Remember when Billie Joe had really cool hair?

Harmonix is one of those developers that always seems to have made the right moves when it comes to their games. When they originally split from the Guitar Hero franchise and started Rock Band, they put a lot of thought into their product, introducing both the vocal and drum tracks into the music genre. They focused on bringing both quality and upcoming artists to their track lists, and built an expansive library of downloadable content that worked across multiple titles in the Rock Band series.

You’ve always been able to describe them as Guitar Hero‘s more mature older sibling. While Guitar Hero was releasing disc after disc of band or genre themed full retail titles, Rock Band continued to support it’s core titles with optional track packs and community events. And when Harmonix did decide to release a band-themed stand alone title, The Beatles: Rock Band, they put so much effort into making it a unique experience that the result was one of the most critically acclaimed music games of all time.

Which is why I’m a little bit disappointed this week as I play my way through Green Day: Rock Band, Harmonix’s second band-themed stand alone title, and surely the low-light of their development career to date.

Green Day: Rock Band centres around three of the band’s albums, Dookie, American Idiot and their latest release 21st Century Breakdown, with a couple of spare songs from Nimrod and Warning thrown in. The career mode centres around three key live performances from Green Day’s career, divided up into three or four song set-lists. As the player progresses they open up more set lists sets, and unlock band collectibles depending on their star rating and completion status. There are also track related challenges to unlock, but most of these are simply “play x amount of tracks with four stars or greater” to unlock video footage.

Tre Cool, warding vampires away from the stage

The result is a rather vanilla experience, that I’m not sure even Green Day fans would be gushing too much over. The on-screen character models for Billie Joe Armstrong, Tre Cool and Mike Dirnt are pretty good, in a Rock Band kind of way, but limiting the game to only three performances means there isn’t a lot of variety to be seen. You’ll be on one of three stages, in one of three outfits and playing (with minor exceptions) from one of three albums. Most of the unlockable photos simply chronicle the rise and fall of Billie Joe’s hair, and the video footage mainly shows sweating stage performances accompanied by whirlpooling moshpits. Nothing any fan hasn’t seen before, I’d imagine.

And where much of the effort put into The Beatles: Rock Band was in creating the stylised and visually lush “dreamscape” performances, here Harmonix’s focus has been on realistic motion-capture. There are a few sections during performances that give that iconic Green Day vibe, such as Billie Joe wide-eying the camera or Tre pulling faces, but for the rest of the performance you really won’t notice the fact that each song is completely mo-capped. This could be a testament to the seamless quality of the capture, or the usual high quality performance animations contained in Rock Band, but whatever the case it simply doesn’t sell itself as “wow” factor. You could argue that it doesn’t really factor at all, considering you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference is they HAD just manually animated the characters.

The character models are quite well done

Which brings us to the game’s curious song selection. There’s no doubt that Dookie is a classic Green Day album, but it doesn’t sport a lot of versatility when it comes to note progression. If you’re playing on Expert, almost all of your time in the first venue will be spent strumming fast chords with triplet bridges. It’s not like the songs are exactly the same, but transcribed into Rock Band the charts are almost identical. Because of this many guitar charts are certainly challenging but not much fun to play, which doesn’t exactly drive you to keep playing. This was one of the first music games I’ve played where the bass chart was more entertaining than the guitar chart.

Featuring 21st Century Breakdown also seemed a little bit too much like a marketing ploy to me. Green Day have a lot of classics in their back-catalogue without the need to push their questionable latest album on us, and the cynic in me suspects this might be so they can offer the remainder of Nimrod and Insomniac as DLC at a later date.

Or maybe I’m being too suspicious, and it’s just that 21st Century Breakdown offers more opportunity to use the vocal harmony tracks.  Whatever the reason, if you enjoyed Green Day more for it’s pop-punk than it’s pop-political, then this game’s song selection probably won’t satisfy.

In the end, this is the first Rock Band title that I’ve felt borders on Guitar Hero quality, and that’s something of a worrying sign. Where The Beatles: Rock Band broadened the Beatles’ appeal to a younger generation, it’s hard to see anyone being inspired to listen to Green Day after playing this game.

The Verdict:

Pros: The quality of the gameplay is up to the typical Rock Band standard, and vocal harmonies have been retained as a feature. The band’s character models look good, as do the arenas, but lack variety. If (and only if) you’re a Green Day nut, the collectibles will appeal.

