Awhile back, a small news bit swept through gaming sites saying that the upcoming South Park Season 11 DVD would contain some tracks for Rock Band. Well now the original source of that story, TVShowsonDVD.com, has learned that the information they were given was false. Paramount contacted them a few days ago to let them know that it wouldn’t be happening. Really, I wouldn’t have been all that surprised if Harmonix has released some new content through the DVD. Downloadable content for Rock band just seems to be popping up everywher ethese days anyway.Via TVShowsonDVD.com

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A title like that doesn’t write itself very often, so I’m happy to take advantage. The new Rocketmen expansion pack, It Came From Uranus, is now available on the PlayStation Store. You’ll also now find two new Hot Shots Golf characters, each of which cost $.99, and are small enough that I reckon they’re already on the Blu-ray disc you hold in your hands.

Rounding out the DLC scene is this week’s installment of Rock Band tracks and 21 new Karaoke Revolution: American Idol tracks.

You’ll also find demos of both Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit and Overlord Raising Hell, new videos, trailers, themes, and wallpapers.

Hit the break to see all of the today’s new content.
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Activision is taking a cue from Rock Band and will be including vocal, bass and drums in Guitar Hero IV. Joystiq has pics of the drum kit prototype for the game from the latest issue of Game Informer. The kit comes close to a midi compatible professional drum kit. It features a bass pedal and three snares and two dedicated symbol pads.

At this time, there’s no word on whether the kits for the two games will be compatible. However I doubt they will be considering the near open warfare between Activision and  Harmonix over guitar compatibility; and the guitar peripherals were almost identical in design.

via Joystiq

“Indestructible”, the forthcoming album from Disturbed, is now available for pre-order at BestBuy.com. The album, which was self-produced and is the follow-up to “Ten Thousand Fists”, will be released by Reprise Records on June 3rd, 2008.

In celebratory fashion, Best Buy and Harmonix are giving away two free Rock Band tracks for anyone who pre-orders the album. These free tracks for Rock Band are from the forthcoming album “Indestructible” and include the title track “Indestructible” and “Inside the Fire”. These exclusive pre-order tracks are for the Xbox 360 version of the game.

To get in on the pre-order, go to the official Best Buy website by clicking here, and you will get instructions on how to claim your free songs.

Via: Press Release

Last Friday, Jonathan informed all Rock Band fanatics that some new tracks would be released this week and according to The Major, you can start downloading them now. Featuring Blondie, Sonic Youth, and The Clash, these various tracks are 160 MS points each and I have posted all the gory information below.

Rock Band: Various Tracks

Content: “Train In Vain (Stand by Me)” - The Clash
Price: 160 Microsoft Points
Availability: Canada and U.S.
Dash Text: [ESRB: T (Teen) LYRICS,MILD SUGGESTIVE THEMES] Build your Rock Band library by purchasing this song game track: “Train In Vain (Stand by Me)”–The Clash. PLEASE NOTE: Many Rock Band song game tracks are available as both a multipack and as a single game track. These song game tracks are exactly the same (unless expressly noted as a special version or remix). Be aware that it is possible to download the same song game track twice so please carefully consider your purchases. For music credits, visit www.RockBand.com. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.

Content: “Kool Thing” - Sonic Youth
Price: 160 Microsoft Points
Availability: Canada and U.S.
Dash Text: [ESRB: T (Teen) LYRICS,MILD SUGGESTIVE THEMES] Build your Rock Band library by purchasing this song game track: “Kool Thing”–Sonic Youth. PLEASE NOTE: Many Rock Band song game tracks are available as both a multipack and as a single game track. These song game tracks are exactly the same (unless expressly noted as a special version or remix). Be aware that it is possible to download the same song game track twice so please carefully consider your purchases. For music credits, visit www.RockBand.com. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.

Content: “Hanging on the Telephone” - Blondie
Price: 160 Microsoft Points
Availability: Canada and U.S.
Dash Text: [ESRB: T (Teen) LYRICS,MILD SUGGESTIVE THEMES] Build your Rock Band library by purchasing this song game track: “Hanging on the Telephone”–Blondie. PLEASE NOTE: Many Rock Band song game tracks are available as both a multipack and as a single game track. These song game tracks are exactly the same (unless expressly noted as a special version or remix). Be aware that it is possible to download the same song game track twice so please carefully consider your purchases. For music credits, visit www.RockBand.com. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.

