UMLOUD! A Rock Band Night for Child’s Play

Harmonix has teamed up with Penny Arcade’s Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik for ÜMLOUD!, a special Rock Band Night for the Child’s Play charity. Child’s Play is a charity that supports the National Children’s Hospital Organization by giving money, toys, games and gaming hardware to hospitals where children are going through often life threatening and difficult medical problems. Ümloud! is an annual fundraiser event for Child’s Play Charity, a “gamers’ charity” started by Penny Arcade’s Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik that provides toys and games to Children’s Hospitals around the country, including Oakland Children’s Hospital.

The spiritual-successor to last year’s successful Fünde Razor, and hosted by Chris Kohler (Wired), Joe Markert (Gamehelper), and John “Seg” Seggerson (Telltale Games), Ümloud! will hit the DNA Lounge in San Francisco, California on December 9th, and feature a full-blown Rock Band 2 main stage set up courtesy of Harmonix Music Systems, where Rock Band bands can rock out in the name of charity.

Doors open at the DNA Lounge at 7:00pm and the party will rage until 2:00am. There is a suggested donation of $10.00 (but you should give more if you can)upon entry to the event, and all attendees will be entered into a raffle that will go on throughout the night offering amazing prizes and limited edition gaming swag, courtesy of participating sponsors. You can sign your band up for either the Ultimate Band Package for $120.00 or the Standard Band Package for $40.00. If you are going to be in the San Francisco area, go and join the fun, be entered to win some totally awesome prizes and help raise money for a good cause.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band next week

Apple Corps and MTV Games’ Harmonix announced The Beatles classic album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), will be available in its entirety for purchase and playable as downloadable content in The Beatles: Rock Band starting November 17, 2009.

Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is the second full album from The Beatles to hit The Beatles: Rock Band Music Store since the game’s launch on September 9. Last month MTV Games and Harmonix released Abbey Road (1969) as the first full downloadable album for use in the game. Additionally,
“All You Need Is Love,” the first downloadable track available for the game, has shown similar success with more than 100,000 downloads to date on Xbox LIVE. Proceeds to that song are being donated to Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

Available for Xbox 360 (Nov. 17) and PlayStation 3 (Nov. 19), songs that are not already part of the original game’s line-up - including “Fixing A Hole,” “She’s Leaving Home,” “Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!,” “Within You Without You,” “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “Lovely Rita,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)” and “A Day In The Life” - will cost $1.99 USD, £.99 UK, €1.49 EU (160 Microsoft Points) per track. The “Complete Album Pack” will cost $13.49 USD, £7.49, €8.99 (1080 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360).

And if you own the Wii version, you can by individual tracks for $2.00 USD (200 Wii Points) each starting Nov. 17.

Rocking your blocks off: LEGO Rock Band released

Warner Bros. Interactive has released LEGO Rock Band, much to the delight of kids and adults alike - assuming the game is good, of course. Combining Rock and Roll with the popular building blocks, LEGO Rock Band adds LEGO style into the Rock Band formula. The game features 45 songs and at launch and lets players of all skill levels play bass, drums, guitar and mic to such songs from Queen, Foo Fighters, Jackson 5, The All-American Rejects, Jimi Hendrix, Good Charlotte, Tom Petty and more.

Unique to LEGO Rock Band is the introduction of Rock Power Challenges, where players can harness the power of rock to pull off killer riffs that have the ability to do crazy things like demolish a building, stop an angry octopus or send players on wild missions. Naturally the game promises build-and-play elements that let players customize their own experience by creating a minifigure avatar, band and entourage.

The game will also be supported by the Rock Band Store’s regular release of weekly content as well, with some tunes already ready for purchase. LEGO Rock Band is available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and various incarnations of the DS.

The complete LEGO Rock Band track list

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and MTV Games revealed the full track list for the upcoming LEGO Rock Band game, including songs from Queen, Bon Jovi, P!NK, Jimi Hendrix and Blur. In addition, the game will support downloadable content from the Rock Band Music Store, and enable songs from LEGO Rock Band to be exported on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 across all game modes in the Rock Band Music Platform.

The full track list for LEGO Rock Band on all platforms right after the break:

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Rock Band Metal Track Pack rocks out at retail

Harmonix and distribution partner Electronic Arts have released Rock Band Metal Track Pack, a standalone disc of 20 tracks hand-chosen by the gods of metal themselves (who apparently work at Harmonix or are imaginary). Available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2 and the Wii. So how much would you pay for this disc? 49.99? To quote Bob Barker, “the suggested retail price for Rock Band Metal Track Pack is $29.99.”

This collection includes tracks from Black Tide, Evile, Godsmack, Lamb of God, Queen of the Stone Age and six new songs brand new to the Rock Band platform from Blue Oyster Cult, Hawkwind, I Mother Earth, Motörhead, Nazareth and Rage Against the Machine. These six songs will be exclusive to the Rock Band Metal Track Pack for a limited time. Complete track list after the break:

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Rock Band, Verizon style

EA Mobile, Harmonix and MTV Games, and Verizon Wireless are serving up Rock Band on Verizon’s wireless phones. This is the first time the music game is available on mobile platforms (not counting the PSP game). Verizon Wireless customers can rock out to 25 songs from great artists including Smashing Pumpkins, Lynyrd Skynyrd, 30 Seconds To Mars, Blink-182, Foo Fighters, and the Beastie Boys with MP3-quality sound. No sleep ’til Brooklyn!

In Rock Band for mobile phones, Verizon Wireless customers can master all four ways to play, including lead Guitar, Bass, Drums and Vocals. Rock Band also lets players hit the road solo or form a band and play with friends. They can select Quick Play Mode and Tour Mode, both of which are pretty self-explanatory.

Customers can get Rock Band mobile by texting ROCK to 4-2-6-3 (Game) from their Verizon Wireless phones or find it in the Get It Now/Media Center under Games>Get New Applications. The game is available for $3.99 monthly subscription or $9.99 one-time use on more than 30 handsets including the just-launched Samsung Rogue and the LG enV TOUCH and LG enV 3.

The Beatles Rock Band Mania sweeps the nation

The Beatles: Rock Band is in stores today in various SKUs including with and without a custom themed guitar, by itself and on various platforms including the Wii, PS3, Xbox 360 and VHS. Okay, it’s not out on VHS but if you’re interested in buying it on that format then you are probably really old and need some assisted living.

For our part we offer three great articles about the game: a brand new Games For Lunch, Harold Goldberg’s The Beatles Rock Band review and Kyle Orland’s The Beatles Rock Band inspired feature - Nine Songs We Want as The Beatles: Rock Band DLC (and Four We Don’t).

Finally, and not surprisingly The Beatles Rock Bandmania has hit the Crispy offices. Thank you Harmonix and The surviving Beatles for giving my co-workers another reason to get drunk after work. Yes, I’m am slightly jealous.