If you're one of the millions of people who have "Rock Band" taking up space in your living room, you've probably had an evening where the game just sort of gets away from you. You strap on the guitar or sit behind the drums and keep grooving to songs until you realize that you've been at it for five hours. That's a long time to do just about anything, but it's not nearly enough for the crew behind "Rock Band." They're currently hosting a 20 hour jam session at the MTV Store at MTV headquarters in Times Square. It's all part of a contest hosted by "Rock Band" and Energizer, which gives one small band the rock star treatment.
Over 100 bands entered the Advance Into Overdrive contest, and Grand Rapids, Michigan natives Jimmy Twinkle and the BAD emerged as the winners. They got flown out to New York City, got put up in a luxury hotel, were treated to high-class meals and had access to their own limousine. They are currently in the middle of their epic jam, which began at 11 a.m. and will keep them rocking until 7 a.m. on Saturday.
When we checked in with the band, they were just over three hours in and just wrapping up Wolfmother's "Woman." Fatigue was already setting in, though a well-timed lunch break helped put a little rock back in their step. A huge crowd continues to float in and out of the store. To follow along with Jimmy T and the BAD's progress, check out the live stream, or if you're in the area, stop by MTV headquarters to be a part of the marathon.
Normally, new albums hit stores every Tuesday. You'll occasionally see a Friday drop for a high-profile record trying to beat the leaks, but generally speaking that rule is set in stone. However, Pearl Jam's brand new album Backspacer got a rare Sunday release yesterday. But considering how long they've been together (plus the fact that they've got an exclusive distribution deal with Target stores), you can pretty much call the shots.
Backspacer (which is also available as a full-album download for play on "Rock Band") is the band's ninth album, which is always a tricky point in a veteran band's career. Many groups would have chosen to go on wild experiments (U2's disco-rock Pop and the Beatles' "White Album," both profound departures, were ninth albums), but Pearl Jam have gone back to an old school they never actually went to. They've crafted 11 songs that are tight, raw and — according to guitarist Mike McCready — "dry" sounding, and the simplification pays off.
One of the most interesting things about Backspacer is that, like many of the latter-day Pearl Jam albums, it features songs written by every member of the band (drummer Matt Cameron wrote the single "The Fixer" with McCready and Gossard, while Vedder flew solo on the loose, surf-friendly "Gonna See My Friend"). For a group with such a charismatic lead singer, it's an impressive display of democracy. But it wasn't always that way. "In the beginning, Stone and Jeff and Ed wrote everything," McCready said. "I think I got my first writing thing on the second record with 'Glorified G.' We all write a ton of songs, and the diversity of it is hopefully what makes it good and makes people want to hear it."
During last weekend's Outside Lands Festival, I caught up with one of my favorite bands in Silversun Pickups, the Los Angeles based quartet who channel equal parts power pop, new wave and shoegaze into a fuzzy, buzzy slabs of post-modern rock. We brought them to the artists' hospitality tent (which oversaw the festival's main stage) and sat them in the sun to talk about a handful of subjects. When the subject of the Beatles came up, frontman Brian Aubert raved about both "Glass Onion" (from the White Album) and "Help," which he said described as an excellent punk song.
Silversun Pickups also reserved some love for the lesser members of the Fab Four, as drummer Christopher Guanlao praised Ringo Starr's performance in the 1964 movie "A Hard Day's Night" and Aubert shouted out George Harrison's guitar playing as "classy." Even bass player Nikki Monninger declared herself to be "a George man."
Hopefully the band is set up with a PS3 on their tour bus, as that's where they'll be spending most of their time for the foreseeable future. "We've got some time off in May of 2010," Aubert said. "I'm not trying to be funny — I think we have dates scheduled until then." However, you won't have to wait that long to play along with classics like "Eight Days a Week" and "Get Back," as "The Beatles: Rock Band" hits stores on Wednesday, September 9 for XBox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii. For more on one of the most hotly anticipated music video games of all time, stay tuned here and to Multiplayer.
We're only a week away from the release of "The Beatles: Rock Band," the latest installment of the game-changing video game franchise that puts you in the position of Liverpool's favorite sons and gives you the opportunity to play over 40 Beatles songs. For many rock bands, the Beatles are a cornerstone group who tend to inspire early songwriting and enthusiasm for experimentation, but that "Beatles moment" happens differently for everybody.
