Los Angeles, U.S.A. — The 2012 Honda Civic Tour (HCT) is giving music fans a chance to win a Linkin Park customized and autographed Honda Si Coupe and CBR250R motorcycle plus an exclusive fly-away trip to Los Angeles that includes signed instruments and a visit to a Linkin Park music video shoot.

Beginning July 12, 2012, fans can enter to win by visiting www.HondaCivicTour.com. Attendees can also register to win the vehicles at each stop of the tour where the customized vehicles will be on display. The Honda Civic Tour kicks off August 11 in Bristow, Virginia, featuring Linkin Park, Incubus and opening act Mutemath.

The members of Linkin Park collaborated on their personalized Honda Civic Si Coupe and CBR250R motorcycle. Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda says, “The idea for the customization on the car was to take something based on the artwork from our new album, ‘Living Things.’ The 3-D figure you see on the album cover is actually a scan of Chester’s head breaking apart and fracturing, with fire underneath. We took those visual cues, and tweaked it to look cool on the Civic Si.”

Adds Chester Bennington, “This was some of the most complicated artwork they’ve ever done for a car on this tour, and I’m grateful that Honda let us put this much time and energy into making it look so awesome. I really hope that whoever wins it appreciates the quality of the artwork that’s on it as much as we do!”

The Civic Si is bolstered by the exclusive Honda Factory Performance aero body kit, featuring front, side and rear underbody spoilers. The CBR250R motorcycle design was also based on the ‘Living Things’ album artwork. “The car and motorcycle have a similar look,” says Shinoda. “The motorcycle makes me want to ride motorcycles. It kind of has a superhero look.” The stylized Linkin Park logo appears subtly on the side panels just behind the motorcycle’s front wheel; the Honda Civic Tour insignia can be seen below the windshield, and signatures of the band are on the gas tank.

In addition to a chance to win the customized vehicles, fans may also enter the Linkin Park Civic Tour Fly-Away Sweepstakes, presented by Honda Financial Services, at www.HFSGrad.com, beginning July 12, 2012, at 7:00 a.m. PT/10:00 a.m. ET and ending November 30, 2012, at 8:59 p.m. PT/11:59 p.m. ET.

The Grand Prize includes: round trip airfare for two to Los Angeles from anywhere in the continental U.S.; deluxe hotel accommodations for two nights, ground transportation; all taxes related to accommodations and air transportation; a visit to Linkin Park’s music video shoot and meeting with members of the band; one autographed guitar and practice amp signed by members of the band; one five piece starter drum kit signed by members of the band; shipping of musical instruments to winner’s residence; local Los Angeles Sightseeing tour and dinner for two in Hollywood, CA.

The Grand Prize will be awarded before December 31, 2013, and is worth over $5,000.00. Ten first prize winners will each receive an autographed limited-edition Incubus screen printed poster.

Linkin Park DJ and programmer, Joe Hahn, was tapped by the Honda Civic Tour to direct the commercial spot for the 2012 tour. Hahn, an accomplished director, has guided almost all of the Linkin Park iconic music videos including “Numb,” “New Divide,” and “Waiting for the End,” and is gearing up to direct his first feature film, Mall. The spot was filmed during the video shoot for “Burn It Down” the debut single from Linkin Park’s new album, ‘Living Things.’

Image Courtesy of   mooinblack / Shutterstock.com

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New York, U.S.A. – In the summer of 2011, celebrating their 20th year together, alt-rock giants Incubus turned a Los Angeles storefront space into a low-key, hi-tech residency that resulted in six nights of free performances and fan encounters now chronicled on “Incubus HQ Live.” The celebration takes place across three separate multi-disc packages released by Legacy Recordings, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. The three configurations are the “Incubus HQ Live,” “Incubus HQ Live Special Edition,” and “Incubus HQ Live Limited Edition Box Set.”

The August 14th release date for the first two configurations, “Incubus HQ Live” and “Incubus HQ Live Special Edition,” coincides with the opening of the 2012 Honda Civic Tour Featuring Linkin Park and Incubus. The 4-week, 18-city tour of the U.S. and Canada starts at Comcast Center in Boston and concludes at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in San Diego on September 10th.

