In the interest of bringing Ron and Fez’s fantastic radio show topics to a more tech-minded audience, I propose the following: games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, while fun and, generally speaking, “good,” will not save rock music. Rock and roll, for all intents and purposes, is dead. Bear with me for a minute, I’ll make this relevant to CrunchGear.

So the topic on today’s show was: U2—you may have heard of them—recently released a new album, but it didn’t sell too well. This created the discussion: is rock dead? Someone brought up the idea that kids today just aren’t buying music anymore, that they’re playing video games instead; you have but so many entertainment dollars to spend, right? But even if kids (and by kids I mean the 30 and under crowd, a completely arbitrary cutoff point) are going out and buying these games left and right, does that mean they’re experiencing music in a new way, as proponents of the idea that Guitar Hero will save the music business would have you believe, or are they just killing time?

To paraphrase Ron Bennington, if the only thing these kids are doing is playing Simon with Pearl Jam in the background, Pearl Jam might as well be the Pac-Man theme song. The kids aren’t paying attention to the music, aren’t getting “into it,” per se, but are merely following along with whatever random melody is playing in the background.

(Incidentally, a caller tried to blame the decline of rock music on Pearl Jam’s anti-everything antics back in the 1990s and 2000s, driving kids into hip hop’s flashy embrace. Kids want to look up to Rock Stars, and the lifestyle they live, and not necessarily people who, while armed with guitars, are generally against the whole rock “scene.” That’s partially why rapping about money, women, and cars caught fire in the 1990s: it filled a void that rock had left behind. I sure as hell would rather listen to Jay-Z than, say, The Strokes, who, if I recall correctly, were once promoted as the saviors of rock and roll.)

The future?

What new (and I do mean brand new, and not merely new to you) rock music have you heard in one of these games that made you think, “Hey, this band is pretty good. I’m gonna buy their album from iTunes and buy a t-shirt from their Web site.”? You may well be able to play along just fine with a Weezer or Peter Frampton song, and you’ll have a good time doing so, but in doing so you’re not exactly discovering Bruce Springsteen back when he was just a local Jersey act. You’re not discovering new music, but rather pressing a fisher price fret along with the melody to a classic rock song. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but that’s not going to save rock music, now is it?

And by save I just mean to make it popular again. I’d love to see a sales comparison between rock music and hip hop over the past 10 years. I bet it’s pretty one-sided.

Now these games are great for bands like The Beatles that are trying to introduce their catalog to millions of new eyeballs, but you’re not necessarily creating any new talent. It’s sorta like WWE in that sense: I stopped watching regularly back in high school (2004ish), but I turn on Raw or Smackdown today and the very same guys are who were main-eventing then (Triple H, Undertaker, John Cena, etc) are main-eventing now; no new stars have been created in the past five years. That’s not good!

So yeah, sorta rambling, but you get my point: Rock Band & Co. may be great for the record labels looking to make a extra few dollars on licensing deals, and may be great for old bands looking to introduce new fans to their music, but you’re crazy if you think these games will make rock music the music of this generation’s young people; hip has already won that battle. No new rock talent is being cultivated with these games, and the relationship between the actual music and the player isn’t genuine: you’re playing a video game with your friends as part of an event or fun social gathering, and aren’t carefully digesting the melodies and lyrics of “Gouge Away” for the sake of the music itself.

That is all.

Flickr and Flickr

The Stage-Gig speaker system is being debuted at the College Music Journal (CMJ) music festival in New York City. Modeled as a stage monitor, the Stage-Gig gives you a 6.5″ woofer, silk tweeter, all with 40 watts of output power. It has two sets of RCA plugs so you can theoretically chain as many of these units are you could possibly want.

If you don’t have any better speakers, these offer you a simple, plug-and-play upgrade for your game console. XBox, Playstation, Wii, anything that uses RCA audio outputs will work. Look for it in early November and expect to shell out $99.95.

At this rate, you and your garage band could be starring in the next Rock Band-like game! (That’s actually not a bad idea. Some sort of service wherein you upload your band’s songs, and a little while later out pops a file that works in Rock Band and Guitar Hero.) Famous band U2 recently told USA Today that, sure, it would love to be in a video game of its own one day. It’s probably too late now, seeing as though, years from now, The Beatles: Rock Band will be viewed as the apex of these music games.

