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Rock Band Weekly: Serj Tankian, Smash Mouth, The Used
Serj Tankian or The Used should probably be our focus for next week's Rock Band DLC -- however, we can't get Smash Mouth's "All Star," also available next week, out of our heads. That song is the musical equivalent of one of those brain beetles from Wrath of Khan. Get it out, get it out, get it out! Ahhhhhh! Check out the full release list after the break.
Joystiq Podcast theme 'Gravity' now on Rock Band Network
Announced as a Rock Band Network release during PAX East, the Joystiq Podcast opening theme, "Gravity (Don't Let Me Go)," is now available for the Xbox 360 version of the Rock Band platform for 80 ($1). As with all RBN releases, the playable song can be demoed before purchase. The RBN version of the track, an update of the show theme, was authored for the game by Rock Band-alums The Main Drag and will also appear on Jon Black's upcoming EP The Beginning (Up From The Ground Vol. 1), available April 27. Joystiq Podcast host Justin McElroy wants fans of the show and of music to download the track immediately, saying, "If you're not using your fingers to play 'Gravity (Don't Let Me Go)' on Rock Band, just cut them off and choke yourself with them." RBN currently hosts around 210 songs, which are listed here. Now go drop "Gravity" onto your console.
More 'Splosion Man songs coming to Rock Band Network
We wish we possessed the kind of thought processes required to make the mental association between the release of the Rock Band Network and the catchy, quirky ditties from 'Splosion Man. The game's theme is already up on the RBN Store, but that's not the extent of the musical 'Splodiness -- in an interview with SavyGamer, Twisted Pixel CEO Mike Wilford revealed two other tracks from the game would soon hit the Network: "The 'Splode Beneath My 'Splosion" and "Donuts Song." No time frame has been given for the songs' release, but that hasn't stopped our excitement for the vocal part of "T'SBM'S" from growing to catastrophic, earth-quaking levels.
Green Day: Rock Band features all of 'American Idiot'
In a recent interview with G4TV, Harmonix's Chris Foster revealed that Green Day's dumbest album will be featured in its entirety in the band's upcoming dedicated rhythm game. Yes, Green Day: Rock Band will feature all 13 tracks from the rock outfit's 2004 album "American Idiot," which features the song "American Idiot," which starts, "Don't wanna be an American Idiot." We know there are plenty of youngsters who prefer "American Idiot," but we'd much rather hear that all of "Dookie" or "Insomniac" would be included in the game. Or all of "Vox Humana." Which -- nope, wait. Yeah, that's Kenny Loggins. We mixed up Green Day and Kenny Loggins again.
Rock Band Weekly: Anberlin, Hawk Nelson, Skillet, Superchick, Switchfoot & Thousand Foot Krutch
Next week's Rock Band DLC features a mix of bands. Although music afficionados may recognize several of the tracks, the only one that jumps out at us is Switchfoot's "Meant to Live" ... and the only reason for that is because it's on the Spider-Man 2 soundtrack. (Gawd, we are such nerds.) All of next week's tracks will also be available in Lego Rock Band. Check out the full release list after the break.
Rock Band 3 to have vocal harmonies, Harmonix (accidentally) confirms
At Harmonix's PAX East 2010 panel, five Rock Band designers answered questions from the audience for "An Awkward Hour" with one major stipulation: No questions about Rock Band 3. However, when an audience member inquired whether Green Day: Rock Band songs would still have harmonies when imported into RB2, Harmonix Project Lead Chris Foster began listing off the games with harmony support. "We've said Rock Band 3 would have harmonies already, right?" Foster asked his fellow panelists, who responded with a booming, "No!" Foster clammed up without revealing more details about Rock Band 3's harmonies (or even answering the attendee's original question), only mentioning, "It's been nice working at Harmonix." (We think he was joking about that last part.)
Rock Band nabs 'exclusive' Jimi Hendrix experience
[Jimi's last Guitar Hero appearance] True, he once exclusively rocked the World Tour, but there just ain't no telling with that Jimi Hendrix. Today, following the reveal of the Jimi Hendrix Experience DLC album Axis: Bold as Love for the Rock Band platform, MTV Games and Harmonix announced, "Jimi Hendrix's music is now exclusive to Rock Band with more songs coming to its industry-leading platform in the future." (An MTV Games spokesperson reiterated to Joystiq that "moving forward" Hendrix music-game releases will be exclusive to Rock Band, but declined to offer specifics on the deal with Experience Hendrix LLC.) Previously, several Hendrix tracks, including a DLC pack, and a digitized version of the, uh, "No. 1 guitarist of all time" were featured in Guitar Hero: World Tour, which, due to licensing restrictions, can't be imported into other Guitar Hero games. Even a Hendrix-themed Guitar Hero game was once allegedly in the works, having apparently slipped into the sea.
