500 Songs to Freedom made the NEWS!

So, one of the persons in the chatroom happened to work at a news channel.  We made the news twice in the period of two weeks. Once with 500 Songs to Freedom and the second time with our competition we competed in with a friend that I forgot to mention. There was a tournament we asked a friend to join us in, in which we walked out with the top prize. Our friend (a vocals player) and GQD2008 (the drummer) also won their respective divisions, with RedDevilD (the guitarist) coming in a very close 2nd.

Here's the news clips:

500 Songs to Freedom is complete. 545 songs down. 0 to go.

So, 500 Songs to Freedom is finally complete. Here's the stats:

6 months of hard training.

75 hours of live feed streaming.

7,869 viewers.

$5 donated during the run.
$100 donated before.

33,000% traffic increase to http://500songstofreedom.blogspot.com

58 countries visited.

85 different traffic sources.

3 drum kits killed.

1 guitar killed.

$700 spent on DLC.

$250 spent on drum modifications.

$1,005 spent on gaming hardware and software.

510 Songs done.

So we passed the first 510 songs on rock band during the marathon. And to everyone who saw the run, thank you very much for watching. There's a few shout outs that I'd like to give:

Izam

Xpython

Brans

Sam (and all various form of Sam includng PandaSam)

SomeGuy913 (you rock dude)

Big Day Out Forums (and all their shenanigans

People that watched from around the world (such as France, Italy, China, Japan, Brazil, Canada, and Mexico).

We had a peak at one point of 240 viewers, which was surprising. I can't imagine have the thousands that Phr34k and SomeGuy913 did on Drum Hell 2.

Also, we will be finishing the other 29 songs on Friday, airing it at 9pm eastern, 6 pm pacific.

Also, if you would like to reach me, you can email me at:

 gqd2008@gmail.com

Day of stuff. Song list, etc.

So, 11am eastern, 8am pacific, 500 SONGS TO FREEDOM STARTS. Follow us on twitter for the updates if you can't watch. Will be posted in the format of  "Song - Score - RedDevilD's percentage - GQD2008's percentage".

So here's the list of songs (all 539):

1. Something in the Way

2. They Say

3. Say It Ain't So

4. Tempted

5. You Shook Me All Night Long (Live)

6. Cheeseburger In Paradise

7. Without You

8. Seven

9. El Scorcho

10. Maps

11. Runnin' Wild

12. Livin' at the Corner of Dude & Catastrophe

13. Kiss Them For Me

14. Roam

15. Wanted Dead Or Alive

16. Girls on Film

17. "This Ain't A Scene, It's an Arms Race"

18. Don't Look Back in Anger

19. Live Forever

20. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Live)

21. Move Along

22. Push It

23. Ten Speed (Of God's Blood and Burial)

24. Hier Kommt Alex

25. Forever

26. Mica

27. Can't Let Go

28. Laid to Rest

29. That's How I Escaped My Certain Fate

30. Run To The Hills

31. In Bloom

32. Brass In Pocket

33. I Could Have Lied

34. Train in Vain (Stand By Me)

35. Shoot The Runner

36. Simple Kind of Life

37. Junkies For Fame

38. Christmas is the Time to Say I Love You

39. Margaritaville

40. Skullcrusher Mountain

41. Rescue Me

42. Closer

43. Crackity Jones

44. Dead

45. Limelight (Original Version)

46. Bullets & Guns

47. Give It To Me

48. Thunderstruck (Live)

49. N.I.B.

50. DOA

51. Sugar Magnolia

52. Saints of Los Angeles

53. New Wave

54. Siva

55. Go With The Flow

56. The Greeting Song

57. Enter Sandman

58. Excuse Me Mr.

59. This Calling

60. Flirtin' With Disaster

61. I Think I'm Paranoid

62. Under The Bridge

63. Doll

64. Running

65. Burn You Down

66. My Iron Lung

67. Gimme Shelter

68. Bye Bye Love

69. Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)

70. I Don't Want To Go To School

71. Attack

72. The Kill

73. T.N.T. (Live)

74. Juke Box Hero

75. Gimme Three Steps

76. Girls Who Play Guitars

77. Wonderwall

78. Synchronicity II

79. Don't Cha Stop

80. See You

81. Paranoid

82. Going Mobile

83. Devil's Child

84. My Lovely Man

85. Sorrow

86. "Desperate Times, Desperate Measures"

87. Police Truck

88. Blinded By Fear

89. The Perfect Drug

90. Damnation Game

91. Hello There

92. Eye Of The Tiger

93. My Own Worst Enemy

94. I Was Wrong

95. Man In The Box

96. Cool for Cats

97. All The Small Things

98. Hanging on the Telephone

99. Fortunate Son

100. Bandages

101. Time-Sick Son of a Grizzly Bear

102. Natural Disaster

103. Crazy Tuesday

104. White Wedding (Part 1)

105. You've Got Another Thing Comin'

106. Kickstart My Heart

107. Ex-Girlfriend

108. Psycho Killer

109. Last

110. My Hero

111. Sweet Leaf

112. Go Your Own Way

113. My Generation (Live at Leeds)

114. Hands Down

115. Feather Pluckn

116. China Cat Sunflower

117. You Oughta Know

118. Dani California

119. Let There Be Rock

120. Next To You

121. Almost Easy

122. So What'cha Want

123. Mississippi Queen

124. Polly

125. Dreamin'

126. Debaser

127. She Does

128. Underneath It All

129. Just What I Needed

130. Today

131. Back in Black (Live)

132. Sabotage

133. I Fought The Law

134. Hella Good

135. "Day Late, Dollar Short"

