Friday, February 26, 2010

1 week away...

This week our total points moved up from 979M to 994M, which will help us climb the "All Songs" Leaderboards. We're getting so close to the magic number... :)

We played 28 songs in total, including last week's new DLC, plus all songs with scores below 500K up to letter 'J'.

The good news for us on the PS3 is that the in-game and RockBand.com Leaderboards have finally started updating again after 2 months of being down. That means that the next RockBandStats.com update will have lots of new PS3 scores this coming Monday.

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 28 songs: Gold stars (9), 5 stars (16), 4 stars (3, for "Stray Cat Strut", "Let Forever Be" and "Cherry Bomb")
- Sylvie was the "Top Performer" for the most songs (19), followed by Bongoo (17) and Phoenix (3)
- Bongoo had the most FCs (8), followed by Sylvie (5) and Phoenix (1)
- Phoenix does a great job keeping a steady beat throughout "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic". The drum charts for "The Police" are always interesting, but sometimes their songs feel like they will never end
- Sylvie's funniest wah-wah bass moments this week were during "Hey Baby", "Girls on Film" and "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"
- There was a weird glitch at the end of "Cherry Bomb" where Raikan couldn't activate his vocal section during the big rock ending
- We got the closest ever to our 500K cutoff when we finished with 499,979 points for "I'm Shipping Up to Boston"...

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Soul Man meets Jazz Cat

You know it was a DLC week with lots of variety when there was 6 songs classified as "Other", plus the appearance of a new genre ("Jazz"). Why would a single song get a new genre while the 5-song pack from Soul legend Otis Redding doesn't... It must have something to do with the genre categorization of the upcoming Rock Band Network.

Rounding up the "Other" songs is a trippy one by "The Chemical Brothers". It would be neat if other "Big Beat" electronica acts from the 90s get some DLC, for example "The Crystal Method" and "The Prodigy".

After playing the new DLC from last week, we'll also continue playing songs with scores below 500K (starting with letter 'D') in order to move up the "All Songs" Leaderboards.

Here is my top 3 DLC from last week:

3. "Love Man", by Otis Redding: Most of the songs by this legendary Soul musician are a treat to sing, especially "I've Got Dreams to Remember", but "Love Man" edges out the others due to its higher energy and its better drum chart.

2. "Stray Cat Strut", by Brian Setzer: It's a fun and groovy jazz tune that has a unique feel on all instruments. I really like the neat-sounding guitar solo. As with "Let Forever Be" by "The Chemical Brothers", the Bass chart is undertiered (should be at least 4 or 5 instead of 3). It helps to keep the green button down and just tap the rest of the notes.

1. "Weightless", by All Time Low: I don't usually enjoy "commercial"-sounding Pop-Rock songs like this one, but it kind of grows on you as the song progresses plus the drum chart is amazing. It has 4 unique beats that are all a lot of fun to play. The guitar chart is quite fun as well.

Honorable mention. "Fascination", by Alphabeat: By far the best guitar chart of the week due to its constant movement and unique patterns. That's one more Band Hero song now part of the ever-growing Rock Band collection.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Charlene FBFC + Raikan domination

While it may not seem that impressive, it is worth noting that we finally got our "Charlene" full band FC (full combo). :) Raikan managed to hit the "My mind is kissing you" phrase, plus nobody else made a stupid mistake. That makes it our 6th "maxed out" song (after "Thank You Boys", "Cups and Cakes", "Doll", "No Hassle Night" and "Saucy Jack") We are currently improving every score below 500K (at letter 'D').

We also had lots of fun playing the "Rust in Peace" album by Megadeth. The only song where we didn't get above 500K on our first try with everyone on Expert was "Take No Prisoners". Phoenix and Sylvie hit a very important unison bonus at the beginning to save Bongoo (crazy fast guitar riff 20 sec. in). Raikan dominated in terms of "Top Performer", doing a great job impersonating Dave Mustaine.

Our total points moved up from 967M to 979M, which will help us climb the "All Songs" Leaderboards. At this rate we'll be in the billion point club in 2 weeks.

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 24 songs: Gold stars (6), 5 stars (8), 4 stars (9), 3 stars (1, for "Take No Prisoners")
- Raikan was the "Top Performer" for the most songs (9), followed by Bongoo (7), Sylvie (6) and Phoenix (3)
- Raikan had the most FCs (4), followed by Sylvie and Phoenix (2 each), and Bongoo (1)
- We miss our 500K goal for "Cherry Bomb" by 120 points...

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Metal Mania

This week we'll play Megadeth's classic album "Rust in Peace", which was released last week. It is perfect timing as we'll be seeing Megadeth as part of the 2010 edition of the Heavy MTL festival this summer. It will have Megadeth, Slayer and Testament on Saturday July 24th, plus the Mayhem Festival bands on Sunday July 25th.

While waiting for the download, it will be a perfect opportunity to watch the excellent metal documentary "Metal: A Headbanger's Journey" (8.1 on IMDB), by Canadian anthropologist Sam Dunn. It is great look at the history of the genre and its appeal as a subculture.

Once we're done playing the Megadeth album, we'll continue playing songs with scores below 500K (starting with letter 'C') in order to move up the "All Songs" Leaderboards.

Here is my top 3 DLC from last week (no "The Who" medley on PS3 yet):

3. "Tornado of Souls", by Megadeth: This song has a non-stop flurry of interesting and challenging guitar riffs plus some fun drum beats. It doesn't let go for 1 second. Watch out for a killer section in the guitar solo.

2. "Lucretia", by Megadeth: A really fun diversion from the traditional thrash metal song. It includes some really neat hammer-on sections for guitar and bass, plus a pretty funky drum chart.