Cons: The entire game feels bland, and not even Green Day’s signature punk sound can do anything about it. Motion captured performances don’t present any significant change to the standard Rock Band animations, and if that’s where all the effort has gone to then the results are disappointing at best.

Overall: If you’re not a Green Day fan, don’t bother. If you are a Green Day fan, you probably still don’t need to bother. This is one of those games that you should be picking up a long ways down the road when games stores are shoving copies out the door on special, not at release. If you do pick it up, there’s no real reason other than achievement whoring that should stop you from just exporting the track list for play with regular Rock Band and never looking at the disc again. 2 out of 5 stars.

It's wall bustingly good!

It is with a sad heart that Matt and I must announce that our band, The Afternoon Frolics, is breaking up.  We had a whirlwind time recording 5 albums and doing countless world tours since the creation of the band in mid-January.  Unfortunately, when living in close proximity with one another certain facts cannot be overlooked.  For us, it was that Matt, as band leader, refused an octopus the right to be our drummer.  I found this unacceptable and we have agreed to go our separate ways.  However, more about the break up of what many people referred to as “a modern day Herman’s Hermits” later.  Now it’s time for me to talk to you about what made our career possible: LEGO Rock Band.

Let me start by saying that I am a huge fan of the Rock Band series.  Anyone that read what I wrote about it in our countdown of the best games of the previous decade would know my feelings about Harmonix and it’s rock creation.  From the outset they put out a strong product that showed that they were serious about what they were doing.  All the while LEGO had been turning it’s hand to games with the creation of the LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Indiana Jones thanks to the fine people at Traveller’s Tales. Harmonix, most likely to compete in the family friendly Wii market, teamed up with TT Fusion to create a LEGO rock spectacular.  Apparently only half of those at TT Fusion were on board with the concept, who wanted to make sure they “weren’t just skinning one franchise on another”.  Once their fears were allayed production was begun in late 2008, with release in November 2009.

And apparently we’re so lazy that we only bothered to pick it up in 2010.

I didn't approve of this sign...

The game starts with Player 1 putting together a band.  Through an adorable cut scene we see the band formed … at the expense of an amazing octopus drummer!  From there the band goes on to face the usual song challenges but with new Rock Power Challenges that have you using your rock for good.  In each of these challenges there is another adorable cut scene that tells you your reasons behind your next challenge.  You may note that I am referring to these cut scenes in quite a positive manner.  The reason?  It is these very cut scenes that give this game it’s edge … well, a family oriented edge, anyway.  These scenes are hilarious and really give you a reason to keep playing.  In previous incarnations I found myself losing momentum to continue with the game.  No such problem here.  The strength of each LEGO game has indelibly been the writing of the cut scenes.  Using only physical comedy, this is something that the whole family can laugh at.

If you’ve played one Rock Band you’ve played them all, and LEGO Rock Band is no exception.  About the only thing that’s changed in the gameplay is the introduction of a default no fail mode called “Recovery”.  If at any time you fail a song, you’re deducted points then automatically put into Recovery mode, which offers you the chance to gain back your lost score.  The score recovered is calculated by a percentage of notes hit inside the Recovery phase.  While experienced players might never actually see this screen, it’s certainly a welcome addition for the younger members of the target audience.

Much like Gram Parsons, Matt found a side project from the band ...

The song choices thoughout the game are solid, forgiving a few obvious kid-friendly covers.  I especially enjoyed that any songs used for the rock power challenges linked quite well with the situations, like “Tick Tick Boom!” to demolish a building for example.

Another nice touch is being able to record your own album.  You choose three songs to go on the album as well as the artwork and album name.  That said, while recording an album is initially great fun you are expected to perform this album quite often as you progress through the game.  This can sometimes leave you regretting your initial song choices, and when the time comes to record the next album you’ll probably be searching your playlist for the shortest songs available.  God bless you, Blitzkrieg Bop!

This game also offers you a very high level of customisation for a Rock Band title.  Not only can you mix and match to create a good look for your own character, but also for all the other members of your band.  This means if you wanted to theme your band you could do so easily, without having the usual computer controlled pre-fab band members who turn up in previous titles.  On top of this, you could even set the appearance of your band’s entourage, roadies, manager and so forth.  You could even deck out your Rock Den (the band administration hub) with whatever gear you liked, although at this point even I thought they were going a little nuts on the customisation.

