Plastic Axe — Music games for music fans

New Rock Band DLC: Lady Gaga and Cartman

Mar 9th, 2010 at 5:10pm

Rock Band: Lady Gaga As if announcing Rock Band 3 weren’t enough to make me work on vacation, Harmonix also unleashed this bombshell this afternoon: Next week will see the debut of four Lady Gaga tunes in Rock Band. Yes, that Lady Gaga.

“Lady Gaga Pack 01” will include “Bad Romance,” “Just Dance,” “Monster” and “Poker Face” — but that’s not all. Also releasing next week will be the Cartman-fronted, South Park-special edition of “Poker Face” that I mentioned a couple Fridays ago.

This is just one of many examples of how awesome Rock Band is.

Anyway, the songs appear to hit next week at usual times, and for the usual $2 apiece, with the whole four-pack going for $6.99 (or 560 Microsoft Points). I’ll have my traditional links and samples for you later this week…but right now, man, I’ve got dinner plans. Have yourselves a lovely evening, because I sure will.

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Rock Band 3: It’s Official, and It’s Coming This Year

Mar 9th, 2010 at 4:53pm

by Joe Rybicki.

Rock Band 3 So, on Saturday my wife and I headed down to the ocean for a much-needed vacation. We secured a room overlooking the beach, stocked up on gin, whiskey, and wine, brought a huge stash of books and prepared to disconnect for a few days. Before we left, I’d set up a few non-time-sensitive posts to go live on the couple days I’d be away, planning to pop in if anything important showed up but otherwise leave the site to take care of itself. This afternoon we hopped in the car for our longest trip out of the hotel yet, heading up the coast to a sleepy little town to wander around and catch some lunch.

So what does Harmonix do? They go and announce Rock Band 3.

Jerks.

Luckily for me, there isn’t really much to tell: We knew the game was in the works, and while we didn’t know for sure it’d be out by the end of this year, it was a pretty safe assumption all around (especially considering that MTV exec Paul DeGooyer mentioned that Green Day: Rock Band wouldn’t be the company’s “only game this year”). Harmonix does specifically mention that it’ll be distributed by EA, which was in some doubt recently. Aside from that, the announcement is pretty much without detail: Worldwide release, holiday season, “will 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.”

I’m expecting harmonies. What are you expecting?

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In Case You Missed It…

Mar 9th, 2010 at 3:00pm

by Joe Rybicki.

With all the Rock Band Network craziness last week, I suspect this may have gotten lost in the shuffle. So in case you missed it, here’s another link to the exclusive Plastic Axe Omega GM-1 review.

True story: I’ve been trying to finish up this review since January, but kept getting handed new freelance projects I simply couldn’t turn down. So I’ve had my drum set sitting in my office, right behind my chair, for nearly two months now.

Yesterday I finally moved it back down into the basement, and now my office feels frighteningly large and echoey. I may have developed agoraphobia in the past few weeks. I don’t recommend it.

Anyway: I made you a review. I hope you like it.

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Rock Band DLC Today: White Stripes and More

Mar 9th, 2010 at 11:00am

by Joe Rybicki.

Rock Band: White Stripes In case you missed it last week amidst all the Rock Band Network launch hoopla, here’s your friendly reminder that 360 and Wii owners can pick up nine new tracks in the main Rock Band store today. The lineup features a track pack from the White Stripes, as well as singles from The Futureheads, Shaimus, the James Gang, and what basically amounts to a killer drum solo courtesy of Neil Peart.

Here’s a random musical connection for you: The James Gang’s Thirds, from which “Walk Away” comes, was produced by Ken Hamann. His son, Paul Hamann, was the engineer for part of the recording of my old band’s first full-length CD, at Suma Recording Studio in Painesville, Ohio. (Here’s a great writeup on the studio. Man, I loved that fireplace.)

No, you didn’t need to know that. I just wanted to share.

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A Preview of Bands to Come to RBN

Mar 8th, 2010 at 2:00pm

by Joe Rybicki.

Rock Band: Iron & Wine Want a sneak peek at some of the bands expected to be hitting the Rock Band Network? You’re in luck; last week Harmonix put up a nice Q&A with a number of label reps, who spill the beans about some of the artists preparing to enter the RBN arena.

I won’t do a whole list here, but there’s a particularly juicy quote from Sub Pop rep Tony Kiewel, who confirms some more bands from the legendary indie label, including Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes, and Sunny Day Real Estate. Brandon Linnell of Century Media Records also confirms another band I’m particularly excited to check out in Rock Band: King’s X.

Check out the whole article for an idea of what RBN means for labels.

[Read]

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NYU Explores the Business of Music Games

Mar 8th, 2010 at 11:00am

by Joe Rybicki.

The Business of Music Games Last week Destructoid posted a really excellent interview with Samuel Howard-Spink, a professor at New York University who’s spearheading a program called the Music Video Games Research Project at NYU. The project, Howard-Spink says, is “dedicated to the convergence of musical and gaming cultures and businesses,” and as a gamer and a member of NYU’s music business program, he seems to be in a unique position to talk about this convergence.

There’s lots of great stuff in the article, but I’ll just show you a couple bits that caught my eye. First:

“[I]n my humble opinion the [music-game] genre itself has helped to save rock’n’roll from being fully Nickelbacked or Maroon 5-ed into a coma. The games have certainly increased the number of young people interested in pursuing musical activities in many ways; just ask any guitar instructor or owner of a musical instrument store.”

I couldn’t agree more, and as a side note, “Nicklebacked Into a Coma” may be the name of my forthcoming EP.

The other quote I really liked was about the relationship between playing music games and playing music:

“Remember that musical training isn’t solely about scales and correct finger placement; rhythm, song structure, key changes, lyrics, genre styles, etc. are all elements of a musical education, and playing along with songs on Rock Band absolutely aids in the development of the awareness of these elements.”

Yes. Much of the rest of the article is every bit as good, but I’d feel bad about quoting any more, so I’ll just send you over there. The article is really substantial, with a good deal of talk about past music-related games, the current market, the potential of the Rock Band Network, and where the genre might be going. So go, read, enjoy.

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