July 8, 2008 – 6:00 am
There’s no denying that games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero have become hugely popular and successful over the past few years, due in large part to their wide variety of featured songs and ever increasing music libraries. Since shortly after its release, Rock Band has been adding songs weekly, and the various Guitar Hero games have been expanding their songlists via download and spinoff games as well. Some of these featured songs are the master tracks, taken from the original bands’ original recordings, while others are uncanny soundalike studio bands doing usually faithful covers.
Recently there’s been a trend toward both game series wanting to drop the covers and go for master tracks only in their song collections. This has caused some trouble lately, as The Who’s much hyped full-album released of Who’s Next was canceled for Rock Band and replaced with a greatest hits compilation due to the original master tapes for some of the songs being lost. And most recently, Led Zeppelin has refused to lend their master tapes out to developers for security’s sake, so their songs likely won’t be included in the upcoming masters-only Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 2. Zeppelin is happy to license out their songs for cover editions in the games, though.
So this begs the question: How much do the master recordings really matter in music video games? Is it so essential to have the original master track that the developers should decline including otherwise awesome songs just because they now shun covers?
I, for one, wouldn’t mind at all having a cover of “Pinball Wizard” on my Rock Band. After all, I’ll be the one making the music when I’m actually playing the game, and I have no illusions that I actually am an original member of The Who.
Source: Evil Avatar
July 8, 2008 – 5:00 am
I previously reported that the big Who song pack was coming to Rock Band this week. That was erroneous, and The Who will be rocking your living room next week (July 15) instead. This week’s release, now available for download on the XBox 360, includes two tracks by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and two by Rush. As is the norm now, all four are master tracks. Here’s a rundown of the specifics:
- “Snow (Hey Oh)” by Red Hot Chili Peppers - 160 MS Points ($2)
- “Tell Me Baby” by Red Hot Chili Peppers - 160 MS Points ($2)
- “Closer to the Heart” by Rush - 160 MS Points ($2)
- “Working Man (Vault Edition)” by Rush - 160 MS Points ($2)
These four tracks are available on the 360 beginning today and will be on the Playstation 3 on Thursday.
July 1, 2008 – 11:36 am
Today sees the release of the Crüefest Pack on Rock Band, which includes tracks by Motley Crüe, Papa Rouch, and Trapt. You can also nab a song by Vesuvius, from the new movie The Rocker, for free starting today. All of that is well and good, but the real Rock Band DLC news is that The Who is hitting the download scene in a big way next week.
Way back when Rock Band’s DLC system was first announced, Harmonix teased that Who’s Next would be the first full album download available. Three albums later, we still haven’t see Who’s Next, and now we know why. It seems that some of the master recordings from the album have disappeared into wherever old master tracks go several decades later. So instead of the full album, we’ll be getting a 12 song pack that features some of The Who’s greatest hits.
The Who pack will be available on July 15 for $20, with each song individually downloadable at the standard $2 a piece.
June 27, 2008 – 2:26 pm
Harmonix has announced next week’s Rock Band releases, which will include a three-song “Crüefest Pack” as well as an additional free song. Here’s what will be on tap:
- “Down at the Whisky” by Motley Crüe - 80 MS Points ($1)
- “Time Is Running Out” by Papa Roach - 80 MS Points ($1)
- “Who’s Going Home With You Tonight” by Trapt - 80 MS Points ($1)
- Crüefest Pack - All three of the above songs for 240 MS Points ($3)
- “Promised Land” by Vesuvius - Free
It’s interesting to note that you don’t get any sort of discount for purchasing the song pack this week. Usually you’ll get a little bit of a price break for buying the songs all at once, as opposed to individually. Then again, the pay track are only a buck a piece this week, so you can’t complain too much (unless you’re not a Crüefest fan). The free song is from the new movie The Rocker, and in my opinion there’s no such thing as a bad free Rock Band download.
Source: RockBand
June 24, 2008 – 5:45 am
Starting today on the XBox 360 and Thursday on the Playstation 3, you’ll be able to download the full album Doolittle by The Pixies, as well as a pack of three songs from Weezer’s new Red Album. Here’s a rundown of exactly what you’ll get and what you can expect to pay:
The Pixies:
- Crackity Jones - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Dead - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Debaser - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Gouge Away - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Here Comes Your Man - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Hey - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- I Bleed - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- La La Love You - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Monkey Gone To Heaven - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Mr. Grieves - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- No 13 Baby - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Silver - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Tame - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- There Goes My Gun - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
The whole Doolittle album is available as a big pack of all 14 songs for 1520 MS Points ($18.99).