Via: Major Nelson

Activision has announced a new milestone Guitar Hero has achieved. Not to be upstaged by the former guitar heroes at Harmonix, who recently announced that Rock Band had passed the 10 million songs downloaded mark, Activision announced at a recent conference call that Guitar Hero has surpassed the 15 million downloaded songs mark.

That’s certainly an impressive figure that’s larger than Harmonix’s, but these numbers do, after all, include Guitar Hero II on Xbox 360. A commenter on Xbox 360 Fanboy made the keen observation that these don’t necessarily reflect the number of songs purchased, and Guitar Hero has seen several free tracks released.

But it seems clear that both companies are finding DLC to be a profitable form of business. Not profitable enough, though, as the cash-in known as Guitar Hero: Aerosmith proves.

via Joystiq

The PlayStation Store has gotten a great update this week with three solid demos, new music for both Guitar Hero III and Rock Band, the expansion pack to PixelJunk, PixelJunk Monsters Encore ($5.99), and Rocketmen: Axis of Evil ($9.99). In addition to all that, there’s a number of trailers for games and movies, including an Iron Man trailer and one for WipEout HD and Mercenaries 2.

Check it all out after the break.

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Ah yes, it’s Friday, and that means we get a sneak peak at the Rock Band DLC coming out next week. This week has three separate tracks from some classic artists:

• Hanging on the Telephone by Blondie (master)
• Train in Vain by The Clash (master)
• Kool Thing by Sonic Youth (master)

As usual, each track will cost 160 MS points ($1.99) each and should hit Xbox Live on Tuesday and the PSN on Thursday. And I’m already positive my rendition of “Kool Thing” is goingt o involve a lot of mumbling.

Via Rock Band Forums

MTV and Harmonix have landed themselves a sponsor to temporarily drop the price of various songs in Rock Band from now through June 1. The songs will cost just 80 Microsoft Points, rather than the usual 160. Just who is sponsoring, you ask? Why, McDonald’s, of course. Because when you think rock music, you think McDonald’s.

The sales schedule is as follows:

5/6/08-5/12/08 :
Crushcrushcrush - Paramore
Rock ‘n Roll Band - Boston

5/13/08-5/19/08 :
Shockwave - Black Tide
Sugar Magnolia - Grateful Dead

5/20/08-5/26/08:
We Care A Lot - Faith No More
All the Small Things - Blink 182

5/27/08-6/2/08:
Gimme Three Steps - Lynyrd Skynyrd
Dirty Little Secret - All-American Rejects

Hopefully this sale works out well and we see future advertisers do something similar (and with a broader selection of music). Another point goes to Rock Band in the ongoing battle with Guitar Hero.

via Major Nelson

This week’s new helping of Rock Band tracks includes a variety that’s been slapped together into a pack called Scene Pack 01. That includes “This Ain’t A Scene, It’s an Arms Race” by Fall Out Boy, “It Hurts” by Angels & Airwaves, and “Date with the Night” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. I’ll be frank and say I’ve never even heard of those last two songs or their respective bands, but hey, at least Rock Band is doing a good job of introducing people to new music. (Even if you do have to pay extra.)

The songs cost 160 Microsoft Points individually, or you can save some points and go with the Scene Pack which costs 440 points.

Jonathan brought word earlier that owners of the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions of Rock Band would be able to get their hands on some downloadable content, in a sense. Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1 won’t require you to own a copy of the original Rock Band game – you’ll simply be able to pop in your Track Pack disc and get playing those 20 songs.

Of course, then you won’t have access to all of the good songs that were originally in Rock Band, but maybe this Track Pack has the only songs you’re interested in playing.

via Game|Life

You gotta hand it to Harmonix: they realy know how to crank out that DLC for Rock Band. Aside from their weekly releases, some exclusive new songs, and a standalone track pack, it looks like they’ve even managed to get some DLC crammed into the next South Park DVD. Apparently, several retailers were sent a notice about the upcoming South Park: Season 11 DVD release that mentioned a “3-song download pack” for Rock Band would be included as a bonus. Unfortunately, there’s no indication what sort of songs will be included, or if they’ll even be related to the show (me and Chris have been trying to figure out what South Park songs could actually make it onto the game without being bleeped out completely). Plus it’s anyone’s guess which version of the game the DLC will work for. I guess we’ll have to wait until the DVD’s August 12th release to find out for sure. At any rate, the pure irony of a Rock Band bonus being included in a season that had an episode parodying Guitar Hero seems to have been ost on all parties involved here.

