The arrival of Emma

This week we canceled the session due to the recent arrival of Bongoo's daughter Emma. She joins 22-month-old Jonathan in his growing family.

Raikan was also preparing to move west of Ottawa this week (Kanata). We'll have our session there next week.

Here is my top 3 DLC from last week (after playing them on all solo instruments):

3. "Is This Love", by Bob Marley & The Wailers:

The late great reggae sensation Bob Marley added some nice variety to Rock Band last week (although the genre should be "Reggae" instead of "Other"). There were many great songs, but my overall favorite was "Is This Love". It is a nice laid back song with good instrumentation, including some fun quad hits on drums, a pretty groovy bass line, plus some good diversity on guitar. It is also fun to sing due to the variety of lyrical phrases. Hoepfully the harmonies will be charted in Rock Band 3.

2. "Step Up (I'm On It)", by Maylene & The Sons of Disaster:

This rockin' RBN song has a neat country guitar sound and great energy. Its beat is fairly simple but it has a good flow. The bassline is repetitive but the main line is so fun that it doesn't matter. The guitar chart was the funnest of the week due to its great mix of singles and chords. I really liked the hammer-on additions in the last chorus on guitar and bass.

1. "Riot Act", by Exodus:

This intense thrash metal song from pioneers Exodus was a treat to play. It is heaven for anyone who likes diverse alternating "bass pedal\pad hit" patterns. The bass chart is awesome and quite dynamic, although I wouldn't have put it as tier 7 (only one tricky section with unique strumming). The song is really tough on Expert guitar, so I had to play it on Hard difficulty. It is surprisingly fun on Hard guitar due to its non-stop hammer-on and chord sections. I really liked the 2nd guitar solo and the riff after the solos. I have to say that there is an awful lot of cowbell in the intro... I wonder if the real singer would approve. ;)

Honorable mention. "I Shot the Sheriff", by Bob Marley & The Wailers:

There were many memorable Bob Marley moments this week, including the guitar charts of "Jamming" and "Could You Be Loved", the drum chart of "One Love/People Get Ready", plus the vocals of "Satisfy My Soul", but my 2nd overall favorite was "I Shot the Sheriff". It is a really unique song with a groovy bass (3 great repeating lines), a fun beat (neat double hits), plus some challenging vocals.