Unless otherwise noted, all songs are 160 MSP ($1.99). Songs not linked below were not available on RockBand.com at time of publishing.

• A Plea for Purging – Heart Of A Child (2x Bass Pedal) *
• Anarchy Club – King of Everything *
• Chaotrope – The Thief in the Night – Part II *
• Engel – Calling Out
• Halcyon Way – Rise to Revise *
• Halcyon Way – Rise to Revise (2x Bass Pedal) *
• Look Left – Put Out the Fire *
• Machinae Supremacy – Rocket Dragon
• Mystic Syntax – Give *
• Raggedy Angry – Easter Island Radiation *
• Richard Snow – Lonesome Cowboy
• Rishloo – Weevil Bride *
• SIMPL3JACK – Song for Meg *
• Strikken – Machine *
• Strikken – Machine (2x Bass Pedal) *
• Trucker Diablo – Drink Beer, Destroy
• Ultra Vomit – Je Collectionne des Canards (Vivants)

* Denotes 80 MSP ($.99) track pricing.

ROCK BAND NETWORK XBOX 360 2/16 PLAYLIST

[Official announcement]

This week would have been the 50th Throwback Thursday on the site. So intead of the usual article, we’re going to take a look back of all the songs that we have featured.

During the course of the two and a half years this feature has appeared on the site, we have highlighted songs from over 40 different artists! This includes singles from KISS, Rush, Foreigner, Jonathan Coulton, Boston, Kansas, The Stone Roses, Paramore and many more! We’ve reviewed songs across loads of different genres too, from Classic Rock to Alternative, Metal to Southern Rock, and Prog to Country. So what about the individual tracks themselves?

For those that may be new to the franchise and are looking to get a handle on some easier tracks, we’ve got you covered. Here’s just a few to get you started, along with what we said:

The Clash – Train in Vain

Admittedly, the song isn’t the most difficult track to play. [The instruments] may be quite simple, but unlike some songs, it does change quite a few times during the song and never feels boring to play.

Shaimus – All of This

All of This is most likely one of the best short, but not ridiculously hard, songs you will find. I personally had no problems [playing] this song, which features unbelievably catchy lyrics and tune.

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bad Moon Rising

While Bad Moon Rising may not be the best known song from the band, or the longest, it is certainly one of my favorite short songs to play in the whole Rock Band platform. Every instrument is great to play, and none are particularly tricky, so they are great for newcomers to the series, or as a warm up song.

Smash Mouth – All Star

The vocals have some catchy lyrics making it fun to sing. Guitar doesn’t have any tricky bits and lacks a solo, but it does have changes in the chart frequently. The same can be said about the Tier 4 drums.

And what about those of you who play specific instruments? Well here’s the a handful of songs we’ve featured that are particularly excellent on a specific instrument. (Of course, many of these cross over as they are usually fun on all instruments.)

Guitar

• Alice Cooper – School’s Out (Live)
• Allman Brothers Band – Blue Sky
• Boston – Peace of Mind
• KISS – Calling Dr. Love
• Steve Miller Band – The Joker

Bass

• Creedence Clearwater Revival – I Heard It Through the Grapevine
• Foreigner – Juke Box Hero
• Rush – Closer to the Heart
• Queen – Tie your Mother Down
• Stone Roses – Love Spreads

Drums

• Foo Fighters – Pretender
• Kansas – Point of Know Return (Live)
• The Knack – My Sharona
• Tom Petty – Mary Jane’s Last Dance (Live)
• The Who Super Bowl S-mash Up

Vocals

• Boston – More than a Feeling
• Dierks Bentley – Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)
• Social Distortion – Story of My Life
• Queen – I Want It All
• Weezer – (If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To

We have not featured enough songs with keys to make a list, as the songs feature typically have been prior to release of Rock Band 3, but we are far enough out from release that we will start including some songs with keys in the future.

So there you go. As more great DLC continues to be released, we will continue to highlight some older tracks that may have been overlooked. With over 3,500 total DLC songs currently avaible for the platform, our picks here are just the tip of the iceperg. Any tracks or arists you would like to feature in the future? Any ways to improve the articles? Then sound off below!

Here are this week’s Pro-Guitar/Bass charts for yesterday’s Mr. Big and Poison DLC from the always awesome thenewnoelisoncruz. Definitely check out and subscribe to his YouTube channel!

Mr. Big – To Be With You

Poison – Every Rose Has Its Thorn

Arriving in the Rock Band library today is a romance inspired four pack of songs from Poison, Heart, Mr. Big, and Rick Astley. Included below are playthrough videos of the DLC from the always awesome thenewnoelisoncruz. Definitely check out and subscribe to his YouTube channel!

