The Beatles Announce Rock Band Game

Ah, I never saw this one coming. Apple Corps, The Beatles' label, have announced today that their music will be featured in a 2009 version of the Rock Band video game.

Published by MTV Games and developed by Harmonix, the world's premier music video game company and creators of the best-selling Rock Band, the game will be an unprecedented, experiential progression through and celebration of the music and artistry of The Beatles. The game was creatively conceived with input from Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, and enjoys their full blessing.

Quote from the October 30 press release by Apple Corps Ltd. -

My first reaction? Total bewilderment. I mean is nothing sacred? I read the following quote from Ringo Starr and this all made a bit more sense...

"The Beatles continue to evolve with the passing of time and how wonderful that The Beatles' legacy will find its natural progression into the 21st century through the computerized world we live in. Let the games commence."

The Beatles are the most important band ever, and they always will be - well, at least until the next ice age. Rock Band, and their rival Guitar Hero, are the latest craze in the toy & gaming industry. Millions of kids and bigger kids are spending hours of their lives inside, as they stand in front of a TV pulling off windmills and duck walks, as they rock out with their overpriced little Fisher Price style plastic guitars.

If these same kids learn and discover the music of the Beatles through playing Rock Band then that's a good thing... or at least a better thing than all the fans that Dragonfarce (sic) made through having that really long song in Guitar Hero III.

Brian, Music Vice editor

Rick from The Casualties chases fan out of venue

What does Rick from The Casualties do when someone in the audience shouts at his band and calls them "fake punk"? Well, he throws his bass down and chases the kid out of the venue! In all the hundreds of shows I've been to, I've never actually see a band member chase an audience member out the door.

This happened on Saturday, October 25, at Big Giant and the Extravaganza, a one-day festival in Allentown, Pennsylvania. You can read about it here in Alison's review from the show on Music Vice: Big Giant and the Extravaganza show review.

This made my day! Wish I'd seen it myself.

Brian, the editor

Young Rival Guitar Fishing Game

Young Rival are a band from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada - the very same part of Planet Earth that I now find myself residing in. I've been keeping tabs on these guys, and their name is written on my white board under the scrawled heading of bands that I 'GOTTA REVIEW'.

So yeah, sometime in the future I will be at a Young Rival gig for a Music Vice review but until that day comes you can get an introduction to the band by playing Young Rival Guitar Fishing. Seriously - you have to play this game: CLICK HERE TO GO FISH!



This game is bloody addictive. Much more fun than real fishing - and ya don't have to stand by a river in the pissing rain whilst wearing an army surplus jacket. Float around on a lilly and catch fish with your guitar, avoiding the old boots. Play as one of the band members: Aron, John, Kyle or Noah. I recommend Noah because he has the deadliest red-eye.

Classic!

Full-length preview of Snow Patrol's new album online

Snow Patrol's new record 'A Hundred Million Suns' is available to listen to in its entirety via the band's official website. You can hear the album right now by registering and logging in to the 'mySP' member area at SnowPatrol.com.

Snow Patrol's last album Eyes Open was one of my favourite records of 2005. I recommend checking out A Hundred Million Suns while the full free preview is online, because band's do not normally keep stuff like this up online for too long.

A Hundred Million Suns is being released worldwide over the next few days. It's in stores today, Friday, October 24, in Ireland, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Austria & Belgium. On Monday, Ocober 27 it will be available to buy in the UK, and then on Tuesday the 28th it comes out in Canada and USA.

Brian, the editor

Against Me! forced to cancel gig due to bus crash

Florida punk band Against Me! were involved in a bus crash on Wednesday morning. Thankfully nobody was injured. The news of the crash was broken on AgainstMeForum.com The mother of AM's drummer Warren Oakes gave the facts about the accident.

At about 6am, Wyoming time, while everyone was safely tucked in their bunks, the bus hit a patch of ice just outside Rawlins, Wyoming and slid - ending up facing the reverse direction in the median.

The trailer, containing all the gear and supplies wobbled and bounced out of control - landing sideways in a snowy ditch. The trailer doors had ripped open, so all around the site of their accident the ground was covered with equipment cases, CDs, boxes of T-shirts, etc.

Due to the shake-up they are canceling tonight’s show in Salt Lake City, Utah - and will use this unexpected lay-over to analyze the best way for continuing the tour.

Car (or bus) crashes are nothing to laugh at. I know from my own experiences, especially the time I flipped my car over a deer fence a few years ago back in Scotland. A deer fence is about 10 feet high, so use your imagination to figure how lucky I was to escape from that unharmed. [And also how stupid I was to have been driving into a corner at about 90mph!!] Glad that the band escaped with the only problem of having to pick up all the merch and gear that got thrown from the trailer.

It seems to be the season for rock bands to be involved with crashes. There was the Travis Barker plane crash a few weeks ago. Then a few days ago the entire tour bus of American band Kill Hannah went up in flames while they were on the road somewhere in the Swiss Alps. (You can see photos of the incident on Kill Hannah's Myspace page, but you'll probably want to hit the stop button on their music player.)

Against Me! are currently on a tour accross the US, before they travel to mainland Europe in December for a few shows in France, Switzerland and Spain. I saw the band earlier this year at Virgin festival in Toronto where they were one of the best bands of the weekend, and where I also had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing AM! drummer Warren Oakes.


