Already mastered Abbey Road on The Beatles: Rock Band? As promised, the entire Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band will be available as downloadable content for TB:RB starting November 17th. Sgt. Pepper’s title track, “With A Little Help From My Friends,” “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” “Getting Better,” and “Good Morning Good Morning” were previously included in the game’s original release, but the classic LP’s remaining eight tracks, including “A Day in the Life,” will hit Xbox 360s, PS3s and Wiis next week.

Rock Star Avatars: Video Game Versions of Real-Life Music Heroes. (more…)

Photo: Winter/Getty

In September, Nirvana fans were shocked to learn that the Kurt Cobain avatar in Guitar Hero 5 could be used to sing any other song on the game’s track list, from Bon Jovi to Bush. Now No Doubt have made a similar discovery about their own avatars in Band Hero — and they’re taking swift legal action. The band filed a lawsuit against the game’s maker, Activision, today, for fraudulent inducement and breach of contract, among other complaints, in which they argue the group was turned into “a virtual karaoke circus act.”

The band’s manager, Jim Guerinot, tells Rolling Stone No Doubt were “mortified” to discover their likenesses could be used to sing songs by other artists. “They’re just like, ‘What? We didn’t sign up for this,’ ” he says.

The band also charges that each member of No Doubt can be isolated from the rest of the group and made to sing songs inappropriate for his/her gender. When the band brought their concerns to Activision, they allege the company “refused to correct its actions.” “An Activision executive asserted that [changing the game] would be ‘too expensive’ and would jeopardize their revenue,” according to the complaint. Activision has responded that the suit is without merit, adding in a statement, “Activision has a written agreement to use No Doubt in Band Hero — an agreement signed by No Doubt after extensive negotiations with its representatives, who collectively have decades of experience in the entertainment industry.”

Rock Star Avatars: Video Game Versions of Real-Life Music Heroes. (more…)

When Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz met up with two of his musical heroes, Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo and Blink-182’s Travis Barker, to rock out in a commercial for Band Hero, he realized the shoot wasn’t going to be an epic jam session. For starters, they were each holding miniature plastic instruments. Also, they were performing in their underwear. Wentz, Cuomo, Barker and Taylor Swift are the latest artists to emulate Tom Cruise in a Risky Business-inspired commercial for Band Hero, the pop-oriented and family-minded spin-off of the Guitar Hero franchise that hits stores today.

“The slide was pretty bizarre. I gotta admire Tom Cruise, because you have to slide so your slide lands on the beat, and you have to slide at just the right place so the next person can slide at just the right place,” Wentz says the harder-than-expected shoot. “And they would Lysol it. And sometimes it’d be way slippery. There was a time when I slid offstage.” Fall Out Boy’s “Sugar, We’re Going Down” is among the 60-plus playable songs on Band Hero, and while Wentz hasn’t had the opportunity to “play” the song yet, he predicts he wouldn’t do too well. “Joe [Trohman], our guitarist, is pretty good at it, so when we play [music video games], he always has to save us, or save me,” Wentz said. (more…)

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The Who may be the next band to receive their own branded Rock Band video game. Singer Roger Daltrey let the following tidbit slip in an interview with MassLive: “The game, yeah, yeah, they’re going to be doing a Who one next year. There is one planned. [The idea] is fabulous. Anything that gets non-musical people interested in music is wonderful.” So far, only the Beatles have their own Rock Band title; Guitar Hero has games pegged to acts including Aerosmith and Metallica.

Check out video game avatars of rock’s biggest names.

A Rock Band spokeperson told video game blog Kotaku, “We’re working closely with the Who on what’s next, but don’t have anything new to announce at this time.” (more…)

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“My nephews ain’t beat me their whole entire life — until now,” said Jay-Z, clad in his trademark Yankee cap and shades yesterday, demonstrating for a small press roundtable that he could be just as competitive with gaming as he is with MCing. “I would never let them win because that meant they controlled the household, so I would just beat them mercilessly. Suck it up, kid!”

The rapper and longtime gamer is throwing his name behind the deluxe “Renegade Edition” of DJ Hero, the long-awaited DJ simulation rhythm game coming in the wake of the ultra-successful Guitar Hero franchise. Beyond the Jay-Z co-sign and some consulting work, the Renegade Edition comes with a 2-CD set featuring a smattering of his greatest hits on one disc and some of Eminem’s on the other (as well as a stand and carrying case). Jay-Z seemed appropriately amped about the in-game blend of Em’s “My Name Is” and his own “Izzo (H.O.V.A.),” which he described as clever and his favorite in the soundtrack. When asked about his favorite song that wasn’t his own, he joked, “Does such a song exist?”

