Music Discovery via Rock Band

I remember playing the first Rock Band back in 2007 at my in-laws house. I loved going over to their house because they were teenagers who had all the coolest video games. A year or two earlier they had introduced me to Guitar Hero and I had fallen love with it. I didn't have any fancy video game systems so I bought a wired Guitar hero controller and started playing a free open source guitar hero clone called Frets on Fire (FOF) on my pc. The music library was extensive but inconsistent and by the time Rock Band came out I wanted nothing but its multi-instrument appeal. I'm a sucker for Karaoke and can carry a tune so I fell in love with it. Everybody else wanted to play drums or guitar so I was always guaranteed a spot in the band.

I wanted Rock Band so badly. It didn't help that every time I went to church the kids in the youth group were playing it in the lobby on the big tvs. It also didn't help that they were constantly playing one of my all time favorite songs, "Say It Ain't So" by Weezer.

I finally got Rock Band a few months later. It was glorious. In the back of my head I was convinced that I was rock star material. I was singing at expert level in no time. I was playing guitar at expert a little later. My drumming was nearing hard level and I was sure that my "pretend" drumming would translate itself into "real" drumming soon. It was even more fun when I could get my wife to play or when I had friends and family over.

It's been a few years now and I still play Rock Band but now I'm playing the 3rd version of the game; Rock Band 3. Kim doesn't play that much anymore and I'd love for friends and family to come over more but it seems that the novelty has worn off. I've kept up with most of the Rock Band games except for the Beatles version and I'm waiting for the Green Day one to go down to about $10 before I buy it. I always pay the extra few bucks to export my old songs into the new rock band game and I'm a little addicted to buying downloadable content or DLC. Each song is usually $2 and when you add up all the songs from the 3 Rock Band games, Lego Rock Band, the AC/DC track pack and all the DLC songs I have a little over 400 songs.

I've found some really good music through Rock Band and I'd like to list those here. These are songs I was unfamiliar with until Rock Band that made their way onto my iPod.

Songs from Rock Band 1:

Welcome Home by Coheed and Cambria

I was familiar with the band but had not heard this song yet. They're a great band who base their songs on a space opera that the lead singer wrote which makes for some odd lyrics.

Reptillia by The Strokes

Another band I was familiar with but I just had never heard this song until Rock Band.

Songs from Rock Band 2:

Almost Easy by Avenged Sevenfold

Bat Country and Beast and the Harlot are favorite songs of mine so I was pleased to find that this band had more good songs. I wouldn't be surprised if the song writer eventually becomes a Christian as his lyrics make it seem that he's searching for God.

Aqualung by Jethro Tull

I had heard the main hook to the song on those infomercials for classic rock but I liked the whole song. Weird lyrics though...

The Trees by Rush

I don't like a whole lot of Rush this and Tom Sawyer are probably the only ones I like.

Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads

I instantly fell in love with this song and this band. I love, love, love this song it's got to be one of my all time favorites.

DLC, songs I listened to a 30 second preview and decided to pay $2 for.


Afterlife by Avenged Sevenfold

Another good song from this band. Songs like this further cement my theory about them converting, if they haven't already.

Still Alive by Glados

It was free but I would have paid for it.

Skullcrusher Mountain by Jonathan Coulton

It was only a dollar but I was hooked after hearing how funny it was. This kind of Started a Coulton landslide for me. I had to find everything he ever did and I like a good portion of it (I later found out he was responsible for the song before this one on the list).

Hysteria by Muse

I already liked this band and a 30 second preview convinced me that I had to have this. One of my favorite Rock Band songs as it's catchy and smart and very challenging. One of the most fun bass parts to any song if you can master it.

Don't Look Back in Anger by Oasis

When Oasis first hit in America in the 90s this song wasn't on the radio for some reason, BIG mistake. I love this and had never heard it before.

I.V. by X Japan

Was very surprised to like this song but it's great and has one of the best vocal parts.