The 2009 Show

What have I done this year?
Learned 30 songs.
Played 6 open mic nights.
Saw 2 concerts.
Reviewed 4 CDs.
Entered a couple contests.
Got old enough to drink.
Fell in love.
Broke up.
Got into some new stuff.

Yeah, it's been a good year.

ENTER SANDMAN
The solo for this song gave me a greater appreciation for Metallica. The solo uses a blues scale that I fucking love to play.

B|--9b---9b---9b--9b--9b-----------------10---10--8--7-------
G|--9b---9b---9b--9b--9b---7--9-------7----------------9-----
D|-------------------------------------7h9-------------------------
A|---------------------------------------------------------------
E|------------------------------------------------------------


B|--7/8\7----7------------------------------------------------------------
G|----------9----9--7-----7----9p7---------------------------------------
D|---------------------9-----------9p7----7--9--7---------------------------
A|----------------------------------------9----------9--8--7------------------
E|--------------------------------------------------------------10--7/----------

The Year Of The Bastard starts tomorrow.

SETLIST UPDATED

REVIEW: They Came From The Shadows

I followed For Tax Reasons ever since the short "I'M IN UR MANGER, KILLING UR SAVIOR" debut a couple Christmases ago. They haven't put out anything recent, so I've been following their animator, Ben's blog at Kill The Captains.

Recently he's been animating a music video for Teenage Bottlerocket. On a whim, I picked up the CD, after liking the two preview tracks. What did I think?

"Skate Or Die" had nothing to do with the old NES/Arcade game, but was still a straight-forward call to rebellion, and I liked it. "Don't Want To Go" was fast paced, and kept in line with the skate-punk feel of the first two. "Bigger Than Kiss", the song Ben's animating, was pretty intense. The rest of the songs bleed together. I know most punk is supposed to be straightforward, but it doesn't stand to be listened to all in one go. I guess I was kinda spoiled on "21st Century Breakdown".

It's good, it's competent, it's fast, but if you pick it up, I'd recommend burning it onto your computer and putting on shuffle.

ALSO OF NOTE:
1. I'll have Enter Sandman done by the new year.
2. I'm on the PSN Network as RhythmBstrd. Friend me!

The Rhythm Bastard 2009 Christmas Mixtape

My present to all of you. Burn on a CD and enjoy. Bring it to a party, and have all your friends kick you out.

DOWNLOAD THAT!


TRACK LISTING:
"Happy Holidays, You Bastard" by Blink 182
"If I Don't Get Videogames For Decemberween" by Brainkreig
"Homestar Presents Presents" by Homestar Runner
"Christmas Is The Time To Say I Love You" by Billy Squier
"Don't They Know It'S Christmas" by Fucked Up
"In The Morning" by Akira The Don
"Christmas Night Of Zombies" by MxPx
"Oi To The World" by The Vandals
"Don't Stop Believing (In Santa Claus)" by Jen de Milo from the Something Awful Forums
"Christmas Wrapping" by The Waitresses
"No Presents For Christmas" by King Diamond
"364 Days" by Murder City Devils
"We Three Kings" by Blondie
"I Wish It Were Christmas Today" by Julian Casablancas
"Fairytale Of New York" by The Pouges
"The Worst Noel" by AM Taxi
"Father Christmas" by The Kinks
"Auld Lang Syne" by The Dropkick Murphys
"Chirstmas Time (Don't Let The Bells End)" by The Darkness

UK Gives The Bastard A Christmas Present

Rage Against the Machine beat X Factor winner in charts

Rock band Rage Against The Machine has won the most competitive battle in years for the Christmas number one.

The band's single, Killing In The Name, sold 500,000 downloads beating X Factor winner Joe McElderry's The Climb by 50,000 copies to clinch the top spot.

Their success followed a Facebook campaign designed to prevent another X Factor number one.

One retailer said it was a "truly remarkable outcome - possibly the greatest chart upset ever".

Speaking on the Radio 1 chart show, Zack de la Rocha from Rage said: "We are very, very ecstatic about being number one."

