And 2010 has officially begun. Activision has announced January’s lineup of downloadable tracks for Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero, and it’s a nicely varied list.

Starting things off, we have “The New Blues Masters”: Three young guitar slingers making names for themselves in the world of blues:

Joe Bonamassa	Lonesome Road Blues
Scott McKeon	Broken Man	N/A	N/A
Tyler Bryant	Who I Am	N/A	N/A

Those hit today on 360 and Wii, but PS3 owners will have to wait two weeks — they don’t hit PS3 until January 21. (Also, you’ll have to hit the artist links to get an idea of their sound since none only one of these songs can be found anywhere on the internet, apparently.) [Thanks to toymachine for pointing out that I'd assigned all the songs to the wrong artists.]

Next Thursday, we all get a trio from African-influenced indie outfit Vampire Weekend, with two from their forthcoming Contra (hitting on Tuesday) and one of my favorites from their self-titled debut.

Vampire Weekend	Cousins
Vampire Weekend	Holiday		N/A
Vampire Weekend	The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance

January 21 will feature the debut of three tracks from three serious metal bands. (And by “serious metal bands” I mean that they play metal, seriously — not that the bands are necessarily serious, as anyone familiar with Dethklok would be well aware.)

Amon Amarth	Twilight of the Thunder God
Dethklok	Laser Cannon Deth Sentence
Shadows Fall	Still I Rise

And the month wraps up on January 28 with three very well-known tracks from proto-alt-country-slash-blues legends Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Creedence Clearwater Revival	Bad Moon Rising
Creedence Clearwater Revival	Proud Mary
Creedence Clearwater Revival	Travelin’ Band

The songs and packs will all be available for the usual prices, and they’ll arrive at the usual times…except for today, when you PS3 owners get stiffed. Sorry about that.