All Things Rock Band Megathread- Rock Band 3 Coming Soon!

[BlueCali]

The Rock Band franchise is a series music video games developed by Harmonix Music Systems.

The game allows players to perform in virtual bands by providing up to four players with the ability to play three different peripherals modeled after music instruments (a guitar peripheral for lead guitar and bass guitar gameplay, a drum peripheral, and a microphone). These peripherals are used to simulate the playing of rock music by hitting scrolling notes on-screen. In addition to the songs included on the game discs there are hundreds of additional downloadable songs are being released via the PSN store; all of these songs, existing and future, are compatible with all Rock Band titles.

(Note: LEGO: Rock Band can only play songs that are rated E)

 

[BlueCali]

how did a greenday rock band thread turn into rock band 3?? you just wanted your name to be under the thread!

hopefully the real guitar is priced nicely

huh? This isnt' a greenday rock band thread. Rock Band 3 was first unveiled in the green day rock band demo though.

 

[BlueCali]

If you’re like me, the revelations of Rock Band 3 info that hit yesterday morning left you with just as many questions as answers. I was fortunate enough to get a chance to talk to Rock Band 3 project lead Daniel Sussman and publicist Stephanie Myers yesterday afternoon to ask some of the questions we all have — but I never expected some of the answers they were able to give.

Read on to learn new details about the functionality of the Rock Band 3 guitars, a new peripheral that should get serious drummers and keyboard players pretty excited, and the secret Rock Band 3 functionality that’s hiding on your hard drive right this very moment. Plus: the debut trailer!

I wanted to start off talking about the keyboard. I saw that the keyboard has MIDI out; is that how it interfaces with the game?

Daniel Sussman: No. The MIDI out is for whatever musical application you would like to use it for. [The keyboard is] a fully functional videogame controller on each platform. So, on the 360 it’s got the Ring of Light, all the buttons, and it connects wirelessly; on the PS3 and Wii it’s got the same dongle structure that we use on all of our peripherals.



Wireless Keyboard Controller, $79.99; with game, $129.99
So MIDI is basically an added-value sort of thing?

DS: Exactly. We realized pretty early on, as we were designing the keyboard, that it was going to be a pretty functional keyboard, so we wanted to sort of realize its potential. Given my past in the hardware-development scene, [we're all] very psyched to be making real instruments.

So, would there be any way to use a full-sized MIDI keyboard with the game or anything like that? Or is it pretty much just the controller?

DS: We are developing a MIDI box, a conversion box, that would be a controller in itself and allow the import of standard MIDI [keyboards] and drum kits into the game.



MIDI PRO-Adapter, $39.99
Oh, that is awesome. Then, let me ask you about the guitar: Do the new guitars have MIDI out?

DS: The new guitars both have MIDI out.

SWEET. Pardon my geeking out, but I do some home recording and the idea of having a guitar with MIDI out is really exciting to me.

DS: Well, to us too! Again, as with the keyboard, both flavors of the guitar are designed to be MIDI instruments at the very least, and the Fender Squier is — it’s a real guitar.

So, how does the technology work with the Squier? Can you explain how it detects finger placement and so on?

DS: Well, I don’t want to get into the super-detailed specifics, but we basically isolated this matrix of strings and frets so that we can tell what your left hand is doing before you strum.

Stephanie Myers: We don’t want to go into too much detail about that, but it’s essentially fret-sensing technology for your fingers. And it shows up in real time on the screen, so you can look at the screen and see where your left-hand fingers are.



Rock Band 3 Squier Stratocaster, Price TBA
DS: I’ll tell you what, though, we’re going to have it all at E3, so my advice is to just check it out on the floor. It’s easier to see in person than to describe it.

For Pro mode, for the guitar, are you basically learning the song? Like, if you got up to Expert in Pro mode, and you played the song, would you then just be able to go pick up any other regular guitar and play that song?

DS: Effectively, yes. The underlying design of Rock Band Pro across all the instruments is that whatever you’re doing in the game translates to some form of genuine musical ability outside of the game. So on the keyboard, even if you’re playing on Easy or Medium, the notes that you’re playing, or the notes that the game is cueing you to play, are pitch-accurate.

And in guitar, it’s the same way. We’ve designed an interface that covers everything from single notes and single-note runs, to power chords, to full barre chords and open chords. It gets pretty complex.


