It’s the return of THIS WEEK IN ROCK BAND! Wow, it has been five months since my last TWIRB update.  Gee, I have slacked since Simon started doing the weekly Rock Band DLC updates, plus our friend Tommy at RockBandAide has been kicking ass and taking names on all things Rock Band.  Though, I do miss the TWIRB pieces that I used to write, plus there is so much Rock Band news within the past week. So, here goes THIS WEEK IN ROCK BAND!

Rock Band 3 Announced

Let’s start this off with a giant BANG!  Just today, news started flying across the Twitterverse from @deliciousbees at Harmonix, that EA will continue to work with MTV/Viacom to publish Rock Band 3. Sure, that’s great news for the business people, but the big news from @johntdrake is that Rock Band 3 is expected “holiday 2010″.

Here’s the quote:

Harmonix is developing Rock Band 3 for worldwide release this holiday season! The game, which will be published by MTV Games and distributed by Electronic Arts, 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. Stay tuned for more details!

So, we get no songs or features, or nuthin’.  But, we get something unofficially official, and that’s exciting.

Rock Band Network Store Opens, 116 Songs Available

On March 4, rumblings started in the wee hours from a Billboard.biz web posting about RBN store going live.  As the day progressed, Xbox users noticed a title update to Rock Band 2.  Then a couple hours later, Rock Band Network appeared as a new in-game music store.  Just like that, more than 100 songs were available for purchase. The official announcement came same day.  In less than a week, more than 115 songs have been made available for purchase, from 99 cents to 3 dollars, all in Microsoft funny money of course.  It seems that a few more songs appear available every day.  So, take a look and download the free demos of songs. Many will be unknown, but you may find something new you love.  There are some mid-range names starting to pop up in RBN too; Steve Vai, Flight of the Conchords, Jonathan Coulton, to name a few.  PlasticAxe did a great job building a list of all the RBN songs.

Lady Gaga and Eric Cartman DLC Announced for Next Week

We are going to get some Band Hero equivalent songs for next week.  The bizarre (yet beloved) Lady Gaga will make a 4 song appearance on Rock Band, plus a spoof by South Park’s Eric Cartman.

“Lady Gaga Pack 01” will include “Bad Romance,” “Just Dance,” “Monster” and “Poker Face”

All platforms will get the pack (individual for Wii)
Announcement here.

DLC Week of 3/9 – White Stripes, Shaimus, Neil Pert and more!

This weeks DLC, out today, is a great mix covering a few genre’s. You”l be able to pick these up on all consoles this week.

The Futureheads – “Decent Days & Nights” +
The Futureheads – “Hounds of Love” +
The James Gang – “Walk Away” +
Neil Peart – “The Hockey Theme” + *
Shaimus – “All of This” + *
Shaimus – “Tie You Down” + *
The White Stripes – “Fell in Love with a Girl” +
The White Stripes – “Seven Nation Army”
The White Stripes – “You Don’t Know What Love Is (You Just Do As You’re Told)” +

With that, what’s NWIRB?  NEXT WEEK IN ROCK BAND!

• Closer to PAX East. More details about Rock Band at the big show.
• Looking for more Green Day: Rock Band details.

The Penny Arcade Expo East 2010 is rapidly approaching, the weekend of March 26-28. We are letting you know that MyGGGo (basically just Shawn) will be there with friends and family enjoying as much as possible.

More importantly for you, I will be doing everything I can to get you the best view of the entire show.  While at the panels, demos, competitions, concerts, and all around, I will be Live Tweeting as much as I can (assuming AT&T doesn’t crap out on my BlackBerry Bold).  I will also be sporting a Kodak Zi8 HD 1080p for video captures, which I will blast up here to the site as soon as I can. Once the show winds down, I will put together some more insightful blog posts about what it was like.

Some things to know ahead of time.

1. I’ve never been to a gaming conference before, so I will be a kid in a candy store.
2. More than 60,000 tickets have been sold and many of the Hynes Convention Center rooms only hold 400 people.  Lines will be long, and I can’t promise I will get to see much.
3. The schedule is overwhelming, and there will be no possible way for me to see every event.
4. I’ve never video blogged before, so this should be fun.
5. I am a Harmonix fanboy, and will most likely spend every second I can hanging with the Rock Band developer, other fanboys, and the like.