"It says more about the spontaneous action taken by young people throughout the UK to topple this very sterile pop monopoly," he said.

McElderry, 18, praised the campaign, adding: "It's been exciting to be part of a much-hyped battle and they definitely deserve congratulations."

He later told BBC Radio 1 he did not believe the internet campaign was a personal attack.

He said: "It's more against the show than me and I think if any other person had have won, the same thing would have happened, because the petition was going on before the winner had been announced."

Despite earlier in the week calling the campaign "stupid", X Factor judge Simon Cowell offered his congratulations to the couple behind it, Jon and Tracy Morter.

'Silly idea'

This is not the first campaign the Morters have launched to try to influence the charts - last year they attempted to get Rick Astley to the top spot.

Mr Morter, 35, said he learnt "how the charts work" from that experience, and "what you can get away with".

"When this year came around I just thought, let's have another go. If anything, last year was fun. This year it has gone stratospheric."

His wife Tracy said: "It was one of those little silly ideas that make you laugh in your own house.

"We really love music and remember when were were young the charts were really exciting. We just thought, wouldn't it be funny if that song got to number one?

"It took something really strong and forceful to get people behind it."

De la Rocha said the band would perform a free concert in the UK in 2010 to celebrate their chart win.

The past four Christmas number ones have all been by X Factor winners; Alexandra Burke's version of Hallelujah last year was one of the biggest selling festive singles ever.

Guitarist Tom Morello said it had "tapped into the silent majority of the people in the UK who are tired of being spoon-fed one schmaltzy ballad after another".

---------------------
Santa does exist!

Christmas Light Hero

Not one, but TWO people made a setup set to Guitar Hero.





WOW MUST BE NICE TO HAVE ALL THAT TIME ON YOUR HANDS AND NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT SCHOOL OR ANYTHING, HUH GUYS?

Finals Star

HIGHWAY STAR

Highway Star was a song written on Deep Purple's tour bus on the way to the show. Shit, that must have been why it was so easy.

Yeah, it's a pretty simple song, except for these parts:
e--5h7h8-(x8)--10h12h13-(x8)--13h15h16-(x8)---

e--0-0-0-17-0-0-0-16-0-0-0-15-0-0-0-14-0-0-0-13-0-0-0-12-0-0-0-11-0-0-0-10--

Repeat the first riff, then continue this pattern down to the first fret, and then back up to the eighth. Most of it is just up to timing and finger speed.

SETLIST UPDATED

The Internet's Inferno

Green Day: Rock Band. It's a real thing. Let's take a look at some of the more... interesting comments, shall we (from Joystiq because Destructoid is done)?

Cyris @ Dec 12th 2009 5:28PM
No thanks.

What a polite young man!

mspiels @ Dec 13th 2009 9:50AM
When you have to have someone else play your power chords while you run around on stage you are not a "great musician".

You know, I saw a distinct lack of Jason White in the trailer... Hmmm...

Let's see what Something Awful has to say...
I CHALLENGE THEE posted:
I can't believe how obtuse all of you are. Ugh. Don't you fucks realize that they've completely ruined Rock Band by adding Green Day? They've reached Guitar Hero levels of failure. Rock Band used to be respectful to the medium, not like that joke of a series Guitar Hero. They ruined their series by over saturating the market with so many versions of their game. What a mistake. Either way, Activision disrespected dead artists by adding Johnny Cash and Kurt Cobain to Guitar Hero 5. What a joke. Next thing you know they're going to start charting non-guitar parts to guitar like that other series
*checks list of available DLC, which is over 1,000 songs*

*throws Lego Rock Band into the old 360, plays We Are the Champions with minifig Freddie Mercury*

*circlejerks over cool for cats*

Right.
Anyway, here's one of the songs from the upcoming DLC: Christian's Inferno.
Only part I had trouble with was the solo here:

e|-7---7---7---7---7---7---8---8-10------------------------------------------|
B|---7---7---7---7---7---7---8-----------------------------------------------|

And the three note buzz in the beginning, but that comes with time. Just like my next song: Highway Star! Coming Wednesday!