L: Pro guitar run; R: Pro guitar chords
We have arpeggio language — it does take you all the way through to Expert, which is note-for-note authoring…for ridiculous songs! Like, “Crazy Train,” or “Rainbow in the Dark,” or whatever — these songs that have blistering solos — in order to beat those songs in Pro mode on Expert, you will have to learn the song.

That is insane.

DS: Well, it’s been an adventure, to say the least, to develop this stuff. We’ve been blown away by the response that we’ve gotten through focus tests, and just sort of the natural development of it all as we actually put our game in front of people and watch them develop skills.

But actually, it’s not such a stretch when you think about what we did with [the first] Rock Band and the drums. We could have made that a far more abstract simulation of drum gameplay, but we didn’t. We kept it as close to the real thing as we could, and by Expert, you’re basically playing drums. And so that was sort of an awakening moment for us, as we saw that in the field and saw how people responded to that, and how Expert Rock Band players could learn skills in the game, and then transpose those skills to real music. That was the glimmer of insight into Pro mode, where we realized we can totally do this.



People get so good at guitar — Expert guitar, what people can do on that, is actually mind-blowing. The amount of time people spend, we’re super-respectful of that time investment. And with Rock Band Pro, we’re looking to do two things: One is to level the playing field, in a sense. This is new; if you’re really good at Rock Band or Guitar Hero or whatever, this is going to be new to you — it’s a new way of interacting with music. [The other is that] at the end of that difficulty ramp, if you actually put the time in, you’ll have something that is valuable outside of the game space. That’s the ambition of Rock Band Pro.

Now, the smaller controller has strings for picking and buttons on the neck, is that right?

DS: Yep, there’s a matrix of 17 frets, with six strings worth of buttons. So that’s a lot of buttons on the neck [102, to be exact. --Ed.], but it actually works exactly the same way that the actual Fender guitar does, where your left hand is pressing buttons and you activate them by strumming. It’s pretty close to the real thing; it’s a MIDI instrument but not an analog instrument, so because of the buttons you can’t bend strings and stuff like that. But it’s got a lot of upside that a real guitar doesn’t: You don’t have to worry about tuning or maintenance; it’s really just an out-of-the-box game controller that supports the Pro guitar stuff.



Fender Mustang PRO-Guitar Controller, $149.99
Because of the smaller neck, will there be any difference in charting between the smaller controller and the full-size guitar?

DS: The only difference is with respect to the top end of it; there are more frets on the Squier than on the Mustang. So there is a difference in the charts there, where we look at what guitar you have and then make sure that we transpose those higher parts down when you’re playing on the button guitar.

So let’s talk about drums: Are you guys doing an entirely new kit?

DS: No. Drum functionality is basically the same as it has been in Rock Band 2. We’re making some changes in the software: Obviously we’re supporting the cymbals in this robust way, through Rock Band Pro. There are some other things: We’ve looked at the way we detect rolls and some of the other, more complicated drum things you do in a game, and we’re trying to support that in the gameplay a little better than we have in the past.

And on the drum kit, we’re actually opening up the mysterious second input jack. That will be by default a second kick pedal jack…or you can switch it to be a hi-hat, which functions in the free-play drum modes or the drum fills.

That’s awesome. So, how are the cymbals being designated in the game? Are you adding colors? Or new shapes? How is that going to work?

DS: We have new shapes. We share the same lane, so toms and cymbals coexist on a single lane, but they’re differentiated by shape. So the cymbals look like little cymbals, and the toms look like standard gems.



Pro drums; note the new cymbal-shaped gems.
SM: About the drums, this is actually something we want to make sure people realize: To play Rock Band 3, you don’t have to buy anything new. You can play this with your existing instruments, unless you want to do Pro guitar or keys — the Pro initiative in general — but all the rest completely works with existing hardware.

DS: That’s true. The Rock Band 2 cymbals, all that stuff is super-functional right out of the gate. And I’ll add that almost our entire legacy catalog is already authored for cymbals. With keys and Pro guitar, the legacy stuff doesn’t support Rock Band Pro, but Rock Band Pro supports legacy songs for drums.

OK, right. So, it supports three cymbals, right?

DS: Correct. [Editor's note: Yes, I know I missed something. Wait for it.] Although it’s pretty modular. In Rock Band Pro, you can play if you only have one cymbal, but you’ll suffer on the leaderboards. The game behind Pro drums is that you get extra score for hitting the correct surface. And if you don’t, it makes it a little harder to survive through the end of the song. But that covers the one-, two-, or three-cymbal configurations. Depending on what you have, the game adapts to that.