If there is something specifically you’d like to see covered at PAX East from a panel, a concert, or a personal interview…let me know.

In preparation for PAX East, what should you do?

1. Follow @MyGGGo on Twitter.
2. Leave comments to this post, so I know what to cover for you.
3. Subscribe to my sites RSS feed, so you can get regular blog updates.

Last week, we updated our Slacker Radio Rock Band radio station with the recent DLC plus upcoming DLC.  We even started moving into the realm of Rock Band Network (RBN).  Today, we have taken it a bit further.  Realize that many RBN artists are unsigned, and not well known on the internet radio world, but surprisingly,I am able to find quite a few RBN tracks.

I have only sifted through the announced list of RBN tracks from last Wednesday, and only up to the letter “J” “T”.    The good news, 16 31 songs so far from RBN are available on Slacker…and I have added them to the station for your listening pleasure.  The updated RBN list is at the bottom.

Remember, Slacker can be enjoyed from your favorite web browser, as long as you have Flash installed (and I’m 101% sure you do).  Plus, Slacker for iPhone, BlackBerry, Palm WebOS, and Android all exist.  If you haven’t tried Slacker on your phone, just go to www.slacker.com to download the free app.

Direct link to Rock Band Station on Slacker.com

Rock Band Network, now on Slacker:
3 Inches of Blood – Battles and Brotherhood
Bif Naked – Sick
Color Theory – If Not Now When
Dear and the Headlights – Talk About
Despised Icon – Day of Mourning
Fake Shark-Real Zombie! – Angel Lust
Fake Shark-Real Zombie! – Horses in Heaven
Fake Shark-Real Zombie! – Running for the Razors
Fake Shark-Real Zombie! – Sestri Levante
Five Finger Death Punch – Burn it Down
Flogging Molly – Drunken Lullabies (Live)
Flogging Molly – Requiem for a Dying Song
In This Moment – Mechanical Love
Jonathan Coulton – Creepy Doll
Jonathan Coulton – Ikea
Jonathan Coulton – The Future Soon

UPDATE: Just added a bunch more.

KMFDM – A Drug Against War
KMFDM – Juke Joint Jezebel
Lacuna Coil – Survive
Longwave – No Direction
Marillion – Whatever Is Wrong With You
of Montreal – Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse
Senses Fail – Lady in a Blue Dress
Skeletonwitch – Crushed Beyond Dust
Skindred – Stand for Something
Steve Vai – For the Love of God
Steve Vai – Get the Hell Out of Here
Steve Vai – The Attitude Song
Stroke 9 – Kick Some Ass
Stroke 9 – Little Black Backpack
Suicide Silence – Disengage

Our Slacker Radio Rock Band radio station has been updated with this weeks installment of Rock Band DLC. This week you get 21 new tracks including packs from White Stripes, Mother Hips, HIM, and Disturbed. I now working to locate the additional 116 Rock Band Network songs released withing the past 48 hours.  Yes, 116 RBN songs released in less than 48 hours.  Those will be coming to the channel soon.
UPDATED: Just added a few RBN songs to the station.

3 Inches of Blood – Battles and Brotherhood
Bif Naked – Sick
Color Theory – If Not Now When

Direct link to Rock Band Station on Slacker.com

We have the official current list of songs available on Rock Band Network (which just opened this afternoon).  This is defintely the biggest week for Rock Band downloadable content since the release of Rock Band 1 in 2007.  Check out the current band/song list below.  Then, turn on your Xbox 360 and start spending those MS Points. SOURCE

