Not only does next week’s Rock Band Music Store update bring six live tracks from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, it also gives us insight into what Harmonix feels is family friendly. For instance, “Refugee”, “A Thing About You” and “Here Comes My Girl” are all available for LEGO Rock Band as well as the normal version, while “American Girl”, “Even the Losers” and “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” are not. All of the tracks are from The Live Anthology, in stores November 24.

Kelly Clarkson makes her Rock Band/LEGO Rock Band debut with “Miss Independent”, rounding out a non-Petty, family-friendly trio that includes the Go-Go’s “Our Lips Are Sealed” and Pink’s “Who Knew”.

Things can only get worse.

Available on Xbox 360 and Wii (November 24) and PlayStation 3 system (November 26):

· Go-Go’s – “Our Lips Are Sealed” +
· Kelly Clarkson – “Miss Independent” +
· P!nk – “Who Knew” +
· Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “A Thing About You (live)” +
· Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “American Girl (live)”
· Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Even the Losers (live)”
· Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Here Comes My Girl (live)” +
· Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Mary Jane’s Last Dance (live)”
· Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “Refugee (live)” +

After opening his article for The New Republic with a reference to how he and his fellow “smug old children of the ’70s” lament the passing influence of the music of their youth, critic David Hajdu discovers a cruel twist. The music games that are so popular on consoles today bring older music to younger audiences, continuing what he considers to be the lamentable tradition of letting an older generation condescend to a younger one that older music is superior music:

For another thing—and this is the main failing of music games, and it is a significant one—they have the insidious effect of glorifying classic rock, a music with an already bloated reputation that is founded on its very bloatedness. In the games’ absorption with technical prowess, speed, flash, grandiose show, and fakery, they not only affirm the enduring allure of classic rock to kids and young adults, especially males; they also advance its tyranny. People like me who have kids of video-game-playing age no doubt get many things wrong about these games, and chief among the errors of our age group, I think, is inflated generational pride in the 1970s-style arena rock that Guitar Hero and Rock Band promote to our descendants—kids who might otherwise, and perhaps more appropriately, use their after-school hours to nurture interests in music of their own. The games reassure us that our aftercomers are our heirs. They are male-oriented tools of cultural primogeniture, applications of twenty-first-century technology with a very ancient mission.

The full article will appear in the magazine’s December 2 issue.

Pretending [The New Republic]

You know, when nobody but my wife and an empty bottle are looking, I’ll sing a little Rock Band. This lady is equally timid on the m.i.c., but has a cunning alternative: play the flute.

Yes, as with SingStar, Rock Band can’t understand your actual words while singing. It just picks up the pitch and tone and runs with it. So while singing can, and normally does get the job done, if you can play the flute, you can get the job done via other means.

[via Neatorama]

The fact he mentions a third Rock Band should surprise only those who wake up every morning shocked to see the sun has risen. But the specifics, and why he’s involved in the project, those are a little more interesting.

“I’m working on ‘Rock Band 3′ and making the controllers more real so people can actually learn how to play music while playing the game,” he told the newspaper. “Give me a couple years, it’s going to happen.”

I don’t know. I enjoy playing Rock Band because I can’t play the guitar. If I wanted to learn how to play the guitar I’d, well… learn how to play the guitar.

The ever-changing Thenewno2 [Chicago Tribune]

In order to properly play “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground”, “Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine” and “Icky Thump”, the three White Stripes tunes making their way to the Rock Band Music Store next week, you will need a divorced spouse you are still on amazingly good terms with. If you are drumming, it’ll be best if you’ve never had a lesson, and if you are playing the guitar you’d best own a mic stand. Otherwise the experience will be totally ruined.

If you can’t handle those restrictions, you’re probably better off playing The Damned’s “Smash it Up (Part II)” or Kasabian’s “Club Foot”, the two other songs coming to the console versions of Rock Band next week, or No Doubt’s “Excuse Me Mr” and the Dropkick Murphys’ “I’m Shipping Up To Boston”, this week’s Rock Band Unplugged additions.

Available on Xbox 360 and Wii (November 10) and PlayStation 3 system (November 12):

• The Damned – “Smash It Up (Part II)” +
• Kasabian – “Club Foot” +
• The White Stripes – “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” +
• The White Stripes – “Girl, You Have No Faith in Medicine” +
• The White Stripes – “Icky Thump”

Tracks available for Rock Band Unplugged (November 12):

• No Doubt – “Excuse Me Mr.”
• Dropkick Murphys – “I’m Shipping Up to Boston”

“I think my Lego character is wonderful. I want one,” he said, according to BangShowBiz.com “We had discussions about the hair, there were a few emails. They had to negotiate to use my likeness, but it’s a nice thing.”

