VH1’s The Making of The Beatles: Rock Band

Harmonix and MTV Games have teamed up with VH1 (also owned by Viacom, for the record) to create a special look at how The Beatles Rock Band was created, including footage of surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr at Abbey Road Studios being presented with work in progress by the Harmonix creative team.

That special, “The Making of The Beatles: Rock Band” is 30 minutes long and features interviews from Giles Martin (co-producer of The Beatles LOVE album project) and The Beatles: Rock Band music supervisor), and Alex Rigopulos, co-founder and CEO or Harmonix Music Systems and his development team. The special also promises to reveal the origins of the game and a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the music video game. The Making of The Beatles: Rock Band will premiere Friday, November 27th on VH1 Classic at 7:30 PM ET/PT.

For more info on the game check out www.thebeatlesrockband.com.

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.

Queen headlines LEGO Rock Band

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and MTV Games today announced that LEGO Rock Band will feature the likeness of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Queen. Appearing in the game as LEGO minifigures, front man Freddie Mercury, guitarist Brian May, bassist John Deacon and drummer Roger Taylor will be rocking out to their hits “We Will Rock You” and “We Are The Champions.”

Guitarist Brian May seems excited about it: “This is IT! I wanna play!,” he said. “When do I get my toy LEGO man?” Right on, we say.

Today also marks the release of the Queen pack for the Rock Band Music Store of downloadable content, featuring 10 of the band’s most loved songs including Killer Queen, Somebody to Love, Fat Bottomed Girls and the Queen/David Bowie collaboration, Under Pressure. In addition, Queen will release Absolute Greatest on Nov. 17, featuring 20 of the band’s biggest hits.

LEGO Rock Band is scheduled for release holiday 2009.

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, 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.

Rock Band coming to a bar near you

Harmonix and MTV Games are bringing Rock Band to a bar near you. Rock Band Bar Nights is a new initiative to let drinking establishments - or sellers of libations and spirits, if you like - to host their own Rock Band Nights. The program gives bars an in-bar entertainment option to increase foot traffic and provide Rock Band fans with the opportunity to take the stage for a drunken rock star experience. To be fair, many Rock Band players can get this experience at home.

To help venues host and promote their own Rock Band Bar Nights, the program offers support to registered bars with everything from exclusive Rock Band product offerings to multiplatform marketing support. The program will also provide bars with a full music solution from the Rock Band catalogue featuring more than 800 tracks. To kick off the program, Harmonix and MTV Games are providing bars that sign up before September 8th an exclusive five-song preview disc from The Beatles: Rock Band, allowing their customers to play the game before it hits stores on September 9th.

Interested bar owners or fans can check out www.RockBand.com/BarNights for registration and more information.