Mar 9th, 2010 at 5:10pm
by Joe Rybicki.
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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Mar 9th, 2010 at 4:53pm
by Joe Rybicki.
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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Mar 9th, 2010 at 11:00am
by Joe Rybicki.
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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Mar 8th, 2010 at 2:00pm
by Joe Rybicki.
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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Mar 5th, 2010 at 10:30am
by Joe Rybicki.
As if all that piping-hot RBN action isn’t enough for you, Harmonix just unveiled nine new tracks for the main Rock Band music store. Headlining next week’s release is another three-pack from the White Stripes, doubling the White Stripes quotient in the Rock Band library. (Which is interesting, given that Jack White has called music games “a little sad,” isn’t it?)
| The White Stripes |
Fell in Love With a Girl |
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| The White Stripes |
Seven Nation Army |
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| The White Stripes |
You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do as You’re Told) |
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Also coming next week: Two each from indie bands The Futureheads and Shaimus, a classic from the James Gang, and…wait, what? A song by Rush drummer Neil Peart? A drum-centric cover of the theme to Hockey Night in Canada, you say? Well, that’s just fine by me.
| The Futureheads |
Decent Days and Nights |
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| The Futureheads |
Hounds of Love |
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| The James Gang |
Walk Away |
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| Neil Peart |
The Hockey Theme |
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| Shaimus |
All of This |
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| Shaimus |
Tie You Down |
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The songs hit at the usual times next week, with the Peart and Shaimus tunes going for a buck apiece, and everything else going for the usual $2 or equivalent. (And of course, $5.49 / 550 Wii Points / 440 Microsoft Points for the White Stripes pack.) A playlist! I have one! Only it doesn’t include “The Hockey Theme” — you can find a video here — or “Tie You Down,” which you can hear at Shaimus’s MySpace page. You can listen to the rest after the break. Continue reading →
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Mar 4th, 2010 at 8:15pm
by Joe Rybicki.
I think I just sprained something. But you get to benefit from my pain, because whatever I sprained, it was in the process of putting together a page of all the tracks released for the Rock Band Network so far. Behold! The RBN Vault.
Why a whole separate page? Well, see, the Rock Band Network is sort of a separate thing from the main Rock Band store. For one thing, the songs are only available on 360 at the moment; for another, they’re priced much more variably than those in the main library. So I figured that warranted a separate page, for now at least. As the RBN library grows I may fold those back into the main Vault, but for the moment I’ll be keeping them separate.
And how often will this be updated, you ask? I haven’t the foggiest idea. The image on this post that I grabbed from the Rock Band Zine seems to be suggesting we’ll be getting “new songs daily.” This idea is exciting to me as a music fan, and terrifying to me as a person covering music games. I don’t think I’ll have the temporal or mental bandwidth to update the list daily. Weekly? I hope so.
While we figure all this stuff out, why not head on over to the shiny new RBN Vault, have a look a round, and let me know if you find anything that doesn’t look, read, or work right? I would truly appreciate it.
Rock on, friends.
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Yup, looks like RBN’s gonna update daily. Hold me.
