My Gadget, Game & Gizmo Obsession

This update of the greatest Rock Band tribute station, gets us up to date with all regular DLC through May 25, 2010. With this latest installment, we get a blistering load of metal, including Pantera’s Great Southern Trendkill album, Judas Priest’s British Steel Live Album, Deftones, P.O.D., plus more Grateful Dead, The Smithereens, and a few others.

Please tell all your music and Rock Band friends about the blog and our Rock Band Station.

Direct link to Rock Band Station on Slacker.com

I make a general rule at work to host a party when ever a new rhythm game gets released. Sometimes, we just have music game parties just for the hell of it too.  Last summer, I organized a dual release party on 09.09.09, where we had The Beatles: Rock Band in one room and Guitar Hero 5 in another.

Earlier this month, on 06.09.10 to be exact, I hosted a Green Day: Rock Band release party at work. In one room, which we will call the main stage, we had Green Day: Rock Band splattered across five giant projectors. It was a bit overkill, but that’s how we roll. In the other room, which we will the 2nd stage, we had one giant screen projector setup with Rock Band 2, and about 600 songs.

These parties generally bring out the plastic rockers from work, and this event was no exception. On the main stage, we had it set up with guitar, bass, and 3 vocals. We were shy one set of drums so, unfortunately there wasn’t a chance to let people realize how insane the drums for many early Green Day songs really was. Though, the vocal harmonies were a big hit, and people are really looking forward to that feature in Rock Band 3. Over all, many of the early Green Day songs were requested, and people were looking for more Insomniac and Warning songs. For me, I love American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown, so no complaints on the set list from me.

Stage 2 was a different vibe entirely. It was more comfortable, since everyone has been playing Rock Band 2 for about two years now (and we’ve had it at several parties). This room has the traditional Rock Band set up, vocals, guitar, bass, and drums. I even set up the Rock Band Stage Kit for some lighting effects. For fear of a visit from the local fire department, I opted not to turn on the fog machine. Some favorite songs that jump out to me were Poker Face, The Great Southern Trendkill (see video), and Foreplay/Long Time.

Of course, both setups had No Fail Mode on to increase the party/fun factor without the bummer of someone killing the buzz by being booed off the stage.

Over all, our 2+ hour event was a success with a couple dozen of our closest coworkers joining in the fun. I expect we will have a couple more of these throughout the summer.

Everyone is looking forward to the 7 person band of Rock Band 3, which I expect we will have a release party of that in early November.

Check out the small gallery below.

Here’s something I have not written much about before, likely because the site hasn’t focused on this obsession.  But, let’s start a new category and see if there’s interest from our readers. I had the opportunity to pick up some drum sticks last week and jam with a couple guitarists from my town.

Our two hour impromptu jam at one of the guitarists studio, who we will call SuRGe, was reminiscent of a garage band I used to jam with two years ago.  That band was Sorry About Your Dog from Charlotte, NC. Those guys were a group of I.T. pros and closet musicians, who played some common party classics (a lot from the mid-90s). I helped out on drums and vocals, when their permanent players weren’t available. Maybe, you could call me a scab.

These guys I jammed with this past week, nearly have identical taste in songs.  Plus, many of the songs are also in Rock Band.  Needless to say, I knew the drum parts to most of the songs shouted out during our jam session, and we jumped right in and did a decent job knocking them out.

Here’s an example of what we played:

You May Be Right
The Break Up Song
Just What I Needed
Jenny 867-5309
Wild Flower
Bad Case of Lovin’ You
Should I Stay Or Should I Go
American Girl
Basket Case
Welcome to Paradise
Your Love
When I Come Around
Saw Her Standing There
My Best Friends Girl
Don’t Do Me Like That
Dirty Deeds

You might agree, lots of party songs.  You’ll see from the photos, that I may appear to be not so enthralled by what we were playing.  At least, that was my wife’s impression when she saw the photos.  Actually, I knew the songs drum parts so well, that I was mentally trying to figure out the vocal harmonies while we played. So, in the photo’s you see the outcome of my brain in action….not a pretty sight, I guess.

Well, after two hours, the three of us agreed that we jelled together and plan to put together a list of songs to play next time. I’ve already warned them about my love for metal and prog rock, so let’s see how my suggestions play out.  The songs we played were all pretty basic for drums, which also probably plays into my lack of excitement in photos. Though, they were good for a pick up jam session.

I’m thinking of testing the waters with classic prog rock of Kansas and Styx, maybe working our way up to Dream Theater.  I’d be up for it, though I may be alone on that one.  Keeping with the theme of songs, but adding a little difficulty, I’ll throw in Boston as a suggestion.

P.S. – The T-Shirt I’m wearing.  I’ll give Twitter shout outs to the first person to comment where it’s from.  HINT: It’s gaming conference related.

It’s rapid fire update time for our custom Slacker Radio Rock Band station. This is the second update this week, getting us into the DLC  for May.

