Posts Tagged ‘The Who’

For this week’s article, I thought I would feature a different kind of song from the Rock Band platform. As you know, we have some really long songs available in the game. The first Rock Band title’s longest track, Green Grass and High Tides, was nearly ten minutes long, and the recently released Do You Feel Like We Do (Live) is over a staggering 13 minutes long! (See a list of the longest rock band songs here.)

However, one of the longest songs in the platform isn’t really a song as such, its a “mash up,” or a combination of a number of different songs. Originally played at the Super Bowl XLIV halftime show, The Who’s Super Bowl S-mashup features 15 songs by The Who in a nearly thirteen minute long medley. If, for some reason, you’re not familiar with The Who, the medley will give you a brief introduction to the band and highlight some of their biggest hits, which are also all available individually to play in Rock Band.

So what’s the song like to play? Well, this is Rock Band, and this is The Who, so what do you think its going to be like? The Guitar rocks some iconic riffs, Bass has lots of variety (even within the same song), Drums attempt to channel the late Keith Moon, and surprisingly Roger Daltrey manages to land some of the notes he used to hit back in the 70s. Not bad for 65!

And the best part? Its only the standard price of 2 dollars!

Here’s a playthrough of the song (in two parts because it is a big track)!

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy reading the future posts in this series. Any tracks you would like to see featured? Give us a shout below, along with your thoughts on this pick.

I would appreciate it if you would have a look at my growing fansite, The Tribute Pages and also have a look at the Rock Band 3 page! Thanks!

Not on the list...

If you have been living under a rock the past few weeks and managed to miss both the most recent official Rock Band podcast AND community newsletter, than you missed out on finding out the top 10 best-selling Rock Band DLC artists. The list is presented in no particular order, with the exception of the Beatles, who were confirmed to be the most popular Rock Band DLC artist. The list of songs is included below, along with a song count that lists the number of DLC songs (on-disc tracks not included).

• The Beatles (29 songs)
• The Who (14 songs)
• Metallica (3 songs)
• Boston (7 songs)
• Disturbed (11 songs)
• No Doubt (23 songs)
• Foo Fighters (22 songs)
• The Police (9 songs)
• Red Hot Chili Peppers (18 songs)
• Blink 182 (9 songs)

Very enlightening, but what I find more interesting is the lack of some other artists. First, while Green Day only had six DLC songs, they had their own full game developed, and their exclusion from this list speaks volumes as to why their own game may have not been the best move.

The band with the highest volume of songs, Pearl Jam with 24 DLC songs, did not make the cut. Could this have impacted the decision to not move forward with a dedicated Pearl Jam title?

After Pearl Jam was Jimi Hendrix, assuming you count “Jimi Hendrix” and “The Jimi Hendrix Experience” as the same artist, who had 22 DLC tracks. There have been rumors in the past of a dedicated Jimi Hendrix title, but if he can’t crack the Top 10, would that have been a good move?

Following closely to Jimi Hendrix was Queen, who had 20 DLC songs but didn’t crack the Top 10. Did the decision to have seven “RB3 Version” DLC tracks sour people from picking up the second pack? Similar to Jimi Hendrix, Queen has been party to standalone title rumors.

Other artists NOT making the above list (with the number of DLC songs immediately following) include The Clash (20 songs), Bob Marley and the Wailers (20 songs), Judas Priest (20 songs), Billy Joel (18 songs), The Grateful Dead (17 songs), and Megadeth (16 songs).

Feel free to voice any shock and/or awe at what songs did or did not make the Top 10 list below!

For those who may have been visiting the site for awhile and have an odd case of deja vu, it is justified. A little over a year ago, there was a very similar auction for two Roger Daltrey signed Mad Catz Fender Stratocaster Replica Rock Band guitars. This year, Mad Catz is upping the stakes a little bit and having both Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend from The Who sign one of two Candy Apple red finished guitars, to be auctioned off on eBay.

Not sure who got their hands on the guitars from last year, nor did I find out the final winning bids, but this would make one hell of a present for the fans out there who are still waiting on The Who: Rock Band. All proceeds of the autographed guitar controllers will go to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

To bid, head on over to the first auction here, or the second auction here! Don’t delay, however, as bidding ends on April 3rd!

For more details, head on over to MadCatz.com.

[MadCatz]

Destructoid put up a post earlier this morning about a survey sent out from NPD, a global provider of market research data, about people’s feelings towards an artist-specific music game.  As you can see above, they actually called out a number artists for Rock Band that we’ve already heard rumors about: Pink Floyd, Queen, The Who, and U2. There have also been rumors lately of Guitar Hero titles featuring the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but what I find interesting is that the survey specifically mentions “This game will only contain music created from the specified artist.” While Harmonix has been taking this approach with both the Beatles and Green Day, Guitar Hero’s Aerosmith, Metallica, and Van Halen titles have had a healthy smattering of other artists. If the Red Hot Chili Peppers rumor turns out to be true, is Guitar Hero again reading from Harmonix’s play book and only having a single on-disc artist?

While I know a lot of people are against the idea of single-artist discs, I think a few of them are still good ideas. I think a Led Zeppelin game would sell very well. I also think a U2 game well sell equally well, although I may be biased because I’m a big U2 fan.

I could be way off, though. What do you guys think? Add some artists in the comments from above and any others that you can think of that you would purchase if they made an artist-specific game.

The fine folks at Fender have got an auction that I highly recommend some of you should get in on.  Fender is auctioning off two different Mad Catz Fender Stratocaster Replica Rock Band Guitars (Xbox 360) for charity… and BOTH are signed by Roger Daltrey of The Who!  Bidding starts at the retail price for each of these bad boys at $300, so this is one for the die hard Rock Band and The Who fans.

There are two separate auctions, so go here for the first one, and here for the second one.  Bidding ends on Febuary 10th.  Both items appear to be identical models with the sunburst finish signed by Mr. Daltrey.  The auctions support Teenage Cancer Trust, a leading UK charity which funds and develops specialist teenage cancer units within hospitals which enable young people to be treated together, by an expert team, in the best possible environment for their age group. Teenage Cancer Trust focuses on quality of life and aims to improve the chances of survival for young people with cancer.

In addition, Mad Catz has pledged to donate 15% of all proceeds from the sale of its Rock Band Wireless Wooden Fender Stratocaster Guitar Controllers for Xbox 360® through its online UK and US retail destinations: store.gameshark.net (UK) & store.gameshark.com (US) between now and Feb. 10.

Take it from me.  I just bought one of these (unsigned, obviously), and it is a DREAM to play on.  It’s basically a real Fender guitar made of wood and metal finishings (actually made at the Fender factory), except it’s a Rock Band controller.  I liked it so much, I bought two… except I don’t know what to do with the spare one… (tease, tease)

[via Fender]

Looks like the rumors were true. Official word coming out of Harmonix today is that The Who’s “Super Bowl S-Mashup” will come to Rock Band as DLC immediately following the Super Bowl XLIV Halftime Show performance.

Sounds like the track will be ready for the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii, but you PS3 players will have to wait a little bit before it’s available (assuming next Thursday).

The track will be priced at $1.99 (160 MS Points).