Rock Band is one of those amazing games that seems to never get old, and keeps getting refreshed by new content. Whereas some games with downloadable content sort of fizzle in the execution (gee… Another new skin for my race car!), others pull it off extremely well, and the very best ones make you feel like you got a whole new game when you get the latest content for it (I’m looking at you, Team Fortress 2).
Rock Band remains fundamentally the same no matter what song you download for it, but there is a certain artistry to rendering music into the keypresses and rhythmic changes that are involved in playing the game. Those colored squares have to come from somewhere, and the person (or people) who “scribe” the music into those squares definitely has to have a feel for the song in order to make it fun to play.
A good example of the difference in the ways you can transcribe music to keypresses is this: Most guitar players in the “expert” range will agree that Guitar Hero III is much more difficult than Rock Band, most of the time. The songs are trickier, the transcriptions feel more accurate, and you get a better feel that you are actually playing the song. Rock Band is an extremely fun game, but for soloing, Guitar Hero III is widely accepted as the more “serious” of the two if you want to… You know… Shred.
For players like me, it’s not enough that there is a song from a band I like available for download. I was very excited to see some Muse tracks come out for Guitar Hero III a while back, but when I got them, they were… Well, I’ll just say it; they were horrible. Two of the songs were laughably easy – “expert” felt like “medium” and one of them was almost “Dragonforce” difficult. None of them were accurate. I was highly disappointed.
Therefore, when I found out that Red Hot Chili Peppers’ breakaway album “BloodSugarSexMagik” was coming out for Rock Band, I checked my whoop of joy, and adopted a wait-and-see, reserved, and calm attitude. I didn’t want to be as disappointed as I had been with the Muse track pack.
BloodSugarSexMagik was an album that changed my life. It came out when I was 14 years old, and I had never really purchased music on my own before. I was going on my first long trip away from my parents- to visit a cousin in Washington DC, and they gave me a portable cassette deck to take with me. I think maybe they were hoping I would listen to a book on tape or something. Instead, I took some paper route money to a music store to see what I could get. I will never forget this: When I walked in, the guy behind the counter looked at me and said “are you here for the new Chili Peppers album? Cause I have only one left, so I’m warning you you’d better buy it right now before someone else comes in to get it.”
I had no idea what he was talking about, but I shrugged and said “sure.” I mean, if it was that popular, it must be good.
Suffice to say – the album opened my eyes. It changed my world. It changed the way I looked at things, it changed the way I looked at music, and it made me fall head-over-heels in love with funk. I listened to that tape so much that I literally wore a hole in it. I had to buy another one.
I picked up bass guitar when I was 15, because I wanted to emulate the amazing things that Flea could do. I grew my hair long, and I started trying to teach my blue collar, white boy peers that a white boy could have funk and soul too. I adopted the album as the anthem for the lifestyle I wanted to lead.
So here I sit, 16 years later, remembering all these stories and feelings, because they all came back to me when I found out I could recreate my youth with an Xbox 360 and a video game.
I was shocked to find out that the entire album was available. There are songs on there that not only aren’t really appropriate because of lyrics and sexual content, but would be exceedingly difficult to transcribe for guitar, bass, and drums. Technically, this album represents the Chili Peppers at the height of their career. John Frusciante was the guitar player for this album, and his work on it is on par with Hendrix. Flea was at the top of his game, and their new drummer (at the time) Chad Smith was a crazy syncopated animal. I couldn’t imagine how they would give “Mellowship Slinky in B Major” the Rock Band treatment, and I couldn’t believe they would have the balls to put “Sir Psycho Sexy” on there.
The first song I tried out was Funky Monks. In a way, this song was their theme song. I played it in tribute for the Chili Peppers that existed in 1991. The ones that changed this boy’s life.
I tried it out on Expert, playing guitar. What I noticed immediately was that the song was hard… “Guitar Hero” hard. Frusciante’s guitar style is very unique. It is different from most of the tracks on Rock Band / Guitar Hero, both stylistically and technically. It’s hard to get yourself into the ‘Frusciante Rhythm’ the first few times, but very rewarding when it clicks.
Those of you who play GH/RB on expert will know what I’m talking about with the “feel” of a guitar song. Most guitar parts have a few patterns that, once you master, make playing any song feasible. There are the standouts, like the crazy fingertapping style you have to master for Dragonforce, or the three-note combo changes you have to go through on chord-heavy parts like “3s and 7s” by Queens of the Stone Age, but in the end you start to feel a “pattern” emerge for most songs. I think this pattern represents the people who transcribed the song — for lack of a better way of putting it — their personality comes through in the way you play the song.
What I’m getting at here is that these songs feel refreshingly new. They are a different style. The guitar part at the end of “Sir Psycho Sexy” was some of the most fun I’ve had playing guitar on Rock Band since I started. The soloing is pleasantly difficult and chunky, and the rhythms are a challenge for even die-hard guitar experts.
Even better, you finally get to play a real bassline in Rock Band! Bass is generally scoffed at in Rock Band as the “easy way out,” and for the most part that’s true. However, I challenge anyone to get through the sweet-ass bass solo, on expert, in “Naked in the Rain” on their first try. It’s hard to transcribe “slap” to a Rock Band controller, but they did an admirable job.
I was pretty eager to find out what they did with “Sir Psycho Sexy”, because the lyrics are…Quite suggestive (they sure opened a 14 year old me’s eyes!). Turns out that instead of bleeping, changing or silencing key words, they just took out entire verses. Singing this song will not be satisfying for any fans, because… Yes, entire chunks are gone, and the song lyrics make no sense. Still, it’s one of the best tracks, guitar wise.
It goes something like this:
I got stopped by a lady cop
In my automobile
….
That cop she was all dressed in blue
Was she pretty? Boy I’m tellin’ you
…
Like a ram gettin’ ready to jam the lamb
…
Yeah, you get the idea. The music keeps going but there are HUGE holes in the lyrics. They may as well have turned it into an instrumental.
One glaring omission from the track pack is “Give It Away.” It comes on the Rock Band 2 disc, so if you’re a lowly Rock Band 1 owner, you’re basically out of luck on this song. Strange move, considering that this was one of their big hits. I’m sure RB1 owners would have shelled out the points for this song, even if it was duplicated when they upgraded to Rock Band 2. I’m no IP lawyer though, so what do I know?
Chad Smith’s drumming is as awesome as you think it is. They did an amazing job transcribing his drum parts. I wish I had access to a Rock Band 2 drum kit because I’m sure it’s even better with them.
If you are looking for a new challenge as a guitar expert, even if you are not a fan of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I highly suggest you check this track pack out. You’ll find a lot of new challenges and fulfilling accomplishments at the end of your run.
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