(from www.rushisaband.com)

When I was stuck in Olympia WA last week, the saving grace of our stay was our gracious host Kirk Leonnard and his girlfriend Amy, and their guest room devoted to their Xbox 360, and more specifically, Rock Band. It was there that Kirty South and I found solace, singing and plucking our depression away to the likes of the Beastie Boys, The Marshall Tucker Band and Black Sabbath. We also discussed woman-repellent music including Canadian arena rock champions, Rush. Oh! If only we had access to the tracks that will be made available tomorrow. We would have driven poor Amy completely bonkers.

From B|W|R Public Relations:

Harmonix and MTV Games announced today additional Rush tracks will be available at the Rock Band™ Music Store catalog of downloadable content. On July 8th, air drummers and guitarists will rejoice when direct from the Rush Masters Vault the exclusive Rock Band versions of “Closer To The Heart” and “Working Man (Vault Edition)” (featuring never released alternative guitar solo) are made available for $1.99 per track (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft). Rush now have 5 songs available for Rock Band including cover versions of “Tom Sawyer,” “Limelight” and “Working Man,” almost a full-set by prog rock standards!

Also available are two amazing tracks from six-time Grammy® winning, multi-platinum funk rockers Red Hot Chili Peppers. “Snow ((Hey Oh))” and “Tell Me Baby” from their critically acclaimed ninth studio double album Stadium Arcadium will be available for $1.99 per track (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox LIVE Marketplace).

Release date: Tuesday, July 8, 2008 (Xbox LIVE Marketplace)
Thursday, July 10, 2008 (PLAYSTATION®Store)

Tracks:
From the RUSH Masters Vault:
“Closer To The Heart”
” Man (Vault Edition)”

Hot Chili Peppers
” ((Hey Oh))”
“Tell Me Baby”

(All tracks utilize the original master recordings)

Price: 1.99 (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox LIVE Marketplace) per track
Locations: LIVE Marketplace and PLAYSTATION®Network

** Dates for Rock Band game tracks are tentative and subject to change **

Jean Grae is from South Africa and used to be in the rap crew Natural Resources until she went her own way when they split. This will be her first album in FOUR years, titled Jeanius, and it drops on July 8th. It’s coming out on Blacksmith Music and they’re hoping this anticipated album will be the one to bring her out from the underground scene and make the move to mainstream. The album was produced by “9th Wonder” which includes Jay-Z, Mary J. Blige and Destiny’s Child. If you think you’ve never heard of her, she was on the Rock The Bells tour, toured with Talib Kweli, and coached on the “I Wanna Be A Rapper” MTV show.

Bottom line: Jean Grae has mad rapping skills. She can flow like no other and spit lyrics with them best of them plus she’s hard as eff.

yeah, I’m not even going to pretend I know who Kendal Sheppard is because even if I did have cable, I wouldn’t watch MTV’s Road Rules. In fact, the entirety of Reality TV can suck it. However, I don’t mind looking at her picture for a second:

But really, anyone who submits themselves to reality TV gets exactly what they deserve. Such as a total douche shithead babby daddy. Let’s get a load of him, too.
(http://tampa.newszzle.com/baby-daddy-drama/)
What a bag! In an excellently played out move, Ms. Sheppard aired their dirty laundry and criticized her EX via….wait for it……wait for it…….

Her MYSPACE PAGE! Good move. Read all about it here. Or don’t because it’s a complete and utter waste of your time.

Maybe, in the end, they deserve each other. Either way, writing about this just lost me an IQ point.

Tom paints a lesbian scene on the hood of his dad’s commute car.

This is an interesting view of Guns ‘N’ Roses right as they first blew up with Appetite For Destruction. Weird to watch… A definite hype spotlight from MTV…portrays them as playful. Really, at this point they were just bonehead, wasted 20 somethings. Axl wasn’t even strung out, neither Duff. Give this a watch. Definite head shakes and laughs; these guys were ridiculous characters no matter how you cut it.

Punk rock legends the Bad Brains are due for their first taste of MTV. Starting today, MTV will premier their newest series, “52/52,” which will showcase one unsigned or indie band a week for the next year straight. Each group is entitled to 11 hours of commercial free broadcast over the course of the given week, and New York’s own Bad Brains will get things rolling. With the critical acclaim of Bad Brains’ 2007 release–Adam Yauch produced Build A Nation–the group will be debuting a dual video for “Give Thanks And Praises” and “Jah Love.”

Build A Nation is a return to greatness for one of the all-time punk rock heavyweights, and I am certainly glad that Bad Brains is getting the chance to expose their music to a wider audience. But at the same time, I for one am very interested and skeptical in seeing what real chances MTV is willing to take with the 52/52 series. Because let’s face it, the Bad Brains fucking kick ass no matter how you slice it, and whether or not they make their mark on MTV means little to nothing in the scope of their legacy. But what about these other unsigned/indie bands? Will MTV step up to the plate and for once and provide programming relevant to the name of their station, “Music Television”? I will believe it when I see it. For now, long live Bad Brains.