Sex, Drugs, Rockband

Zergwatch.com: Harmonix and MTV will bring seven new tracks to Rock Band and Rock Band 2 rockers next week, including a triple-shot of classic, leather pants-wearing Irish rock from Thin Lizzy.

The Thin Lizzy three pack features a trio of live tracks from the band’s Still Dangerous: Live At The Tower Theater Philadelphia 1977 album. That’s obviously better than the two-for-Tuesday my local classic rock station can offer.

Joining Thin Lizzy are individual tracks from Pat Benatar and The Pretenders, plus a pair from Nikko, the pre-packaged pop group from the movie Spectacular!.

Thin Lizzy 3 Pack (440 MS Points / $5.49)

“Boys are Back in Town (live)” (160 MS Points / $1.99)
“Cowboy Song (live)” (160 MS Points / $1.99)
“Jailbreak (live)” (160 MS Points / $1.99)
Individual Tracks

Pat Benatar “Hit Me with Your Best Shot” (160 MS Points / $1.99)
The Pretenders “Precious” (160 MS Points / $1.99)
Nikko “Don’t Tell Me” (80 MS Points / $0.99)
Nikko “Break My Heart” (80 MS Points / $0.99)

Some I agree with, most I don’t. You decide…GameSpy.com: A few days ago, GameSpy brought you the news that MTV planned to have a whopping 5000 songs available for download in the Rock Band store by the end of 2009. While that claim has since been dismissed and debunked by the folks at Harmonix, it got us thinking about the songs we’d most like to see the next time we decide to pop into Rock Band’s virtual storefront. Keep in mind that all of these entries are simply the opinion of the editor that wanted them and that, as you’ll see as you read on, we generally have terrible taste in music.

After reading our suggestions, be sure to head into the forums or down to the comment section to let us know what tunes you’d want to play!
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calgaryherald.com - NEW YORK — MTV Networks announced on Thursday a deal to use songs by 60s band The Beatles in a custom video game similar to its popular “Rock Band” video, marking the band’s first key plunge into digital music.

MTV Networks said there was no release date or sale price for the game, but that it was due to be ready for release around the holidays next year. Jeff Jones, chief executive of The Beatles Apple Corps Ltd, said the game would include “samples of the whole (music) catalogue.”

MTV Networks, owned by Viacom said the game was creatively conceived by former Beatles Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and the wives of late Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison, Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison.
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USNews.com - Efforts to fight Internet regulation scored a major victory yesterday, as the Supreme Court rejected the Bush administration’s appeal of a 3rd Circuit decision that overturned the Child Online Protection Act. COPA, fi required owners of websites with “material harmful to minors” to take it upon themselves to prevent minors from getting access to their sites. The 3rd Circuit, however, ruled that it unnecessarily tramples on the First Amendment to place the burden on the website operators, when tools for parents to control what their children see online exist. Jack Balkin explains:

Not all parents are alike and not all children are alike; different parents might want to block different things. Some might decide not to block access at all but supervise and educate their children about Internet use in other ways. Without criminalizing website operations, the market can produce webservers and browsers to facilitate parental choice, as well third party software solutions, many of which already exist.

Generally speaking, the Internet should place filtering decisions and responsibilities on the end user, not the publisher of the content. There are exceptions to this basic rule, but sexually explicit speech is not one of them.
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Picture not related, I just like it.
OMAHA (KPTM) - A traffic stop along Interstate 80 yields two and a half million dollars worth of cocaine. Investigators say it’s the second biggest cocaine bust the state of Nebraska has ever seen.

A massive pile of cocaine hauled in Monday by the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office. “It’s the biggest one we’ve ever had and it’s one of the biggest in this area,” said Sgt. Ed Van Buren.

One hundred packages, each weighing more than two pounds, were discovered after deputies spotted a mobile home driving on the shoulder of Interstate 80 near 96th Street. “They were very nice, very cooperative, came across as a nice family,” Van Buren said.