Dedicated to fans and friends, “Incubus HQ Live,” as the gallery-sized storefront space on busy La Brea Avenue in West Hollywood was aptly named last year, was the answer to a question the band had been thinking about for a while. “After twenty years,” writes lead singer Brandon Boyd in his liner notes essay (the same for all three configu­ra­­­­tions), “7 albums, multiple live albums, EPs, DVDs, somewhere in the ball­park of 1,500 live shows, what could we do to introduce our newest album, If Not Now, When?, in a manner that was both unique and memorable?”

Their first studio album in nearly five years at the time called for thinking outside the box. Playful options ranged from going door-to-door with the album to 3:00 a.m. infomercials. Or could they “invite fans into our living room and play the f***ing album live for them?…Wait,” Brandon mused.  “That is actually not a terrible idea, minus the f***ing part.”

Utilizing social media enabled fans to contact Incubus, who then replied with an assigned date and time to show up for the HQ gigs. After building out the space to accommodate fans and crew, seven nights of performances were set. The resulting CDs and DVD catch the action on six nights that were broadcast live on the Internet. It was all a prelude to the July 12th release of If Not Now, When?, which debuted at #2 on the Soundscan chart.

As heard on the “Incubus HQ Live” double-CD configuration, the first two nights were devoted (mainly) to specific albums. Night 1 is represented by six songs from 2001′s Morning View (“Nice To Know You,” “Circles,” “Wish You Were Here,” “Are You In?” c/w the Doors’ “Riders On The Storm,” “Aqueous Transmission”). Night 2 is represented by six songs from 1999′s Make Yourself (“Privilege,” “The Warmth,” “Stellar,” “Make Yourself,” “Drive,” “I Miss You”) and a wild card version of “Crowded Elevator,” an outtake from the Make Yourself sessions.

Night 3 finds Incubus mixing it up a bit, playing songs from Morning View (“Just A Phase”), 2004′s A Crow Left Of the Murder (“Mega­lo­maniac,” “Sick Sad Little World”), the 2004 DVD+CD release Alive At Red Rocks (the non-album rarity “Pantomime”), and 2006′s Light Grenades (“Anna Molly”).

By Night 4, Incubus was ready to start premiering music from If Not Now, When? , the new album now just nine days away (“Promises, Promises,” “In The Company Of Wolves”), plus “Love Hurts” from Light Grenades. Similarly, Night 5 includes “Switchblade” (from If Not Now, When? ) and “Pardon Me” (from Make Yourself ).  Finally, Night 6 is represented entirely by songs from If Not Now, When?, namely the title tune, “If Not Now, When?” “The Original,” and that album’s two closing tracks, “Adolescents,” and “Tomorrow’s Food.”

Along with the hit songs, deep album tracks and fan favorites performed in an intimate setting, “Incubus HQ Live” showcases the personalities of band members Brandon Boyd, Mike Einziger (lead guitar, piano, backing vocals), Chris Kilmore (keyboards, turntables), Ben Kenney (bass guitar, backing vocals), and Jose Pasillas II (drums). The fan interaction, instrument lessons with the band, and overall feel of the space give the DVD warmth and character.

“We found in the Incubus fan base,” Brandon writes, “a kind of generosity, openness, and enthusiasm that we never could have predicted and or expected. A unfolded s the days and meandered their way into each night’s performance, our anxieties quelled and we saw this experiment turn into a true success story. Not only at the sight of a room filled with smiles, flashes, laughs, and spontaneous interactions, or even the impassioned singing and emoting at close quarter. But more so, it was the sense that there was no one type of person who attended; online or in store.

“So I guess for those of you who were watching online, for those of you who were in the room, and even you guys that will experience it long after the fact, what this experiment allowed is a small insight into the potential of the creative experience! The quiet knowing that under the right circumstances, we all can be witness to how inter­connected all of us actually are. Be it through the making of art, the witnessing of art, and or the memory of a time in art. It only exists because we are all there existing IT together! And I think this is where I say, ‘Thanks for that’.”

Image Courtesy of  3 song photography / Shutterstock.com

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