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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

 Continue reading →

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]

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

[Read]

Overheard

“It’s really weird to see younger kids who are like 16 at our shows, and then they say their dad was a huge fan or their mom used to play us all the time. They either heard it from their families or they heard it on Guitar Hero.” — Jeff Bland of Slaughter, in the Las Vegas Sun. (Trouble is, there’s no Slaughter in Guitar Hero as far as I can tell.)

“To have to one of my songs appear on the list next to Aerosmith and Radiohead and whatever it’s this mind-blowing thing because I don’t feel like I belong on that list at all.” — Jonathan Coulton, in the Rock Band Zine

“I really think my musical/piano background is the main reason I improved quite fast in Guitar Hero. I’ve played the piano for all my life, and I got to a level where I could play pretty much anything I wanted. … In fact I think that piano players even have a bigger advantage than guitar players at this game.” — overhand Guitar Hero player “Lilirock,” at 5Frets.com

“I’ve been playing the guitar for 20 years now, and it’s pretty funny to watch me flail and falter trying to play Guitar Hero. I got up to medium. … A lot of people wouldn’t be listening to bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd or Foghat right now if it wasn’t for Guitar Hero. I don’t think there’s really any other way to listen.” — Brendon Small of Dethklok, at Kotaku

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From the Harmonix writeup:

Rigopulos and Egozy’s potent combination of musical training and advanced technical skill-combined with a healthy dose of innovation-has fueled explosive growth in the category of music games and earned the two a place on Time Magazine’s 2008 list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Congrats, gents.

[Read | image: USA Network]

That company: Fender.

[thanks to Lee for the HOT TIP and pic]