Investigators got suspicious when the family, 54-year-old Jose Melendez, 48-year-old Virginia Melendez and 21-year-old Virginia Melendez-Ramirez, started giving different details about who they were and where they were headed.
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What’s this then about a new Rock Band game?
The reference comes from, of all places, Vic Mignogna, best known as the voice of Edward Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist and his work in quite a few Dragon Ball Z games. About 6 minutes into part five of a six part recording taken from the Winter SAC-Anime convention Mignogna falls face first into what appears to be NDA-breaking material.
“I did this, it’s like this Rock Band video game that’s coming out… Oh, I don’t think I should have said that,” gets out before stopping. At which point another panelist, Laura Bailey, pulls him aside and whispers things in his ear and they change the subject. Brief, innocuous, possibly apocryphal, but still tantalizing.
If it is indeed a Rock Band, Rock Band game, my money is still on it being the Beatles title Harmonix is working on, seeing as they’ve said that that game is taking up all of their time right now. Of course it could be Dragon-Ball Z’s Marching Musical Mayhem or any number of rhythm game knock-offs.

kotaku.com Earlier this week, Forbes writer Peter C. Beller made a tit of himself when he swallowed some Activision PR and reprinted it in his article on Bobby Kotick. Today, surprisingly, he stands by it.

To recap, in the original piece, Beller called Rock Band a “shameless knockoff” of Guitar Hero, seemingly oblivious of the fact Harmonix designed both games, and equally oblivious of the fact Guitar Hero World Tour is a “shameless knockoff” of Harmonix’s own Rock Band.

Explaining himself to GameDaily, Beller writes:

My terming Rock Band a “shameless knockoff” of Guitar Hero was based on the fact that it came out after Guitar Hero and sported very obvious similarities with Guitar Hero, including color-coded prompts moving onscreen along a fret board. It even accepted the same Guitar Hero guitar controller, I believe.
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Infamous Commonwealth Theatre presents our winter fundraiser: ICT’s ROCK BAND TOURNAMENT on Sat., Feb. 7th, 7pm at Ravenswood Pub, 5455 N. Ravenswood Ave.

Channel your inner rocker! Gather your band (at least three members required) and give your favorite Rock Band song your best shot. Judges will evaluate your performance based on accuracy, stage presence and creativity. The judges’ scores will be averaged with the Rock Band’s game score, and the top four bands will move to the final round. The grand prize winner receives a FREE seven night resort stay at a destination of the winners’ choice (selected from a list of several resort locations across the country, transportation not included).

Only 12 bands are allowed to compete, so we highly recommend pre-registration. Please pre-register by contacting Jayme Sellers at jayme_sellers@yahoo.com.

$30 per team, $25 if you pre-register. “Groupies” (i.e., non-participants) pay $5 at the door. Bring as many groupies as you can - the judges are heavily swayed by audience response!

There will also be a cash raffle to win a brand new Wii!

All proceeds benefit Infamous Commonwealth Theatre’s Spring 2009 production of The Grapes of Wrath.

Founded in 2001, ICT’s unique mission is to illuminate diverse perspectives around one centralized topic per season. ICT’s 2008-2009 season topic is NATURE. ICT has received seven After Dark Awards and four Joseph Jefferson Citations since its inception. For more information on ICT, please visit www.infamouscommonwealth.org.

The downloadable content for Rock Band keeps on truckin’, with a second bowl full of Grateful Dead tracks due to hit the game’s music store starting January 27th. What can Dead Heads look forward to?

Another half-dozen jams, all master recordings, all $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points) each. The Grateful Dead Pack 02, priced at $9.99 (800 Microsoft Points) for the bundle, for Rock Band and Rock Band 2 features the following tracks.

“Hell In a Bucket” from In the Dark
“Don’t Ease Me In” from Go To Heaven
“Cold Rain & Snow” from Steal Your Face
“Doin’ That Rag” from Aoxomoxoa
“Fire On the Mountain” from Shakedown Street
“Uncle John’s Band” from Workingman’s Dead

Harmonix has at least one more six-pack of Grateful Dead tracks on the way, as announced way back in the Fall of 2007.