Didn't see this posted yet so here we go:

Originally Posted by hmxsean Hey gang, Take a gander at the DLC coming out on the week of 4/21! To tie in with one of the current Rock Band sponsored tours, there's a sweet 7 track pack of REO Speedwagon and Styx songs to whet your classic rock whistle. Not enough? Top it off with a Hautewerk 3 pack for dessert! Here's the track listing: REO Speedwagon - Riding the Storm Out REO Speedwagon - Roll with the Changes REO Speedwagon - Take It on the Run Styx - Blue Collar Man (Long Nights) Styx - Renegade Styx - Too Much Time On My Hands Styx / REO Speedwagon - Can't Stop Rockin' Hautewerk - Alone in My Head Hautewerk - I Know Where You Came From Hautewerk - Stop Start Again All tracks are master recordings. Release Dates: Tuesday, April 21, 2009 (Xbox LIVE Marketplace for Xbox 360®) Thursday, April 23, 2009 (PlayStation®Store) ** Dates for Rock Band game tracks are tentative and subject to change ** Pricing: $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) per track $10.99 (880 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) “REO Speedwagon / Styx Tour ’09 Pack” $5.49 (440 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) “Hautewerk Pack 01” To discuss this DLC please visit the official thread in Community's Greatest Hits. For all DLC song credits and other juicy details you can check out The Music page. And, as always, for awesome background information on our DLC and other articles please visit the Rock Band 'Zine.

Renegade is about the only one I'm interested in.

I'll definitely be getting the REO Speedwagon/Styx pack. Can't say I've ever heard of Hautewerk, so I'll have to start doing some research on them... Great week overall, though!

In for the Styx/REO pack. I'm not really feeling Hautewerk, based on the samples I can find.

The original singer in Styx is gone, so no thank you on the Styx songs since they're re-recorded.

Originally Posted by BostonCollegeFan The original singer in Styx is gone, so no thank you on the Styx songs since they're re-recorded.

Tommy Shaw sings lead vocals on those songs. I know you are just looking to shit on RB, but at least find something that is worth complaining about. It isn't like they included Mr. Roboto with a new singer.

No,i'm not looking to shit on them, I'm not a Styx diehard, and I read that the singer was gone, so my interest was gone, even if Shaw did the vocals (these songs have some great harmonys) along with them being re-recorded (as there's yet to be a better re-record than the original in either game).

I don't shit on Rock Band besides it's unrealistic charts, stop putting words in my mouth. I don't see how me defending Guitar Hero WT and Metallica instantly makes me hate Rock Band. I don't. I just dislike Harmonix and their ethics.

Harmonix keeps knocking it out the in' park. First Journey/Pat Benatar, then GNR, now Styx/REO? Hell yes.

Originally Posted by BostonCollegeFan No,i'm not looking to shit on them, I'm not a Styx diehard, and I read that the singer was gone, so my interest was gone, even if Shaw did the vocals (these songs have some great harmonys) along with them being re-recorded (as there's yet to be a better re-record than the original in either game).

You don't make sense. It doesn't matter that one lead singer is gone because there's always been two lead singers. Styx only performs songs that Tommy Shaw sings nowadays and Dennis DeYoung is off doing his songs by himself or with an orchestra.

Of course no re-recording is ever going to match the original. These guys are at least 30 years older.

Yeah but lots of Styx songs feature vocal harmonies and pitch contrasts, that will surely be gone because that same singer isn't there anymore. It's a small nit pick but certainly one that carries merit especially in the case of Styx. Besides, I'm not the one who jumped on anothers back putting words into their mouth; all I said was that I was passing on the Styx, but you guy's assumed I was saying "Rock Band is such shit that they can't even get enough money to buy the real masters which Guitar Hero is so awesome at doing."

Also, Rock Band is becoming a tool for people to pay for promotion. That's kinda bs. Between this, Spongebob, The Rocker, American Mall, Nickelodeon songs, it's quite disgusting. It's one thing for them to be free (Still Alive, The Rocker) it's another to pay to have promotion shoved down your throat.

Rockband is meant to have fun, and to have an audience of all ages and to contain all kinds of genres, so big deal. Some people take everything way too technical and out of context of what it actually is.

I agree, which is why I have $300+ in DLC for the game, and am massively stoked for Beatles (although I know they're going to ignore the deep cuts of the Beatles). I just wish they had some better DLC lately that isn't forcing users to pay for promotional items, or atleast a big name like that of what Guitar Hero has got recently (Queen....). Oh, and still waiting for Nothing's Shocking :/

Originally Posted by BostonCollegeFan Yeah but lots of Styx songs feature vocal harmonies and pitch contrasts, that will surely be gone because that same singer isn't there anymore. It's a small nit pick but certainly one that carries merit especially in the case of Styx. Besides, I'm not the one who jumped on anothers back putting words into their mouth; all I said was that I was passing on the Styx, but you guy's assumed I was saying "Rock Band is such shit that they can't even get enough money to buy the real masters which Guitar Hero is so awesome at doing." Also, Rock Band is becoming a tool for people to pay for promotion. That's kinda bs. Between this, Spongebob, The Rocker, American Mall, Nickelodeon songs, it's quite disgusting. It's one thing for them to be free (Still Alive, The Rocker) it's another to pay to have promotion shoved down your throat.

