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Critic Who Inspired Billy Joel’s Rage-Join of Rock Band 3 Responds

Rock Band 3: Billy JoelDarren Franich of Entertainment Weekley’s PopWatch blog has responded to Wednesday’s story about Billy Joel’s reasons for signing up for Rock Band 3. If you don’t remember, Joel was talking about a recap of an episode of The Office, and said “the critic wrote something like, ‘God forbid that ever should happen.’ So I called my people and said, ‘Get me (on) that Rock Band game.’”

Franich, of course, is the critic Joel was referring to. And his response is pretty entertaining, and definitely in good humor. My favorite bit:

Some of the most important events in human history have occurred purely out of spite. The pilgrims colonized Plymouth Rock because they hated the Church of England. Neil Armstrong colonized space because he hated gravity. I’m absolutely tickled to hear that he will think of me every time his Rock Band 3 royalty check arrives.

Hit the Read link for the whole story. Now, I’m about one packed overnight bag away from being out the door, so y’all have yourselves a good weekend, hear?

[Read, via @johntdrake]

Found: An All-Powerful Vortex of Geek Awesomeness at the Phoenix Comicon

Wil Wheaton and John Scalzi at Phoenix ComiconWhat do actor/author/blogger Wil Wheaton, actress/writer/geek heroine Felicia Day, author/blogger/freelance troublemaker John Scalzi, and Rock Band have in common?

Besides all being universally awesome, I mean?

This:

See more videos of Rock Band shenanigans from the Phoenix Comicon at Wil’s blog.

UPDATE: OK, that’s just weird. Pretty much just as I was posting this, Tommy over at RockBandAide discovered that a song from Felicia Day’s web series The Guild is in the pipeline for the Rock Band Network. It must be true: Felicia Day must truly be the center of the geek universe.

[Read | image source and explanation]

Found: Naked Guitar Hero

Parental Advisory: Explicit ContentLet me start out by saying most emphatically that this is so very not safe for work. But I came across this event mentioned in Time Out Chicago, and figured you might find it as amusing as I did.

Apparently an organization called Naked Girls Reading (which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like) recently hosted an event at a studio in Chicago called “Naked Girls Rock.” For the readings, the girls focused on “‘debauched legends from the annals of rock history,’ song lyrics, and groupie exploits.”

After the reading, the girls hosted a Guitar Hero tournament — naked, of course — on a large projection screen, which lead to some, ah, interesting photographic opportunities, which Time Out took complete advantage of.

Hit the Read link if you’d like to see the results, but once again, let me be very clear: You will see images that depict full frontal female nudity. If such things bother either you or whoever owns your computer, you’re not going to want to hit that link. OK? OK.

EDIT: Err, apparently I was looking at the headline of the article when I wrote my own headline. It’s not Rock Band, it’s Guitar Hero. I now go to hang my head in shame.

[Read]

Overheard: Flogging Molly’s Bob Schmidt

Flogging Molly's Dave Schmidt on Guitar HeroAnswering fan-submitted questions at the Guitar Hero blog:

Even songs that I’ve grown up loving that I’ve played on Guitar Hero, it’s just a different way to connect to the song than before.  I tell people that when you’re on stage in a band and you pull off a wicked solo, it doesn’t feel any different than when you do it in Guitar Hero except that there is no audience witnessing it.  It feels just as good to lick a great solo on Guitar Hero as it does when you do it live – it’s a weird thing.

[Read]

Found: More Rock Band Madness at GDC

Rock Band: Harmonix Sings Cartman Sings Lady GagaIn honor of today’s releases, I bring you another video (with much better sound quality) of the Harmonix team performing the Cartman version of “Poker Face,” courtesy of Joystiq.

That’s Rock Band communications manager John Drake on vocals, Harmonix co-founder Alex Rigopulos on drums, and if I’m not mistaken, I believe that’s MTV Games’ Jeff Castaneda on guitar. (I approve of the ‘do, Jeff.)

Joystiq also posted a couple other videos of goings-on at the Harmonix GDC party, both of which you can find embedded after the break if you don’t care to click through. Warning: Wanton male upper-body nakedness found within!

[Read]

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Overheard: Tim Nordwind of OK Go

Tim Nordwind of OK GoIn honor of today’s Guitar Hero DLC release, here’s OK Go’s bassist, speaking to Activision’s new community blog, One of Swords:

I think more people know our songs from videogames than anywhere else at this point.

And you OK Go fans might also be interested in this less game-centric interview at IGN.

[Read]

Overheard: John Drake of Harmonix

Harmonix: John DrakeIn the Rock Band Zine, while talking about adapting 17 songs from his band The Main Drag for the Rock Band Network.

“PUT YOUR MUSIC IN GAME. GAME IS GOOD AND FANS LIKE GAME. MUSIC IS FUN, GAME IS FUN. FUN IS FUN. ROBOTS!”

[Read]