This week’s only release is priced at 80 MSP ($0.99)

Metal

• Christian Muenzner – Victory

Note: Due to E3, there may not be an RBN store update next week.

[Official Announcement]

This week is highly aMUSEing… we have some tracks from European Bands, a classic rock artist, a controversial artist and one of the last great packs ever released for Rock Band.

2008 – 5/20 (9 Tracks – 9 Singles)

• Blur – Beetlebum (Alternative)
• H-Blockx – Countdown to Insanity (Rock)
• Die Toten Hosen – Hier Kommt Alex (Punk)
• Muse – Hysteria (Alternative)
• Les Wampas – Manu Chao (Punk)
• Tokio Hotel – Monsoon (Glam)
• Pleymo – New Wave (Metal)
• Juli – Perfekte Welle (Rock)
• Oasis – Rock ‘n’ Roll Star (Rock)

2009 – 5/19 (10 Tracks – 2 Packs/1 Single)

• Alice Cooper – School’s Out (Live) (Rock)
• Alice Cooper – I’m Eighteen (Live) (Rock)
• Alice Cooper – Billion Dollar Babies” (Live) (Rock)
• Alice Cooper – Poison (Rock)
• Alice Cooper – Under My Wheels (Live) (Rock)
• Alice Cooper – Vengeance is Mine (Rock)
• Taking Back Sunday – Liar (It Takes One to Know One) (Emo)
• Taking Back Sunday – MakeDamnSure (Emo)
• Taking Back Sunday – What’s It Feel Like to Be a Ghost? (Emo)
• The Replacements – Kids Don’t Follow (Punk)

2010 – 5/18 (8 Tracks – 1 Pack/2 Singles)

• Grateful Dead – Beat It on Down the Line (Classic Rock)
• Grateful Dead – Cumberland Blues (Classic Rock)
• Grateful Dead – Scarlet Begonias (Classic Rock)
• Grateful Dead – Throwing Stones (Classic Rock)
• Grateful Dead – Touch of Grey (Classic Rock)
• Grateful Dead – U.S. Blues (Classic Rock)
• The Smithereens – A Girl Like You (Rock)
• The Smithereens – Only a Memory (Rock)

2011 – 5/23 (5 Tracks – 1 Pack/2 Singles)

• Lady Gaga – Born This Way (Pop/Dance/Electronic)
• Lady Gaga – LoveGame (Pop/Dance/Electronic)
• Lady Gaga – Paparazzi (Pop/Dance/Electronic)
• Foreigner – Hot Blooded (Classic Rock)
• Foreigner – Urgent (Classic Rock)

2012 – 5/22 (6 Tracks – 1 Pack)

• Iron Maiden – Phantom of the Opera (Metal)
• Iron Maiden – The Prisoner (Metal)
• Iron Maiden – Flight of Icarus (Metal)
• Iron Maiden – Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Metal)
• Iron Maiden – Infinite Dreams (Metal)
• Iron Maiden – Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (Metal)

There are lots of highlights for me this week. Since I live in Europe, all of the tracks released in 2008 I already own, with Monsoon (before not exporting) and Countdown to Insanity being among my favourite from the original disc. While School’s Out wasn’t a bad live version, I much preferred the studio version. And how can I end without mentioning Foreigner? What a smart move by Harmonix by releasing that with Lady Gaga. And what tracks did we get? Hot Blooded and Urgent are simply awesome, and always get a play everytime Rock Band is on.

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Over to you: How many tracks have you bought from this week? What do you think is the best year? Is this a good week for you in the past? Were any of your favorite tracks or singles released this week? Discuss away below! Plan to purchase any more tracks you haven’t got yet? Remember – 2008, 2009 and 2010 are still discounted!

After looking through RockBandAide, why don’t you head on over to my fansite, The Tribute Pages? New Tribute pages for Video Games, TV Shows and Movies and updates arrive every week, including Rock Band and Rock Band Blitz. See you there!

News of Rock Band has been, understandably, a bit slow as of late. E3 is coming next week, which means we will see an onslaught of gaming news coming our direction over the next few weeks. And despite Harmonix admittedly working on at least three new projects right now, including the recently announced Fantasia: Music Evolved, none of them are focused on the Rock Band franchise.

Does that mean we will never see Rock Band again? Not if CEO Alex Rigopulos has anything to say about it! (Spoiler: He does.)

In a comment made with Gamespot, Alex said the following:

I’ll also say that we don’t view Rock Band as something that’s being left behind. It’s something we’ll return to at the right point in time and reimagine it as appropriate for its time.

Gamespot also noted that Rock Band had sold over 130 MILLION songs to date.