Check out rock-star game avatars from Kurt Cobain to Daft Punk. (more…)

As album sales soften and the industry turns to alternate ways to get music to fans, the battle between the big music video games has become increasingly heated, and new sales figures indicate The Beatles: Rock Band has a bit of an edge on Guitar Hero 5. According to Billboard, The Beatles: Rock Band sold 595,000 copies following its September 9th release, while GH5 moved 499,000 units since it hit stores on September 1st. In all, both games help fuel a revenue increase of 72 percent for music video games compared to September 2008.

Check out rock-star game avatars, from the Fab Four to Van Halen.

Guitar Hero 5 kept pace with the opening month sales of its predecessor Guitar Hero: World Tour, which sold 534,000 copies last year, Billboard reports. However, the Beatles helped push MTV Games to new highs, as TB:RB more than doubled the 238,000 units of Rock Band 2 that were purchased in its first month. The Beatles: Rock Band, which was only outsold by Halo 3 and Madden ‘10 last month, came in second in overall revenue due to its higher price tag and all the add-on replica instruments that were available either separately or as a deluxe package. (more…)

As promised, Abbey Road will be available in its entirety for The Beatles: Rock Band starting this week, Harmonix and MTV Games announced in a press release. Even though six of Abbey’s most famous tracks were included on the in-game track list — “Come Together,” “Something,” “Octopus’s Garden,” “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” “Here Comes The Sun” and “The End” — the remaining songs will be made available on October 20th for Microsoft XBox 360 and Nintento Wii gamers and October 22nd for Playstation 3.

Look back at all the LPs in the Beatles catalog, with their RS reviews.

For PS3 and XBox 360, the tracks will be offered up in two ways: Fans of Side A but not Side B — if those people actually exist — can buy “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” “Oh! Darling” and “Because” as standalone download. However, if you want those three songs and all 16 glorious minutes of the Abbey Road medley, plus all 23 seconds of “Her Majesty,” you can purchase the complete album pack for $16.99. Wii will offer up the three songs plus “You Never Give Me Your Money” as $2 a la carte downloads (”Her Majesty” will run $1) except for the medley, which will be divided into three multi-song downloads at $3.50 each.

A day in the life of the Beatles: photos from 1963. (more…)

Many a Britpop fan in the Nineties described Blur as “adorable” — and that was before Damon Albarn and Co. were turned into LEGO versions of themselves for the upcoming music video game LEGO Rock Band. The recently reunited group’s “Song 2″ appears on the title’s in-game playlist (see the full list below), and Rolling Stone has your first look at the band’s avatars and a little video of their playable characters in action.

Blur join Iggy Pop and David Bowie, whose LEGO avatars have already been revealed. Check them out, along with more rock & roll avatars from Kurt Cobain in Guitar Hero 5 to Taylor Swift in Band Hero here:

• Rock Star Avatars: Video Game Versions of Real-Life Music Heroes

Footage of LEGO Blur rocking out, after the jump. (more…)

The uproar over Kurt Cobain’s Guitar Hero 5 avatar doing some uncharacteristic things (like, oh, singing Bon Jovi), took over the Web last month, and in the past few weeks playable characters for Iggy Pop and David Bowie (from LEGO Rock Band) have emerged.

So whose avatar is most life-like? Metallica or Aerosmith? Ozzy or Lemmy? Taylor Swift or Hayley Williams? Check out a gallery of rockers from Guitar Hero, The Beatles: Rock Band, DJ Hero and Band Hero and name the best representations and worst offenders in the comments:

• Rock Star Avatars: Video Game Versions of Real-Life Music Heroes

The makers of DJ Hero have revealed the full list of 93 new blends and mash-ups that will feature on the upcoming Activision game, which will allow players to spin to combinations like David Bowie vs. 50 Cent, Blondie vs. the Beastie Boys, Rihanna vs. the Killers and Eminem vs. Jay-Z. Those last two rappers play a prominent role in DJ Hero, as do Daft Punk, who Rolling Stone revealed will contribute their likeness, awesome stage show and some exclusive mixes for the game, due out October 27th.

DJ Hero also features new mixes from DJ Shadow, DJ Z-Trip, Grandmaster Flash, Cut Chemist and the late Adam “DJ AM” Goldstein. As Rolling Stone previously reported, Grandmaster Flash will provide the voiceovers for the game’s tutorial mode, as well as appear in the game as an avatar.

For the entire DJ Hero on-disc track list, click below: (more…)