You're not going to notice Dennis DeYoung isn't there. Trust me.

I didn't jump on your back, and I didn't say you said that. GH is master of the covers.

Oh yeah, like 10 songs out of the 500+ available for download are promoting things. I hate what this game is turning in to.

I don't mind the promoting when it's free, I just think it's highly immoral to make you pay $2.00 for what is essentially a ad for a TV show or a movie. Atleast we know it's not Harmonix whose forcing us to pay for it, but that of MTV.

And I wasn't talking about you Trakan, but the one before who jumped on it as RB hate.

Originally Posted by BostonCollegeFan Yeah but lots of Styx songs feature vocal harmonies and pitch contrasts, that will surely be gone because that same singer isn't there anymore. It's a small nit pick but certainly one that carries merit especially in the case of Styx. Besides, I'm not the one who jumped on anothers back putting words into their mouth; all I said was that I was passing on the Styx, but you guy's assumed I was saying "Rock Band is such shit that they can't even get enough money to buy the real masters which Guitar Hero is so awesome at doing." Also, Rock Band is becoming a tool for people to pay for promotion. That's kinda bs. Between this, Spongebob, The Rocker, American Mall, Nickelodeon songs, it's quite disgusting. It's one thing for them to be free (Still Alive, The Rocker) it's another to pay to have promotion shoved down your throat.

That's a VERY small nit pick. Why is there any reason to believe the harmony vocal just wouldn't be sung by somebody else? I mean, if it were the lead vocal, yeah, you could easily argue having a different voice would totally change the song (see: "Tom Sawyer" cover...bleh!). But they could get anybody to sing the harmony for the re-record. Shaw could even just harmonize with himself. Nobody is going to notice that.

If you've got a general dislike for Harmonix or RB, that's fine, but it could be causing you to be overly critical of the DLC as well. Yeah, some unusual stuff has turned up in the marketplace, but it's not like it's at the expense of great content we could be getting. I have no problem with the country stuff, or the Nickelodeon stuff. I'm not going to buy it, but I don't mind people having a choice. Anybody paying attention should also be able to notice that it wasn't the ONLY thing released those weeks. Harmonix knows where its bread is buttered. Say what you want about RB becoming a vehicle of promotion...but what exactly do you think Metallica is doing with GH?

It's one thing to make a game dedicated to a humungously popular band including never before seen interviews and stuff fans would dig, to well supplement and make the full price worth it, and to release something to promote the newest childrens television show on Nickelodeon and $2.00 for it when they and other companies in the past have noted that this is promotional material and it was free. Anyone who makes the argument that "Rock Band is a family game/ they need music for kids" is kidding themselves as the game is rated "T" and they couldn't even buy it. It's pretty clear that content is for marketing. I highly doubt GH: Metallica was made to increase sales on Kill Em All.

I don't have a general dislike for either, I have a general dislike for people who write off Neversoft/Guitar Hero because it's the cool thing to think Harmonix care about their fans (hint: They don't after a while), or because Rock Band is "indie" to Guitar Hero's "mainstream". Nor do I like getting attacked for posting my opinion on the band's re-record, and have it spun as a attack against Rock Band when others get to share their opinion on DLC and they're not attacked.

And again, I wasn't complaining about the promotional stuff, I only complained about paying for them. Just because something else came out with it makes no difference; if I was complaining about the actual content then that would be a legit argument, but since i'm complaining about how money hungry Harmonix/MTV/Viacom are in charging for ad's, then that really doesn't have anything to do with it.

And I wasn't overally critical of the DLC, all I said was "The original singer in Styx is gone, so no thank you on the Styx songs since they're re-recorded." Which, as far as I can tell, doesn't contain the words "Rock Band" or "Sucks" or "This weeks DLC is shit". I was jumped on because I enjoy video games and enjoy Guitar Hero as much as I enjoy Rock Band, and what I said was no different than: "Renegade is about the only one I'm interested in."

Strangely, he wasn't attacked as "attacking Rock Band". Smh.

