Music Games Need To Fake The Funk, Too

Though I remain an avid Rock Band and Guitar Hero player, I’ve long ago stopped caring about the releases of new songs for in-game play. I have more than enough to play right now, and I’m broke as a joke most days, so downloadable content is out—well, unless those songs can be as good as one of the new tracks that will appear on the first portable edition of Rock Band. See for yourself; one of these things is not like the others.

3 Doors Down, “Kryptonite” AFI, “Miss Murder” Alice in Chains, “Would?” Audioslave, “Gasoline” Black Tide, “Show Me the Way” Blink 182, “What’s My Age Again” Freezepop, “Less Talk More Rokk” Jackson 5, “ABC” Tenacious D, “Rock Your Socks”

The Jackson 5! “ABC” would be amazing to play on any format, so it’s too bad it’s being relegated to the PSP. It’s even more disappointing because nods to R&B and funk are few and far between, despite these games just calling for it. Rock Band‘s Funk Pack is pretty great, admittedly:

Average White Band- “Pick Up the Pieces” Earth Wind & Fire- “Shining Star” James Brown- “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine – Pt 1”

Can we get more of that, please? There are more Toby Keith songs for download then there are funk/R&B/soul tracks (no, I’m not counting rap-rock). Most funk is pretty “playerly” stuff, with great drumming and killer bass lines. It’s no less intense than repeat offenders like Blue Oyster Cult, and arguably way more fun to play/sing. Who wouldn’t want to jam some of Larry Graham’s Stand—era bass work, or Tony Thompson’s drumming on “I’m Coming Out”? Where is Guitar Hero: Prince? It can’t be hard to hard to get the rights to some of these songs.

What about you? What funk tracks would you like to play a plastic bass on? I want to sing the vocals on Gregory Abbott‘s “Shake You Down” with my all-girl band the Very Reverends, who are currently touring Europe.

‘Rock Band Unplugged’ Comes To PSP In June, With DLC [MTV Multiplayer]