3 Inches of Blood – Battles and Brotherhood
Alias Unknown – Top Back
Amberian Dawn – He Sleeps in a Grove
Amberian Dawn – River of Tuoni
Andrew Buch – Trippolette
Audio Fiction – Race The Hourglass
Bif Naked – Sick
Blackmarket – Tongue Twister Typo
Bojibian – Still There
C&O – We Are the Best
Chaunce DeLeon and The Fountain of Choof – Tadpole Search and Rescue
Children of Nova – The Complexity of Light
Color Theory – If Not Now When
Dear and the Headlights – Talk About
Despised Icon – Day of Mourning
DnA’s Evolution – The Heist
Error 404 feat. CJ Watson – If Trucks Drank Beer
Fake Shark-Real Zombie! – Angel Lust
Fake Shark-Real Zombie! – Horses in Heaven
Fake Shark-Real Zombie! – Running for the Razors
Fake Shark-Real Zombie! – Sestri Levante
Five Finger Death Punch – Burn it Down
Flogging Molly – Drunken Lullabies (Live)
Flogging Molly – Requiem for a Dying Song
Foreword – Watch It All Go Down
Free Spirit – Far Away from Heaven
Full-Source – End Quote
Full-Source – It’s Not You, It’s Everyone
Full-Source – Red Sky At Morn
Furly – Icarus’ Song
Gandhi – Arigato
Giant Target – In Memories
Giant Target – Signs
Glass Hammer – Hyperbole
Glass Hammer – Sleep On
Heaven Ablaze – Parhelia
In This Moment – Mechanical Love
James William Roy – Paper Valentines
Jonathan Coulton – Creepy Doll
Jonathan Coulton – Ikea
Jonathan Coulton – The Future Soon
KMFDM – A Drug Against War
KMFDM – Juke Joint Jezebel
Kristin Hersh – Fortune
Kristin Hersh – Mississippi Kite
Lacuna Coil – Survive
Lead the Dead – Rip’er
Longwave – No Direction
Marillion – Whatever Is Wrong With You
Matter in the Medium – Persistence of Vision
MC Frontalot – Goth Girls
Nick Gallant – Inside Out
Nick Gallant – Turn Yourself Around
Of Last Resort – Fade Away
of Montreal – Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse
Pink Flag – Nancy Drew
Ron Wasserman – Fight Back
Rose of Jericho – Buried Cold
Scratching The Itch – Lemon Juice
Scratching The Itch – The Buddy Disease
Scratching The Itch – You’re My Everything
Senses Fail – Lady in a Blue Dress
Skeletonwitch – Crushed Beyond Dust
Skindred – Stand for Something
Speck – Grumpytown
Speck – VP of Booty Reports
Stars of Boulevard – Limousine
Stephanie Hatfield and Hot Mess – Can I Stay
Steve and Lindley Band – Backyard Buildyard
Steve Vai – For the Love of God (Live)
Steve Vai – Get the Hell Out of Here
Steve Vai – The Attitude Song
Stroke 9 – Kick Some Ass ‘09
Stroke 9 – Little Black Backpack ‘09
Suicide Silence – Disengage
Surprise Me Mr. Davis – Sissyfuss
The Cold Goodnight – Give
The Dirty Love Band – Moonboy
The Everybody – You Got That
The Fisticuffs – Liverpool Judies
The Hold Steady – Sequestered in Memphis
The Humans – It’s Good
The Kimberly Trip – California
The Main Drag – Cease and Desist
The Main Drag – Don’t Let Me Down (Slowly)
The Main Drag – Dove Nets
The Main Drag – Homosuperior
The Main Drag – How We’d Look On Paper
The Main Drag – Love During Wartime
The Main Drag – Megatron
The Main Drag – Talk Them Down
The Main Drag – Teeth, Face, Outerspace
The Main Drag – Tricky Girl
The Main Drag – What’s Your Favorite Dinosaur?
The Shins – Australia
The Slip – Children of December
The Slip – Even Rats
Ultra Saturday – Not My Fault
Ultra Saturday – Superhero!
WaveGroup Feat. Becca Neun – Liquid Smog (StompBox Remix)
Wounded Soul – Rx
You Shriek – Lilith in Libra
You Shriek – No Heroes
Zack Wilson – Another California Song
Zack Wilson – Ox

My daily Google search for all things Rock Band returned a result from Billboard.biz. Is that a real Billboard web site?

Anyway, according to the article, Harmonix’ long developed Rock Band Network is opening today for business. If true, you, me, and all our friends on Xbox Live (sorry PSNers and Wiizers) will have a slew of lesser known, cheaper to buy, and community created tracks to play in Rock Band 2.