For Tunde Adebimpe, frontman for Brooklyn space-funkers TV on the Radio, it came a little bit later than what is usual. Though his dad played him Beatles tunes as a kid, he didn't really understand what the band was all about until he had an experience in college with a long documentary about the band. "'The Beatles Anthology' documentary was on, and I watched so much of it," he told MTV News backstage at last weekend's Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco. "I feel like a lot of the arrogance of youth is realizing very deeply that you don't have anything going on, and that's the beauty of art. When you think about it, in an insanely short period of time basically revolutionized a lot of thinking about rock music. Art is either plagiarism or revolution, and I think the Beatles took a lot of stuff knowing that." Adebimpe admits that these revelations were assisted by certain chemical elements, but that shouldn't take away from the fact that they were a great band. Check out his whole story below, and enjoy the background performance by the Mars Volta (we were hanging out just behind the stage where they were shredding on Saturday night).
By Nick Neofitidis
Even in this mega-deluxe-edition era, the new reissue of Pearl Jam's 1991 debut album, Ten, is nothing short of awesome. With classic tracks like "Alive", "Jeremy" and "Black" defining much of alternative rock in the early '90s, to me, the album stands the test of time and certifies Pearl Jam as one of the best bands of the era.
Ten will be reissued in four editions on Tuesday (March 24), with extras ranging from a re-mastering and remix of the entire album, six bonus tracks ("Brother," "Just a Girl," "Breath and a Scream," "State of Love and Trust," "2,000 Mile Blues" and "Evil Little Goat"), re-designed packaging, a DVD of the band's 1992 appearance on MTV's "Unplugged," an album of its September 20, 1992, concert in Seattle, a replica of the original demo cassette, and a replica of Vedder's composition notebook. Phew! Now that's a deluxe edition!
Read more...
Earlier today, news broke that Harmonix and MTV Games will release "The Beatles: Rock Band" on September 9, and as the reigning rock editor here at MTV News, I was understandably excited by the possibilities this announcement unleashes.
Not the possibilities of actually playing Beatles tunes on "Rock Band," mind you, because I am terrible at the game (as the old joke goes, those who cannot play music write about it). No, I'm talking about stuff like the limited-edition Beatles instruments MTV Games is promising. Of course, the press release fails to mention what those instruments will be, but I tingle at the thought of sitting down behind a Ringo Starr drum kit pre-programmed to play the drum solo from "The End" or plucking away at a George Harrison "Norwegian Wood"-edition sitar. This is the stuff dreams are made of.
And then, of course, there’s the matter of the songs themselves. MTV Games doesn't mention a single tune in the release (or on the game's snazzy, look-inside-Abbey Road Studios Web site), but needless to say, there's plenty to choose from. It's a fairly daunting task. If you asked 100 Beatles fans to submit their dream playlists, you'd probably get 100 different responses. And when you factor in the cost associated with actually licensing the songs, well, let's just say this is going to be a very expensive, very debated decision. I don't envy whoever is in charge of making that call. Read more...
By Todd Brown
When your fans wait eight years for an album, the release certainly calls for an event, or maybe even a celebration — better yet, how about an entire store devoted to the record?
Well, that is exactly the kind of love AC/DC's new album, "Black Ice," is getting. MTV, "Rock Band," Wal-Mart and the band itself teamed up to open two stores — one in Los Angeles and one in New York City — devoted solely to the "Rock Band" and AC/DC experience. AC/DC and "Rock Band" fans alike can come down, buy a deluxe version of the new album, play the yet-to-be-released AC/DC live Track Pack on "Rock Band 2," and buy anything and everything related to "Rock Band," AC/DC or MTV. Read more...
You know, sometimes we've got our minds on some indie-cred-type stuff, like Interpol and Vampire Weekend. But this week, just forget that ish. Because this week is owned by the Crue.
First came the announcement of their new single via Rock Band, then they upped the consumer ante by telling us they'd be bringing the game on tour with them. And now the boys who brought us "The Dirt" -- not to mention the greatest "Behind the Music" of all time, hands-down -- have unleashed Crue Fest, with Buckcherry, Papa Roach, Trapt, and Sixx:A.M. Grrrrrrr, mainstream metal!
And, you know, since it isn't technically 1989, you probably won't see Tommy Lee what he does here at 0:21. But it's going to be a balls-out time.
If the word "balls-out" appeals.
And, I guess, if the word "balls-out" involves a video game.
