XBox Live Gaming! (Rock Band 2)

This Thursday will mark the triumphal return of the VGHVI house band, Μηνιν Αειδε. We were thinking of doing some DLC this week instead of (or in addition to) on-disk content; if you have suggestions, put them in the comments thread.

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Comment by Roger Travis on August 5, 2009 at 12:32pm

Sounds good!

Comment by David Carlton on August 5, 2009 at 12:23pm

Doolittle (album)

Funk #49
Shining Star
Love Spreads
That's When I Reach for My Revolver
Typical
Pretty Noose

Comment by Matthew Teutsch on August 4, 2009 at 12:11pm

I need to know what songs we may do so I can hopefully download them.

Comment by David Carlton on August 4, 2009 at 1:35am

This is getting fun! I just played through Funk #49 (James Gang) on drums and enjoyed it, and I also recall enjoying it on guitar, so I'll second that. Also, Shining Star (by Earth Wind and Fire) was fun on drums and sounded like it might be fun on bass. (And I love the horn parts.) It's available in "Get the Funk Out Pack #1", which seems to be generally recommended.

I'm also counting multiple votes for Love Spreads (Stone Roses), That's When I Reach for My Revolver (Mission to Burma), Typical (Mute Math), and Pretty Noose (Soundgarden). Those four plus the two I mentioned above makes six songs; that combined with Doolittle sounds like enough to keep us busy. (Though if Matthew wants to recommend a specific Rancid and/or Weezer song, I'm happy to add those on, too.)

Incidentally, I just noticed that, if you search for the songs on rockband.com, they give you links that allow you to purchase them on the xbox web site, so you can buy them at your computer, and they'll start downloading to your console the next time you log in. Convenient... (Hmm, I just tried that, and I had to go to my download queue and give it a nudge. But it seems to have worked once I did that.)

Comment by Matthew Teutsch on August 3, 2009 at 10:01pm

I forgot about the recent Weezer release. I would love to do the new Weezer and Rancid packs, if I can get them this week.

Comment by Matthew Teutsch on August 3, 2009 at 9:59pm

If I could, I would gobble up all of the Rock Band DLC I could. I looked around the other day, after downloading Thrice and Bad Religion, and I noticed a lot of songs I wanted.

Mute Math-Typical
Soundgarden
Rancid
Mission to Burma
and more.

If I can talk the wife into it, or buy then ask, I may be able to pick up a few for Thursday.

My yellow drum head just cracked too, and I was looking forward to playing drums. They still work, but it bothers me. Also, I don't have all of the original Rock Band songs transferred. My original disc is scratched. So, if we play Doolittle, I don't have Wave of Mutilation, which kills me on drums.

Comment by Simon Ferrari on August 3, 2009 at 8:47pm

I accidentally bought 500 dollars worth of games last month, so there's no way I can do DLC with y'all. All for the best though, I didn't know if I'd be able to transport my RB gear out to my girlfriend's house anyway ;) Looking forward to the next time the game comes up in rotation!

Comment by Jonathan Mills on August 3, 2009 at 8:35pm

Ooooh, ooh, I forgot, Mission of Burma's "That's When I Reach for My Revolver" is a great 80s college rock song. If you don't know it, go listen to it.

Comment by Jonathan Mills on August 3, 2009 at 8:34pm

Doolittle's awesome! I'm excited to play it with people.

There are a lot of good song packs across a bunch of genres, so it might be helpful to determine the type of music we'd like to play. I think the funk pack is a really solid choice--there aren't too many good 70's funky rock songs in Rock Band, and it'll mark a good change of pace from the 90s guitar-heavy alt-rock of the Pixies.

There's a few bands I'd recommend considering. Weezer's heavily influenced by the Pixies, especially their first album, which has four songs (3 DLC) in Rock Band. The Offspring are also a great band to play--they're high energy and have some great basslines. I know mainstreamed hardcore punk is probably not everyone's bag, though. The punk diaspora is also pretty well represented; I can't get enough of The Clash, and the (Arguably) Punk Packs bring the Police and Blondie, who can be pretty fun.

There's also a few individual songs that are really amazing, although some of them are pretty easy. Luscious Jackson's "Naked Eye" was one of my favorite songs in high school, and it's just a groovy, laid-back thing to play along to. I have a bad history with the song, but "Take Me Out" is another solid single that's great to sing along to. I second Dan Bruno on "Love Spreads" by The Stone Roses.

I know that cover songs are a thing of a past and generally an embarrassment to Rock Band, but "My Sharona" is still awesome, even if the cover is a little weak.

That being said, I'll buy anything anybody wants to play. Even Steely Dan. If I do buy Steely Dan, though, you'll have to be prepared for me to replace the vocals with "STEELY DAN SUCKS!" for the entire length of the song.

Comment by David Carlton on August 3, 2009 at 7:43pm

All right, then let's declare that we'll be playing through Doolittle.

I send Dan Bruno an e-mail (he's the author of the Cruise Elroy blog as well as a Harmonix employee), and he said:

==

Well, this is hard. :-) I suppose a lot depends on your skill levels and tastes, but here's a quick list of some personal favorites:

Black Friday by Steely Dan
Blue Sky by The Allman Brothers Band (not much to do on vocals, though)
Flathead by The Fratellis
Funk #49 by James Gang (long drum solo)
Love Spreads by The Stone Roses
Nearly Lost You by Screaming Trees
Pretty Noose by Soundgarden
Smokin' by Boston
Typical by Mute Math
Well Thought Out Twinkles by Silversun Pickups

Of the 20 free DLC songs, I really like Ashes to Fire by Ghost Hounds and Like a Fool by Shaimus.

==

So there's some more suggestions. (For what it's worth, Funk 49 and Love Spreads are in the Classic Rock pack as well.) I'm certainly going to pick up his recommendations for personal consumption... If we're lucky, Dan will even drop by on Thursday.

I'll ping Jonathan, and see what he chimes in with, hopefully we'll be able to settle on a handful (5?) of non-Doolittle songs as well.

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