I have to say that I loved this game.  It’s faults were minimal, and it mixed two pre-existing brands perfectly.  This is what these games should be.  In my opinion Rock Band has continued to improve, even after the magnificent Beatles: Rock Band.  This is a game with a strong storyline and an entertaining play.  Perhaps the game’s only weakness is that of it’s genre: replay value.  This game can only be replayed as long as the songs keep you interested which, in this iPod world of ours, isn’t long enough.  Other than that, I can’t recommend this highly enough for even the youngest of band game fans.

Lastly, a note to the fans of The Afternoon Frolics: I’m sorry we couldn’t last longer, but if you’d like to see me and my new band perform, we’ll be down by the bay.  The Afternoon Frolics are dead … LONG LIVE OCTOPUS DELIGHT!

The Verdict:

Pros: The cut scenes are well written and thought out; it’s an intelligent song list that accompanies your challenges; they haven’t messed with either brands winning formula in any way that could alienate their fan bases.  This is the way things should be done.

Cons: Replay value is only as strong as your enjoyment of the songs and how long you actually feel physically up to it.  That’s not a specific con to this game, but a negative of the genre as a whole.  A specific con would be the song “Real Wild Child” by Everlife.

Overall: Clearly I loved it.  A good game for both adults and kids alike, Harmonix continues to go from strength to strength.  I have no qualms at all in giving this a very solid 4 stars.  Yeah, that’s right, you heard me!  No qualms!

Whoops, wrong Tesla

Hands up who’s surprised? No-one? Excellent.

Somebody over at MTV Multiplayer was being particularly observant this week (or simply Googling “Guitar Hero 6″ over and over again, MTV can afford people to do that), because they’ve uncovered a recent interview with hard rock band Tesla in which they state they’ll have music in Guitar Hero 6. Don’t believe me?

Guitar Hero seemingly receives equal amounts of praise and criticism. Rude offers his opinion. “I teach guitar when I’m not touring and a lot of people start in on that. A lot of people complain, but I think it’s a good thing. Even if people don’t learn to play guitar, it’s exposing them to all sorts of cool guitar-based music that they wouldn’t have ever heard otherwise.” As far as the actual selection of ‘Modern Day Cowboy’ for Guitar Hero 6 went, Hannon explains, “They (the video game makers) chose it. Honestly, there’s some pirate versions of ‘Modern Day Cowboy’ that people have made up for the game out there. They did ask us what we would request. That was one of our three that we wanted.”

-Guitarist Frank Hannon figures “oh, what the heck”

So apparently Neversoft have approached the band, which I’d say practically confirms the fact that the game is at least in it’s planning phase. But hey, it’s not really jaw-dropping news, is it? Captain Obvious is feeling a little emasculated by the whole thing.

Check out the whole Tesla interview over at Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles, or peruse the MTV news post. Let’s hope the song list is better for the next installment!

• Rock Band Network Audition Mode. Available from the “Extras” menu on Xbox 360 versions of Rock Band 2, members of the Rock Band Network can now upload songs from their PC’s and audition their songs using our suite of song audition and testing tools. Currently in closed beta, the Rock Band Network will welcome authors to open beta in the coming weeks!
• “Sort by Stars” in Quickplay. If you hit the “Sort” button on the Song Select screen, you’ll come to a brand new sort that orders songs by the star ratings that you’ve achieved on each song.
• Background Downloading in the Music Store. Purchasing songs from the Rock Band Music Store now no longer requires you to wait for a song to download before you can download another song. You can now queue up downloads to your heart’s content, which is going to be incredibly handy with some of the amazing DLC that’s coming out over the next few weeks and months.
• Xbox 360 Wireless Microphone Support. Rock Band 2 now supports Xbox 360 Wireless Microphones, like the Lips microphone.
• Chord HOPO improvements: If you’ve played The Beatles: Rock Band, you’ll notice much more robust handling of chord hammer-ons and pull-offs. This patch implements those changes in Rock Band 2 to provide a more natural chord hammer-on/pull-off experience.
• Velocity Sensitivity on Ion Drum Kits: Ion Drum kits now support velocity sensitivity in both drum fills and Drum Freestyle mode.

All of this sounds great, especially the DLC background downloading.  It’s no problem on my new internet connection, but on the old connection I’d invariably download all my new tracks through the Xbox console just so I could actually use my console in the proceeding hours.

The patch will be downloaded the next time you boot up Rock Band 2 and connect to Xbox Live.  The PlayStation 3 is also getting the same upgrade as soon as the patch makes it’s way through the PlayStation Network certification.  You can check out the detailed forum post here.