Via TV Shows on DVD

Looks like Harmonix and EA have found a way to bring extra content to people who own the Wii and PS2 versions of Rock Band. Now they’ve announced the upcoming Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1 for release on July 15th. The pack will be sold at retail for $29.99 and will include 20 songs. Luckily the pack mostly includes some favorites from bands like Boston, Weezer, Nine Inch Nails, Stone Temple Pilots, and such. None of the songs are new to Xbox 360 and PS3 owners who can download them, but it’s still a nice service to those with other consoles. Full list of tracks available after the break.

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Harmonix has revealed the next batch of tracks you’ll be able to download in the coming week. The “Scene Pack” will feature three new songs for your enjoyment:

“This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race” by Fallout Boy (master)
“Date With The Night” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs (master)
“It Hurts” by Angels & Airwaves (master)

As usual, the pack will cost 440 MS points ($5.49), while the individual songs will cost 160 MS points ($1.99). Also as usual, the songs should become available for download on Tuesday though Xbox Live and Thursday through the Playstation Network. And I’m only considering downloading one of these; I think you can guess which one.

Via Rock Band Forums

I imagine most people are going to be busy with Grand Theft Auto today, but that didn’t stop Harmonix from doing their weekly Rock Band DLC thing. Three new songs are now available, each for 160 Microsoft Points.

• “Zero” - Smashing Pumpkins
• “Red Tandy” - The Mother Hips
• “Time-Sick Son of a Grizzly Bear” - The Mother Hips

Is anyone going to be tearing themselves away from GTA IV to download any of these? Personally, it would have taken the very top of my wishlist to manage that task, and it’s not often that there’s even so much as a single song released that I’m all that excited about, and this week is no different.

Harmonix has revealed next week’s DLC for Rock Band, which feature three new tracks to choose from. And those tracks will be:

• The Mother Hips – “Red Tandy” (MASTER)
• The Mother Hips – “Time Sick Son of a Grizzly Bear” (MASTER)
• Smashing Pumpkins – “Zero” (MASTER)

Unlike most of the DLC, these songs won’t be available in a pack and will have to be purchased individually. As usual though, each of the songs will cost 160 MS points (around $2). The track’s will be available on Tuesday for the Xbox 360, and on Thursday for the PS3. *Sigh* Another week and still no Journey DLC.

Via Rock Band Forum

Def Leppard’s Guitar Hero III outing and the obligatory weekly dose of Rock Band tracks (now finally with a full album!), there’s a ton of great new content now available on the PlayStation Store. The biggest release is certainly the Variety Map Pack ($10) for Call of Duty 4 which naturally includes four new multiplayer maps.

A new PS one Classic was also released today with R-Types ($6), ending that particular drought. (Even though you and I both know we probably won’t see another Classic for weeks.) There’s also the Biolith Rebellion 2 expansion set for The Eye of Judgment, whichs adds more than 100 new creatures, spells and abilities, so that sounds like a must-buy for fans of The Eye.

There’s also plenty of videos, demos of both echochrome and Iron Man, a map pack for Army of Two, downloadable songs for Karaoke Revolution, and more. So hit the break and check out everything now available for download.

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There has been a rumor spinning around for months that Metallica will debut their new single on Rock Band. This will follow the recent trend started by Def Leppard and Motley Crue and release thier new single as DLC before it hits retail shelves.

This rumor is getting hotter as it nips at the heels of an recent interview with Rolling Stone in which Metallica stated that video games, particularly Guitar Hero, offer “many positive things” to young people.

Lars Ulrich, drummer for Metallica stated that Guitar Hero has allowed him to connect with his own offspring about music.

When asked ‘You signed a lot of Guitar Hero controllers. Is that cool?’, he said:

“It’s f**king way cool. Our kids love playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It’s awesome. There’s something really positive coming out of video games. “It’s so cool to sit there and have your kids talk to you about Deep Purple and Black Sabbath and Soundgarden.”