Jimi Hendrix album to be released as Rock Band DLC next week [update]
Jimi Hendrix music is, in fact, headed for Rock Band, in a capacity bigger than the usual song packs -- yet not quite as huge as the Beatles/Green Day dedicated games. Rolling Stone announced that on the week of March 30, the entire Jimi Hendrix Experience album Axis: Bold as Love (minus "EXP") will be released as DLC for Rock Band. In addition, a previously unreleased single, "Valleys of Neptune," from a new CD of the same name, will be made available as DLC. So, not only will you try to play Jimi Hendrix solos in Rock Band, you'll play one you've never heard before. Good luck with that! "It's a whole new level of difficulty unto itself," MTV Games' Paul DeGooyer said. The thing about these tracks is if you're a Hendrix fan you know that really what powered that vibe is that he kind of just closed his eyes and flowed from his fingers, and we really tried very hard, especially on the expert level, to recreate that effect." This is just the first step in a longterm agreement between Experience Hendrix and MTV, which includes the release of the other Hendrix albums, in addition to the option to make Hendrix avatars and instruments available in the game. Apparently, the companies are also open to the eventual production of a dedicated game. [Update: the full track list for next week is listed after the break.]
Rock Band Network sales analyzed, top 20 songs calculated
We haven't gotten much of an indication of how successful Harmonix's recently launched Rock Band Network platform has been during its first few weeks in operation. I mean, we'd consider the Rock Band-ification of The Slip's timeless Guitar Hero classic "Even Rats" to be a huge success, but we're pretty sure they measure it in dollars and cents. RockBandAide recently did a bit of calculation and educated guesswork to come with the amount of cash the RBN has brought in so far -- according to the site, Harmonix has grossed over $107,000 in sales from user-generated tracks alone. RockBandAide also estimate that regular DLC has brought in roughly $161,000 in revenue on the 360 since the Network went live -- a slightly larger sum, though the profit margin on Network tracks is supposedly much higher than that of regular DLC. The site also compiled the top 20 purchased RBN songs thus far, which we've posted after the jump. Keep in mind -- these numbers aren't official, but they're the best we've got to go on thus far. [Thanks Tommy!]
Rock Band Weekly: X, Carrie Underwood, Little Fish, Ace Frehley, OneRepublic
Despite American punk rock band X being next week's featured Rock Band DLC pack artist, we decided to go with a picture of Carrie Underwood. Why? Isn't it obvious?! Her single, "All-American Girl," available next week, speaks to the struggles of the middle-class American female. Of gender roles, a father's love and providing babies for your husband. It's like the "American Pie" of a new generation. So that's why Underwood gets featured with that "how do I spend my next million, y'all?" look. Check out the full release list after the break.
Mega64 pokes fun at The Beatles: Rock Band with a little help from a friend
Mega64 gets back to its roots in the troupe's latest video, enlisting the aid of John and Jane Q. Public to create another minute and a half of comedy based on The Beatles: Rock Band. You're probably asking yourself how the trio can recreate the full British pop quartet. To answer that, we offer this: through the aid of a surprise guest, of course! Head past the break to see who. We're pretty sure you'll never guess who it is. [Thanks, Brock]
GDC: Harmonix on the ups and downs of creating the Rock Band Network
Eleven days ago, Harmonix delivered on a concept many of us had fantasized about since the very first time we ever played Rock Band: It democratized the track-making process. For the first time in the franchise's history, any schmo off the street with a bit of MIDI engineering experience and a song in their heart could put that song on the Rock Band Store for the world to see (and hopefully purchase). At GDC, Harmonix senior sound designer Caleb Epps and Rock Band Network producer Matthew Nordhouse sat down to speak about the challenges that came with opening up the game to user-generated content, and how its dedicated community has organically evolved the song-sharing process.
GDC: The UI of The Beatles Rock Band
Most UI panels at the Game Developers' Conference tend to be full of dry technical information, all about how the team developed their own font kerning tool and organized menu elements in a data-driven fashion. The Harmonix UI panel this morning hosted by Senior Artist Kevin McGinnis did have that stuff (McGinnis is a self-diagnosed font geek, and did sound overly excited about formatting bitmaps), but it was also full of art -- beautiful The Beatles: Rock Band inspired art. McGinnis talked about the different concepts the team had tried -- they first attempted to do a very clean, serene respectful version of the menus, but then decided to go much more colorful. They hired a few artists to build the menus up into actual 3D spaces (after accidentally telling Apple Corps that yes, the menus would all be animated), and McGinnis even showed off the 3D model that the camera zooms around in to guide the player into the game. You can see all of the art in the gallery below, from the various pieces of flair to the menu designs and concept work. %Gallery-88131%
Seen@GDC: Some weird things happened at Harmonix's Rock Band event
You've already seen the (arguably) most newsworthy video we filmed during Wednesday's Rock Band Bar Night event hosted by Harmonix at GDC. However, our Flip Cam captured a few other magic moments which we'd be remiss if we kept to ourselves. They're not the most news-y videos we've ever posted on our own site, though one of them does feature a preview of the upcoming Lady Gaga DLC. That's gotta be worth something, right? Watch the whole sideshow after the jump.