Guitar Hero would have made itself top of the bill

Let’s face it. Rhythm games are over-saturated and, if you’ll excuse the pun, played-out. There is never really much new gameplay-wise to enjoy in a new release, long time players have lost most of the challenge by practicing too much, and the song catalogues accompanying most new titles are uninspiring at best. Drop on top of this a full retail price every time a developer feels like grinding out a new game, and it’s not really very hard to see why many gamers are over the entire music game trend.

Which is why, amongst this slowly composting genre, it’s lovely to recieve the breath of fresh air that is provided by The Beatles: Rock Band.

Now, before I gush (and gush I will, trust me), let’s do a little checklist on my list of gripes above.

Technically, there isn’t much new gameplay-wise in TB:RB. There are a few new mechanics that I’ll get to in a second, but overall there isn’t much changed here since Rock Band 2.

The difficulty also won’t exactly challenge any experienced player, with the exception of maybe a few of the trickier songs. If a player is comfortable alternating 3-button chords, then there isn’t much to seperate them from 5 starring every track.

And yes, you will be slugged (at least initially) full retail price for your copy of The Beatles: Rock Band.

But all that can be easily forgiven when you play the game, and discover the beautiful way in which Harmonix has collaborated with Apple Corps to make such a brilliant tribute to the life and times of the Beatles.

Usually I’d talk about the plot or gameplay of any given game I was reviewing first, but the first thing you’ll notice when you play The Beatles: Rock Band is the fact that it is visually brilliant, and not many games can truly say that. I don’t even mean brilliant in a “quadruple 1080iHD crisper than a pack of crisps” sense, which probably makes this even rarer. The Beatles: Rock Band has a beautifully developed artistic style, which seems to permeate it’s way into every aspect of the game. That’s right, it’s so good it can legitimately get away with using a word like ‘permeate’.

When are sweater-vests coming back in fashion?

Harmonix has single-handedly shown it’s competitors what can be achieved when you actually bother to apply a little original thinking to your title. Half of the tracks are presented in their chronologically accurate performance setting. For instance, if you’re playing “Can’t Buy Me Love”, you’ll be playing it as the young Beatles in the Ed Sullivan Theatre. If you’re playing “Don’t Let Me Down”, you’ll be playing as an older version of the Beatles on the Abbey Road rooftop. All these segments look fantastic, and are complete with appropriate stage costume, equipment, and the ever-present horde of screaming young girls.

Where the art style kicks into overdrive (sorry, “Beatlemania”) however, is for the series of songs tied to recordings at the Abbey Road studios. These are performed in what the developers refer to as “dreamscapes”: magical, typically psychedelic performances inspired by Beatles cover-art and themes. I imagine “LSD-scapes” probably didn’t make it past the proof-reading stage of the games development.

For instance, playing “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” drops the Beatles (in their Sgt. Pepper uniforms, of course) inside a rotunda in the middle of a sunflower field. In the background, enormous horns play the accompanying brass sections of the song, and when the song transitions to “With A Little Help From My Friends” the rotunda sprouts a hot air balloon and floats off through the clouds. The chorus lyrics float through the sky next to the balloon as they are sung, and when it’s all over the camera transitions back to the studio, where the whole band have just finished their recording.

These dreamscapes are really what sets this game apart from the rest of it’s genre. Rock Band 2 had already paved the way for this style of play by using effects and having “music video” renditions of songs. But The Beatles: Rock Band takes the simple premise and makes it nothing short of art. On your first playthrough of the game, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll wish you could stop playing for a while just to watch the accompanying video. It’s a simple and well executed device that allows the developers to show off their respect for the catalogue, while at the same time breaking the “four guys on a stage” mould which so tightly surrounds the genre as a whole.

The harmony sections are ... challenging, to say the least

OK, now to gameplay. Apart from a few cosmetic changes, you’re not going to find too much has changed since Rock Band 2. In many ways this is a good thing, as you don’t have to worry about buying a brand new controller just to make use of a throwaway feature. What has been added is the ability to sing vocal harmonies, which is probably almost as difficult as the addition of a second kick pedal. Players with extra microphones can assist with the vocals by singing certain sections in harmony with the vocalist. These sections appear as two or three layer notes in the vocal track, and each player can choose any one of the three to sing. Luckily these only count as bonus points, as singing in harmony can be very bloody difficult, especially for the amateur singer caged up inside most of us gamers. Coupled with this, players singing the harmonies also have to know the words (which is easier than usual, given they’re Beatles lyrics), know when to jump in and continue to play their instrument chart. Put all these together and, even if you don’t get the bonus vocal points, you’ll probably have knackered whatever streak you were building on the drums!

