Tasty Gas Station Breaks From The Orient

The vinyl called "Mista Hahn's Tasty Gas Station Breaks From The Orient" is a vinyl that Joe Hahn used on stage for years featuring live samples of Linkin Park material, other bands' material, and random samples he could use at live shows. From the Violent Femmes to Styles Of Beyond, lots of material is covered on this vinyl.

In 2023, Mike said when talking about their rock and hip hop influences growing up, "Joe Hahn and I used to go to a record store called Fat Beats and buy vinyl. DJs would press unauthorized scratch records with other people's sounds on it and shit. So when there were DJ battles, you could be scratching something that other people didn’t have, and we would buy those records and use them. So it wasn't a leap to say, "Oh, at some point I'd love to make a record that I can scratch onstage." Me and Joe made a single pressing of original sounds and whatever else. There were a couple things on that record that were actually lifted off of other people’s records. We never sold it. It was just for Joe to scratch and give out to friends. I still have a couple copies."^[1]

As Derek of LPAssociation said when they posted their version, "What makes these tracks special is the fact that many famous samples from Linkin Park's history ("I'd like to introduce", "and you do it like this", as well as the speech from Step Up, and the original female intro to "It's Goin' Down") are here in their unaltered form without any background tracks or musical interference at all. Also featured are certain instrumental breaks and clips from Hybrid Theory, making these tracks invaluable for anybody planning to remix Linkin Park's music."^[2]

So when was it made? You can see that Joe has this vinyl at the Rock am Ring 2001 show in Germany as well as in the "What I've Done" music video, so that's quite a while that he's had this vinyl with him. It is also shown in the LPTV episodes for Meteora when the band was in the studio recording the album. The date of the vinyl is unknown but we assume that it was made before July 2000. The "You cannot fuck with this band" sample was used at live Linkin Park shows in July 2000 on their first national tour. In the Hybrid Odyssey documentary from fall 2001, Joe actually shows the vinyl to the camera.^[3]

Mike Shinoda told OnStage in 2001: "Joe and I made an original record for him to scratch with certain key samples on it, and we pressed up 100 of them so that he can now scratch in certain samples from the record instead of just pressing them on a pad. There are some underlying looped materials, too, but all of the parts that grab your attention are played by hand. We recently upgraded to three samplers onstage, plus backups."^[4]

While LPLive was securing the release of this vinyl in FLAC from Mohnaryl, it was leaked to LPAssociation, who posted it in 192kbps mp3 quality as an exclusive. Shortly after the FLAC was obtained, LPLive posted it for download on January 19, 2012. The upgrade has a correct track split of 21 tracks (versus the previous 18) and a huge quality upgrade (mono to stereo and mp3 to FLAC).^[5]

There are definitely some noteworthy finds on the vinyl. A sample of "Carousel" is found on the fourth track. The song was rehearsed in September 2001 at European soundchecks to be played, but didn't end up making it into the setlists. It was allegedly played live at some point before that, likely in 1999. There are quite a few samples on here that were later used on Reanimation. It also includes samples used on later songs, such as "What I've Done" on Minutes To Midnight, "You Cannot Fuck With This" by Styles Of Beyond, and "X-Ecutioner Style" on Reanimation. Even the movies Game Of Death and American History X are sampled.

There are two samples found on "Rnw@y"... the fact that they're not on the same "track" (in terms of proximity on the vinyl) means they were used separately until Backyard Bangers put them on the remix. It also contains samples of "It's Goin' Down" by the X-Ecutioners (featuring Mike and Joe). "It's Goin' Down" samples the song "Year 2000" by Xzibit, which was released on March 28, 2000 on the Black & White soundtrack. "It's Goin' Down" was not released until January 2002, but the song was likely made sometime in 2001. The samples on "It's Goin' Down" were likely sourced from this vinyl.

Track Listing

Here is our rundown of what is included on the 21 tracks (indicated by the separators on the vinyl):

Samples for live show interludes and intros from 2000-2002 live shows that Joe used. The 'you cannot fuck with this' vocal sample is the same sample used on the hook of the Styles Of Beyond track 'You Cannot Fuck With This', off their 2007 official mixtape Razor Tag. 'You Cannot Fuck With This' was produced by Mike Shinoda. Sid Wilson from Slipknot used this sample in their show intros in 2000 and 2001. The source of the sample is from the Violent Femmes.

Crawling samples and some drum synth stuff.

By Myself Chester vocal samples and other samples from that song.

Cure For The Itch. Random (unreleased?) samples. An old LP show intro sample.

Variety of different voice samples. "How did I beat you?" from Matrix.

What I've Done sample. More random samples. Carousel chorus guitar. Random humming noise, vocal samples.

String and drum samples from Pictureboard and Runaway drum beat.

Siren sample from the end of the APFMH demos (APFMH/Esaul/etc). Siren also used in Slipknot song Me Inside. A few random samples.

Forgotten samples - the live intro "beat" sample that's also in the middle of the song. "Hoo ha" sample too.

Samples from Points Of Authority scratches. Has a sampled guitar part from near the end of the track.

There's part of the end of Session played at a few points. A few samples that sound like they're likely from unreleased tracks due to how they're played. Perhaps some are used randomly in some LP tracks we already know. "Comin' up!" is used in Rnw@y from Reanimation. "Tasty" sounds like Mike. A few She Couldn't samples. "Dot canada" sample used in Kyur4 Th Ich on Reanimation. Scratch sample from With You. Quotes from American History X (1998) by character "Bob Sweeney": 0:21 "... Mein Kampf psychobabble ...", 0:23 "Your rhetoric and your propaganda aren't gonna save you out there."

More random stuff. The girl's speech before It's Goin' Down is included (from Game Of Death). With You/Wth>You screech sample, female "ahhhh" sample and other various stuff. I believe a sample from "Rock And Roll", the song Chester and Mike joined HBMS for. The heavy breathing sample from 0:28 to 0:30 is used in the Styles Of Beyond track "Dangerous Minds", off their album 2000 Fold.

Random vocal samples. Sounds like the backing track sample from an unreleased song? Who knows. Random as it gets here. I'm sure Mike/Joe had a lot of beats from this time period. Maybe some made it into songs, maybe some didn't. One sounds similar to Runaway.

More random vocal samples and random noise samples. One near the beginning sounds like the sample played in Tokyo in 2007 during the barricade break intermission. Another in the middle sounds like that too.

"Watch them flee" vocal sample from Dedicated. "Mixed media"/"Step up to the microphone", etc samples from Step Up...mostly every sample in that song is in here. "After years of painstaking research", etc. Almost everything is Step Up-related. The beat sample underneath the 'mixed media?' vocal sample is used in the Styles Of Beyond track "Easy Back It Up", off of their album 2000 Fold. "Easy Back It Up" was produced by DJ Cheapshot.

"Technique" vocal sample, "Kyur4 Th Ich" from Reanimation sample, beat from the Deftones "Around The Fur" sample on repeat...very interesting. "Work it down" sample from "Rnw@y" on Reanimation.

More random samples. Some used in Joe's live interludes from the old days.

"In The End" samples. Intro and the verse stuff, etc. Sample found in "X-Ecutioner Style" on Reanimation.

The 'run it!' vocal sample at 0:04 was used in the Styles Of Beyond track "Come Out Your Frame (Interlude)" off of their album 2000 Fold. Otherwise these are random samples.

More random stuff.