Rock Band Weekly Redux: Lady Gaga, Cartman, 3 Doors Down, Mute Math, The Subways
Lady Gaga was already announced for Rock Band's DLC update next week -- but she's bringing friends along. The pop sensation will be joined by some, ahem, actual rock bands. Check out next week's full list of releases after the break.
Harmonix gets its 'Brain Stewed' by Green Day: Rock Band
The one track we were most looking forward to from Green Day: Rock Band was, of course, "Brain Stew/Jaded" from the outfit's 1995 album. It's a powerful, triumphant tune -- and, apparently, it's also super hard. The Harmonix crew attempted the song during last night's "Rock Band Bar Night" event at GDC, and -- well, it ended in tears. Or rather, jeers. You can check out some off-screen footage of their tremendous failure above, or footage of them actually playing the game past the jump. To be fair, the drummer didn't see the flurry of notes coming at him, due to his attempt to refresh himself with some libations. You know who else was enjoying a few beverages? The drunk dude who kept trying to throw the devil horns up in front of our camera while we were filming. Really, drunk dude? Really?
Green Day: Rock Band releases June 8 worldwide
That's right, folks -- Harmonix has just revealed that Green Day: Rock Band will be available for all come June 8 on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii. Up to 6 players (3 mics; 3 instruments) will progress through the career of the trio, unlocking collectible images (more than 100, apparently) and some 40 minutes of "rare and unreleased" footage from interviews, outtakes and performances along the way. As alluded to above, GD:RB will also sport the same vocal harmonizing feature that made The Beatles: Rock Band such a delight for mic hogs and comes loaded with 47 Green Day tracks, including "Brain Stew," "Jaded," "Hitchin' a Ride," "American Idiot," "Wake Me Up When September Ends" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." Oh, and if you're looking to export these tunes, worry not: all 47 tracks are fully exportable to a console hard drive and playable in Rock Band, Rock Band 2 and the recently announced Rock Band 3. The export fee is $9.99 via Xbox Live or PSN. The export features is not available for the Wii system. Additionally, if you've picked up the six Green Day tunes already available as DLC, you can play them in the new game with added harmonies, "unique" visuals and more "exclusive archival material." Green Day: Rock Band will be available as a standalone game for Xbox 360 and PS3 for $59.99, while Wii owners will get a bit of a price break at $49.99. A special edition Green Day: Rock Band Plus will also come to Xbox 360 and PS3 for $69.99 and includes fancy packaging, an "export" feature (we assume, a voucher to export the disc tracks to the hard drive) and the six previously released Green Day DLC tracks. Update: The GameStop pre-order bonus for the standalone game is an export voucher (for Xbox 360 or PS3). Essentially, pre-order GD:RB from GameStop, and you can export all 47 tracks to your console hard drive for free. %Gallery-87997%
Rock Band 3 out this holiday season
Rather than, we don't know, a press release or any other professional method of disseminating a message (Twitter, perhaps?), Harmonix took to Facebook to tell friends and friends-of-friends that Rock Band 3 will be released "this holiday season." The announcement is brief and detail-free, but reveals that EA will distribute the game -- apparently having renewed its Rock Band distribution deal with Viacom. With Rock Band 3, the developer promises to "innovate and revolutionize the music genre once again, just as Harmonix did with the original Rock Band, Rock Band 2 and The Beatles: Rock Band." If previous comments by Dhani Harrison are to be believed, you may even learn something from playing RB3! [Thanks Helloimbob!]
Rock Band Weekly: Lady Gaga, Cartman's 'Poker Face'
Don't even lie! You're just as excited as any club kid that boundary-pushing pop sensation Lady Gaga is coming to Rock Band next week. So, in the privacy of your living room, break out the tight-fitting pleather and get your jam on (to the tracks you, publicly, tell everyone you hate). Of course, you could pretend you "accidentally" bought the Gaga Track Pack, when you actually meant to purchase South Park chubby charmer Eric Cartman's rendition of "Poker Face." Yup, that lil' ditty will also be available. See, now you can cover up that undeniable desire to go goo-goo for Gaga with a veil of irony! Check out the full release list after the break.
Rock Band Weekly: The White Stripes
It's a great time to be part of a two-piece Rock Band ... band. Next week, a three-pack of songs by The White Stripes will be released, each from a different album. In what might be the most appropriate music game DLC ever, "Fell in Love with a Girl" is totally playable in Lego Rock Band. Other tracks to be added next week include songs from The Futureheads, The James Gang, Shaimus, and, for those of you who are both Canadian and four-armed mutants, Rush drummer Neil Peart's version of the classic Hockey Night in Canada theme song. While you wait on that stuff, why not browse the new Rock Band Network selections? If you're playing on Xbox 360, that is. Everyone else: continue waiting.
