10 to Midnight

In a race against time, Betty embarks on a thrilling, comedy-packed adventure to crack a conspiracy that starts with a bang and ends at 3 Minutes to Midnight.

Australia's Midnight Oil brought a new sense of political and social immediacy to pop music: not only did incendiary hits like "Beds Are Burning" and "Blue Sky Mine" bring global attention to the plight of Australia's indigenous people and the working class, but the group also put its money where its mouth was; in addition to mounting benefit performances for groups like Greenpeace and Save the Whales, frontman Peter Garrett later became a member of the Australian House of Representatives on the Labor ticket.

Award-winning world beat guitarist Lawson Rollins ponders the last three minutes of his day, concentrating on the urgency of the moment, the exhilaration of the speed of sound, the poignancy of the remaining time and the mystical power of the number three. Rollins wrote these dozen multicultural compositions, all in the three minute range and illuminated by his prodigious fingerstyle guitar play. The recording is stripped down, punchy and concise, a radical departure for an artist usually known for creating elaborate, lavishly produced tracks that are at least twice as long.

In a race against time, Betty embarks on a thrilling, comedy-packed adventure to crack a conspiracy that starts with a bang and ends at 3 Minutes to Midnight.

Damned if they do, damned if they don't that was the conundrum facing Linkin Park when it came time to deliver Minutes to Midnight, their third album. It had been four years since their last, 2003's Meteora, which itself was essentially a continuation of the rap-rock of their 2000 debut, Hybrid Theory, the blockbuster that was one of the biggest rock hits of the new millennium. On that album, Linkin Park sounded tense and nervous, they sounded wiry rap-rock without the maliciousness that pulsed through mock-rockers like Limp Bizkit. Linkin Park seemed to come by their alienation honestly, plus they had hooks and a visceral power that connected with millions of listeners, many of whom who were satisfied by the familiarity of Meteora. They may have been able to give their fans more of the same on their sophomore effort, but Linkin Park couldn't do the same thing on their third record: they would seem like one-trick ponies, so they'd be better off to acknowledge their advancing age and try to mature, or broaden their sonic palette. Yet like many other hard rockers, they were the kind of band whose audience either didn't want change or outgrew the group and considering that it had been a full seven years between Hybrid Theory and Minutes to Midnight, many fans who were on the verge of getting their driver's license in 2000 were now leaving college and, along with it, adolescent angst.

Minutes to Midnight is the third studio album by American rock band Linkin Park, released on May 14, 2007, through Warner Bros. Records. The album was produced by Mike Shinoda and Rick Rubin, and it is Linkin Park's first studio album produced without Don Gilmore, who had produced the band's two previous albums.

A detective, despondent after the murder of his wife and forced to resign, is brought back to the force when a serial killer appears to be taunting him and turns out to be superhuman.

As one of those guitarists who first captured my attention with his Latin-infused and Nuevo Flamenco guitar style quite awhile ago, Lawson Rollins continues to provide awe-inspiring melodies and riffs on his latest release, 3 Minutes to Midnight (wonder what’s the inspiration lawson-rollinsbehind that interesting title?), scheduled for release in January 2017.

Atrium Carceri, Cities Last Broadcast and God Body Disconnect collaborates on this foggy noir album.