TWIRB: Podcast, iPhone, Lego, Beatles, U2 Rumors

THIS WEEK IN ROCK BAND! As can be expected, there’s a redonculous amount of news surrounding the rhythm game genre this week, and in particular, our favorite franchise…Rock Band.  Let’s talk about some epic DLC over the next couple weeks, a new iPhone game, the inaugural podcast, and more. It’s time for THIS WEEK IN ROCK BAND!

More Beatles Rock Band News

• Abbey Road DLC coming October 20

In less than a week, we will get all the remaining tracks from the album Abbey Road. Along with that, a new Challenge will be added to the game, allowing play of the album from beginning to end without stop. This new DLC is promised to bring new dreamscapes to the game.  So, it’s great to see some DLC for TB:RB, but to add additional visualizations is going to be a treat to this already beautiful game.

What’s next for Beatles DLC?  Two other albums are already in the works, but past that…it all depends on how stuff sells, according to Harmonix.  So, if you want more Beatles for your game, buy what they offer now.  Don’t hold out for your favorite album (like I might do for The White Album).

As far as fun to play, I have personally seen parents and grandparents interested in, at least, watching the game in action.  I still haven’t seen the 50+ crowd interested in playing the game, but they sure love watching the game and listening the great sounds of The Beatles.

Lego Rock Band Update

• Entire track list revealed (biased opinion, it’s a great list too)

All American Rejects, “Swing, Swing”
The Automatic, “Monster”
Blink-182, “Aliens Exist”
Blur, “Song 2”
Bon Jovi, “You Give Love a Bad Name”
Boys like Girls, “Thunder”
Bryan Adams, “Summer of 69”
Carl Douglas, “Kung Fu Fighting”
The Coral – “Dreaming of You”
Counting Crows, “Accidentally in Love”
David Bowie, “Let’s Dance”
Elton John, “Crocodile Rock”
Europe, “The Final Countdown”
Everlife, “Real Wild Child”
Foo Fighters, “Breakout”
Good Charlotte, “Girls & Boys”
The Hives, “Tick Tick Boom!”
Iggy Pop, “The Passenger”
Incubus, “Dig”
Jackson 5, “I Want You Back”
Jimi Hendrix, “Fire”
Kaiser Chiefs, “Ruby”
Katrina & The Waves, “Walking on Sunshine”
The Kooks, “Naïve”
KoRn, “Word Up!”
KT Tunstall, “Suddenly I See”
Lostprophets, “Rooftops”
P!NK, “So What”
The Police, “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”
The Primitives, “Crash”
Queen, “We Are The Champions”
Queen, “We Will Rock You”
Rascal Flatts, “Life is a Highway”
Ray Parker Jr., “Ghostbusters”
Razorlight, “Stumble and Fall”
Spin Doctors, “Two Princes”
Spinal Tap, “Short & Sweet”
Steve Harly, “Make Me Smile”
Sum 41, “In Too Deep”
Supergrass, “Grace”
Tom Petty, “Free Fallin”
T-Rex, “Ride a White Swan”
Vampire Weekend, “A-Punk”
We the Kings, “Check Yes Juliet”
The Zutons, “Valerie”

• 45 tracks for $50 = 90¢ per song (a bargain)
• 100% tracks exportable to RB2

The game appears to be a bargain, at $50 (that’s $10 off the typical game right now).  You get 45 songs, working out to 90¢ per song.  That’s 10¢ less than the cheapest DLC in the Music Store.  Plus, you get a new game with new types of game play.  Though, it’s not really a deal if you plan to do the import/export thing.  It’s $10 to export the Lego songs to RB2, and you actually get the entire set list exported.  What’s really cool about this feature, is any “kid friendly” song from your current and future DLC songs, will immediately be importable into Lego Rock Band.  You can give the kids the Lego disc and have no fear they are playing Aqualung when you are away, but you can gank all their Lego songs for your RB2 playing pleasure.  It’s a win-win to me.  For a total of $60 ($50 for game, $10 for export), it’s typical retail pricing after all.

• Iggy Pop and David Bowie in game (I do not understand this idea. I would think Taylor Swift or other less ancient characters would be in the game).

Honestly, why the hell are these old guys getting the Lego makeover and going in to a kids game?  Where’s Taylor Swift?  Where’s the American Idol stars?  Why are they using rock stars from yesteryear in a game that’s designed for kids and purposely using the E10 rating?

Link to the Harmonix Announcement.

U2: Rock Band Rumor

The world is saying “what’s next?” after The Beatles: Rock Band.  There is the quick answer: RBN, Lego Rock Band, the yet to be announced Rock Band 3, and of course more DLC.  But, what about full band games.  Harmonix has already stated in interviews this year that they are working on another band game.  Rumor after rumor (including many wish lists) have popped up all over the Intertubes.  The one rumor that seems to be sticking the most, is U2.

Think about it.  U2 definitely has the catalog to support a full game, with 12 albums.  They have the standard 4 person band that would fit nice with the available plastic instruments. Their 4 members have been with the band since the early days.  They have a 30 year history to share. Plus, they have yet to put a song in Rock Band.

Though, don’t forget that Harmonix and Pearl Jam sent out an announcement to fans (just after the release of the album “Ten” on DLC, for help selecting live PJ songs for an “upcoming Rock Band project”.  So, the PJ announcement leads me to believe that we will see even more PJ in the future.  Though, I don’t know if it will be a full game or just DLC.  I’d take a guess at Pearl Jam being just DLC.

Rock Band Mobile Goes iPhone

The official announcement came last week that the iPhone version of Rock Band is coming.  It’s as beautiful as the PSP version, and allows multiplayer up to 4 players, via WiFi. 20 songs make it in the game, plus there (of course) will be a Music Store to buy more.  The DLC train never stops.

The game allows play for all four instruments, via screen taps.  For vocals, you tap the screen where the vocal line is drawn.  The game is destined for gigantic success on iPhone.  The only thing I ask (as a BlackBerry user), where’s the BlackBerry love?

Here’s the initial setlist:

Attack-30 Seconds To Mars
Girls Not Grey – AFI
Move Along – All-American Rejects
Sabotage – Beastie Boys
All The Small Things – Blink-182
Hanging on the Telephone – Blondie
Learn To Fly – Foo Fighters
Everlong – Foo Fighters
Bad to The Bone – George Thorogood & the Destroyers
Hymn 43 – Jethro Tull
Bad Reputation – Joan Jett
Simple Man – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Ace of Spades ’08 – Motorhead
Debaser – Pixies
Ladybug – Presidents of The United States of America
Give It All – Rise Against
Lazy Eye – Silversun Pickups
Cherub Rock – Smashing Pumpkins
Take The Money and Run – Steve Miller Band
We Got The Beat – The Go Go’s

Link to the Harmonix Announcement.

Official Harmonix Rock Band Podcast, Episode 1

We were treated to the inaugural podcast last week, hosted by HarminoxSean, community manager.  It was a very impressive first podcast too. Great sound quality, several different segments, and top notch interviews from Thim Schaffer (maker of Brutal Legend) and more.  I won’t spoil the whole thing, but if you have an hour to kill and want to get a little more personal with the HMX staff, I suggest you subscribe to it in iTunes, or your favorite RSS reader. By the way, within a few hours of its release, the podcast became the #2 highest downloaded music podcast on iTunes.

Link to the Harmonix Announcement.

There is so much more news like this weeks DLC (that Simon already posted about earlier), next weeks Queen DLC too.  This post is already getting long, we will cut it here.

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

• Queen and Beatles DLC gets released.
• Chatter leading up to the release of Lego Rock Band.