Links to purchase DLC songs online at Xbox.com are included below for each track. All tracks are 160 MSP ($1.99). The Gold Star My Heart Pack is 560 MSP ($6.99). Pro Guitar/Bass charts are noted below where applicable, and can be purchased for an additional $.99. Playthrough charts for Pro Guitar/Bass will be posted tomorrow.

Directly below is a playlist of all the DLC videos, followed by individual videos of each DLC track after the jump.

Playlist of all new DLC:

Read the rest of this entry »

In what is quickly becoming a recurring theme around the holidays, Harmonix once again hosted a livestream to show off the latest DLC, as well as address some popular questions from the community. They even had a chance to field some relationship questions from several fans, which may or may not have been the most valuable takeaway.

The livestream started out with HMXChristine going over the most requested “songs” culled from rockband.com/request:

1. Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up
2. Green Day – No Song Title Given (people just put in Green Day, without any song title… explains the demand for Green Day: Rock Band, I guess)
3. Family Force 5 – Radiator
4. Blink 182 – Always
5. Erasure – Always
6. Guns N’ Roses – Appetite for Destruction (the entire album was requested, no specific song)
7. Kiss – Alive! (again, the entire album was requested, no specific song)
8. Family Force 5 – Radiator (misspelled, I believe)
9. Reel Big Fish – Beer
10. Greyson Chance – Summer Train

You are probably thinking the same thing as myself: The community requests a LOT of random, potentially questionable, songs. It only gives further credence to claims that it might not be such a bad thing letting Harmonix incorporate our feedback with what they think would make the best DLC.

Anyway, they also listed the most requested artists, as well:

1. Rick Astley
2. Avenged Sevenfold
3. Muse
4. Family Force 5
5. Linkin Park
6. Erasure
7. Coheed & Cambria
8. Paramore
9. Metallica
10. Slipknot

This list looks a little better than the first one, but I didn’t know that there is such an appetite for Family Force 5 and Erasure. It’s entirely possible that a small group of people could be repeatedly requesting them and pulling a “Parents Television Council,” as it were. Harmonix let us know that the addition of the Facebook Rock Band dashboard app has given them another tool that compliments rockband.com/request and should help get more highly requested DLC into the game.

There wasn’t any new information coming from the fan-submitted questions, but @MrPope let us know that Harmonix will be hosting a panel at PAX East that will be a live taping of the Harmonix podcast. And to follow that up,  @HMXHenry teased us with another special panel at PAX East that will be revealed by Penny Arcade themselves that will give us more information on the future of Rock Band. E3 is still the de facto event for unveiling major titles, but since Harmonix is based in Boston, and this is an event for fans of gaming, I wouldn’t be surprised to see SOMETHING revealed at PAX East. No word on if that may indeed be a precursor to a “Rock Band 4,” or if the franchise is going to be more of a “radical departure,” so we’ll have to wait and see!

Feel free to speculate in the comments below!

So next week is Valentine’s Day, and this morning we received an announcement for a nice, loving pack of ballads as DLC for next week. And apparently, there are several people out there with black hearts, or prefer their ballads a bit darker, so we figured we would give out a Xbox 360 DLC code for the Ozzy Osbourne 8-pack, released in late May of last year. The songs included are…

• Bark at the Moon *
• Diary of a Madman
• Flying High Again
• I Don’t Know
• Mama, I’m Coming Home *
• Mr. Crowley **
• Over the Mountain
• Steal Away (The Night)

* Indicates songs exclusive to the new Ozzy 8-pack. Songs are not available individually.
** Indicates Pro-Guitar/Bass chart availability for an additional $.99.

If this is something that you want to try and win, here’s what you gotta do. To enter, in honor of Ozzy who has not once but twice bitten the head off of a live animal, post a comment below of the most disgusting thing you’ve ever eaten. Standard rules apply: one entry per household only, Xbox 360 only, codes are redeemable worldwide (as far as I know). Please include a valid email address in the appropriate field (or Twitter account if you don’t want to take off your tin foil hat) with each entry so we can contact the winners.

We’ll let this run through the weekend so everyone has a chance to enter and randomly choose a winner sometime on Monday afternoon (Central time). And since we ALSO have a number of 160 MSP codes, we’ll randomly give out a “consolation gift” to one random entrant, as well!

Good luck! And thanks to Harmonix for providing us with codes to giveaway!

UPDATE: The winners have been selected. Congratulations to WAWA for winning the Ozzy DLC, and RB Drummer for winning the 160 MSP Code. More DLC giveaways this Friday!