INCLUDES ALL SONGS THRU 5/4/10.
NEW:
Serj Tankian x2
Smash Mouth – “All-Star”
The Used x3
Coheed and Cambria x3
Siouxsie & The Banshees – “Peek-a-Boo”
Supergrass – “Sun Hits the Sky”
Violent Femmes – “American Music”
Flyleaf – “Again”
Silverchair – “Tomorrow”
Busted – “Thunderbirds Are Go!”
No Doubt – Tragic Kingdom: The Deep Cuts
Orianthi – “According to You”

Direct link to Rock Band Station on Slacker.com

It’s been three months since I updated our custom Slacker Radio Rock Band station. Does anyone other than me care? Not sure. Well anyway, I’ve added about 30 songs today catching us up to the second week of April.

INCLUDES ALL SONGS THRU 4/13/10.
NEW:
3 Doors Down – “It’s Not My Time”
Mute Math – “Control”
The Subways x2
X x4
Ace Frehley – “Outer Space”
Carrie Underwood – “All-American Girl”
OneRepublic – “Stop & Stare”
The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Axis: Bold as Love (album)
Anberlin – “Feel Good Drag”
Hawk Nelson – “Live Life Loud”
Skillet – “Monster”
Superchick – “Stand in the Rain”
Switchfoot – “Meant to Live”
Thousand Foot Krutch – “Fire It Up”

Direct link to Rock Band Station on Slacker.com

Let’s start right up front, this comes direct from the Kodak Zi8 owned and manned by our virtual BFF, RockBandAide. This 26 minute (yes, I said 26) video gives us way more than we bargained for.

I won’t spoil it all for you, but expect to see the likely opening cinematic from Rock Band 3.  Also, get ready for a live Rock Band 3 demo of Power of Love with 7 (yes 7) simultaneous players.  Seven players on one system is quite mind blowing to me. You’ll also see the new filtering system to help you get through the nearly 2,000 songs in the Rock Band library.  Of course, you will see lot’s of Pro mode with the new Pro guitars.  There’s more.

Just grab a beverage of choice, fire up the embedded video below, and enjoy the next 26 minutes of your life…

[SOURCE]

And I totally called it!  It was only a matter of time before one of my predictions was accurate.  Since releasing Rock Band DLC and retail albums on the same day/week has become so trendy in the last two years, quite simply I just check Metacritic, lining up the release dates, and make a best guess as to what the most likely candidates are.   Ozzy is a shameless promoter and since his new album is out on Tuesday, it seemed like a pretty good bet.   Turns out….

On Tuesday, June 15, Ozzy Osbourne makes his ‘official’ debut in Rock Band.  You may be thinking “Wait a minute, Ozzy is already in Rock Band”.  You may then recall that the original Rock Band 1 disc had a pretty decent cover of  “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath, and later the Black Sabbath track pack which was, again, all covers.   It’s true that Ozzy’s music has been in the game since the beginning, but this is his first official appearance.   Harmonix is treating us to a few tracks from his brand new album, as well as some of his hits from the latter half of his solo career.

• Ozzy Osbourne – “Crazy Babies”
• Ozzy Osbourne – “Diggin’ Me Down”
• Ozzy Osbourne – “I Don’t Wanna Stop”
• Ozzy Osbourne – “Let Me Hear You Scream”
• Ozzy Osbourne – “No More Tears”
• Ozzy Osbourne – “Soul Sucker”

John Michael Ozzy Osbourne is also known as the “Godfather of Heavy Metal”, the “Prince of Darkness”, and to Brutal Legend fans “The Guardian of Metal”; Ozzy rose to fame as the iconic and controversial front-man of Black Sabbath.  After multiple platinum selling records, Ozzy was fired from the group and embarked on his solo career.  Over the years he has teamed up with many legendary guitarists, including Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee and Zakk Wylde, while continuing to revolutionize the genre throughout the 80′s and 90′s.   Ozzy has stated in his 2009 autobiography that this will be his final record and tour, and 2010′s Scream is a reunion album of sorts which has many of his former contributors and band-mates making appearances.

As for the song selection, certainly “Crazy Babies” and “No More Tears” were popular hits of their time, but the rest of the music sounds a bit formulaic, perhaps a bit like they were manufactured in a computer lab, and are missing the distinct “Ozzy-ness” that I associate with his earlier work.   I do love the riff on “Tears” so that one is a must-have for me.

In my opinion, this is very likely to be his first and only appearance in the game.  Guitar Hero has a small handful of his songs (notably a re-recording of Crazy Train), but the lion-share of his hits from the 80′s and early 90′s are mired in legal proceedings surrounding unpaid royalties.  Classic albums like ’82′s Speak of the Devil and ’86′s The Ultimate Sin (to name a few) are currently unavailable from any source and have been essentially pulled from his catalogue.  Couple this with the reported troubles with releasing 20th anniversary editions of these early masterpieces (you guessed it, poorly archived master tapes), there doesn’t seem to be a great case for further DLC from his repertoire.

Enjoy the Ozzy!  Next Next Week’s Predictions:  Oh Please let it be DANZIG.