Let me back up for a second. You said that the legacy content already supports cymbals. Did you mean that you’ll see the cymbal icons when playing older DLC in Rock Band 3?!

DS: [clearly amused] Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.

Wha — How did that happen? Have you guys basically been planning to do this all along?

DS: Well, yeah. Most of the content — some of the early Rock Band stuff doesn’t have it, but by and large, the vast majority of the entire Rock Band catalog supports cymbals in gameplay.

Wow. I, uh…wow. I don’t have a cymbal kit for my Rock Band 2 set — have I been missing something? Has this always been the case?

DS: No. Without devolving into too deep of a technical discussion, our authoring guys have basically been putting in information that has gone unrealized up until Rock Band 3. So there are a lot of cues and “hooks” in our authoring flow that have always been there; we just haven’t had the software cycles to take advantage of them. Cymbals are an example of that. [Our authors have been] authoring the distinction between a tom hit and a cymbal hit, but the software has never taken advantage of that distinction until Rock Band 3.

That is huge.

DS: Now, I want to stress that that’s only the case for drums. Everything that we’ve done with keys and guitar is a brand-new form of track and gameplay. That’s all restricted to RB3-specific content and forthcoming DLC.

Well, since we’re talking about DLC, do you know at this point if DLC from Rock Band 3 going forward will scale down to be compatible with Rock Band 2?

DS: We’re still trying to figure out how the landscape lies for DLC in Rock Band 3. We are committed to continue to build the catalog, but we’re not really prepared to talk about the specifics of our DLC strategy.

You mentioned the second pedal and said that that would work in freestyle and fills. Are you basically saying that songs are not going to be charted to use double bass and hi-hat at all?

DS: Right. We chart our songs to be as accurate as they [can be]. When you’re playing songs that have double-kick, we put as many of those in as our system can afford. But there will never be a case where you need to have the double-kick. You may have an advantage…

Since you’re now officially acknowledging additional cymbals, will RB3 support the Guitar Hero kits with the two cymbals?

DS: We do support the Guitar Hero kits, but not in Rock Band Pro; there are too many fundamental differences in terms of their pad layout and cymbal layout for us to be able to map the Pro stuff onto their kit. But we have full support for their kit in standard gameplay.

In the interview with USA Today, Sylvain [Dubrofsky, Senior Designer] mentioned new core gameplay features, mentioning trills on guitar and then following up with something about “scoring extra parts.” Can you explain that a bit?

Sylvain Dubrofsky: [via e-mail] We have new gameplay that we use for trills, tremolo picking, and rolls. Essentially, if the part is really fast and loose our authors can mark it and a special graphic appears on the track. Players can then hit all the notes as long as they play fast enough rather than having to beat-match these really awkward parts.

[As for scoring,] in previous band games when you played with more than one person — say drums and guitar — you would record a “band” score and that’s it. In RB3 we re-engineered the scoring so that in that situation you record a drum score and a guitar score as well!

I wanted to ask a bit about World Tour mode: It sounds like essentially anything you do in the game now counts toward your tour status. So will there still be a definite goal that you’re aiming toward? Or is it just kind of ongoing advancement, open-ended sort of thing?

DS: There’s a loose narrative structure around the entire game. There’s a specific narrative tour, and a more open-ended career that is achievements-driven.

So, kind of both?

DS: Yeah.

OK, two more quick questions. There was a leak the other day indicating that the game is coming out on Halloween. Comment?

DS: No comment.

Then, the other question is, can you tell me any single song that hasn’t already been announced?

DS: …No.

Not even a hint? Little hint?

SM: They’re all awesome!

DS: What are you hoping for? Maybe I’ll confirm or deny.

Oh, I should have prepared for that. Uh, how about “Pressure” by Billy Joel?

DS: I can’t really talk about that. Wait, isn’t that already in our DLC library?

SM: Not by Billy Joel.

DS: Oh, Billy Joel?!

Keys, guitar, it’d be a great song!

DS: I’m going to have to come up with a good response for the Billy Joel questions.

SM: Yeah, there’s going to be a lot of Billy Joel questions. But we’ll be rolling out more of the set list in the next few months. I think people are going to be very, very happy.