Perhaps the positive quotes are a little more calculated than first impressions would have you believe, however: the rumor states that Metallica will release their next single through Rock Band not Guitar Hero III.

Motley Crue released their new single ‘Saints of Los Angeles’ on PSN and XBL for Rock Band and tomorrow, Def Leppard will follow suit when they release their new single ‘Nine Lives’ as part of a GHIII song pack on XBL.

We will keep you informed on this rumor as more information becomes available. What I really want to know is when in the world will “… And Justice For All” be released as a full album for Rock Band?

Via: Press Release

It’s here folks. The entire “Screaming for Vengeance” album from Judas Priest is now available for your downloading pleasure via XBL for Rock Band. Sorry PSN users, your ability to download some metal will not be made available for you until Thursday. Each song off the album can also be downloaded separately, and this is just the tip of the iceberg according to Harmonix.

Supposedly, The Cars’ 1978 debut album “The Cars” and The Pixies “Doolittle” are expected in the coming months.

So, pretty soon you will also be able to rock out to songs penned by Ric Ocasek (”My Best Friend’s Girl”, “You’re All I Got Tonight”, “Just What I Needed”) who proved to nerds around the world that you don’t have to be good looking to bag a Super Model (Paulina Porizkova).

Fans of the Pixies will be able to download such alternative gems such as “Here Comes Your Man”, “Monkey Gone to Heaven” and “Gouge Away”, “Debaser” and “Wave of Mutilation”.

The Who is expected soon as well, so check back often for updates. Full details for Judas Priest DLC on XBL are listed for each track after the jump.

Thanks: Major Nelson

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There is an interesting post over on Joystick Division where Chris Ward talks about his interviews with both Rivers Cuomo of Weezer and Rob Zombie. The lucky bastard - well, for getting to interview “Mr. Zombie” anyway. Both artists discuss Guitar Hero and what they think about their music being included in music simulation games.

Here are some excerpts from the Rob Zombie interview:

WARD: So, I’ve almost beaten White Zombie’s “Black Sunshine” on Guitar Hero III.

ZOMBIE: Oh good. [laughs]

WARD: What do you think of Guitar Hero? Did they approach you about using the master tracks?

ZOMBIE: Yeah, I mean they come in and ask to do it, and I think it’s great. I don’t play them, but I think it’s awesome.

WARD: What do you think of the guy trying to re-create your voice on the game?

ZOMBIE: I actually haven’t heard it, but I bet it’s pretty funny.

WARD: It’s not too good actually.

ZOMBIE: [laughs] They should just use the original tracks.

Of course they should have used the original track! It’s Rob Zombie for Satan’s sake!

Then comes the more interesting interview- the one with Rivers Cuomo from Weezer. While I have nothing personal against Weezer, what I took from reading the interview was that Rivers was kind of making fun of Guitar Hero fans. I could just picture the look of smug self-satisfaction on his face:

WARD: On a scale of 1-10, how bad could I kick your ass at Weezer’s “My Name is Jonas” on Guitar Hero III?

RIVERS: [laughs] Probably a 10, because I don’t know how to play it! I’ve never played it. I don’t get those games at all. I mean, I haven’t tried them. But they must be fun because people love them. But, to me, it seems like if you’re going to put that much effort into playing something, you should just play a real instrument. [laughs]

Granted, I have to agree that playing a musical instrument is much more fun than a fake plastic one, but the last time I checked, most people who play these games are not guitar gods. Hell, I am lucky to be able to play the cello and piano enough to where it doesn’t make your ears bleed - and even more lucky to be able to play bass on the song “Dazed and Confused by Led Zeppelin” - for the first part of the song anyway, but an orangutan could do that.

What Rivers and other musicians must realize is that deep down inside we all want to be guitar heroes, but lack the discipline to practice, take drugs and sleep with skanky women on the road. We have real jobs, real lives, and other major responsibilities in real-life, and sometimes we just want to plug in our fake guitars and de-stress a bit.

Plus, you shouldn’t make too much fun of us because your record sales have soared thanks to Guitar Hero (I-III) and Rock Band.

Thanks: Chris Ward -Joystick Division (Chris - Next time you decide to interview Rob Zombie, give me a call *wink*)