Happy Holidays, You Bastards

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, YOU BASTARD

I figured a quick Christmas special to make up for the fact that I haven't done one yet. Blink 182, ahoy! It's a quick power chord based song just for an update, but when I thought November 30th, "Hey! I should make it AC/DCember!" I forgot shit like finals would get in the way.

G--4--4-4-4-4-4-4-4--------------------------------|
D--4--4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4--4-4-4-4-4-------------------|
A--2--2-2-2-2-2-2-2-4--4-4-4-4-4-------------------|
E----------------------2--2-2-2-2-2-------------------|
Pretty straight forward, start playing on the "Eve", change chords on "two"

D--6--6--6-6-6-6-2--2--2-2-2-2---------------------|
A--6--6--6-6-6-6-2--2--2-2-2-2---------------------|
E--4--4?-4-4-4-4-0--0--0-0-0-0---------------------|
Change chords after the first "I'll never talk to you again"


e--------------------------------------------------|
B--------------------------------------------------|
G--4--4-4------------------------------------------|
D--4--4-4-4--4-4-2--2-2-4--4-4---------------------|
A--2--2-2-4--4-4-2--2-2-4--4-4---------------------|
E---------2--2-2-0--0-0-2--2-2---------------------|
Change chords after "talk" and on the second syllable of "again". Play
the F#5 after "Dad"

G--4--4-4------------------------------------------|
D--4--4-4-4--4-4-2--2-2-2-2-2-2-2------------------|
A--2--2-2-4--4-4-2--2-2-2-2-2-2-2------------------|
E---------2--2-2-0--0-0-0-0-0-0-0------------------|
Same deal as before, only keep playing the E5.

Backing Tracks Added To Setlist

Hey, in addition to the best tabs, I'm giving the best backing tracks as well in the Setlist, so you can practice along. I'll even upload a couple of my own.

SETLIST UPDATED

Green Day DLC Predicitions

Yep, more Green Day coming to Rock Band.

However, instead of publishing 3 songs from each album going backwards, like I thought, it's more from 21st Century Breakdown. Not that that's a bad thing, but fans clamoring for earlier work are sure to be disappointed. In fact, according to the comments in that article, EVERYONE IS DISAPPOINTED WITH EVERYTHING EVER.

So, here are my predicitons:
Viva La Gloria!- The opening vocals should provide a good challenge. Chances are, they're going to chart the piano parts at the beginning, and I estimate it'll be Tier 3 for Guitar. Drums are fast as always, and it gets especially complicated by the end, with those triplets.

Christian's Inferno- Starts of with a very buzzy bass (or maybe it's guitar). Either way, it's very lively. Drums are pretty fast, and vocals, espcially the "WHOOOOOOAAA! Christian's inferno!" will trip you up.

Last Of The American Girls- The words won't make any sense, so don't think to hard about the vocals. They'll be easy. So, maybe then you'll have time to think about it... Whatever. This'll be the easiest of the three songs.

Definitely a more lively and more traditional "punk rock" than the first batch.

Rock Band: Yoko Ono

OK, seriously, they were on the way out LONG before this game happened.

Sorry, no embed.

Drudging Up An Old Post

To kick off December 2009!

To start the mix off with a little swing,
Christmas Time In Tinsel Town by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

Fine, fine, if that's not your thing, and you want something you can bug Harmonix about:
"Don't Let The Bells End" by The Darkness
Yes, they had songs other than "I Believe In A Thing Called Love"

"Christmas" by King Diamond
Yes, he had songs other than GRAAAAAAAAAAANDAAAA!!! WELLLCOME HOOOOOOOOME!
See also:
"No Presents For Christmas"
Both are metal as all hell, but don't pay too close attention to the lyrics. Otherwise you might find something out like how suicide rates are up during the holiday and how much it sucks if you have no one to spend it with. Oops...
Uh, something positive...
Ah, that Nostalgic Critic fellow has a song...
...
Ah, fuck it. At least I'm not Phil From Accounting...