A feature that struck me as quite clever was the fact that the whammy bar’s effect on the audio has been disabled. It still operates identically in function, which is to say that you’ll still be able to use it to gain extra energy from Beatlemania phrases, but it doesn’t fuck around with the sound of the original tracks, which I found delightful. In a similar vein, it’s impossible for the Beatles to get booed off stage. If you fail a song, you’re simply prompted to start again or to go back to the menu. Around the songs, there is plenty of unlockable Beatles memorabilia for any Beatlemaniac to enjoy, from production photos to recordings and video. The more stars you collect, the more extra little tidbits are available for you to check out.

Although it comes as close as any rhythm game could, The Beatles: Rock Band isn’t perfect. That said, the flaws are few and mostly cosmetic. There doesn’t seem to be as much leeway with hammer-ons and pull-offs as you’d usually expect. It’s kind of like playing original Rock Band with precision mode switched on. This is again probably a design decision to help preserve the original music, but it becomes very frustrating when trying to accomplish certain achievements that require you to play all these sections without strumming. Cosmetically, sometimes the faces of the Beatles can be washed out by a certain effect leaving you with a strangely expressionless face (if you have the game, McCartney behind the piano at the end of “The End” is what I’m reffering to). Something I otherwise wouldn’t have noticed, if not for the beautiful job done on the rest of the game, is that the audience for the Beatles’ performance at Bukodan is populated entirely with girls similar to the earlier shows, there doesn’t seem to be anyone of Japanese origin in the entire concert.

The Verdict:

Pros: A stunning art direction is coupled with the obvious deep respect that Harmonix has for the Beatles back-catalogue. A good selection of songs that span the Beatles’ career. Original use of stage effects and the dreamscapes will have you cursing the task of actually having to play the game.

Cons: Charts are not overly difficult, save a few songs. A few minor cosmetic niggles, but nothing of any real note.

Overall: I’ve no hesitation giving this 4.5 out of 5. This title is about as close as you can come to a perfect rhythm game, and it’s done with love and creativity. The song collection is as classic as ever, and can be enjoyed by Beatlemaniac and new-comer alike. Brilliant, brilliant work Harmonix!

Having just played the game through, we be thinking that Beatles:RB ain’t getting the creedence it deserves, but that’s how the coo-goo-gachoob crumbles I suppose.  Guitar Hero 5‘s aggressive “buy a copy, get everything else we ever did free” marketing would appear to be working for them.

I’ll post up our TB:RB review soon, it’s in the draft stages.

Take a look at the statistics…

Yeah, well, same to you Lego rocker

The block-heads at MTV Multiplayer have posted up an exclusive trailer for the upcoming Lego Rock Band, which shows off the rather destructive element that Lego is able to bring to the rhythm game genre.

We haven’t seen too much aroud the web about the title, we’ve all been giggling far too concerned about Guitar Hero: Van Halen, but the trailer looks highly entertaining. Players appear to be able to rock out so hard that they destroy the environment around them. I would guess (just guessing, no facts!) that the amount of destruction caused by your rock is going to be relative to how well you play, kind of like a current-gen Bust-A-Groove. There’s no confirmed complete track listing yet, but I’d be eager to see it when it does.

Lego Rock Band is due out for the final quarter of 2009. Until then, take a look at the trailer, it’s pretty damn cool. Lookit the little Lego hammer-ons!

Can you feel the emotion yet? No? Yeah, me neither.

Well here’s one I didn’t see coming. News from the gang over at GamingBits, they’ve posted up a video of (I assume) in-game footage of Xbox avatars playing as a band.

Like I said … didn’t see that one coming.

Frankly, while I completely support the integration of avatars in as many things as possible, Guitar Hero? Really? LEGO Rock Band, maybe, but it kind of ruins the last shred of what they call their “artistic style” if you ask me. If they’re going to drop this in, well, why not Miis too? Sure, the Wii only offers a more basic avatar system compared to the 360, but why not? They already look out of place, why not just go the whole hog?

They’ve worked so long making realistic animations for drumming, guitar and vocals, which is something that your average avatar can’t replicate. Watch the video. It looks like the singer is about to take a massive bite out of the microphone, because his mouth has no animation while singing.

