Tracks available on Xbox 360 (Sept. 8th) and PLAYSTATION 3 system (Sept. 10th):

• Freezepop – “Get Ready 2 Rokk” *
• Freezepop – “Less Talk More Rokk” *
• Freezepop – “Science Genius Girl” *
• Jonathan Coulton – “Re: Your Brains” *
• MC Frontalot – “Origin of Species” *
• Paul & Storm – “Opening Band” *
• 3 Doors Down – “Kryptonite”
• AFI – “Miss Murder”
• Audioslave – “Gasoline”
• Jackson 5 – “ABC”

image © Bryan Stratton

image © HotHardware.com

No, no, no… I kid the Rock Band. I’m only miffed because I’d been thinking about buying a PA and a projector and trying to do something similar myself. I think it’s an amazing idea and long overdue. There are going to be over a thousand songs available for the game by the end of the year, so there’s no shortage of content. Gamers who have honed their skills in their living room can come on out and show off their mad rocking skills to an audience that will actually appreciate them. And it should help the DJ (RBJ?) run through the list of sign-ups four times faster than a traditional karaoke joint.

It also has the capacity to be four times as brutal to the listener if a band of drunks fumbles their way through the song… unless No Fail mode is turned off. Then, instead of listening to some dude slur his way through “Baby Got Back,” the entire band fails out thirty seconds into the song, to howls of delight from the crowd. Of course, this infringes on my jointly held patent for Gong Show Karaoke (© Leaf Standard and Bryan Stratton), but I’m willing to let that slide, because I’m lazy and would rather let someone else do all of the hard work.

• Avenged Sevenfold – “Bat Country”
• The Jam – “A Town Called Malice”
• The Jam – “Going Underground”
• Oasis – “Supersonic” (Live)
• Rage Against the Machine – “Guerilla Radio”
• Talking Heads – “And She Was”
• Talking Heads – “Crosseyed & Painless”
• Talking Heads – “Girlfriend is Better”
• Talking Heads – “Once in a Lifetime”
• Talking Heads – “Take Me to the River”

image © Bryan Stratton

Tracks available on Xbox 360 (Aug. 25) and PLAYSTATION 3 system (Aug. 27):

• Billy Idol – “Mony Mony”
• Billy Idol – “Rebel Yell”
• Fleetwood Mac – “Don’t Stop”
• Fleetwood Mac – “World Turning”
• Jet – “She’s a Genius”
• Tom Petty – “I Won’t Back Down”
• Tom Petty – “Runnin’ Down a Dream”

image © Bryan Stratton

1. The Beatles: Rock Band “Ticket to Ride” video, set in Shea Stadium, is up on thebeatlesrockband.com.
2. While you’re there, check out gameplay trailer #3, featuring “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Drive My Car,” “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds,” “Dear Prudence,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Helter Skelter” (which promises to tear my voice up worse than “Ace of Spades” ever did), “Come Together” and “Don’t Let Me Down.”
3. And I thought I’d seen this confirmed elsewhere a while ago, but Gizmodo reports that there will be stereo and mono versions of the complete Beatles catalog boxed sets. If you don’t know why getting the Beatles stuff in mono is a big deal, they also have a great article that explains exactly why.