I am now on Rock Band 3 Watch

If I you didn’t know, I love music games.

In case you already knew, I love music games.

Rock Band, beatmania, Dance Dance Revolution, etc.

So in Rock Band 3 news (and it falls under Guitar Hero 6 news I guess), Stone Temple Pilots’ manager has come out saying that STP will have a track in both music games.

Stone Temple Pilots already have three songs available in the Rock Band catalogue, namely “Vasoline” being available on the Rock Band 1 disc along with “Interstate Love Song” and “Sex Type Thing” available as downloadable content. I assumed it would be a song from their new album set to release next month, but Yvette (my friend that acts as unofficial editor of my blog who also hides away on Blogger and Twitter) pointed out that “Plush” isn’t available as of yet and I realized that “Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart” isn’t available as DLC, either.

Along with that, Rock Band 3 will also have three-part harmonies as seen in The Beatles: Rock Band last year and the upcoming Green Day: Rock Band, which makes sense considering GD:RB will have a full exportable soundtrack to use in other Rock Band games, not including The Beatles: Rock Band.

Soon, I’m going to be coming up with a dream list for Rock Band 3 consisting of 85-110 tracks. Until then, here’s a simple rundown of what we know so far:

Rock Band 3 tracks:

• Stone Temple Pilots – [track(s) not known]

New Features:

• Harmonies (as seen in The Beatles: Rock Band and Green Day: Rock Band)

Plastic Beach: It’s like sex on a beach; Wanna try for a baby?

So I bought Plastic Beach last Friday. And I listened to it. And listened to it. And listened to it. I think you can see what I’m getting at. I very much enjoy listening to this album. If you want to experience the album for yourself first before you read this, go for it. This post will still be here after you go and get yourself a copy so we can compare thoughts. I’ll be waiting.

Oh, you’re still here. Well, here’s what I thought of the album:

“Orchestral Intro”/“Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach” do just what the names say. Welcoming you to this newest venture into the world of Gorillaz is Sinfonia ViVA giving a classical introduction to the album for a minute before leading into a warm “Welcome” from Snoop Dogg on the second track, backed by what easily sounds like a classic hip hop beat and perfectly complements the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.

“White Flag” features Bashy, Kano and The National Orchestra for Arabic Music and is the first of two tracks that remind me of Jet Set Radio, the videogame series about inline skating, graffiti, and hip hop culture. And that’s a damn good thing.

“Rhinestone Eyes” is the first track that is completely Gorillaz with an always optimistic 2D singing about very optimistic matters such as being a scary gargoyle on a tower that was made from plastic power, continuing the album’s theme of things of a plastic nature. It reminds me of “Tomorrow Comes Today” from Gorillaz, one of my favorite tracks from that album.

“Stylo” features a rapping Mos Def, a singing of Bobby Womack, and 2D (possibly being chased by Bruce Willis). It has a feeling of uncertainty, which the music video adds to, and “juice.” Everyone loves “juice.” Say it: “juice.”

“Superfast Jellyfish” features Gruff Rhys and the always welcome return of De La Soul. This song is a combination of what I can describe of slow hip hop with a catchy almost-pop chorus. This is one of the tracks that stand out most to be because it’s so upbeat and fun.

“Empire Ants” continues almost where “Superfast Jellyfish” left off, but transitioned into more into the original songs created by Nujabes for Samurai Champloo with the help of Little Dragons, an electronic music band from Sweden. 2D begins on vocals at the beginning of the song, melancholy as always, but the song picks up just a tab bit when Yukimi Nagano takes over on vocals.

“Glitter Freeze” featuring Mark E. Smith feels more like a Felix da Housecat track, and I don’t mean that in a bad way at all. It definitely grew on me. I can totally imagine walking into a club and hearing this song playing, instantly becoming the anthem of the night while you go club hopping with friends.

Lou Reed lends his very distinct vocals to “Some Kind of Nature” and manages to make the song more fun to listen to, much in the same way that Dennis Hopper did on Demon Days with “Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head.”

“On Melancholy Hill” would be a very depressing song to listen to if it weren’t for the overly cheery pop beat. I know I would be horribly wrong to even attempt to make it sounds like a generic pop song because it definitely is not, and is far from it. There might not even be proper words to describe a song like this one.

“Broken” is very traditional Gorillaz in a sense: Slower beat, low vocals, and backing vocals here and there. We know how classic Gorillaz sound, and that’s always welcome by me.