That’s May’s plasticy perm above, depicted with Lego Freddy Mercury in the game. May said a jealous Joe Elliott, the Def Leppard singer, called him up to complain that he didn’t get a minifig version. “Joe Elliott rang me up and said he was pissed off because they didn’t make one of him,” May said.

See? Not everyone hates being paid to appear in a video game…

Brian May’s Lego Hair Demands [BangShowBiz.com on Yahoo! UK, via Eurogamer]

The Japanese are ruthlessly slaughtering whales and dolphins, and only Stan Marsh can stop them, not that his friends give a damn. They’re too busy rocking out to Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” in Rock Band to care about what happens to the dolphins. “Poker Face” isn’t actually a Rock Band song at the moment, but after watching the clip below I am convinced it needs to be. I mean, I care about dolphins and all, mainly because they add a little extra oomph to my tuna fish sandwiches, but playing Rock Band is much more entertaining.

Near the tail-end of the four-page interview, the site mentions The Beatles: Rock Band to Daltrey, who cuts straight to the bean spilling.

“The game, yeah, yeah, they’re going to be doing a Who one next year. There is one planned. (The idea) is fabulous. Anything that gets non-musical people interested in music is wonderful. In my opinion, music is our last true great freedom. They can burn our books, they can burn our paintings, but they can’t stop us singing and making music.”

We’ve reached out to Harmonix for comment on this, but given their seemingly close relationship with The Who, it doesn’t seem like a stretch to think they might make a standalone game with the band.

One catch is that The Who discography, with 27 top forty singles from 11 studio albums and nine live albums, isn’t quite as deep as The Beatles’ which includes 12 to 27 studio albums (depending on how you count them) and two live albums.

Daltrey opens up on singing, life [Mass Live, thanks Pete]

It was the wedding of Hyper magazine deputy editor Darren Wells. There was a mushroom kingdom cake, question block goodie bags, toadstool candy and, er… Rock Band. They played “Still Alive” for their bride and groom’s first jam.

Darren and his lovely wife Amanda are now enjoying their honeymoon at the Black Mesa facility.

This feature-heavy entry boasts 20 licensed tracks, retains most of the modes and intuitive play from the console versions, and loses little of the magic that makes the series such a head-banging blast.

Loved
Band in Your Hand: Four instruments-guitar, bass, drums, vocals, 20 tracks, world tour, quick play, multiplayer and even a music store make the jump to Apple’s slick portable. Despite the absence of plastic peripherals and avatars, Rock Band on iPhone, well, rocks!

On-the-go stars can climb the solo career path with all four instruments, or just jump into a single jam in quick play mode. A great track list, featuring such artists as Foo Fighters, Joan Jett, Smashing Pumpkins and the Pixies, is unlocked as you tackle the solo tour on any of three difficulty settings. And, if you can round up some iPhone-owning band mates (who’ve also downloaded the game), you can rock out over Bluetooth. One of the cooler features, though, is the music store, which already has 14 new tracks-they’re purchased in pairs for a wallet-friendly 99 cents/AU$1.19. If the series’ support on consoles is any indication, iPhones will soon become veritable jukeboxes of Rock Band-supported tunes.

Tactile Tuneage: As good as the PSP version of Rock Band was, it sacrificed some of the fun by losing the fake instruments. While the iPhone port doesn’t exactly put a plastic axe in your hands, it does make great use of the device’s touch screen. Coupled with the familiar fret and drum lines, the four touch bars and pads running along the bottom of the screen allow for an amazing amount of satisfying interaction. Holding your iPhone vertically, both your thumbs get one hell of a workout as they frantically keep up with the music racing towards them. Amping the immersion even further is point-boosting overdrive mode, which requires a little shake of the device for activation.

Hated
Voiceless Vocals: Shredding and drumming offer more than enough room-rattling thrills, but the vocal gameplay falls flatter than an inebriated stage-diver. Without any type of microphone support, you’re subjected to a lame tapping game that’s little more than a tweaked version of the other instruments’ play modes. While similar mechanics work great for drums, guitar, and bass, they just don’t cut it for vocals, where intricacies such as pitch actually affect your performance on the console versions. If you’re not going to let us hone our singing chops, why even bother with vocal play?.

Despite falling slightly short of the console versions, and sporting an expensive-for-an-App $US9.99/AU$12.99 price tag, Rock Band is an easy recommendation. I played through the world tour mode in the middle of the night, in an abandoned NYC Pennsylvania Station. At 2.30am, working on little sleep, and dreading the long train trip ahead, I fired it up and soon caught myself bouncing to Joan Jett’s Bad Reputation in my uncomfortable waiting-area chair. Trust me-that’s quite an endorsement.

Rock Band was developed by Harmonix and published by EA and MTV Games for iPhone in October. Retails for $US9.99/AU$12.99. A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Completed World Tour mode on easy, normal and hard difficulty settings with all four instruments. Also participated in several multiplayer games

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