Nothing in the Billboard article states any official announcement of the RBN opening, other than old info that we already know.  So, this remains on the rumor category until someone can confirm that “yes, the RBN store is now available on Xbox Live.”

UPDATE: The RockBand forums are lighting up now. People are buzzing. So far, Xbox Live users have seen a title update for Rock Band 2, but after searching around the menus, there’s no new content. Stay tuned…

Additional updates come from our friend at RockBandAide:

UPDATE 2: Rumors are swirling that the “star ratings issue” has been fixed with the patch, although people are not seeing an RBN store details… yet.

UPDATE 3: Rock Band superstar @BillTVShow let me know that this thread over at the official RockBand.com forums has people also commenting on what they’re seeing.

UPDATE 4: IT’S OPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s available under the “Music Store” menu! GO, GO, GO!!!!  (You may need to restart, but all signs are saying the RBN is now officially a-go!)

UPDATE 5: Also from @BillTVShow, the RBN is its own “location” in the sortable menu, so you can sort by RBN tracks.  He noticed too that if you press SELECT, you can rate a song!

UPDATE 6: The RBN is currently only available in the US and Canada (and I’ve heard Canadians are having some trouble getting it to work).  EU and other territories will be receiving it hopefully in a few weeks.

Did you know you can stream YouTube, Hulu, and Flash videos on your Xbox 360?  Well you can, with a nifty piece of Windows software called TVersity.  It’s pretty simple too.  You just install the TVersity client on your Windows PC, make sure your Xbox 360 and PC can communicate via Windows Media sharing (or similar), and then you are ready to go.

The TVersity client allows you to configure what you stream from adding YouTube channels, syncing your entire Hulu feed, or specifically adding RSS feeds.  The Flash feature is brand new with a recent update to TVersity, so I have not checked it out yet. TVersity came in very handy on New Years Eve for me, as I wanted to stream some YouTube videos on my TV, but could not figure out how to do it.  After a friend introduced me to TVersity, and we spent about 10 minutes downloading/setting it up, I’m a TVersity fan now.  I suggest paying for the Pro edition which (1) gives you full capabilities, (2) helps fund additional development of this excellent application.

Here are the updates to the recent TVersity release.  If you have any specific questions regarding setup, let me know in comments.

We are pleased to announce the release of TVersity Pro edition 1.8 featuring:

• New implementation of the off-screen web browser based on Google Chromium for increased stability and speed. In fact we think this is approaching rock solid levels and can soon come out of beta (please be sure to let us know what you think).
• We are opening the list of supported premium content sites so that advanced users can add new ones (only web pages with Flash video for now). If you are an advanced user and you are not intimidated by xml files then check osb.xml, it is pretty much self explanatory.
• List of supported websites can now be updated without requiring a new release. From now on, new sites will be added and pushed to all users. (Advanced users should send us their additions since from time to time we overwrite osb.xml).

Last year we made the first release of our Pro edition, with the intention to enable access to premium web content (including movies and full TV episodes). The big promise of this approach was the use of a full blown web browser running on your PC but displaying web content on your TV. Ultimately we want to let you access any website on TV with this technology, today we are taking another step in that direction by letting you access any video site with Flash video (and not just the ones we decided to support).

Full release note are here.

Download latest version here.

Have questions related to adding premium content sites? Need support for the Pro version? Try our new questions and answers tool available at: answers.tversity.com.

NOTE: There are a couple similar products out there, including PlayOn. I haven’t used anything other than TVersity, but you may have varying milage with competitors too.

Next week’s DLC has been announced, and this week it features a return of some old favourites in Rock Band and one new artist.  Harmonix is releasing a second three-pack of Nu Metal from Disturbed, as well as double singles from DLC alumni Mother Hips and Silversun Pickups.  Making their RB debut is a band called TRUSTcompany.