The band’s bassist, Adam Clayton, said:

We definitely would like to be in there, but we felt some of the compromises weren’t what we wanted. That could change. I love the idea that that’s where people are getting music, and we’d love to be in that world. We’ll figure something out. What The Beatles have done, where the animation is much more representative of them, is what we’re interested in, rather than the one-size-fits-all animation. We didn’t want to be caricatured.

If the control freak Beatles can agree to a game, there’s no reason why U2 can’t agree to a game.

Also, War > Joshua Tree. Just sayin’.

via Kotaku

I think Bret is lying here but it’s funny to see the FotC boys with mustaches. I also like the cutaway to Jimmy Kimmel or whoever that guy is at around minute 1:30. Such charming lads.

My favorite song after the jump.

via Giz

Well how about that? Here’s a wheel of a deal on the Rock Band Special Edition Bundle, which includes the original Rock Band game, guitar, microphone, and drum kit, plus Rock Band 2 for $79 direct from the company.

Free shipping, too. It’s available for Xbox 360 or PS3 only – sorry Wii and PS2 owners.

RockBand Xbox 360 PS3 Game $79 [RockBand79.com via dealnews]

Yum, who’s hungry for Rock Band Drum Cake?! The icing on the cake (pun intended!) is that this life-size delicacy actually sits atop an actual Rock Band drum kit stand. The 12-year-old who received this cake on his recent birthday apparently had a spare stand sitting around after he pummeled a previous set of drums to death and had to replace them.

The whole setup almost looks too good to eat. Almost.

[via Gizmodo]

How did we miss this, a nine-page article in the New York Times about The Beatles: Rock Band? Is it overkill? Perhaps. Rock Band isn’t exactly new, and The Beatles aren’t exactly some unsigned band, but you have to consider the Times’ audience: older folks who probably saw The Beatles live at Shea Stadium, and who would be genuinely excited to see the band show up on iTunes one day (despite the fact that ripping their CDs is quite simple).

So, nine pages later, what have I learned?

• Releasing the game the same date as newly remastered CDs, which will be ripped to FLAC two days before the official release, is an “irresistible marketing tactic.”

• Harmonix thinks that, yeah, Rock Band has been big, but with The Beatles, well, the music genre will explode.

• It took months to convert The Beatles’ master tapes into digital versions, primarily because the band used to record only on two- and four-track tapes.

• Harmonix focused on “fun” songs rather than “iconic” songs, if that makes any sense

• Yoko really does come across as an insufferable woman. (“Stop talking about the technology. Let’s talk about the idea of what we are trying to accomplish here. John needs to own the performance, he needs to own the room. Where he’s looking and the look in his eye at every moment matters and affects people.”) She does, at one point, call the game “legitimate art,” though.

• People who say, “why don’t you play a real guitar, dork” suffer from schizophonia. It’s related to the fact that, generally, people disapprove of lip-syncing.

• Even though Harmonix will sell the downloadable songs as whole albums, you’ll still be able to buy individual songs.

That’s about it.

I can honestly say that I’ve never heard a Beatles album. How many of you can say that?

Oh, and to answer my own question from the headline, I’m probably about a two out of 10. A one seems too callous, but these games just aren’t my thing. Not to hate on those who do, of course, but I’ll pass.

This is the OpenChord V1 guitar. It’s a guitar, obviously, but one that works with Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

Right now, the guys behind the guitar only have it up and running with the Nintendo Wii version. That said, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions are in the works.

This video demonstrates what’s going on here:

You can buy the guitar right now for $190. Or, if you’re handy with a toolbox, you can download the source code and create it yourself.

Also, keep in mind that, yeah, playing random notes on the guitar may sound annoying, no one’s forcing you to plug it into an amp. No plugsies, no soundies.

via Joystiq

Question: Do you guys still play Rock Band and/or Guitar Hero? If so, do you still enjoy it? I don’t think I’ve touched either title in over a year.

So, anyway, the original soundtrack from the movie that was “re-imagined” for the Back From The Dead album will be available on the Xbox 360 and Wii on August 4 with a PS3 rollout on the 6th.

• “(Funky) Sex Farm”
• “(Listen to the) Flower People (Reggae Stylee)”
• “ America ”
• “Big Bottom”
• “Cups and Cakes”
• “Gimme Some Money”
• “Heavy Duty”
• “Hell Hole”
• “Rock ‘n’ Roll Creation”
• “Stonehenge”
• “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight”

If you’ve been enjoying Rock Band but you’ve often thought, “Hmmm. Needs more non-sucky downloadable content,” then you, my friend, are in luck. Unless you hate Weezer, Blink-182, and KISS. If that’s the case, you’ll continue thinking, “Hmmm. Needs more non-sucky downloadable content.”