Brian, the editor

The Sun Brands Katy Perry No1 Idiot

Katy Perry is in the headlines this morning in the Sun newspaper in the UK. In this Wednesday's issue of Britain's best-selling paper she is branded as an idiot for glamorising the use of knives in order to promote her music.


A snapshot of the story on http://www.thesun.co.uk

POP star Katy Perry poses with a knife — an image which sparked fury last night after another teen was killed by a blade in Broken Britain.

Angry critics said 23-year-old Katy, who sold five million copies of her No1 hit I Kissed A Girl, was “out of her mind” for glamorising knives.

A quote from the Sun's story

Knifecrime is a huge issue in Britain, especially amongst youths and there have been a lot of tragedies where young people have been killed by blades. So this kind of imagery is obviously controversial and seen as bad taste.

I don't like Katy Perry - especially from what I saw of her behind the scenes and on stage at Warped Tour. Katy Perry's acoustic performance at Warped in Toronto was nothing but painful.
However, I think it is unfair to use Katy Perry's image as the headline for a story about knife crime in the UK. Yes, it's a stupid photo and ill-advised, but you can hardly hold the girl responsible for all the knife crime problems in Britain. Those problems have been going on since way before anybody had even heard of Katy Perry.
But hey, tabloid newspapers make sales by sensationalising stories, so I'm not surprised by these headlines.

Brian, the editor

Metallica Announce First European Tour In 13 Years

It's been a long time since Metallica went on tour in Europe. Since 1996 in fact. Since then the only other appearances have been one-off gig's and appearances at the odd festival. But hey, it's not like anybody was complaining that much, because Metallica weren't exactly churning out any good records during this 13 year period. But hey, now that the band are back on form with Death Magnetic, maybe it'll be worth some of your hard-earned pounds and euros to catch them live.

Metallica 2009 European Tour Dates

Feb 25 Nottingham, England

Feb 26 Manchester, England

Feb 28 Sheffield, England

March 2 London, England

March 3 Newcastle, England

March 5 Antwerp, Belgium

March 7 Stockholm, Sweden

March 8 Stockholm, Sweden

March 25 Birmingham, England

March 26 Glasgow, Scotland

March 28 London, England

April 1 Paris, France

April 2 Paris, France

May 14 Vienna, Austria

June 14 Helsinki, Finland

June 15 Helsinki, Finland

June 17 Oslo, Norway

June 22 Milan, Italy

June 24 Rome, Italy

July 13 Madrid, Spain

July 20 Copenhagen, Denmark

July 22 Copenhagen, Denmark

July 23 Copenhagen, Denmark

Funny Protest The Hero video on YouTube

Protest are bloody hilarious...

New Bronx track online while Dave Grohl gets his own street

First off, happy Thanksgiving Canada! Hope everyone had an awesome holiday weekend and plenty of turkey. Canada has a lot of holidays throughout the year; I struggle to remember them all, but they all involve days off and a lot of gouging. Good times. Not that a Scotsman ever needs an excuse to gouge away...

Now what better way to wash down all that fine food and all those bevvies? How about a new song from the Bronx?! Young Bloods comes from the forthcoming album The Bronx III which is in stores everywhere on November 11.



So this is a guide for anybody in Canada reading this:
1. Crash on the couch
2. Pull out your laptop
3. Get online and point your browser to http://www.myspace.com/thebronx
4. Enjoy the sweet sweet sound of Young Bloods while you stroke that inflated belly

Enjoy!

In other news, Dave Grohl is getting a street named after him in his hometown of Warren, Ohio. A nice little tribute to a local hero.

And a footnote - Nine Inch Nails drummer Josh Freese will be quitting the band at the end of the year, after NIN's current tour is over. This is hardly news though as NIN have a revolving door with band members coming and going, and the only permanent member is Trent Reznor. Freese has been a member of the band for three years.

Guns N’ Roses are finally going to release Chinese Democracy

Yup, it’s apparently true. On November 23, 2008, Guns N’ Roses will release Chinese Democracy in Best Buy stores across the US. There is no mention on wether Best Buy stores in Canada will also be selling the album. And the rest of the world will have to wait on news on how they can get hold of the album without resorting to illegal downloads or buying copies off eBay. (Yeah expect a lot of sales on eBay as Americans try to make a few extra bucks by selling copies of the CD.)

To say that Chinese Democracy is long-awaited would be an understatement. I personally never thought it would actually get a release, and I still have my doubts. Right now as a I look out of my window I’m expecting a herd of pigs to fly by… The last GN’R studio album was Use Your Illusion, released way back in 1991. So that’s 17 years. During those 17 years the Guns N’ Roses line-up that everybody new and liked has broken up, and now basically all that is left is Axl Rose and a posse of new friends. GN’R aren’t really GN’R without Slash, Izzy Stradlin and Duff McKagan in tow.

Chinese Democracy will no doubt fly off the shelves, at least in the first week, but I have my doubts about how good the record will be. It seems like Axl Rose’s strategy was to lock himself away for a very long time trying to craft Chinese Democracy into a brilliant album, a classic. But I doubt it’ll even come close to touching the real classic GN’R album, Appetite For Destruction.

Brian, the editor

So yeah, Music Vice now has a blog...

and you are reading it! So here's a blog post to explain a bit more about the purpose of this blog.

Basically the blog adds an extra dimension to go alongside the established sections of the website like the Reviews, Interviews, etc. This blog is an all-in-one solution for adding 'other' content to vice, such as news, rants, raves and random idle chit-chat....