Even though the Pixies are my favorite band in the world, I passed on buying the songs again in GH because the remaster Neversoft did (and Harmonix too, to an extent) on the Doolittle songs are so ing disgusting I can't buy them without being turned sick. I don't know whats more disgusting in these music games; the re-records or the remasters. El Scorcho in Rock Band is neigh unlistenable due to the remaster, and "Ace of Spades" is unlistenable in both RB and GH:M due to the re-record. Atleast Harmonix has gotten the closest with the re-record in that "Where'd You Go?" is about 73% close to the original. That is, besides the song's timing being messed up and the unneccesary solo at the end (someone please tell these artists that they don't need to throw in useless solo's into songs when they're being re-recorded for the games).

Oh and FWIW, I don't dislike Harmonix. FFS, I put together most of the Harmonix Wiki at FreqFans.Com and talk to several HMX staffers when working on it :/. The only valid complaint you can say against me being against Harmonix is saying they're smug in trying to sell their games as succesors to Frequency and Amplitude when in reality they're almost nothing like those games (Phase, RB:U)...

Originally Posted by BostonCollegeFan It's one thing to make a game dedicated to a humungously popular band including never before seen interviews and stuff fans would dig, to well supplement and make the full price worth it, and to release something to promote the newest childrens television show on Nickelodeon and $2.00 for it when they and other companies in the past have noted that this is promotional material and it was free. Anyone who makes the argument that "Rock Band is a family game/ they need music for kids" is kidding themselves as the game is rated "T" and they couldn't even buy it. It's pretty clear that content is for marketing. I don't have a general dislike for either, I have a general dislike for people who write off Neversoft/Guitar Hero because it's the cool thing to think Harmonix care about their fans (hint: They don't after a while), or because Rock Band is "indie" to Guitar Hero's "mainstream". And again, I wasn't complaining about the promotional stuff, I only complained about paying for them. Just because something else came out with it makes no difference; if I was complaining about the actual content then that would be a legit argument, but since i'm complaining about how money hungry Harmonix/MTV/Viacom are in charging for ad's, then that really doesn't have anything to do with it. And I wasn't overally critical of the DLC, all I said was "The original singer in Styx is gone, so no thank you on the Styx songs since they're re-recorded." Which, as far as I can tell, doesn't contain the words "Rock Band" or "Sucks" or "This weeks DLC is shit". I was jumped on because I enjoy video games and enjoy Guitar Hero as much as I enjoy Rock Band, and what I said was no different than: "Renegade is about the only one I'm interested in." Strangely, he wasn't attacked as "attacking Rock Band". Smh.

But you're missing the point man. Nobody is "making you pay $2 for it" as you keep wording it. It's a choice. That $2 that you might think is an outrage and a sham, might be $2 well spent to some kid. Different strokes for different folks you know. Do you really think it's Harmonix's decision to charge for a Nickelodeon song? I'm sure if Nickelodeon came to them and said "we'll pay you to put this song in your game, but we want to give it away for free...to promote our show." they'd say "No problem." It's not like they haven't given away free songs before.

But Nickelodeon probably thought people would be willing to pay $2 for it. If they're wrong...they're wrong. But a stupid business decision shouldn't be something that offends you. It's not like Harmonix is seeking out Nickelodeon for these songs. They're coming to Harmonix. But to say that Rock Band is not a family game or a game for kids is ignorant. The "T" rating does nothing to prevent hundreds of thousands of 5 year olds all over the planet from playing both GH and RB (nor should it). I can promise you that.

I think you've gotta take a step back from the argument here and look at the case you've presented. I understand getting defensive about people jumping on you. It happens to the best of us (I would like to point out that I haven't said a single critical thing toward you though). But, you just said you don't like Harmonix/MTV because they're money hungry and focus on selling ads. But you hate that people view Neversoft and GH negatively because they're "mainstream". Doesn't that mean they're trying to make money?

I can promise you both sides care just as much about money and neither one is innocent. I don't really give a shit whether Harmonix "cares about their fans". This is nowhere near that personal to me. As long as they keep providing a good service and support for a game that I've put a lot of money into, I'll be happy.

All I meant about GH: M being a promotion is from the standpoint of the band. I seriously doubt Lars and James give two shits about being in a video game, but it's a good way to PROMOTE their music to kids who may have never heard it (or most of it) before. Personally, I could care less about that game, as there are only a couple songs on it game that I'd enjoy. Therefore, to me, it's a waste of money. But I'm not going to discredit that somebody else might think it's the best game ever. If they love Metallica that much, good for them. It didn't hurt me personally that the game was released.

I think both sides have gotten way too personal with this. You didn't deserve to get jumped on for what you said, but at the same time, your opinion comes off with a negative bias toward RB. To sum up, you're both wrong.

EDIT - I do want to point out that I'm not debating the musical integrity of Metallica vs Spongebob here, lol, because even I think that's a bit ridiculous. But I will argue for people's right to like whatever they want.