[via Gamespot]

As part of the on going effort to re-license songs to remain for sale in the Rock Band Music Store, Harmonix announced today that seven more songs will be disappearing. This time we have a little more notice. The songs disappearing are as follows (purchase links for the singles on the US XBL, and PSN stores included):

• Crooked X – “Rock ‘n’ Roll Dream” [360] [PS3]
  
• Die Toten Hosen – “Hier Kommt Alex” (Not Compatible with RB3) [360] [PS3]
  
• Les Wampas – “Manu Chao” [360] [PS3]
  
• The Material – “Moving to Seattle” [360] [PS3]
  
• Them Terribles – “Bullets & Guns” [360] [PS3]
  
• Tokio Hotel – “Monsoon” [360] [PS3]
  
• Vesuvius – “Promised Land” (Free) [360] [PS3]
  

This batch of songs will be removed on June 30, so if you’re interested in grabbing any of them, be sure to do so in the next month. As always, those that have already purchased the songs will not be effected.

Update: HMXHenry posted some further information about the situation:

• MTV2 Pack 01 will also be pulled from the store due to the removal of Moving to Seattle, and Bullets & Guns. The remaining single from the pack, “A Clean Shot” by The Myriad, will still be available to purchase as a single.
• Basically, nothing changes with Hier Kommt Alex, except for the ability for North American players to purchase it from the RB1 & RB2 Music Stores.
• Promised Land will still be required for the ‘Live Free or Die’ achievement/trophy in Rock Band 3, even once it has been pulled from the store, so if you don’t yet have that achievement, make sure you download it prior to June 30 to avoid missing out on being able to get that achievement in the future. Besides, it’s free, so there’s no reason not to download it.

[Official Announcement]

Unless otherwise noted, all songs are 160 MSP ($1.99).

Metal

• Nonexist – Fire at Will
  

Nu-Metal

• Scum of the Earth – Via Dela Rosa
  

Prog

• Grand Warp Focus – The Journey *

In addition, the following three songs passed testing a while ago, but due to the outage, were never part of any official RBN updates, so you may have missed them:

• Machinae Supremacy – Hero (Metal)
• Nonexist – Presence Everlasting (Metal)
• Snow White’s Poison Bite – The End of Prom Night (Emo)

Songs marked with * are 80 MSP ($0.99).

[Official Announcement]

Editors Note: I do realise that this was last week’s article. I thought it will still be great to see what tracks were realised. This week’s article will be published early next week.

This week over in the Thursday Throwback series, we have some very mixed weeks, including everything from your Classic Rock, Pop/Rock, Metal and Punk. This week has 27 Tracks, a little lower than the last few weeks.

2008 – 5/13 3 Tracks – 3 Singles

• Blondie – Hanging on the Telephone (Pop/Rock)
• The Clash – Train in Vain (Stand by Me) (Punk)
• Sonic Youth – Kool Thing (Alternative)

2009 – 5/12 8 Tracks – 1 Pack/5 Singles

• Social Distortion – Bad Luck (Punk)
• Social Distortion – Ring of Fire (Punk)
• Social Distortion – Story of My Life (Punk)
• Disturbed – Stricken (Nu-Metal)
• Disturbed – Stupify (Nu-Metal)
• Steely Dan – Black Friday (Classic Rock)
• Steely Dan – My Old School (Classic Rock)
• Elvis Costello – Radio Radio (Rock)

2010 – 5/11 9 Tracks – 1 Pack

• Judas Priest – Breaking the Law (Live) (Metal)
• Judas Priest – Rapid Fire (Live) (Metal)
• Judas Priest – Metal Gods (Live) (Metal)
• Judas Priest – Grinder (Live) (Metal)
• Judas Priest – United (Live) (Metal)
• Judas Priest – Living After Midnight (Live) (Metal)
• Judas Priest – You Don’t Have to Be Old to Be Wise (Live) (Metal)
• Judas Priest – The Rage (Live) (Metal)
• Judas Priest – Steeler (Live) (Metal)

2011 – 5/19 5 Tracks – 1 Pack/1 Single

• Pantera – Five Minutes Alone (Metal)
• Pantera – Walk (Metal)
• Pantera – Mouth for War (Metal)
• Pantera – I’m Broken (Metal)
• Peter Frampton – Do You Feel Like We Do (Live) (Rock)

2012- 5/15 3 Tracks – 1 Pack

• Paramore – Ignorance (Pop/Rock)
• Paramore – Brick by Boring Brick (Pop/Rock)
• Paramore – The Only Exception (Pop/Rock)

This week has some awesome tracks, including the 13 minute epic track Do You Feel Like We Do (Live) by Peter Frampton, which gives The Who Super Bowl S-mashup a run for it’s money. We also have lots of metal for those who like that kind of music, with a whopping 15 tracks!

This week is a strong week for me, with a number of classic tracks in the Rock Band Catalog. Train in Vain by the Clash is one of my favourite “easy” songs, Story of My Life by Social Distortion is a prime example of a re-recording and Guitar Hero song done right, and The Only Exception by Paramore is one of my favourite songs ever. Awesome!

—
Over to you: How many tracks have you bought from this week? What do you think is the best year? Is this a good week for you in the past? Were any of your favorite tracks or singles released this week? Discuss away below! Plan to purchase any more tracks you haven’t got yet? Remember – 2008, 2009 and 2010 are still discounted!

After looking through RockBandAide, why don’t you head on over to my fansite, The Tribute Pages? New Tribute pages for Video Games, TV Shows and Movies and updates arrive every week, including Rock Band and Rock Band Blitz. See you there!