1. "Hanger 18", by Megadeth: A truly epic metal song which was a highlight of Guitar Hero 2. It is quite melodic and heavy, building up to an insane flurry of guitar solos from virtuosos Marty Friedman and Dave Mustaine. I really like the bass and drum charts, especially the beat during solo 2B.

Honorable mention. "Poison Was the Cure", by Megadeth: This song is fast and really short, but it has one of the best drum charts of the week due to its variety of patterns.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Starting with the end

This week we started by playing a few 3-player songs while Phoenix was fixing his computer. We started with "The End" by Pearl Jam (only song with no drums), before moving on to some crazy guitar songs by virtuosos Yngwie Malmsteen and Joe Satriani.

We ended up playing about 24 songs with the full band, finishing all songs with scores below 400K, and then playing songs below 500K up to letter 'C'. We were just shy of 500K for "Charlene (I'm Right Behind You)" (need full band FC with a good path), so we restarted it quite a few times. It's not difficult, but there was always someone missing in at least one spot. We'll start with that song next week. If we succeed, "Charlene" will become our 6th maxed out song.

Our total points moved up from 958M to 967M, which will help us climb the "All Songs" Leaderboards. Next week we'll play Megadeth's classic album "Rust in Peace"! :)

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 24 songs (not counting the songs played with 3 players): Gold stars (11), 5 stars (9), 4 stars (1), 3 stars (3, for "Timmy & the Lords of the Underworld", "Bad Omen" and "Black Magic")
- Bongoo was the "Top Performer" for the most songs (12), followed by Sylvie (11), Raikan (5) and Phoenix (4)
- Bongoo had the most FCs (6), followed by Sylvie (3) and Phoenix (1)
- Sylvie's wah-wah bass was quite funny during "Calling Dr. Love"
- Raikan does a sneeze activation during "All Going Out Together"... :)

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

New DLC break

This week we won't play any new DLC as the only pack released last week was the rest of the previously exclusive Country Track Pack songs. We'll concentrate on improving some scores, starting with songs with scores below 400K at letter 'T'. This will help us climb the "All Songs" Leaderboards.

Here is my top 3 DLC from last week (songs played last summer so tough to remember chart details):

3. "On the Road Again", by Willie Nelson: A classic song from one of the most well-known country music pioneers. A little bland on drums, but you're bound to have fun singing along.

2. "Swing", by Trace Adkins: A fun song to hear and play due to the subject matter and how the story takes a turn.

1. "Suds in the Bucket", by Sara Evans: A great mix of old and new country, it has a fun guitar\violin solo near the end, plus some neat-sounding vocal sections.

Honorable mention. "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy", by Kenny Chesney: This song deserves a mention due to us twisting the words to say "She Thinks the Trapper's Sexy", which got us a few laughs... :)

Friday, February 5, 2010

Hassle Night

"No Hassle Night" turned out to be a hassle tonight as it took quite a few tries to pass the crazy drum intro... :) Phoenix eventually passed it by treating the red notes as a fast roll. We can add that song to the list of "maxed out" songs (now totalling 5, including "Saucy Jack" which we also played tonight, plus "Thank You Boys", "Cups and Cakes" and "Doll").

After playing the classic song "Godzilla", we ended up playing another 23 with the optimal line-up. These were all songs where our score was below 400K (titles from letters G to T). Next week there is no new DLC so we'll finish the "below 400K" songs and then start the "below 500K" ones.

After the main set, we played another 8 songs with the Trapper on Bass and some instrument swaps. We still managed to increase 3 of those songs past 400K. It was neat that the Trapper still assumed his duties as Pathmaster while playing Bass.

Our career score is now up 12M to 958M. If only the PS3 leaderboards could finally update (broken since the last patch), we could see our new total at the "All Songs" Leaderboards.

Highlights:
- Stars breakdown for the 24 songs (not counting the last 8): Gold stars (10), 5 stars (10), 4 stars (4, for "Parasite (Live)", "Life is Beautiful", "Sick, Sick, Sick" and "That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate")
- Bongoo was the "Top Performer" for the most songs (14), followed by Sylvie (11), Raikan (8), Trapper (2) and Phoenix (1)
- Sylvie had the most FCs (7), followed by Raikan and Bongoo (3 each)
- Sylvie uses the "Wah-Wah" effect on Bass and it gets pretty funny during songs like "Sick, Sick, Sick"
- The crazy long Big Rock Ending of "Iron Maiden (Live)" is a workout as it goes to more than 100K points... and then we miss it! :) It's pretty tough on drums...

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

"Go go Godzilla", and other fine tunes

This week we'll play Blue Öyster Cult's "Godzilla", the only new DLC track released last week. The other songs were part of the previously released Metal Track Pack, which we've already played.

That means that we'll have more time to increase scores below a certain threshold. We'll start by playing songs with scores below 400K after "Green Grass and High Tides" (where we stopped last week). This will help us move up the "All Songs" Leaderboards.

Here is my top 3 DLC from last week (includes the previously exclusive Metal Track Pack songs I played last September):

3. "Bulls on Parade", by Rage Against the Machine: Not the most difficult of songs, but it's definitely a rockin' track from an amazing group. Brings back a bit of Guitar Hero 3 nostalgia.

2. "Levitate", by I Mother Earth: This song is quite complex on all instruments and comes from a great Canadian alternative rock band (now defunct). What makes this song extra special is the nice flow of the drum chart.

1. "Godzilla", by Blue Öyster Cult: An amazing song to play on guitar with its great vibe and numerous challenging solos. It's nice to play this old classic again, as it was part of the original Guitar Hero. This time it sounds even better as it is a master track.

Honorable mention. "Killed by Death '08", by Motörhead: This classic metal group always brings some high-energy chops and this re-recording is no exception. While the song drags on near the end, it has a few interesting guitar solos.