• Disturbed – Meaning of Life
• Disturbed – Voices
• Disturbed – The Game
• The Mother Hips – “Third Floor Story”
• The Mother Hips – “White Falcon Fuzz”
• Silversun Pickups – “Panic Switch”
• Silversun Pickups – “Sort Of”
• TRUSTcompany – “Downfall”

Disturbed has been featured twice before in the weekly DLC, with a three song pack in June 2008 and two more followup singles in May 2009, and also featured a song on the Rock Band 2 disc.  Their music has a very complex and pulsing sound that translates very well to the note highways of Rock Band; the band’s songs are among some of the more interesting and fun pieces to play as the riffs are very addictive once you get the pattern down.   Indie rockers The Mother Hips were one of the so-called ‘Bonus’ tracks from the first Rock Band disc with their song “Time We Had” and also had a DLC track in May of 2008.  Silversun Pickups make their second appearance in DLC with two tracks from their latest CD, 2009’s “Swoon”, and are currently on tour with the wildly popular Muse.

March 2nd will also feature the debut of TRUST Company, whose sound is described as “Alternative Post-Grunge”.  Their track “Downfall” was their highest charting single to date and the song has appeared in over 10 different videogame soundtracks including “BMX XXX”, the “MVP Baseball” franchise, “Burnout” and “Project Gotham Racing 2″ as well as being the promotional theme song to many WWE Pay-Per-View events.  Recently the band has experienced hard times and have parted ways with some of the founding members of the group, so the outlook for more DLC from TRUST*CO is not terribly promising.

Next Week’s Prediction:  Classic rock from Scorpions and Flock of Seagulls, as both bands have “Best of” compliations out shortly.  My advice:  Run so far away!

So far in February we have been treated to three consecutive weeks of brand new music and artists in our weekly Rock Band DLC, and the selection spans not only the last few decades of Rock music, but also spans several genres of music, from Motown R&B to Electronica.   New music is always welcome, not only to attract new fans to the game, but to keep existing fans interested by allowing us to expand our setlists and ‘repitoire of replica-rock’.  Here’s a rundown of what has been added this month:

Otis Redding – “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”
Otis Redding – “Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)”
Otis Redding – “I’m Sick Y’all”
Otis Redding – “I’ve Got Dreams to Remember”
Otis Redding – “Love Man”
All Time Low – “Weightless”
Alphabeat –“Fascination”
Brian Setzer Orchestra – “Stray Cat Strut”
The Chemical Brothers – “Let Forever Be”
HIM – “Heartkiller”
HIM – “Ode to Solitude”
HIM – “Wings of a Butterfly”
KSM – “Distracted”
Marilyn Manson – “The Dope Show”
One Night Only – “Just For Tonight”
The Police – “Walking On the Moon”

There have been some standout singles, and of course the can’t-miss pack from Otis Redding which is one of the first track packs especially for Rock Singers – basically the other instruments are not the focal point of the music and complement the vocalist.  H.I.M. is a finnish metal band, and they describe their music as “Love Metal” however I find that their sound is akin to the later works of Black Sabbath.  “Stray Cat Strut” is a classic from 80’s pop music.   The Chemical Brothers make their debut with their trademark, digital electronic sound.  Marilyn Manson is no stranger to heavy metal fans, and finally The Police’s “Walking on the Moon” contains their world famous mix of rock and reggae riffs (one of their all-time best songs, check out Cas Haley’s rendition from America’s Got Talent Season 2).  Once again Harmonix have treated fans to a wide assortment of music, and this is exactly what they need to keep doing to attract as large an audience as possible.

Next Week’s Predictions:  I was right about H.I.M. but wrong about the date.  I’m getting closer.  March 2 will be new music from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and a follow up pack from Gorillaz.

There is some interesting pontification going on over at the Rock Band forums today, around one of the most anticipated (and yet still not delivered) bands to be added to the Rock Band DLC arsenal. The one and only, Pantera.

From newcomer phildo2000 over at RockBand.com

I know RB likes to sometimes time their DLC releases with cd releases……well check out the news below. March 30?????

“The planned onslaught of Pantera reissues will soon kick off with what looks to be a new greatest hits collection set to be the first out of the gate. Due out through Atlantic/Warner on March 30th is a new compilation titled “1990-2000: A Decade Of Domination“. No further details have been revealed as to what the offering will feature as of yet.” I got this info from www.theprp.com.

For me, I’m more than ready for some Pantera. 1 song, a 3 pack, or their entire greatest hits collection…I’ll take them all.

What about you?