A few attendees of the mall-store sponsored New American Music Union Festival over the weekend got it in their head that the songs Rock Band had to offer were much more interesting than the ones being performed by Bob Dylan: “As the legend, now 67, performed ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and other ’60s… More »
During Warner Music Group’s earnings call today, chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman darkened the bright mood set by his company’s narrower-than-expected quarterly loss when he poured cold water on the future of his company’s music existing on video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. More »
About one-third of my Saturday was spent in the general environs of Long Island’s Nassau Coliseum, whose parking lot played host to the New York area stop of the skate/punk/emo/exercises in branding festival known as the Warped Tour. Not only were there some 100 bands playing condensed sets during the course of those eight hours, there were merch tents (one for each band on the traveling bill), signings, acoustic sets, petitions to sign, skaters performing tricks, free energy drinks, pro-vegetarianism propaganda, shutter-shade vendors, and a store with Barack Obama-branded items. Not to mention the chance to play Rock Band alongside the session musicians backing up this country’s current No. 1 song. After the jump, a rundown of the day. It will be somewhat disjointed, in honor of every single one of my joints aching after being subjected to parking-lot asphalt for most of the time.
Well, one classic at least. The Colbert Report has allowed us to watch as Canadian proggers Rush go through the motions of playing their own hit, “Tom Sawyer,” on Rock Band. More »
Last night I got a tip about a video purporting to be footage of someone who works for Rock Band maker Harmonix talking about Chinese Democracy “off the record” at the E3 conference; during the chat, he made outsized claims like a) the album is not only coming out this year, it’s going to be made up of not one, but four (?!) CDs; and b) September’s Video Music Awards are going to go the big Axl appearance route again, what with MTV being part of the braintrust behind the game. Whether this is at all true, or merely a disinformation campaign that doubles as a shrewd way for the Harmonix employee to punk the “innocent” interviewer who was clearly not turning off his camera during the Axl-sensitive portion of the interview, is for you to figure out, although I think it’s somewhat sweet that YouTube’s commenting hordes are calling for the clip to be taken down so the dude can keep his job. Video after the jump.
I got a little excited yesterday by the news of Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl” being included in the next iteration of Rock Band, even if the idea of reissuing a song via video game is probably something my 1993 self would have sneered at. But I’m all about embracing the new millennium these days (or at least tryingto), so I came up with an expansion pack that draws on the Kill Rock Stars catalog of that era. It has a slight focus on the three fantastic “Kill Rock Stars”-themed compilations that the label put out in the mid-’90s, because all of those albums are 100% fire. (And yes, the first track on it is kind of absurd, given that the band in question wasn’t exactly the greatest live act. But that’s part of the fun, no?) My list is after the jump; I invite you to take a moment or two out of your All-Star Parade watching to create an expansion pack of your own, around whatever theme you’d like.
One omission from the possibly half-faked Rock Band 2 track list that we published last week: Guns N’ Roses’ “Shackler’s Revenge,” which appeared on another leaked track list and which has the same title as a “lost” film that had some sort of contribution by former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Buckethead. The New York Times is reporting that “Shackler’s” will indeed be on the game come September, and that; more details on the track, via message-board postings pulled together by a GN’R fan blog, after the jump.
Sure, the riot grrrl standard-bearers Bikini Kill didn’t necessarily have proficiency at the top of their priority list, so putting their songs in the “hit your marks” music videogames that are selling so many copies today seems a little bit silly. But that doesn’t mean I’m not pretty excited about their girl-crush ode “Rebel Girl” officially being on the set list for Rock Band 2, which will also include tracks by Lush, L7, Paramore, and Joan Jett as well as Judas Priest’s insane “Painkiller,” Megadeth’s “Peace Sells,” and that new Guns N’ Roses track we mentioned earlier. (Hey, is there any way that we can modify this thing so that I can have some friends over for a rendition of “Suck My Left One,” or maybe a Bratmobile track or two?) Full list after the jump.
In advance of this weekend’s E3 Media and Business Summit, during which many video game geeks will converge on a convention center in hopes of finding out what will attach them to their personal couches for the next few months before the next E3, someone took it upon themselves to leak what they’re claiming are the song menus for Rock Band 2. The list’s veracity is debatable–it looks not unlike every fanboy’s dream air-guitar playlist, featuring “November Rain,” “Peace Sells,” and “Crazy Train,” not to mention “Hot For Teacher”–but hey, if I can spend a rainy night trying to perfect the rhythms of a track from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ underrated Show Your Bones, I’ll be happy. Full list of tracks after the jump.
Sony honchos in charge of the Fab Four’s publishing first voiced their enthusiasm for a Beatles-specific Guitar Hero game back in March, and now Apple Corps and EMI are meeting with both Activision (makers of Guitar Hero) and MTV Games (makers of Rock Band). Since the death of unofficial CEO Neil Aspinall, Apple has lost some of its usual promotional hesitancy, finally giving American Idol the opportunity to perform Lennon-McCartney songs. If plans for the game come to fruition, it may only be a matter of time before the band invades the digital marketplace in a big way. Surely the other Apple would be happy to see them warm up to it.
