Sex, Drugs, Rockband

New tracks from Staind, Scars on Broadway, The New No2 and Testament will make their debut in the Rock Band Music Store on July 29. Scars on Broadway features the talents of System of a Down members Daron Malakian (vocals/guitar) and John Dolmayan (drums), in addition to Franky Perez (guitar/backing vocals), Danny Shamoun (keyboards/percussion), and Dominic Cifarelli (bass). The group’s first single to Rock Band’s download catalog, “They Say,” from their self-titled debut will be available for $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points).

Another debut this week will be Staind’s “This Is It” – the first single from their forthcoming sixth studio album, The Illusion of Progress. “This is It” will be available for $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360). The New No2’s “Yomp,” the first single from their forthcoming debut You Are Here will be available. The New No2 are Dhani Harrison (the only son of legendary Beatle George Harrison) and Oli Hecks. “Yomp” will be available for $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360). Finally, Testament’s “Electric Crown,” from their 1992 studio album, The Ritual will round out this week’s releases. “Electric Clown” will be available for $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points).

Ok, this is one of the funniest thing I’ve seen. Rush is on tour… just finished playing Tom Sawyer on the Cobert Report, then heads to a studio to try Rock Band for the first time. The difficulty was set to Expert, the masters of rock prepared and played… FAIL! They finished 31% of the song before Neil Peart (can’t even believe I’m typing this) fails the song. I will say, the first time ever playing… Tom Sawyer… pretty impressive. I assume Mr. Peart has a difficult time playing without 19,000 toms and chimes. Watch and laugh.

AS Written by teambox
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At this year’s E3, Rock Band 2 made a very big and expected splash. Heck, they even got The Who to perform at their big party on Wednesday night. If that ain’t recognition by rock royalty, I don’t know what is. But they made some interesting announcements about accessories, including the new sunburst Stratocaster guitar controller and the ION Drumrocker pro drum set. But peripheral maker Mad Catz had quite possibly the coolest peripherals on display, and better yet, they’re completely official Rock Band licensed products.

The first premium product they showed off was the new bass controller based off of the Fender Precision Bass design. Built to the same scale as the other official Fender-licensed controllers, the P-Bass will ship this Fall for $69.99. It features a split strum bar (essentially two small strum bars next to each other) for faster and more authentic plucking action. There’s even a little thumb rest to make is easier, as there is on the real-life equivalent. Since bass guitars usually don’t have whammy bars, they moved that functionality to the volume knobs. The wireless P-Bass will be the perfect complement to any serious Rock Band aficionado’s axe collection.
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Harmonix and MTV Games announced today the addition of Nine Inch Nails and Shinedown to the Rock Band Music Store catalog of downloadable content. Available July 22, the NIN three-pack includes the psychotic audio thrill ride “Burn” from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack, “Capital G” from their conceptual fifth studio release Year Zero, and “Last” from the second studio release, EP Broken. Nine Inch Nails is the Grammy winning industrial rock act founded by producer, singer, songwriter and instrumentalist, Trent Reznor more than 20 years ago with over 20 millions albums sold world wide. Each track will be available for $1.99 per track (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) or $5.49 (440 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for the three-pack.

Shinedown contribute “Devour” from their current release and third album The Sound of Madness, and the much sought after, never released “Junkies For Fame” available for the first time as a single exclusively to Rock Band. Shinedown formed in Jacksonville, Florida in early 2001 and have spent much of their career touring and opening for some of music’s top rock acts including Van Halen. Each track will be available for $1.99 per track (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360).

AS WRITTEN BY: CNET
We’re still enjoying Guitar Hero at my office but I would be willing to move the Wii to a more spacious location in order to accomodate this awesome new Ion Audio drumset for Rock Band.

Contrary to popular belief, San Francisco is not a great music town, at least not if you are a drummer and want to practice in your house. Unlike the east coast (and presumably elsewhere) where basements are plentiful, the bay area is lacking in-home practice areas.

Generally speaking electronic drums are not that satisfying, but bring some video games into the mix and I’m on board. During a trip to Japan I sat down at the full-size drum machine game and played along to Crazy Train. All the kids thought I ruled until I told them I actually knew how to play.

Well, the time has come, and on release of Rock Band 2 this September, it looks like we will need to update the Wish List. Some heavy-hitters are finally making their debut to the show.

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There’s been recent rumblings about what the final set list will be for Rock Band 2 but more interesting, is what else the game will provide right out of the box.