Plastic Axe » Found

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

Joe Rybicki — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:44:51 +0000

What 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

Joe Rybicki — Mon, 10 May 2010 21:00:20 +0000

Let 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]

Found: More Rock Band Madness at GDC

Joe Rybicki — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:00:40 +0000

In 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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Found Friday

Joe Rybicki — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:00:21 +0000

Aside from the regular slate of DLC offerings, it doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot of big news happening in the world of music games at the moment. So I’m going to go ahead and take this opportunity to clear out my backlog of tagged stories a bit, and offer a hefty dose of miscellanea for your weekend reading and/or watching pleasure.

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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Found: Starcaster Rock Band Edition

Joe Rybicki — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 00:00:52 +0000

This is so meta it hurts my head. Apparently a company is making a real, entry-level Stratocaster modeled after the Rock Band guitar controllers…which are, in turn, modeled after real Fender Strats.

That company: Fender.

[thanks to Lee for the HOT TIP and pic]

Found: A Lego Rock Band of a Different Sort

Joe Rybicki — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:00:10 +0000

There’s plastic instruments, and then there’s plastic musicians. This foursome took the stage at Ümloud! a couple weeks back and rocked the house with their…ah…spirited rendition of “My Hero.”

The complete video is embedded after the break, and don’t miss the rest of the Ümloud! videos at YouTube.

[via Ümloud!]

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Found: Ben Stiller + Bill Clinton = Totally Shredding

Joe Rybicki — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:00:53 +0000

To help raise awareness for Ben Stiller’s “Stillerstrong” charity drive (which aims to build a much-needed school in Haiti), Stiller shot this video of a phone call with former president Bill Clinton. In it, it is revealed that the two make a habit of playing Rock Band together. Apparently Clinton “totally shreds” the solo in “My Sharona” on Expert, while Stiller hogs the mic.

It’s a cute video promoting a good cause, and it’s embedded after the break.

[via @mosjef73]

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Found: My Little Rock Band Ponies

Joe Rybicki — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:00:36 +0000

I…I have nothing to add to this.

[Read, via @HMXkfan]

Found: A Very Long Guitar Hero Commercial

Joe Rybicki — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:00:19 +0000

This TV ad in the U.K. is apparently promoting a Doritos promotion to win a copy of Guitar Hero. And it’s over four minutes long. But it’s an entertaining four minutes, if only for the wonderfully deadpan looks on the faces of pretty much everyone around poor Alan.

See the entire saga of Alan the Guitar Hero after the break.

[via BeatCrave]

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Found: Christmas Light Hero

Joe Rybicki — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:44 +0000

This may be the greatest thing ever invented: a display of Christmas lights that also happens to be a playable version of Guitar Hero. And better yet: The rest of the lights on the house are synced up to the music.

According to the Huffington Post, the display was put together by Ric Turner, a special effects specialist who used to work for Disney. And while he may have taken some liberties with the charting, you can’t argue with the results.

See the full video after the break.

[Read, thanks to Matthew for the HOT TIP]

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