The following tracks will be available to Xbox 360 owners on July 28th and PS3 owners on July 30th:

• Blink-182 “Down”
• Blink-182 “Feeling This”
• Blink-182 “The Rock Show”
• Damone “Out Here All Night”
• KISS “100,000 Years (Live)”
• KISS “Deuce (Live)”
• KISS “Parasite (Live)”
• Weezer “My Name is Jonas”
• Weezer “Pork and Beans”
• Weezer “Undone – The Sweater Song”

And the following tracks will be available for the Wii on July 28th as well:

• Kings of Leon “Crawl”
• Kings of Leon “Molly’s Chambers”
• Kings of Leon “Sex on Fire”
• Rancid “Last One to Die”
• Rancid “Ruby Soho”
• Rancid “Time Bomb”
• Rise Against “Prayer of the Refugee”
• Rise Against “Re-Education (Through Labor)”
• Rise Against “Savior”
• Lush “Sweetness & Light”
• Children of Bodom “Are You Dead Yet”
• Finley “Tutto e Possibile”
• Motley Crue “Don’t Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)”
• Motley Crue “Dr. Feelgood”
• Motley Crue “Kickstart My Heart”
• Motley Crue “Rattlesnake Shake”
• Motley Crue “Same Ol’ Situation (S.O.S)”
• Motley Crue “She Goes Down”
• Motley Crue “Slice Of Your Pie”
• Motley Crue “Sticky Sweet”
• Motley Crue “Time For Change”
• Motley Crue “Without You”
• Platero y Tu “Hay Poco Rock & Roll”
• Squeeze “Tempted”
• Tokio Hotel “Ready, Set, Go!”

And last but not least, PSP owners will get access to two tracks for Rock Band Unplugged on July 30th:

• James Gang “Funk #49″
• Alien Ant Farm “Smooth Criminal”

So there you go — a little something for everyone there.

First up, we’re kind of disappointed that we waited all this time for Green Day only to be granted access to just three downloadable tracks instead of a full game. Kind of lame really.
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Anyway, the three pack of songs will drop on July 7th and are tracks off the bands latest release, 21st Century Breakdown: 21 Guns, Know Your Enemy, East Jesus Nowhere. So yeah, you will not be jamming out to Longview, When I Come Around, or any thing else off of Dookie (my first CD, btw) anytime soon.

The press release does indicate that more from the band is coming though.

Additional Green Day songs and projects will be announced at a later date.

Hopefully the word “projects” means a full Green Day game is in the works. Right?

If you plan on pre-ordering The Beatles: Rock Band then allow me to I suggest you do so with Gamestop. No, I was not paid to say this, but I think it’s a pretty good considering they will throw in three free DLC tracks and a code for an in-game photo album. Supplies are limited so I’d act now. The Beatles: RB hits stores on September 9th.

The Beatles: Rock Band [Gamestop]

Green Day is coming to Rock Band. Finally. I mean, it makes sense right? The band has a ton of fans and they fit under the umbrella of “rock” so it’s a pretty natural move.

What’s not all that clear is whether we’ll be seeing a full Rock Band: Green Day game or a track pack. I’d personally vote for downloadable tracks because we’d all get our hands on them sooner but if I had to guess, I’d say they’re working on a full game. They have more than enough tracks to fill an entire game and you’d think that downloadable tracks would have been made available already if they weren’t working on a full game.

Luckily, Green Day frontman Billy Joe Armstrong cleared it all up for everyone on KROQ this morning when he said:

“Uh yeah, we’re doing a whole Green Day Rock Band… uh.” And when asked when we’d see the game, he said. “I’m not sure… soon. Like I think not this week, but this year soon… by the end of this year.”

So “a whole Green Day Rock Band” would make it seem like an entire game and the fact that the band hasn’t gone in to do all the motion capture stuff means that it probably won’t be out for a while. All of this information is still in limbo so take everything with a grain of salt. We’ll hopefully hear more soon.

[via Kotaku]

Activision has declared war against the most popular band of all freakin’ time. The fifth installment in the Guitar Hero franchise (aside from the band specific titles) goes on sale September 1st, which is eight days before The Beatles: Rock Band hits store shelves. Oh boy! If I were a betting man, I’d say the The Beatles are going to sweep this round.

