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Nearly three Christmas’s ago, Christine got me Guitar Hero 2 for the PlayStation 2. This game combined three things that I loved to do – play video games, listen to rock music, and air guitar. Daniel has Guitar Hero 3, GH World Tour, and Rock Band for his Xbox 360. Earlier in the year, I purchased GH Metallica. In my opinion, Metallica is the best of the bunch because I’m a fan of their music, and the game plays beautifully. Much to my chagrin, D encouraged me to buy GH Metallica for his 360, but I rarely get to play these days since the system is his (and he’s suffered his third red ring of death).

When I first heard of Beatles Rock Band, I was skeptical. I’m a huge fan of the Beatles thanks to my parents, my uncle, and my cousin. But I never thought that it would be fun to play their music a la Guitar Hero. Then D saw the game’s presentation during the E3 convention in the spring, and he noted he liked some of the songs; this prompted him to borrow some of my Beatles albums. My buddy Scott has told me that the beauty of these music games is that it exposes younger generations to the music we enjoyed when we were their age.

My curiosity piqued as the release date quickly approached for Beatles RB. The internet was full of buzz surrounding the game and the re-release of remastered versions of the band’s complete catalog on CD. My only dilemma was for which game system should I buy it for. Not wanting to get burned like I did with GH Metallica, I decided on the Wii version.

The game is not difficult like GH Metallica, nor is it challenging. It does have a good selection of songs, but they could have added more (where’s George’s “I Want To Tell You”?). You can also purchase more song downloads from the online store, although I have yet to access it. I currently enjoy playing guitar on “Day Tripper”, “And Your Bird Can Sing”, “Birthday”, and “Here Comes The Sun”. Having bought the “band” version (guitar, drums, and microphone), it also allows me to play like Ringo (more difficult than one can imagine), or sing along with any of them. I’m no singer, but I’d like to think I have good tone (you certainly won’t catch me at karaoke night anywhere). What is really nice about Beatles RB is the feature of singing harmonies on their songs. I always wanted to learn John Lennon’s harmonies on Paul McCartney’s tunes; now I can (at least, on the songs that are featured on the game).

What I also enjoy is being able to hear these songs remastered. The songs sound so much better than what I currently own on CD. Because of this, I desperately crave owning the Beatles Stereo Box Set (wish list here)!

This game isn’t for just the casual gamer; you must be a fan of the Beatles and their music to enjoy this game. I still feel that GH Metallica is a more complete game, but Beatles RB is not too far behind and is just as fun.

I was tagged in July on Facebook with the note below. I think I will make it a weekly meme of some sort just to see what comes up each time.

Once you’ve been tagged… (1) Turn on your MP3 player. (2) Go to SHUFFLE songs mode. (3) Write down the first 15 songs that come up–song title and artist–NO editing/cheating, please. (4) Choose some number of people (more than zero, fewer than all) to be tagged. It is generally considered to be in good taste to tag the person who tagged you. (Edit: If you’ve already done this note and had the nerve not to include me, feel free to just forward your original one my way — these things take too much work as is.)

If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about your musical tastes, or at least a random sampling thereof.

(To do this, go to “NOTES” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, enter your 15 Shuffle Songs, Click ‘Preview’ below to tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click Publish, the little blue box at the bottom of your screen).

1. Every Breath You Take – The Police
2. The Way I Am – Eminem
3. God Is A Bullet – Concrete Blonde
4. Sunday Morning – No Doubt
5. Kite – U2
6. (Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding
7. Hanging On Too Long – Duffy
8. No Leaf Clover – Metallica
9. Morningside – Sara Bareilles
10. Again Today/Hiding My Heart – Brandi Carlile
11. In The Meantime – Spacehog
12. Save The Last Dance For Me – The Drifters
13. Ain’t It The Life – Foo Fighters
14. Atlantic City – Bruce Springsteen
15. On My Way – INXS

Oh, wow – I want this!

I don’t remember much about the day Elvis died, August 16, 1977, except for what my mother has told me. We were on our way back from Orlando, Florida, having visited Walt Disney World for the first time. I was 5. It would be years later that I would discover and truly appreciate the King of Rock and Roll and his music.

Late Thursday afternoon, my manager had just given me my annual evaluation. When I returned to my desk, my coworker broke the news to me that Michael Jackson had died. I was shocked. But that was it. No tears, no real sadness. I watched a portion of Dateline’s special later that night. I read the updates that poured out of Twitter and Facebook, a mixture of sadness and mockery. Not wanting to get sucked in, I avoided it like any other media event Michael Jackson was involved in.

News of his death brought back memories of “Billie Jean”, the Moonwalk on the Motown 25 special, Eddie Van Halen playing on “Beat It”, the “Thriller” video. However, I steered clear of being a fan when the weirdness took over. I really thought he could put out a new album of great music, but I think he tried too hard to top himself instead of being himself. And the media circus always outdid what he put out from the studio. From the plastic surgeries to the accusations to the trial, I cared less about Michael Jackson.

After nearly 2 days since the announcement, the sadness is starting to kick in. I tried searching for my copies of Thriller and Bad but could not find them. Frustrated, I played disc 1 of HIStory, and I had forgotten how awesome his music is; my childhood has come back to me. He will be missed by millions, myself included. Rest in peace, Michael Jackson.

Sorry to see Matt Giraud go home tonight. However, his performance of “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman” was just not good enough. I still like Chris Daughtry’s version on American Idol 3 years ago.

UPDATE: ok, I jumped the gun. Looks like the vote was 3 to 1 to keep Matty around another week. Now that the judges used the save, from this point on, the contestants, who are all good, must be prepared to go home each week.

iTunes goes DRM-free with variable pricing

It’s about time iTunes is freeing its content from copy protection. I started purchasing music from iTunes in 2004. But in the last year, I made the move to Amazon’s MP3 store. Amazon sells songs with no DRM, at variable prices, and in a 256 kbps MP3 format. With the latter, I can play the song on any device, on any computer, using any media player. With iTunes, their format is still in their proprietary AAC format, which means only an iPod can play the file. Now I realize I currently own an iPod, but if I want to stream my music to, say, Daniel’s Xbox 360 or our TiVo, it won’t play AAC files, only MP3. The nice thing about iTunes going DRM free is that I can now convert the file from AAC to MP3 (you can’t do that with AAC’s with DRM).

I can also upgrade previously purchased songs from iTunes to the DRM-free formats. The bad news? I have to pay roughly $.30 per song to upgrade, and I’d have to do it in bulk. That’s almost $100 in one shot (NO thanks). Amazon is still my #1 choice for digital music, but if I can’t get it there, I know now that I can rely on iTunes.

Heard these guys on the radio yesterday on the way to work. Great stuff!!