft-discussed but never heard track "Pictureboard" would finally see the light of day on the band's 20th Anniversary Hybrid Theory release. The group made good on the demand, clearing some of the final hurdles for the song to finally arrive.
During a Linkin Park virtual press junket, Mike Shinoda shared some of the background behind the track. "Fans have known about ‘Pictureboard for about 19 or 20 years. They’ve known of the existence of it, but didn’t know at all what it sounded like." He revealed that after being asked about it frequently, they at one point thought of making it an LPU fan club song, but it had a sample that needed to be cleared, which seemed a little unrealistic at the time.
Shinoda marveled at the fan determination to uncover the track over the years. "There’s so many songs … why is there so much focus on this one? You’ve never even heard it," he pondered. But even after clearing the sample (which he revealed was a Barry White drum sample), fans were able to piece together that the clip of audio was from an interlude the band had played at a rock festival in 2000 or 2001.
He recalls, "The fans had even come up with a name for that performance. They made up their own name for that interlude and they were asking me about that interlude, and I was like, “You don’t understand. You guys made up the name. I don’t even know what song it is you guys are referring to. You literally named that thing something else. I didn’t come up with that.”
Guitarist Brad Delson revealed another reason why the track has some importance in Linkin Park's history. During the chat, he explained, "Unless my memory is super wrong, which is very possible, but not likely, I think that was the first thing I heard Chester’s voice on."
He recalls, "I remember getting that and saying, ‘Hey, what do you think of this guy? He just sent us this recording.’ I wasn’t like crying with joy, but almost. I was like, ‘Wow, I don’t even know what that is.’ He’s so tiny and vulnerable on the verse and you can hear all those timbres and harmonics and then all the overtones on the heavy part. To me, it just blew my hat off my head. And then we were like, ‘We gotta meet this guy.’”
Shinoda says of finally being able to share the track, "We're very excited for [fans] to hear it," adding, "It was almost that the occasion had to be of big enough significance that it was worth doing all those things. This was that occasion."
Speaking of "big," it will take quite a bit of time for fans to digest all the goodness of the Hybrid Theory 20th anniversary edition. There's a limited edition Super Deluxe Box that includes five CDs — the original Hybrid Theory album, the Reanimation remix record, a B-side rarities set with 12 previously unreleased tracks from that era, a LPU Rarities collection from tracks circulated through the band's fan club and a Forgotten Demos set with 12 unreleased cuts including the recently released "She Couldn't."
The set also boasts three DVDs — Frat Party at the Pankake House from Projekt Revolution 2002, a newly unearthed DVD sequel to Frat Party titled The Sequel to the Worst Name We've Ever Come Up With that has previously unreleased backstage footage and interviews and another LIVE DVD featuring concerts from San Francisco's Fillmore in 2001 and Rock Am Ring from Germany in 2001.
Add in three vinyl LPS, the original street team 2-track cassette, an 80-page illustrated book with contributions from the band, replica tour laminates, a poster of Chester Bennington and three lithographs from Mike Shinoda, Joe Hahn and art director Frank Maddocks.
Pre-orders for the Linkin Park Hybrid Theory 20th anniversary edition box set are currently being taken at this location ahead of the Oct. 9 release.