Linkin Park Record New Song, Help Score "Transformers 2"

Linkin Park will record a new song and contribute to the score of this summer's guaranteed blockbuster Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen, Mike Shinoda announced on his official Website. "Although I wasn't at liberty to say it before, the song I've been referencing here on mikeshinoda.com in the past few weeks... is actually being done for Michael Bay's new Transformers film, due out June 24th," Shinoda revealed in a post spotted by the Playlist. "In addition — and probably ever cooler — we have been offered the unique opportunity to help score the film. The song we wrote is being used as one of the themes, and we will be writing various interpolations on that theme, and trying out some other thematic ideas as part of the (very large) team scoring the film."

In a studio update posted on March 28th, Shinoda hinted that the song "is built on layered, heavy synths" and "it creates a nice interplay between the organic feel of the rhythm track and the more robotic feel of the keyboards." According to Shinoda, the band is also working with composer "and resident ass kicker" Hans Zimmer on the score, which they hope to start recording in a few days. (Better hurry up, the June 24th release date isn't that far off!) Zimmer is a seven-time Academy Award nominee and won an Oscar in 1995 for The Lion King. Zimmer, along with James Newton Howard, won the Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture for their work on The Dark Knight at this year's ceremony.

Linkin Park also played an essential role in the first Transformers film, contributing their Minutes to Midnight track "What I've Done" to the movie's end credits and in the trailer and commercials during the promotion. Shinoda also featured on Styles of Beyond's "Second to None," which also appeared on the first film's soundtrack.

Related Stories:

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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