 

[BlueCali]

Metric, “Combat Baby”
Rilo Kiley, “Portions of Foxes”
Them Crooked Vultures, “Dead End Friends”
The Vines, “Get Free”
The White Stripes, “The Hardest Button to Button”
Phoenix, “Lasso”
Ida Maria, “Oh My God”
Juanes, “Me Enamora”
Jane’s Addiction, “Been Caught Stealing”
Smash Mouth, “Walkin’ on the Sun”
Spacehog, “In the Meantime”
Stone Temple Pilots, “Plush”
Dio, “Rainbow in the Dark”
Huey Lewis and the News, “The Power of Love”
Joan Jett, “I Love Rock and Roll”
Night Ranger, “Sister Christian”
Whitesnake, “Here I Go Again”
The Cure, “Just Like Heaven”
Ozzy Osbourne, “Crazy Train”
Queen, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Jimi Hendrix, “Crosstown Traffic”
The Doors, “Break On Through”

 

[BlueCali]

he Music:

Rock Band 3 will have an incredible 83-song setlist, as well as support for the over 1,500 existing Rock Band tracks (Rock Band and Rock Band 2 discs, DLC, track packs, AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack, LEGO Rock Band, and Green Day: Rock Band). The setlist contains songs from some of the best bands from around the world, including bands that have never appeared in a music game! Don't think it stops there - the regular weekly DLC releases will continue after Rock Band 3's release.

Today we're announcing a handful of the 83 on-disc tracks for Rock Band 3, spanning five decades:

2000s:

Metric - "Combat Baby"
Rilo Kiley - "Portions for Foxes"
Them Crooked Vultures - "Dead End Friends"
The Vines - "Get Free"
The White Stripes - "The Hardest Button to Button"
Phoenix - "Lasso"
Ida Maria - "Oh My God"
Juanes - "Me Enamora"
1990s:

Jane's Addiction - "Been Caught Stealing"
Stone Temple Pilots - "Plush"
Smash Mouth - "Walkin' on the Sun"
Spacehog - "In the Meantime"
1980s:

Dio - "Rainbow in the Dark"
Huey Lewis and the News - "The Power of Love"
Joan Jett - "I Love Rock and Roll"
Night Ranger - "Sister Christian"
Whitesnake - "Here I Go Again"
The Cure - "Just Like Heaven"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Crazy Train"
1970s:

Queen - "Bohemian Rhapsody"
1960s:

Jimi Hendrix - "Crosstown Traffic"
The Doors - "Break On Through"
Rock Band 3 also includes an improved Music Library, allowing players to create and save setlists, and share them with friends, both in-game and right here on RockBand.com. Song filtering will make it easier to find the tracks you want to play. You can also hide the songs you don't want to play, and seek out new songs using a built-in song recommendation system based on personal preferences.

The Instruments:

In addition to the plastic guitars, bass, drums, and vocals you're used to, now you can jam on a couple of new instruments. Play vocal harmonies with up to three players like you did in The Beatles: Rock Band. And for the first time ever you'll also be able to play using a keyboard peripheral! The band has gotten bigger - playing with all available instruments, you and six friends can all rock at the same time. Rock Band parties will never be the same.

If you're ready to take the next step in music gaming, check out Rock Band 3's Pro Mode. Ever had someone ask you why you play plastic guitar instead of learning a real instrument? Now you can tell them you ARE learning a real instrument. Rock Band 3 empowers players to develop actual musical skills through the fun of Rock Band Pro gameplay. Start at Easy and work your way up through Expert on three different Pro Modes, just like you did with the plastic guitars and plastic drums.

Pro Drums supports three expansion cymbals, with gameplay differentiation between toms and cymbals.
Pro Keys features pitch-accurate keyboard performance across a two-octave range, displayed on an easy-to-read keyboard track.
Pro Guitar features notated guitar and bass performances, available for play with either the new Fender Mustang PRO-Guitar simulated guitar controller from Mad Catz or the Rock Band 3 Squier by Fender Stratocaster Guitar real guitar/controller hybrid. The Rock Band 3 Squier Stratocaster is a fully functional, full-sized, six-string electric guitar that also functions as a game controller that Fender and Harmonix have teamed up to develop.
All Pro Modes include tutorials and a difficulty progression from Easy through Expert, giving you the chance to learn at your own speed. And if you're not ready to take that leap - or you just don't want to buy another instrument peripheral - Rock Band 3 will be compatible with all Rock Band and The Beatles: Rock Band peripherals, as well as most third-party controllers.

