Crispygamer reports that during a keynote interview at Billboard’s “Digital Music Live” session at the Consumer Electronics Show today, Harmonix co-founder and CEO Alex Rigopulos let slip that the company would be “breaking the annual cycle” and does not plan to release a Rock Band sequel during the year.

Rigopulos explains, “We’ve actually made a choice to break out of the annual release cycle for Rock Band… [This is] partly because the annual cycle places limits on the choices you can make as a developer. We’re trying to take a long term view.”

Don’t expect a zero-release year for the hard working folks in Boston, though - we shan’t forget they’ve promised us a Beatles Game in ‘09. With the approximate 187 or so titles expected from their biggest competitor this year, I think Harmonix is making the right choice to steal second place in the rat race and avoid consumer exhaustion within the music game genre. Can I get an AMEN for a CEO with a real market pulse? 

[Update: Click here to see all the photos and to read Ryan's thoughts on how he got here.]

For those of us expecting a regular rockin’ Almost Famous Tuesday at the Village Pourhouse last night here in NYC, we got much more than we expected.  Not only did we get the awesome 2009 technology upgrade to dual wireless microphones courtesy of Smeeguel’s handiwork, we also got a teary-eyed moment thanks to two of our favorite rockers.  Around the nine o’clock hour, Ryan Clementz proposed to his sweetheart Laura Ramkissoon after a wonderfully planned serenade singing Roy Orbison’s “You Got It”. 

Continue Reading “Rock Band Night Yields Marriage Proposal” »

Looking for ways to add more fun to your Rock Band jam sessions?  We’ve added a few new goodies to our Rock Band gear that we like so we’re here to let you in on some of our little secrets. We tried the Rock Band Jam Kit from BD&A, and the Rock Band Cymbal Expansion from Mad Catz to liven things up and really like both.

First, the Jam Kit.  No pink option was available, but my close-second favorite was the purple tiger set.  The box contains face-plate stickers to cover the whole body of your RB Strat, a matching purple and black guitar strap, purple/black drum sticks, and some pretty nifty purple tips for the ends of the sticks.  While I sorta like the stickers, and I didn’t necessarily need new sticks, I’m pretty pleased with the quality of the guitar strap, and the tips have had a significant impact on dampening the noise from the drumset.  These tips were actually a very pleasant surprise.  We picked these up impulsively at the MTV store in Times Square, but you can get them online (and on sale) at Amazon for $22.50.  Not bad for the whole pack.

Continue Reading “Give your Rock Band accessories a makeover” »

Just two days after getting a sneak peak at January’s potential line-up for Rock Band downloadable content, Harmonix was kind enough to confirm the first week’s goodies.  On tap for January 6th is Roy Six-Pack.  Per the Xbox Live website announcement we’ll get six songs from the man most known for “Oh, Pretty Woman”.  Now that everything’s all official-like, we’ll get DLC Central updated so you can check out the songs yourself.  Check out the list below for all 6 titles.

• “Claudette” by Roy Orbison
• “In Dreams” by Roy Orbison
• “Mean Woman Blues” by Roy Orbison
• “Oh, Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison
• “Ooby Dooby” by Roy Orbison
• “You Got It” by Roy Orbison

Individual tracks will set you back 160 MS Points ($2 on PSN) each with the entire six-track pack at 800 MS Points.

Why wait until Fridays for the announcements of upcoming Rock Band downloadable content when you may be able to catch a glimpse of what’s coming from the Rock Band website’s  Battle of the Bands pages?  According to the upcoming battles schedule (which may likely be hidden soon), we can expect Roy Orbison, Lenny Kravitz and Steve Miller Band on tap for January!  We’ll keep you updated as we see the “official” announcements, but for now we’ve got a pretty good idea of what to expect.

Continue Reading “Rock Band January DLC Sneak Peaks? (Rumor)” »

Resident Rock Band drum experts Phr34k and Someguy913 are officially insane.  After his first Drum Hell session in July 2008, Rock Band drummer Sean “Phr34k” Feica picked up a world record after an exhausting 26 hours of uninterrupted expert drumming through every song available (235 including DLC) in the Rock Band catalog at the time. 

Ready for the next challenge, Phr34k and Someguy913 will be competing side by side for charity and plan to spend 60+ hours drumming nonstop through over 530 songs that now fill the Rock Band catalog.  Join them on Jan 2 to help cheer them on and support the United Way by watching live at http://drumhell.pmsclan.com/. Interested in more details? Check out the official announcement at pmsclan.com. 

After long delay (sorry about that, rockers), here’s the downloadable content for Tuesday, 12/30 (as stated by HMXAlex on the Rockband Forums):

Our next batch of DLC features a trifecta of classic rock tracks from such notable bands as Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, and James Gang. Additionally, a single from Scottish alternative rock group Snow Patrol’s latest record will be up for your rocking pleasure.

The full list is as follows:

Deep Purple - “Space Truckin”"
James Gang - “Funk #49″
Jethro Tull - “Hymn 43″
Snow Patrol - “Take Back the City”

All songs will be available for 160 MS points on Xbox Live Marketplace, and $1.99 on the PlayStation Network.

The release dates for these songs will be December 30th on Xbox Live Marketplace, and January 8th on the PlayStation Network, due to Sony being on holiday next week.