If there is ever a new Jet Set Radio game, it would be a crime if it didn’t include “Sweepstakes,” which once again features Mos Def and the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, pushing the Mos Def and HBE count on this album to 2. As a huge fan of the Jet Set Radio Future, having played it for years and years, this track gave me fond memories of the times I’d play a game that had an amazing soundtrack.

The song “Plastic Beach” features Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of The Clash. To put it simply, if you were a fan of “19-2000” and “Clint Eastwood” from the album Gorillaz, you’ll easy become a fan of this one.

Have you ever played Conker’s Bad Fur Day? If you haven’t, the game opens with the game’s leading character (Conker) with a killer hangover. I can totally imagine that part of the game when listening to “To Binge.” This song again features Little Dragon, and again makes me want to play Conker’s Bad Fur Day.

I think it’s because I am a fan of “Don’t Get Lost in Heaven”/”Demon Days” from Demon Days is why I enjoy listening to “Cloud of Unknowing.” Marking the second appearances of Bobby Womack and Sinfonia ViVA on this album, they create a sound that feels soulful. It’s bliss. No “juice,” though.

“Pirate Jet” serves as the outro to the track. It may sound like an outro, but is this only the end until next time? Where will Gorillaz end up next?

Overall, I love Plastic Beach because it’s not just another Gorillaz album; it also maintains the Gorillaz style while taking a stroll down a new avenue in terms of sound. I definitely recommend it. I recommend that you play it during breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Demon Days Feel Good

Because of Gorillaz’ (or is it Gorillaz’s”?) new album coming next week (which I literally found about last week), I’m listening to Demon Days, which is possibly one of my favorite albums of all time.

The introduction track (simply named “Intro”) and “Last Living Souls” have always sounded ominous to me, starting a darker theme that is apparently throughout the entire album. “Kid with Guns” and “O Green World” makes me think about the damage that we do to ourselves and others, not necessary physically but also mentally, but that can that could just be my interpretation of it. “Dirty Harry” has a nice combination of strings and hip hop beats with children choir singing the chorus before and following the hip hop flow. It makes for interesting listening.

Now I can honestly say “Feel Good Inc.” is one of my guilty pleasures music wise. It even goes as far as me HAVING to have this song in my massive collection of songs to play in Rock Band. Having De La Soul in the track was the cherry on top of the song. I feel like it is on one of the more (if the the most) upbeat songs on the album.

“El Mañana” makes me think of an autumn night. I honestly have no clue why, but the lyrics make me think of someone feeling that they are alone, maybe driven by the line “Summer don’t know me no more.” The sound of the strings in the background of the song give the feeling of someone feeling somber and the sound of sirens at the end gave me the feeling like all hope is gone. What can I say? I’m a pessimistic at times. The track “Every Planet We Reach is Dead” is what I can imagine myself listening to on my lowest of days if I didn’t try to force myself to listen to something upbeat to swing my mood back up. But I can also found myself finding listening to it on my highest of days because of the great amount of instruments playing in the last half of the song. I’d honestly learn how to play piano just so I could play this song in particular over and over again.

I totally listen to “November Has Come” in, guess when, November. I feel at around this point slips back into being a hip hop album. It has the feeling of autumn again, “All Alone,” why do you make me feel like I’m always surrounded by people? It could be because of the faster beat being after the slower “November Has Come.” Anyone that loves bass (i.e. Me) will love the song because it definitely has enough bass going on while slipping into a more peaceful sound near the middle of the song and seamlessly back into the bass . The next track, “White Light,” is also rolling deep in bass. Not including the second to last song on the album which I will mention later on, this is the shortest song on the album.

“Dare” is the closest thing you will get to pop music on the album. I don’t mean that in a mad way at all because I love pop music. It also carries on with bass lines like the few songs before it while also giving the track backing vocals that make the song very, very catchy to me.

I wanted to find out what the Dance of the Dead was after the chorus of “Fire Coming Out of the Monkey’s Head,” which features Dennis Hopper telling the story of the Happy Folk. Damn, they were so happy.

“Don’t Get Lost in Heaven” and “Demon Days” I love because they make me appreciate a sound I don’t typically find myself listening to. I’ve never really been a fan of gospel music (neither do I hate it), but I can find myself listening to these two particular tracks in particular over and over again because they make me feel at ease.

So I can’t wait until Plastic Beach is released next week. I can’t believe Gorillaz haven’t released an album in five years because they totally flew by. Just going by the sound of the track “Stylo” from the new album, I’m going to be living on this new album for another five years to come.

S-s-s-s-s-stylo.