Available on Tuesday, May 20th, Harmonix today announced that the long awaited Pantera DLC will appear in the music store, and it is none other than ten tracks from “The Great Southern Trendkill“  from 1996.  The DLC will cost 1280 MSP for the entire offering, and 160 MSP a-la-carte.  Harmonix has released yet another full album of music that is sure to be a top seller.

• “The Great Southern Trendkill”
• “War Nerve”
• “Drag the Waters”
• “10′s”
• “13 Steps to Nowhere”
• “Suicide Note Pt. II”
• “Living Through Me (Hells’ Wrath)”
• “Floods”
• “The Underground in America”
• “(Reprise) Sandblasted Skin”

It’s really happening.  Drag the Waters!  War Nerve!  Flood!  That solo from Flood!  Those vocals from Flood!  Rock Band DLC is going to be on fire next week.  The fans have been waiting for over two years for this day to come, including us at MyGGGo.

Pantera is the modern American standard for Heavy Metal.  Formed in Texas in 1981 by original members Rex Brown, Diamond “Dimebag” Darrell and Vinnie Paul, they originally focused on the popular “Glam” scene of the day.  It was only after vocalist Phil Anselmo joined in 1987 and the band changed their sound to metal that the band gained any notoriety, particularly with 1990′s “Cowboys from Hell”.    The band followed up with chart-breaking album after album, not the least of which were ’92′s “Vulgar Display of Power” and ’94′s “Far Beyond Driven”.  By 1995 the group’s morale had hit an all time low – in fact Anselmo recorded all the vocals to “The Great Southern Trendkill” in a completely separate studio.   Although Pantera released nine studio albums, had several platinum albums (an achievement for any group, let alone a metal band) and countless world tours, the disharmony in the band caused the group to break up forever in 2002.  Tragedy struck again in 2004 when Dimebag Darrell was killed on stage while performing with his new band, Damageplan, which destroyed any hope of a Pantera reunion.  The band has since released a greatest hits album of sorts, in March of this year.

“Trendkill” is one of their masterpieces, and the only Pantera album I perfer to listen to in its entirety.  One track is notably missing, “Suicide Note Pt. I”, and I can only assume this is because of the diverse nature of the song which features 12-string acoustics, keyboards, and no electric guitar, or perhaps the fact that the band preferred to play this song over the P.A. in concert rather than try to play it live.  Instead we are given the bonus track, “(Reprise) Sandblasted Skin”.

Next Week’s Predictions:  It’s going to be 1992 all over again with music from Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, and Stone Temple Pilots, all of which have new albums on May 25th.

Just a quick update this time to inform you of next week’s Rock Band DLC.   This time we get *most* of a full album, No Doubt’s mega-selling “Tragic Kingdom”, the album that put them on the map, and a single each from new artists Picture Me Broken and Orianthi.

Available on May 4th, 2010

• No Doubt – “Different People”
• No Doubt – “End It on This”
• No Doubt – “Happy Now?”
• No Doubt – “Hey You”
• No Doubt – “Sixteen”
• No Doubt – “The Climb”
• No Doubt – “Tragic Kingdom”
• No Doubt – “World Go ‘Round”
• No Doubt – “You Can Do It”
• Orianthi – “According to You”
• Picture Me Broken – “Dearest (I’m So Sorry)”

This week’s DLC is a mixed blessing for me.  This is actually No Doubt’s 2nd full album in the Rock Band Store, as you may recall their “Singles Collection” was released last year.  All of the popular singles from this album have already appeared in the previous collection, so what you are left with is the rest of the album, the filler, the songs that were not as popular.  Even if you are a casual No Doubt fan, its very likely that you already purchased some or all of this album.  Harmonix is making the tracks available in a number of ways to accomodate this fact.  It is awesome to see more music from well-established acts in Rock Band, because it is both unexpected and unpredictable that we would see more tracks from No Doubt.  At the same time, this is a bit disappointing because I have no interest in any of the additional tracks that are offered, and was not that impressed with the singles collection in the first place.  Even though I actually owned this CD when it was popular, none of the tracks stand out as “must haves” for Rock Band.   Still, overall, this is a good thing as it brings hope that there will be more music down the road from all of your favourite artists (moar Rush please).

As for the other two acts, you can read more about Orianthi here and Picture Me Broken here.  I’ve given the tracks a listen on Grooveshark, and they are nothing to scream about, very average as far as Rock Band tunes go.

Next Week’s Predictions:  More music from Dead Weather, UNKLE and Stereophonics (all of whom have new albums out on May 10).

Amazon has started a pre-order deal for Green Day: Rock Band.  Pre-order either the Standard Edition or Plus Edition of the game, and get a $10 credit to a future video game purchase.  Ten bucks is ten bucks.  If you order the Standard Edition, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 users will be able to export all the Green Day: Rock Band songs to your hard drive for play within Rock Band 1, 2, and 3.  The export will cost you $10.  This Amazon deal (in a sense) will cover the cost of your export.

On another note, as of right now, Amazon has the Standard Edition currently on sale at $57.99 [$48.99 for Wii] ($2 off retail price).

So, get to this link now and save a total of $12 when pre-ordering Green Day: Rock Band.