Weezer:
- Dreamin’ - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- The Greatest Man That Ever Lived - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
- Troublemaker - 160 MS Points ($1.99)
The pack of all three Weezer songs is downloadable for 440 MS Points ($5.49).
All the tracks released this week are master recordings from the original artists. Sadly, there’s no “Pork and Beans” from Weezer in sight.
June 23, 2008 – 3:14 pm
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is the first band-specific disc release in the series, and the final list of included songs has hit the web. I still think it’s odd that a big portion of the included tracks are not, in fact, by Aerosmith. That aside, here are some of the highlights in the release:
- “All Day and All of the Night” by The Kinks
- “Sweet Emotion” by Aerosmith
- “Livin’ on the Edge” by Aerosmith
- “Love in an Elevator” by Aerosmith
- “Rag Doll” by Aerosmith
- “Walk This Way” by Run DMC featuring Aerosmith
- “Dream On” by Aerosmith (previously released as a free download for Guitar Hero 3)
- “Hard To Handle” by The Black Crowes (which is also one of the most fun downloadable tracks for Rock Band)
- “Train Kept A Rollin” by Aerosmith (one of the standard included songs on Rock Band)
The track list reveals that there also will be a guitar battle with Joe Perry, likely similar to the game-halting sparring matches from Guitar Hero 3.
Notably missing from this game are Aerosmith’s cover of “Come Together,” “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” “Janie’s Got a Gun,” Cryin’,” “Amazing,” “Crazy,” and quite a few other songs that should have been no-brainer inclusions.
The full track list is available on Joystiq.
June 10, 2008 – 6:30 am
Four new tracks are available for download on Rock Band this week, all from small bands promoted by MTV2. Here’s a rundown of what you can get and for how much:
- “Moving To Seattle” by The Material - 80 MS Points ($1)
- “A Clean Shot” by The Myriad - 80 MS Points ($1)
- “Bullets and Guns” by Them Terribles - 80 MS Points ($1)
- MTV2 Pack (includes the above three songs) - 240 MS Points ($3)
- “Girls Who Play Guitars” by Maximo Park (not included in the track pack) - 80 MS Points ($1)
These tracks are available starting today on the XBox Live Marketplace, and they’ll be downloadable on the Playstation Network on Thursday.
June 4, 2008 – 6:00 am
Yesterday I posted the first installment of my two-part interview with Keiko Takamura. She’s a virtual celebrity in the world of Second Life and an actual up and coming musician named Amy Te offline. You might have seen her recently in a spotlight on MTV’s award winning True Life series, where she discussed her musical status within the game and gave us a glimpse into her work towards getting her music heard by non-Second Life audiences.
Check out Keiko’s website at http://keikotakamura.com/ where she posts news and media, as well as a page where you can listen to and purchase her music. She’s also online at http://www.myspace.com/keikotakamura and http://keikotakamura.livejournal.com, and you can join her Second Life Group called Keiko Takamura’s Anti-Fan Club.
Here’s part two of the interview with Keiko.
Read More »
June 3, 2008 – 6:00 am
I recently had the opportunity to talk with singer / songwriter Keiko Takamura. Keiko is a virtual celebrity in the world of Second Life and an actual up and coming musician named Amy Te offline. You might have seen her recently in a spotlight on MTV’s award winning True Life series, where she discussed her musical status within the game and gave us a glimpse into her work towards getting her music heard by non-Second Life audiences.
Check out Keiko’s website at http://keikotakamura.com/ where she posts news and media, as well as a page where you can listen to and purchase her music. She’s also online at http://www.myspace.com/keikotakamura and http://keikotakamura.livejournal.com, and you can join her Second Life Group called Keiko Takamura’s Anti-Fan Club.
Here’s part one of the interview, in which she talks about her origins and musical experience in Second Life. The second part of the interview will post tomorrow, where Keiko tells about what it’s been like to have a True Life episode document her and what her musical aspirations are.
Read More »
May 21, 2008 – 1:20 am
Next Tuesday, May 26, you’ll be able to download the second full album release for Rock Band. The much anticipated Who’s Next album by The Who still hasn’t surfaced, but instead we’ll be getting The Cars’ self titled album. The track list follows:
- All Mixed Up
- Bye Bye Love
- Don’t Cha Stop
- Good Times Roll
- I’m In Touch With Your World
- Just What I Needed
- Moving In Stereo
- My Best Friend’s Girl
- You’re All I’ve Got Tonight
The individual songs will be downloadable for 160 MS Points ($2), and you can get the entire album for 1200 MS Points ($15).
