Fort Minor Militia

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Fort Minor Militia: Year One package

To accompany the Fort Minor project, Mike Shinoda launched a fanclub similar to the LP Underground entitled the Fort Minor Militia on October 26, 2005. Like the LPU, the FMM came with presale opportunities, meet & greets, and select merch items. An additional perk with the Fort Minor Militia was a monthly release of a Fort Minor demo on the Militia website. Mike used the FMM to release songs that otherwise likely would not have seen the light of day. Starting in November 2005 and continuing to June 2006, a track was released every month, complete with commentary by Mike, totaling eight demos.

Package

For $15US, fans could get a membership package for Fort Minor Militia, Fort Minor's official fan club, at Best Buy (or online) that included:

  • Access to the members-only content on FortMinorMilitia.com
  • DVD of Fort Minor Videos
  • Fort Minor Stickers
  • Fort Minor Marker Pen
  • Letter from Mike Shinoda
  • Opportunities to meet Fort Minor at future meet & greets
  • Ticket presale opportunities

As a second option, fans could pay $10US to get access to the Fort Minor Militia site only.[1]

DVD

Fort Minor Militia: DVD

The Fort Minor Militia: DVD included all music videos released by the project up to the launch of the fan club and a "making of" documentary for one of the videos.

Track Listing

No. Title Length
1 The Making Of Petrified 7:53
2 Petrified 3:45
3 Remember The Name 3:48
4 Believe Me 3:58

Personnel

  • The Making Of Petrified directed by Mike Shinoda / Edited by Mario Mares
  • "Petrified" video directed by Robert Hales
  • "Remember The Name" video directed by Kimo Proudfoot
  • "Believe Me" video directed by Laurent Briet
  • Original artwork by Mike Shinoda
  • Manipulated and designed by The Flem

Exclusive Songs

Starting in November 2005 and continuing to June 2006, a Fort Minor track that didn't make We Major, The Rising Tied, or any of the single releases was released every month, complete with commentary by Mike Shinoda. In total, fans were able to receive eight exclusive songs from the Militia. The person in charge of uploading these songs commented in May 2006 that there were "several more songs", but after "Move On" was released the following month, the releases stopped. "Kenji (Interview Version)" and "Believe Me (Club Remix)" were eventually streamed on the official Fort Minor website, but the other six songs remained Militia exclusives.[2] It is commonly, and mistakenly, referred to by fans as the "Fort Minor Militia EP"; there was never a physical or digital release of these tracks collectively as an "EP" as they were just monthly downloads.

Over 50 tracks were written in order to come up with the 14 songs that composed The Rising Tied.[3] In the "making of" DVD, a few unreleased songs can be heard when Mike is playing the album at his home studio. The notepad in Mike's hand includes the title "Watch Their Mouth Tak V2 ?"[4] Styles Of Beyond recorded 14 songs with Mike during the recording process but only appeared on 6 songs on the album[5] and 6 others on We Major. With "Do What We Did" released for the Fort Minor Militia, "Watch Their Mouth" is the only one that remains unreleased.

Mike posted on the Fort Minor Militia on December 13, 2005, "but looking at the "what you get"--the best thing, in my opinon, is the exclusive content here on the site...the content downloads. besides the video content, i am actually planning to cook up some remixes and put up some exclusive FM tracks this year on FMM, so stay tuned." This indicates that the remixes for "Believe Me" and "Where'd You Go" were done well after the album was released.[6]

On his June 18, 2020 Twitch stream, Mike Shinoda made a song with Fort Minor sounds. When he opened his "Fort Minor sounds" folder, he showed samples from a song called "Most Kings" and said "that song didn't go anywhere." He cycled through a list of other titles that included "Diamonds", "Episodes", "Player", "Organized", "Traffic", "Zion", and "YO."[7] It is likely that most of these demos were very rough and not full-fledged tracks.

Title Released Length
Do What We Did January 31, 2006 3:36
Kenji (Interview Version) January 31, 2006 2:24
Tools Of The Trade March 1, 2006 3:24
Where'd You Joe April 4, 2006 3:32
Strange Things May 1, 2006 3:10
Believe Me (Club Remix) June 1, 2006 3:35
Start It All Up July 7, 2006 2:52
Move On August 1, 2006 1:56

Exclusive Videos

Similar to the LP Underground, fans had access to exclusive videos via the Fort Minor Militia website. Among those videos, "Sweat", "It's Goin' Down" and "Chester Of Linkin Park Performs With Fort Minor" were also released to LPU members in 2006. Below is a list of all the videos released exclusively to the fan club.

  • Fort Minor Rehearsal Video #1
  • Fort Minor Rehearsal Video #2
  • Mosquito Video
  • Chester Of Linkin Park Performs With Fort Minor
  • "Sweat"
  • "Remember The Name" Live Video
  • "It's Goin' Down" Live In Japan
  • AOL Sessions Rehearsal Video #1 - Featuring Mike
  • AOL Sessions Rehearsal Video #2 - Featuring Bobo
  • AOL Sessions Rehearsal Video #3 - Featuring Holly
  • The Making Of Petrified Video, Part 1
  • The Making Of Petrified Video, Part 2
  • The Making Of Petrified Video, Part 3
  • "Where'd You Go" Interview Series, Part 1
  • "Where'd You Go" Interview Series, Part 2
  • "Where'd You Go" Interview Series, Part 3

References