Take a look, it’s kind of hypnotic, like a lava-lamp in a car crash.

In related news, Activision finally dropped the full setlist for the upcoming title. If you’re interested, hit the “Read More”, I won’t make a nine mile post to take up the front page. It’s looks like a great selection, definitely a step up from the ecclectic choice of GH: World Tour.

The most recently announced (and final) songs:

• 3 Doors Down – “Kryptonite”
• Arctic Monkeys – “Brianstorm”
• Blink-182 – “The Rock Show”
• Dire Straits – “Sultans Of Swing”
• Jimmy Eat World – “Bleed American”
• Johnny Cash – “Ring Of Fire”
• Megadeth – “Sweating Bullets”
• Mötley Crüe – “Looks That Kill”
• Muse – “Plug In Baby”
• Nirvana – “Smells Like Teen Spirit”
• Queen & David Bowie – “Under Pressure”
• Stevie Wonder – “Superstition”
• The Killers – “All The Pretty Faces”
• The Raconteurs – “Steady As She Goes”
• TV On The Radio – “Wolf Like Me”

And the rest:

• A Perfect Circle – “Judith”
• AFI – “Medicate”
• Attack! Attack! UK – “You And Me”
• Band Of Horses – “Cigarettes, Wedding Bands”
• Beastie Boys – “Gratitude”
• Beck – “Gamma Ray”
• Billy Idol – “Dancing With Myself”
• Billy Squier – “Lonely Is The Night”
• Blur – “Song 2”
• Bob Dylan – “All Along The Watchtower”
• Bon Jovi – “You Give Love A Bad Name”
• Brand New – “Sowing Season (Yeah)”
• The Bronx – “Six Days A Week”
• Bush – “Comedown”
• Children Of Bodom – “Done With Everything, Die For Nothing”
• Coldplay – “In My Place”
• Darker My Love – “Blue Day”
• Darkest Hour – “Demon(s)”
• David Bowie – “Fame”
• Deep Purple – “Woman From Tokyo (’99 Remix)”
• The Derek Trucks Band – “Younk Funk”
• The Duke Spirit – “Send A Little Love Token”
• Duran Duran – “Hungry Like The Wolf”
• Eagles Of Death Metal – “Wannabe In L.A.”
• Elliott Smith – “L.A.”
• Elton John – “Saturday Night’s Alright (For Fighting)”
• Face To Face – “Disconnected”
• Garbage – “Only Happy When It Rains”
• Gorillaz – “Feel Good Inc.”
• Gov’t Mule – “Streamline Woman”
• Grand Funk Railroad – “We’re An American Band”
• Iggy Pop – “Lust For Life (Live)”
• Iron Maiden – “2 Minutes To Midnight”
• Jeff Beck – “Scatterbrain (Live)”
• John Mellencamp – “Hurts So Good”
• Kaiser Chiefs – “Never Miss A Beat”
• King Crimson – “21st Century Schizoid Man”
• Kings Of Leon – “Sex On Fire”
• Kiss – “Shout It Out Loud”
• Love and Rockets – “Mirror People”
• My Morning Jacket – “One Big Holiday”
• Nirvana – “Lithium (Live)”
• No Doubt – “Ex-Girlfriend”
• Peter Frampton – “Do You Feel Like We Do? (Live)”
• The Police – “So Lonely”
• Public Enemy Featuring Zakk Wylde – “Bring the Noise 20XX”
• Queens Of The Stone Age – “Make It Wit Chu”
• Rammstein – “Du Hast”
• The Rolling Stones – “Sympathy For The Devil”
• Rose Hill Drive – “Sneak Out”
• Rush – “The Spirit Of Radio (Live)”
• Santana – “No One To Depend On (Live)”
• Scars On Broadway – “They Say”
• Screaming Trees – “Nearly Lost You”
• Smashing Pumpkins – “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”
• Sonic Youth – “Incinerate”
• Spacehog – “In The Meantime”
• Sublime – “What I Got”
• Sunny Day Real Estate – “Seven”
• T. Rex – “20th Century Boy”
• The Sword – “Maiden, Mother & Crone”
• Thin Lizzy – “Jailbreak”
• Thrice – “Deadbolt”
• Tom Petty – “Runnin’ Down A Dream”
• Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – “American Girl”
• Vampire Weekend – “A-Punk”
• Weezer – “Why Bother?”
• The White Stripes – “Blue Orchid”
• Wild Cherry – “Play That Funky Music”
• Wolfmother – “Back Round”