New Gameplay:

Party Mode: Get the party started faster and keep it going all night! Party Shuffle lets you start the game immediately, while persistent drop-in/drop-out lets players take turns (or take a break!) without interrupting the flow of play. You'll also be able to choose (or change!) your difficulty on any gameplay screen - including mid-song.

Career Mode: If a more long-term play is your style, get ready for over 700 goals and rewards, with seamless leaderboard integration, for a deep campaign experience.

Social Networking: Rock Band 3 adds social networking tools so you can interact with friends and fellow Rock Band rockers using Facebook, Twitter, and more.

If that's not enough Rock Band 3 info for you, check out the video below from USAToday.com and the accompanying article featuring quotes and information from Rock Band 3 team, including Lead Designer Dan Teasdale, Project Director Daniel Sussman, and Harmonix CEO and Co-Founder Alex Rigopulos.

And that's not all! Stay tuned over the next few weeks and months to get all the details on Rock Band 3, including the rest of the 83-song setlist, more details about Career Mode's goals and rewards, and just how awesome Pro Mode really is. Plus more behind-the-scenes info from the Rock Band 3 design team!

 

[jefXfree]

Rock Band 3 DLC Revealed...Already!

GameStop's Canadian website has revealed the first Rock Band 3 DLC, which they're offering as a pre-order incentive.

Get your order in, and you'll be entitled to download these three tracks when the game ships later this year:

Talking Heads - "Burning Down The House
Deftones - "My Own Summer"
New Order - "Blue Monday"
You might notice that two of those three tracks are aimed more at the jaunty pop end of the scale and revolve around Rock Band 3's new keyboard. "Blue Monday" and "Burning Down The House" are perfectly suited to the keys, whereas Deftones is good old heavy rock. Not a bad trio of bonus tunes.

Rock Band 3 is slated for a holiday 2010 release.

 

[jefXfree]

Rock Band 3 crashing into living rooms on October 26

via engadget

The next installment -- which promises to bring all sorts of new kit to the market -- was finally given a release date today, and not surprisingly, it'll be quickly climbing the Santa Lists of rug-rats the world over. According to the company, the title will ship on October 26th in North America, with the Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions priced at $59.99 sans hardware.

GameStop Pre-order Opportunity:

GameStop shoppers who reserve Rock Band 3 for PlayStation 3 in advance receive three downloadable Rock Band songs at launch:

Burning Down the House by Talking Heads
My Own Summer by Deftones
Blue Monday by New Order

Amazon Pre-order Opportunity:

Amazon shoppers who reserve Rock Band 3 for PlayStation 3 in advance will receive access to an exclusive in-game guitar. Additionally, for a limited time only, PlayStation 3 owners who pre-order Rock Band 3 in advance on Amazon will receive $10 off a future videogame purchase.

Wal-Mart Pre-order Opportunity:

Walmart.com shoppers who reserve Rock Band 3 for PlayStation 3 in advance will receive a $10 eGift card for a limited time.

 

[jefXfree]

Full track list added to the OP!

 

[BlueCali]

One of the big additions to Rock Band 3 is the introduction of a keyboard, otherwise known as keyboard guitar/keytar or just simply as keys...

For those existing Rock Band or Guitar Hero gamers, the option to buy yet another heaping box with plastic instruments just simply to get their hands on the new keyboard accessory was not an option. Thankfully, with Rock Band 3, they are offering a Keyboard/Game combo for $129.99.

The combo includes:

- Rock Band 3 Game Software Included
- All-new Keyboard instrument for Rock Band 3 / Plays Rock Band 3 Keyboard, Guitar* and Bass* parts (*Does not support Guitar / Bass Pro Mode)
- Two-octave design with 25 velocity-sensitive keys / Play real Keyboard parts in the new Rock Band Pro Mode
- Versatile layout: Play like a Guitar or on a tabletop / 3 AA Batteries and Keyboard Strap included
- Use as MIDI Keyboard Controller when not playing Rock Band (compatible with most MIDI sequencers)

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003RS1970/?tag=hidefnin-20

 

[jefXfree]

Next Week's Rock Band Tracks Go Country Again

Going Country Pack 04 - £7.49/€10.99/$14.99 (£0.99/€1.49/$1.99 each)

Dierks Bentley—“What Was I Thinkin’”
Eric Church – “Hell on the Heart”
Jamey Johnson – “Women”
Josh Turner – “Would You Go With Me” +
Keith Urban – “Days Go By” +
Lady Antebellum – “Lookin’ For a Good Time”
Laura Bell Bundy – “Rebound”
Reba McEntire – “Fancy” +
Sugarland – “It Happens” +
'+' denotes a track compatible with LEGO Rock Band.

