Posts Tagged ‘Rush’

Because of the whole band premise of the Rock Band series, instrumental tracks for regular Rock Band DLC are very rare (more common on the RBN, however). The only track I can remember at the top of my head, is the recently released Frankenstein back in January. So I thought I would share one of my favorite, and arguably the most popular instrumental song in the whole Rock Band platform, YYZ by Rush.

Rush is definitely one of the most popular artists in Rock Band, with three different packs (including the entirety of 2112), two on-disc songs, and five singles. We have even featured three of their songs as previous Thursday Throwback picks: Limelight, Closer to the Heart and Working Man (Vault Edition).

YYZ was released in 1981, on their studio album Moving Pictures. It wasn’t released as a single, so its popularity is mainly down to it being one of the favorites at concerts. The name comes from the airport code of Rush’s hometown of Toronto. The band always know when they are home, as YYZ appears on their luggage. YYZ was first featured on the setlist of Guitar Hero II, along with Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, and then finally as part of the full album release of Moving Pictures in Rock Band.

I’m glad to report that the exclusion of the vocals does not effect the rest of this song. While your singers can take a breather, everyone else should prepare for a workout, because its difficulty of the song is pretty high. 4-tier guitar starts off relatively simple in the intro, which then turns into a little harder riff, and then turns into a strumfest at around the two minute mark, with a solo later on. 4-tier bass follows a very simple pattern to the guitar throughout most of the song, hence the same difficulty, but towards the end it gets even harder, so watch out. As you would expect from Neil Peart, 5-tier drums is the hardest of the instruments, with loads of foot pedal usage, switches in cymbals, and loads of tricky fills throughout, so I would recommend playing in Pro mode for that extra challenge.

Got any ideas for any artists we haven’t featured yet? Or different songs by artists we have featured? Any ideas would be great!

After looking through this site, why don’t you head on over to my growing fansite, The Tribute Pages which features loads of tributes of video games, TV shows and movies. Much appreciated!

Here are this week’s Pro-Guitar/Bass charts for the Rush: 2112 DLC from the always awesome thenewnoelisoncruz. Definitely check out and subscribe to his YouTube channel!

Rush – 2112: Overture, The Temple of Syrinx (Pro)

Rush – 2112: Discovery, Presentation (Pro)

Rush – 2112: Oracle: The Dream, Soliloquy, Grand Finale (Pro)

Arriving in the Rock Band library on Saturday for the Xbox 360 (today for the PS3 and Wii) is the entire first side of Rush’s 2112. Included below is one big playthrough video of the DLC from YouTube Rock Band superstar splync. Definitely check out and subscribe to his YouTube channel!

Links to purchase DLC songs online at Xbox.com are included below for each track (although we HIGHLY recommend you just buy the pack). All tracks are 160 MSP ($1.99). The Rush “2112″ pack is available for 440 MSP ($5.49). 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.

Rush – 2112: Overture, The Temple of Syrinx (Pro)

Rush – 2112: Discovery, Presentation (Pro)

Rush – 2112: Oracle: The Dream, Soliloquy, Grand Finale (Pro)

Who saw this coming?!?! OK, so Harmonix came through on all the little hints they dropped, and announced this morning that the entirety of Rush’s epic 2112 track will be coming to Rock Band as DLC as three separate playable tracks:

• Rush – 2112: Overture, The Temple of Syrinx *
• Rush – 2112: Discovery, Presentation *
• Rush – 2112: Oracle: The Dream, Soliloquy, Grand Finale *

* Denotes Pro-Guitar/Bass chart availability for $.99.

The pack will be released on December 31, 2011 for the Xbox 360, and January 3rd, 2012 for the PS3 and Wii. (Available in Europe on PlayStation 3 on January 18th.) The tracks are available individually for $1.99, or you can purchase the entire pack for $5.49.

If you purchase the 3-pack, similar to the Abbey Road Beatles DLC, you will also receive one 20-minute marathon medley of all seven parts of the suite, exclusively available in this special pack. And that’s not it! You ALSO will receive the Pro Guitar and Pro Bass upgrades for all three packages, as well as a Pro Guitar and Pro Bass upgrade for the medley for free! (Xbox 360 and PS3 only.)

[Official announcement]

Let’s sum up where we are at right now, shall we? We originally heard about a 2112 DLC rumor way back at the beginning of December when Alexandre from France grabbed a pic of a placeholder for a 2112 DLC pack in the music store in Rock Band 3 (sent in by Guillaume). Since that time, a LOT more evidence has come out:

• Barely an hour after the initial screen grab was posted, it was corroborated with another pic someone took.
• With the 12/13 Rush DLC official announcement, this statement was also included: These three tracks are just the tip of the iceberg for Rush fans; we’ll have even more exciting Rush/Rock Band news before the year’s out, so stay tuned!
• On the December 19th Harmonix Holiday Livestream, they dropped several teasers as well, including a “slip of the tongue” on wishing everyone a “Happy 2112,” as well as a not-so-subtle “It’s coming!”
• A “reminder” of all the above info from @HMXHenry this morning.
• Finally, @HMXHenry’s response about when 2112 will be announced: If I told you that now then I’d have nothing to announce next Wednesday.

The Harmonix Holiday Livestream ended just moments ago, and with it brought three artists coming in early 2012 as DLC. Artists Bush and Hall & Oates will be making their Rock Band debut, and will be joined by Huey Lewis & the News. There was no mention of specific songs coming, but Harmonix did get a jump start on speculation by saying that these artists will only be featured in three-packs.

Harmonix did tease in a very subtle way the Rush 2112 rumor, but John Drake’s hushed “It’s coming soon” comment when it was “accidentally” mentioned seemed to keep it alive. Up for interpretation is whether it was tongue-in-cheek, or serious in nature. Considering Harmonix’s Rush DLC announcement from earlier this month mentioned more Rush news before the end of the year (which is next week), we should hopefully see resolution on this by the end of the week.

And for those who listened to the Rock Band podcast on Friday, Rock Band 3 will be featured as a Xbox 360 Games on Demand title starting tomorrow. If for some reason you still don’t have this game, I don’t recommend taking advantage of this offer, as any theoretical export of Rock Band 3 wouldn’t be possible due to the lack of a hard copy manual with the Games on Demand version.