Guitar Hero 5

2000s

* AFI – “Miss Murder” *
* All-American Rejects – “Move Along”
* Audioslave – “Gasoline” *
* Black Tide -”Show Me the Way” *
* Freezepop – “Less Talk More Rokk” *
* Jimmy Eat World – “The Middle” The
* Killers – “Mr. Brightside”
* Lacuna Coil – “Our Truth”
* Lamb of God – “Laid to Rest”
* Modest Mouse – “Float On”
* Queens of the Stone Age – “3’s and 7’s”
* System of a Down – “Chop Suey!”
* Tenacious D – “Rock Your Socks” *

1990s

* 3 Doors Down – “Kryptonite” *
* Alice in Chains – “Would?” *
* Blink 182 – “What’s My Age Again” *
* Foo Fighters – “Everlong”
* Judas Priest – “Painkiller”
* Lit – “My Own Worst Enemy”
* Lush – “De-Luxe”
* Mighty Mighty Bosstones – “Where’d You Go?”
* Nine Inch Nails – “The Perfect Drug”
* Nirvana – “Drain You”
* The Offspring – “Come Out and Play (Keep ‘em Separated)”
* Pearl Jam – “Alive”
* Smashing Pumpkins – “Today”
* Social Distortion – “I Was Wrong”
* Soundgarden – “Spoonman”
* Weezer – “Buddy Holly”

1980s

* Billy Idol – “White Wedding Part 1″
* Bon Jovi – “Livin’ on a Prayer”
* Dead Kennedys – “Holiday in Cambodia”
* Motörhead – “Ace of Spades”
* The Police – “Message in a Bottle”
* Siouxsie & the Banshees – “The Killing Jar”

1970s

* Boston – “More Than a Feeling”
* Jackson 5 – “ABC” *
* Jethro Tull – “Aqualung”
* Kansas – “Carry on Wayward Son”
* Rush – “The Trees”

1960s

* The Who – “Pinball Wizard”

DLC

# 30 Seconds to Mars “The Kill”
# Belly “Feed the Tree”
# Disturbed “Inside the Fire”
# Lynyrd Skynyrd “Gimme Three Steps”
# Muse “Hysteria”
# Mute Math “Typical”
# No Doubt “Just a Girl”
# Oasis “Wonderwall”
# Paramore “Crushcrushcrush”
# Red Hot Chili Peppers “Under the Bridge”

Newsflash: people love Guitar Hero and Rock Band. You can tell because Logitech makes a $200 guitar controller that’s currently backordered 2 to 4 weeks.

Gizmodo spent a little quality time with the aforementioned wireless PS2/PS3 controller and said that the all-wood guitar is “definitely solid” and that “the weight of it was comparable to an actual guitar.”

The controller touts hundreds of hours of battery life and “virtually silent” fret buttons and strum bar. It looks nice, too, if you can get past the goofy colored buttons. I like Guitar Hero and Rock Band as much as anyone but if I’m gonna throw down for some big boy instruments, I think I’d pony up an extra $100 for the Ion drum set instead.

Logitech Wireless Guitar Controller [Amazon via Gizmodo]

The Pre-Order Club just went live if you’re into that sort of thing. Apparently it gives you access to “breaking news and exclusive behind the scenes elements.” Whatever.

Oh my, take a look at this feat of ingenuity. Anyone who plays Rock Band or Guitar Hero World Tour and lives in a smallish apartment will appreciate how difficult it is to store the controllers without making them permanent fixtures in one of the rooms you use on a daily basis.

Believe it or not, my wife doesn’t care for the drumset that sits in our living room next to our TV. We have moderately nice furniture and then — BAM! — big plastic drumset. If I could turn back the clock, I would have pushed for this very ottoman instead of the faux rustic red wooden chest thingy we use as a coffee table.

See, this leather ottoman — the Rock Box — opens up and features a lift mechanism that pops your drumset out for some quick-and-easy rock. When you’re all done, just lower it back into the ottoman with an “easy one-hand motion.” It also has room for two guitars, the foot pedal, and a microphone. And at $200, it’s not outrageously priced, considering you’re also getting a handsome leather ottoman.

AK Rock Box Gaming and Storage Ottoman with Drum Lift (Black) [Amazon via GeekSugar]