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 (or demos) 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
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]
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 six 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.
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 unknown titles that included "Diamonds", "Episodes", "Player", "Organized", "Traffic", "Zion", and "YO."[6] It is likely that most of these demos were very rough and not full-fledged tracks.
| Title | Released | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Do What We Did | November 2005 | 3:36 |
| Kenji (Interview Version) | December 2005 | 2:24 |
| Tools Of The Trade | January 2006 | 3:24 |
| Where'd You Joe | February 2006 | 3:32 |
| Strange Things | March 2006 | 3:10 |
| Believe Me (Club Remix) | April 2006 | 3:35 |
| Start It All Up | May 2006 | 2:52 |
| Move On | June 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" and "It's Goin' Down", as well as an alternative version of "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
- ↑ Fort Minor Militia Goes Live | LP Association Forums, October 26, 2005
- ↑ LPLive Wiki - Fort Minor - Militia Exclusives, November 09, 2015
- ↑ MTV Fort Minor: A Guided Tour - Mike Shinoda Clan, November 2005
- ↑ FM DVD - List Of Songs - Side Projects - Linkin Park Live, June 07, 2013
- ↑ LPAssociation: CHEAPSHOT HOLDS DOWN THE 'FORT', September 5, 2005
- ↑ Making a new track using only Linkin Park and Fort Minor sounds. Tune in... - YouTube, June 18, 2020