Look out for them from August 31st (September 1st in Europe) on the PlayStation Network.

 

[BlueCali]

RBN Songs:

RBN songs:
"Do Not Disturb (Tell Me How Bad)" - Let's Get It
"Where Were You?" - Every Avenue
"Bang Camaro" - Bang Camaro
"Hard to See" - Five Finger Death Punch
"Seven" - Sunny Day Real Estate

 

[BlueCali]

GET AN EARLY TASTE OF ROCK BAND 3 WITH SINGLES FROM DIO AND THE SMITHS NEXT W

SINGLES FROM MORRISSEY, SILVERCHAIR, UNDEROATH AND JULIANA HATFIELD ALSO AVAILABLE

Cambridge, Mass. – Sept. 10, 2010 – Harmonix and MTV Games today announced that singles from Dio, Juliana Hatfield, Morrissey, Silverchair, The Smiths and Underoath will be added next week to the Rock Band Music Store of downloadable content for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and WiiTM.

With more than 400 artists, including Jimi Hendrix, The Who, AC/DC and Green Day, who are exclusive to Rock Band, as well as more than 1,600 songs available through the Rock Band platform and 70 million songs sold through its download store alone, Rock Band is the undisputed sales and content leader in the interactive music space, providing the deepest and best selection of artists, songs and albums. Rock Band 3 will be available Oct. 26 in North America and Oct. 29 in the rest of the world, giving players immediate access to a music library approaching 2,000 songs playable in Rock Band 3 at launch with new content added weekly to the Rock Band Music Store. Rock Band’s gigantic music library dwarfs that of any other music game on the market. Find more information on how to pre-order Rock Band 3 today here.

Rock Band DLC additions for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 system and Wii
It’s already been announced that Dio’s classic “Rainbow in the Dark” will be featured on the Rock Band 3 soundtrack, but next week, fans can get an early taste of Dio with two of their other materpieces- "Holy Diver" and "Stand Up and Shout" both from the band's debut album,Holy Diver. Dio, fronted by vocalist Ronnie James Dio, released 10 studio albums after forming in 1982. Holy Diver is considered a metal masterpiece by many and is No. 8 on IGN’s Top 25 Metal Albums.
Morrissey will make his Rock Band debut next week as well, with “Irish Blood, English Heart” from 2004’s You Are the Quarry, the seventh album from the man music magazine NME named “one of the most influential artists ever.” The previously Morrissey-fronted The Smiths will also be coming to Rock Band next week with “This Charming Man,” the band’s second single, released in 1983. The song was named No. 1 on Mojo magazine’s 2008 "50 Greatest UK Indie Records of All Time" feature. The Smiths will soon make another Rock Band appearance – they are featured on the Rock Band 3 on-disc soundtrack with “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before.”

Be sure to check out Dio and The Smiths when Rock Band 3 launches Oct. 26 in North America and Oct. 29 in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and other territories for Xbox 360, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, the WiiTM system from Nintendo, and Nintendo DSTM.

Juliana Hatfield will make her Rock Band debut next week as well with “Nirvana” from 1992’s Hey Babe. This was Juliana’s first solo album, after The Blake Babies disbanded in 1990 and she began her solo career. Hey Babe was one of the highest selling independent albums of that year. In 2010, Juliana released her latest solo album, the self-written, -performed and -produced Peace & Love, through Ye Olde Records, her personal label.

We’re adding more Silverchair with “Straight Lines” from the band’s fifth studio album, Young Modern. The song premiered at No. 1 and went Double Platinum in Australia. The song also won “Best Selling Australian Single” and “Single of the Year” at the ARIA Music Awards of 2007.

Underoath will also add to their Rock Band collection with “Writing on the Walls” from their fifth studio album, Define the Great Line. The album was released in 2006, debuting at No. 2 on the Billboard Top 200 charts and selling more than 98,000 copies in its first week. The video for “Writing on the Walls” was nominated for a 2007 Grammy® Award for Best Short Form Music Video.