Advertisement

Register for free to remove this ad

Oh I know it's a choice, I was just saying that as a commentary on the state of gaming itself, I have never nor will I ever download any paid promotional song, I just feel bad for the people who get roped into buying an ad. Also Viacom owns MTV, which owns Harmonix, so i'm sure Harmonix had 0 input into what goes into the game (as much as they love to cry wolf). I did state previously that i'm glad it's not Harmonix mandating what gets charged what amount.

I just know the day's going to come, probably soon, when Harmonix ditches Rock Band like it has with every other franchise in their 15+ year history. Thats what got people all riled up in the GH thread when I said something about Neversoft atleast not taking the money and running.

"But you hate that people view Neversoft and GH negatively because they're "mainstream". Doesn't that mean they're trying to make money?"

I meant that as in a equation to rock and roll. People seem to like Rock Band and Harmonix because they're "indie" and not the big name game while Guitar Hero is known by everyone. Of course Neversoft and Harmonix are in it to make money, just one company doesn't throw a hissy fit when they are told to make another entry in a series while the other stays with the franchises. Of course, I doubt Harmonix have as much leverage now that they're owned by MTV, but if you go by past history, it's bound to happen that Harmonix will stop working on Rock Band soon. This is already evident by RB:U.

Also even though i'm 100% against XBL being paid, I paid for a month last night because I wanted to try RB2 on live. Is it just my copy or does the game crash alot when looking for players? Like I could never play Tug of War or Score Duel because it'd crash while looking and it took atleast 5 minutes to find people for Band Quickplay. I haven't tried it out with GH:M yet, but just wondering if this is normal?

Originally Posted by BostonCollegeFan I meant that as in a equation to rock and roll. People seem to like Rock Band and Harmonix because they're "indie" and not the big name game while Guitar Hero is known by everyone. Of course Neversoft and Harmonix are in it to make money, just one company doesn't throw a hissy fit when they are told to make another entry in a series while the other stays with the franchises. Of course, I doubt Harmonix have as much leverage now that they're owned by MTV, but if you go by past history, it's bound to happen that Harmonix will stop working on Rock Band soon. This is already evident by RB:U.

Well, the people who think this are off base. Personally, I prefer RB, but it has nothing to do with this reason. I like RB's presentation. I've always like Harmonix's style (going back to Frequency and Karaoke Revolution). I like the emphasis on full band rather than super difficult guitar parts (I'm a singer/songwriter, so I appreciate a good lyric as much as a good lick). I have no inner "hatred" toward either group. I just appreciate a good time.

If, for some reason, Harmonix abandons RB (but with being under MTV's finger, they might not allow them to), and it begins to suck, then I'll reevaluate. There are some who think music games are just a fad and people will eventually tire of them anyway. Who knows. I don't have any loyalty to either group. I'll play whatever is worth my money. I bought RB2 and GH:WT, but find myself playing RB2 way more. That's just the way it is. You just gotta be careful getting into arguments with idiots man. Before you know it, you start sounding like one, haha

who would want a STYX song besides "Mr. Roboto" anyway... haha

saw this on Billboard.com today.

Anvil hit the studio to record new versions of three songs -- "Metal on Metal," "666" and the first-ever studio recording of "Thumb Hang" by the Anvil pre-cursor Lips -- for inclusion in "Rock Band." "We did them in Toronto, just recently," Reiner says. "The original tapes were gone from the early records, but the band is far superior today than it was 30 years ago in every aspect. You can tell it's the same band that's only gotten better, so why not take a crack at this stuff?"


Which is a sort-of big story because of the hype this Anvil movie has gotten.

Yeah, see i'm the opposite, i'm a bassist IRL and I just hate the idiotic charting in some of the bass charts in Rock Band (chords in YYZ? What are you smoking Harmonix?), and love the innovations Neversoft brought to the table with Sustained Notes while hitting other notes, and the open bass note. Also I think hammer on chords is way overused in RB and kinda kills it for me, but that probably doesn't matter to alot of people who don't play instruments IRL.

I don't loathe Harmonix or anything, I just think they getting a free pass from most people is absurd, since they're just as greedy and scummy as what people assume Neversoft is.

Originally Posted by BostonCollegeFan Yeah, see i'm the opposite, i'm a bassist IRL and I just hate the idiotic charting in some of the bass charts in Rock Band (chords in YYZ? What are you smoking Harmonix?), and love the innovations Neversoft brought to the table with Sustained Notes while hitting other notes, and the open bass note. Also I think hammer on chords is way overused in RB and kinda kills it for me, but that probably doesn't matter to alot of people who don't play instruments IRL. I don't loathe Harmonix or anything, I just think they getting a free pass from most people is absurd, since they're just as greedy and scummy as what people assume Neversoft is.

Quit RB and stick with RL then.