0 The Number One, Twitter Responses, and a New Linkin Park Video Game.

I wanted to take a moment to respond to a couple things online that caught my eye. These responses seemed worth more time than a tweet, so I collected them for answers here.

1.) First off, thanks to the fans for making LIVING THINGS #1 in the U.S. this week. Billboard says that LP now holds the record for the most consecutive #1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart since the year 2000. A surprising bit of trivia, though: the five albums are Meteora, Collision Course, Minutes To Midnight, A Thousand Suns, and LIVING THINGS…Hybrid Theory, although it did stay in the Billboard Top 100 for over 100 weeks, peaked at #2, and never made it to #1.

2.) On Twitter this week, @8bitesquivel said: “Help us!!! There’s this page on Facebook called “Linkin Park Sucks” Help us remove it!!!!!”

Dearest 8bitesquivel, I appreciate your fervor. But remember:

3.) Next up, a random one on, again from Twitter. @EpicDrumGamer asked: “is it a bad idea to hear the whole band in the monitors? Ask Rob?  (I drum)”.

Monitors are a very individual thing. Most of my bandmates use in-ears, but Brad prefers to use speaker monitors. We all like to hear different things in our mix. But as a rule of thumb, make sure your monitors let you hear whatever makes you play your best show. If hearing vocals distracts you, mute them. If you want to lock in with your bassist, turn them up. And if you are playing shows at a club level, where your monitor mix is unpredictable, try to do whatever you can to make your monitor mix as foolproof as possible. Some guys just put a click track into their in-ears, and leave it at that!

4.) Here’s a big piece of news that’s slowly starting to leak out there: we’re making a new Linkin Park game! It will be available on Facebook, and we announced it in conjunction with the Rio+Social event. Here’s a video describing it, below. The idea was inspired by the Music For Relief “Power The World” campaign, so it’s got a philanthropic twist…but first and foremost, we’re trying to make a game that’s FUN.

5.) Lastly, a huge thank you to all the fans who helped give LIVING THINGS a warm welcome into the world. Here are some worldwide first-week stats for LP fans to enjoy:

US #1
Canada #1
Austria #1
Belgium #3
Czech Republic #1
Denmark #2
Finland #1 (Gold Album)
France #2
Germany #1 (Gold Albun)
Holland #1 (1st ever #1 there)
Hungary #1
Ireland #2
Italy #2 first week, #1 second week
Norway #3
Poland #1 (Gold Album)
Portugal #1
Slovenia #1
Spain #2
Sweden #6
Switzerland #2
UK #1
Australia #2
New Zealand #1
India #1
Japan #1
Taiwan #1
Thailand #1
Singapore #1
Malaysia #1