Available on Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 system (Sept. 14):

Dio – “Holy Diver” +
Dio – “Stand Up and Shout” +
Juliana Hatfield – “Nirvana”
Morrissey – “Irish Blood, English Heart”
Silverchair – “Straight Lines”
The Smiths – “This Charming Man” +
Underoath – “Writing on the Walls”

(All tracks are original master recordings)

(These tracks will be available in Europe on PlayStation 3 system Sept. 15)

These tracks will be available for purchase as individual tracks, on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 system and Wii. Tracks marked with “+” will also be available for download in the family-friendly LEGO® Rock Band Music Store.

Price: $1.99 USD, £.99 UK, €1.49 EU (160 Microsoft Points) per song
$2.00 USD (200 Wii PointsTM) per song
** Dates for Rock Band game tracks are tentative and subject to change. **

New to the Rock Band Network
Also next week, Rock Band players will get a special treat from the Rock Band Network when, for the first time, Rock Band Network tracks will be available for the Wii! There will be 10 additions for the RBN for the Wii, including the following:

Drowning Pool - "Bodies"
Band of Skulls - "I Know What I Am"
Third Eye Blind - "Semi-Charmed Life '09"
Lacuna Coil - "Survive"

 

[BlueCali]

RBN:
“Africa" /Quartered
"Swallow the Razor" /Bang Camaro
"Nightlife Commando" /Bang Camaro
"Shop Vac" /Jonathan Coulton
"The Final Episode (Let's Change the Channel)" /Asking Alexandria

 

[jefXfree]

Bob Marley's Legend heading to Rock Band

Bob Marley fans will get a treat, Rock Band style, next week when all 13 tracks from “Legend” hit the game’s music store. This confirms rumors earlier this week that the tracks were heading to Rock Band as DLC. All tracks will be available for download on Sept. 21 in the US and Sept. 22 in Europe.

The release is timed to coincide with the 30 year anniversary of Marley’s last public concert. The “Legend” pack is a prelude to a memorial concert, slated for Sept. 23 in Pittsburgh, for the One Love Foundation. Members of the Marley family will participate in the event.

Ziggy Marley, son of Bob Marley, spoke with MTV Multiplayer about the DLC. He said, "My father was interested in bringing reggae music to the entire world, and now that his music is coming to 'Rock Band,' as the first reggae artist in the game, we are excited to open the doors to reggae music to a whole new group of young people."

Here are the tracks coming to Rock Band next week:

* "Is This Love"
* "No Woman No Cry"
* "Could You Be Loved"
* "Three Little Birds"
* "Buffalo Soldier"
* "Stir It Up"
* "One Love/People Get Ready"
* "I Shot the Sheriff"
* "Waiting in Vain"
* "Redemption Song"
* "Satisfy My Soul"
* "Exodus"
* "Jamming"

Additionally, the following tracks will be available for LEGO Rock Band:

* "Is This Love"
* "No Woman No Cry"
* "Three Little Birds"
* "Satisfy My Soul"
* "Waiting in Vain"

Each track will cost $1.99 USD, £.99 UK, €1.49 EU, or you can get the complete album for $19.99, £9.99, €14.99.

 

[jefXfree]

PSN-Exclusive Rock Band DLC Sale Next Week

My Fellow Rockers:

John Drake from Harmonix here. We’re hard at work finishing up Rock Band 3 for its release in just a few short weeks (October 26th! Pre-order Now!). RB3 has an amazing 83 song setlist that runs the musical gamut, including tracks from Queen, Hendrix, Paramore, Slipknot, the Beach Boys, Huey Lewis and the News… it’s a crazy group of awesome songs.

The only thing more impressive than the setlist of Rock Band 3 is the fact that it supports the entirety of your existing DLC catalog. So what better time than now to add to your song collection from our 1500+ track catalog?

But what to buy? Well how about some tracks that are on sale exclusively for the PlayStation Community? That’s right, we’re offering amazing singles, packs and full albums for sale just for you guys! Whether you’re looking for metal, classic rock, pop or punk, any or all of these songs make great additions to your library, just in time for RB3! See below for the full list and see you rocking on PSN!

And, of course, stay tuned to RockBand.com to catch the latest announcements about weekly Rock Band DLC!

