Joining an exclusive club

We are currently in 14th place in the "All Songs" Leaderboards, just behind the 13 bands that are part of a very special club: the bands with 1 billion points! With just 6 million points to go, we'll be joining them after playing last week's new DLC.

Yesterday's RockBandStats.com update was the first since the in-game and RockBand.com Leaderboards were fixed. All our scores now appear, so after playing the new DLC, we'll be playing our worst songs by rank or by score. It's impossible to sort by rank or by score in the game, but I now have an iPhone so it will be easy to load up our stats on RockBandStats.com before selecting songs.

One weird thing I noticed is that we are not ranked for the "Green Day 01" songs even though we played them last summer. We'll have to play them again to see if it makes a difference.

Here is my top 3 DLC from last week:

3. "Walking on the Moon", by The Police: This is a laid back reggae-infused song, with the highlight being the variety in the drum chart. Songs by this classic band have a tendency to get a bit a repetitive near the end, and this one is no exception (don't worry Sting, we are still "keeping up"...). Neverthless, it has a unique feel so it is worth checking out.

2. "Just for Tonight", by One Night Only: This neat-sounding British pop-rock song is fairly easy but it is quite fun on all instruments. There is one tougher fast-strumming section on guitar to look out for. I didn't expect it but it was a nice surprise. The drum chart is quite interesting too, with an intense solo followed by a really unique and fun drum pattern.

1. "Heartkiller", by HIM: This Finnish alternative rock group has some very good songs. This one was my favorite due to its great hooks and diversity. The drum chart has a number of neat double-hit patterns so you'll never get bored.

Honorable mention. "Ode to Solitude", by HIM: I liked the many heavy riffs in this song, but overall it lacked a bit of cohesion (what does it want to be?). It's a fairly good song on all instruments, but I remember the bass chart being quite enjoyable. This wasn't a metal song, but I hope we eventually get more Finnish metal in the future (more "Children of Bodom", "Kalmah", "Amorphis", "Finntroll", "Korpiklaani", "Nightwish" from the Tarja era, etc...)