Rock Band + Reality TV?

OK, I love Rock Band and all, but this is just...weird. There's going to be a Rock Band reality tv show? By Mark Burnett productions? These are the guys that started reality tv with Survivor, and have had numerous solid reality tv hits since then, so if anyonoe can do it, they can.

I just don't know. I'm a closet reality tv buff, recently burned out for good on Survivor, love The Apprentice (but it's getting old), and will watch anything Gordon Ramsay. While we're on the subject, Bravo's got a couple winners right now with Project Runway and Million Dollar Listing. Especially Million Dollar Listing. Good stuff, who says the real estate market's in a slump?

Anyway, the casting call information showed up on craigslist of all places. If you live in the Los Angeles area, I say go for it; the ad emphasizes that no experience is necessary. Man, if only I lived out there, I would floor them with my mean medium guitar skillz!

But a Rock Band reality show? I mean, what are they going to DO, exactly? Pretend to have concerts and backstage parties, pretend to cut record deals, fight amongst themselves, enter rehab, and go on solo tours? Actually...that sounds pretty funny. OK, I'm in.

Update - 9/13. Confirmed.

Rush DLC delayed...new albums announced

As I sit with a few thousand Rush fans on the Rock Band forums, waiting for the inexplicably delayed Moving Pictures to become available for download (come ON, XBL, it's a download album, it's not your first day at the rodeo with this stuff!), I have determined that Fake Steven Tyler is the new internet THING. I'm serious. Remember I said that.

Update 8/27 - The natives were quite restless on the forums today, as Harmonix kept the Rush DLC delay explanation in a shroud of secrecy until pretty late in the day. It was eventually revealed that the album download is to be delayed 1-2 weeks. Not sure what went wrong there, but it had to be something significant. Most speculation is that it has to do with the YYZ song having no vocals. Probably, and something to do with how that worked in the live environment, something QA wasn't able to catch in their test environment (like remotely joining a group, or something like that), because it's not as if the lack of vocals somehow escaped their notice until the last minute. So I wouldn't be surprised if the portion of YYZ that is tambourine-friendly becomes a vocals part, if the theory that vocals are not a removable part holds.

Update 8/28 - Harmonix has offered some good news to balance this out though. The Hollywood Insider has the exclusive on the upcoming crop of full album DLC releases, and it's pretty impressive! It starts with Metallica's new record, Death Magnetic on Guitar Hero (this was expected) on September 12. But then:

Stocking the digital bins, EW.com has learned exclusively, will be seminal full albums by Foo Fighters (The Colour and the Shape), Red Hot Chili Peppers (Blood Sugar Sex Magik), Jane's Addiction (Nothing's Shocking), Megadeth (Peace Sells... But Who's Buying) and Stevie Ray Vaughn (Texas Flood), along with a specially-compiled No Doubt Best Of collection. All are slated to roll out in the coming months, according to MTV Games.

Stevie Ray. NICE! No Doubt. NICE! Jane's Addiction...awwww, doesn't include Caught Stealing. Alas. But some pretty exciting stuff coming down the pike.

You can also check out Rock Band 2's opening sequence.

Nas playing Rush on Rock Band...on Colbert

Now this is just getting silly, don't they know that I have a limited amount of column width for entry titles? Cripes.



OK, I admit I didn't know who this Nas fellow was, but he's GOOD, he got 95% on Expert and managed to do some rock-out guitar poses at the same time. However, dude, you got to the end of the song with a full bar of deploy energy? Duuuuuuude! DEPLOY!!

Rush playing Rock Band

Rush was recently a guest on the Colbert Report. Here they are playing Tom Sawyer on Rock Band backstage:



That's just awesome.

You Got Your Portal in My Rock Band!

Dammit, I can’t do it! I can’t get a perfect on Still Alive! /smashed guitar on the ground

I’ve come SO CLOSE, so many 99% runs due to one stupid note here or there. Not hard notes. EASY NOTES. Blitzkrieg Bop I can practically do with my eyes closed, but the sweet, sweet lullabye of the companion cube eludes me. I’m not eating. I’m not sleeping. The kitty litter needs changing. How did it come to this?

One of the countless little clips my co-workers forwarded on to me back in the day was an acoustic version of Baby Got Back. Comedy gold. That was before the first-person shooter/puzzle game Portal hit the scene. So I appreciated Jonathan Coulton back then, but had no idea what was in store.

Admittedly, I never played Portal, only experienced it vicariously, but nevertheless fell in love with the end credits song. At work we would fire up YouTube and play it regularly. Take a listen.

Now, Guitar Hero/Rock Band. Everyone knows what a revolution that was, on the level of what Nintendo did with the Wii. Harmonix is actually in my neck of the woods, and I used to work with some of those guys, so I have that extra vested interest in learning to play competently; Guitar Hero and Rock Band were staples in our company game room. Since Rock Band came out, I’m a decent medium-level guitar player, but there’s no way I’ll ever be able to do 5 keys. And drums – forget it, not even on easy. My brain just can’t process that, and I accept my mental limitations.

And then came the announcement that the Portal song was going to be available as a free download for Rock Band. ZOMG!!!! I’ve been playing it ever since. My 2 year-old can sing it practically word for word, if that’s any indication of how many times I’ve tried to get through it.

I WILL get a perfect on the Portal song, if it’s the last thing I do. Sometimes I feel like I’m actually getting worse at it, though.