1. R.E.M – Losing My Religion (now $0.99, original price $1.99)
2. Flyleaf – Again (now $0.99, original price $1.99)
3. Avenged Sevenfold – Bat Country (now $0.99, original price $1.99)
4. The Runaways – Cherry Bomb (now $0.99, original price $1.99)
5. Anberlin – Feel Good Drag (now $0.99, original price $1.99)
6. Stone Temple Pilots – Interstate Love Song (now $0.99, original price $1.99)
7. Jane’s Addiction Nothing’s Shocking Album (now $7.99, original price $15.99)
8. Megadeth Rust in Peace (now $7.49, original price $14.99)
9. Pantera The Great Southern Trendkill Album (now $7.99, original price $15.99)
10. Rush Moving Pictures Album (now $5.49, original price $10.99)
11. Slipknot 01 Track Pack (now $2.99, original price $5.49)
12. Night Ranger 01 Track Pack (now $2.99, original price $5.49)
13. Foreigner 01 Track Pack (now $2.99, original price $5.49)
14. Rise Against 01 Track Pack (now $2.99, original price $5.49)
15. The Offspring 01 Track Pack (now $2.99, original price $5.49)
16. The White Stripes 02 Track Pack (now $2.99, original price $5.49)
17. Nine Inch Nails 01 Track Pack (now $2.99, original price $5.49)
18. Foo Fighters 03 Track Pack (now $3.49, original price $6.99)
19. REO Speedwagon/Styx Tour ’09 Track Pack (now $5.49, original price $10.99)
20. Creedence Clearwater Revival 01 Track Pack (now $9.99, original price $19.99)

 

[jefXfree]

Rock Band 3 getting Bon Jovi's Greatest Hits as DLC

Rock legends Bon Jovi have confirmed that the group will be making their forthcoming Greatest Hits collection available as downloadable content for Harmonix’s upcoming Rock Band 3 video game.

“Bon Jovi is undergoing all manner of promotional activities, including a tour,” commented Paul DeGooyer, senior vice president of electronic games and music for MTV. “And we are partnering with them to help bring that to the masses.”

“Bon Jovi, for us, is one of our most requested artists. We’ve had a couple of songs on disc, but we’ve never done a vertical campaign like this with them. We are working with Bon Jovi on activity for the compilation and other elements that they haven’t announced yet.”

Meanwhile, Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora also chipped in on the matter, stating, “The great thing about Rock Band is it gets music to a whole new generation of people, which is totally amazing to me.”

Rock Band 3 is pencilled in for release in North America on October 26, with a UK launch following closely behind on October 29.

 

[jefXfree]

New Rock Band DLC will only work with Rock Band 3

Harmonix has announced that all downloadable content for Rock Band released after October 26, 2010 will only be compatible with the third instalment in the music simulation franchise.

Apparently, future DLC won’t be backwards compatible with Rock Band 1 & 2 "due to the new authoring standards, inclusion of new instruments, new lighting / venue cues, etc".

Previous DLC will still work with earlier titles in the series, as will all previous and future endeavours on the Rock Band Network.

 

[jefXfree]

Viacom Looking to Sell Harmonix

4 years after Viacom bought Harmonix for $175 million, it now appears that the media conglomerate is getting ready to sell them, according to reports around the internet today.

Viacom, who also own the MTV Network and Comedy Central, today announced that they had beat the profit estimates of 26 analysts over at Bloomberg, however, when announcing this, the media powerhouse also stated that they were looking to sell Rock Band developer, Harmonix.
The Wall Street Journal went so far as to state that Harmonix "has dragged on the company's results for the past several quarters as shoppers continue to avoid big discretionary buys," before noting that music games have struggled because of their "pricey accessories."

With Rock Band 3's instruments ranging from $79.99 and $149.99 to $279.99, they may have a point.

There's no word yet as to who would be interested in picking up the developer, but with less than stellar Rock Band 3 sales and interest waning in the music genre overall, it might seem like a risky purchase.

 

[jefXfree]

Harmonix fixes Rock Band 3 glitches with title update

Harmonix today released a title update for the PlayStation 3 version of Rock Band 3. The update provides several fixes, including the Arena 12 Freeze (or the roadie amp loading screen of death) and the glitch that caused corrupted save data for set lists with long band names.

The update, available in North America and Europe, also fixes the Iron Man eyebrow freeze that occurred during character creation. The freeze happened when reselecting the default eyebrow for the Iron Man pre set face. The Pause Scoring Exploit has also been removed by disabling score reporting on any song in which a player repeatedly pauses the game.

Harmonix says it will release another update in the near future to address further issues.

 

[DaMexiRican]

Next week's Rock Band DLC pack from thrash metal rockers Megadeth may be called "Megadeth Pack 01," but they've been on the store before.. Previously available, full albums include "Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?" and "Rust in Peace."