136. Hard To Handle

137. You're All I've Got Tonight

138. Nightmare

139. Learn To Fly

140. My Sharona

141. The Collector

142. Sea and Sand

143. It Hurts

144. Red Tandy

145. Mellowship Slinky in B Major

146. Ballroom Blitz

147. Alabama Getaway

148. Red Devil

149. The Trees (Vault Edition)

150. Bad Omen

151. Get Clean

152. Troublemaker

153. E-Pro

154. Charlene (I'm Right Behind You)

155. The Greatest Man That Ever Lived

156. Shhh....

157. Still Alive

158. A Clean Shot

159. Bathwater

160. Gouge Away

161. You're No Rock N' Roll Fun

162. Highway To Hell (Live)

163. Sunday Morning

164. Rock 'N' Roll Star

165. 3's & 7's

166. Gone

167. Snow ((Hey Oh))

168. The Camera Eye

169. Sex Type Thing

170. Who Are You

171. Date With The Night

172. Hitch A Ride

173. Kids in America

174. Life Is Beautiful

175. Nearly Lost You

176. Fire Your Guns (Live)

177. Testify

178. Screaming for Vengeance

179. Chiron

180. Aqualung

181. Peace Sells

182. Hungry Like The Wolf

183. Gone Away

184. Moneytalks (Live)

185. Beetlebum

186. Hey

187. Electric Crown

188. Monsoon

189. Body I Occupy

190. On a Plain

191. Don't Speak

192. Devour

193. Headphones On

194. That's What You Get

195. Ashes To Fire

196. Blood Sugar Sex Magik

197. My Curse

198. Lump

199. Wind Up

200. The Feeling

201. Sons and Daughters

202. Summertime Blues (Live at Leeds)

203. Girl's Not Grey

204. Dune Buggy

205. If You Have To Ask

206. Dead On Arrival

207. I Ain't Superstitious

208. Supreme Girl

209. Two Weeks

210. Prequel To The Sequel

211. Colony of Birchmen

212. Here It Goes Again

213. Pretend We're Dead

214. Pretty in Pink

215. Here Comes Your Man

216. "Ready, Set, Go!"

217. The Jack (Live)

218. Swamped

219. Blitzkrieg Bop

220. Face Down In The Dirt

221. Dirty Little Secret

222. Use Me

223. This Is It

224. I Bleed

225. Queen Bitch

226. Suck My Kiss

227. I Don't Care

228. Don't Make Me Wait

229. Burn

230. Lazy Eye

231. Train Kept A-Rollin'

232. Truckin'

233. Aesthetics of Hate

234. Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated)

235. Funk #49

236. Constant Motion

237. Down With The Sickness

238. Cherub Rock

239. Ramblin' Man

240. Thrasher

241. It's My Life

242. Rebel Girl

243. Through Being Cool

244. Silver

245. All Over Again

246. Spirit in the Sky

247. Bounce

248. All Mixed Up

249. Celebrity Skin

250. Just a Girl

251. Cherry Bomb

252. Take Back the City

253. All Right Now

254. Funky Monks

255. Conventional Lover

256. Shoot to Thrill (Live)

257. Perfekte Welle

258. Kool Thing

259. Monkey Wrench

260. Inside The Fire

261. Rattlesnake Shake

262. Breed

263. (Don't Fear) The Reaper

264. D.O.A.

265. Bad Reputation

266. Let There Be Rock (Live)

267. The Conjuring

268. Souls of Black

269. Nine In The Afternoon

270. 29 Fingers

271. She Sells Sanctuary

272. La La Love You

273. Young

274. Witch Hunt (Part III of Fear)

275. We Got the Beat

276. Can't Stand Losing You

277. One Of THOSE Nights

278. Who's Going Home With You Tonight?

279. Hong Kong Garden

280. "I'm Gone, I'm Going"

281. Ever Fallen In Love

282. Franklin's Tower

283. Sticky Sweet

284. Rock and Roll Band

285. Orange Crush

286. Vital Signs

287. De-Luxe

288. Pretty Noose

289. Mountain Song

290. Indestructible

291. Times Like These

292. Ride The Lightning

293. Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld

294. This Is a Call

295. Wake Up Dead

296. Are You Dead Yet?

297. Bodhisattva

298. Monkey Gone To Heaven

299. Hay Poco Rock & Roll

300. Roxanne

301. New Kid In School

302. I?m So Sick

303. Sprode

304. Bad to the Bone

305. When You Were Young

306. Manu Chao

307. Time We Had

308. Dr. Feelgood

309. Crushcrushcrush

310. Working Man

311. The Killing Jar

312. Shooting Star

313. Peace Of Mind

314. Why Do You Love Me?

315. Main Offender

316. Spaceman

317. Hymn 43

318. Afterlife

319. Pleasure (Pleasure)

320. Shockwave

321. Teen Age Riot

322. Space Truckin'

323. Detroit Rock City

324. Everlong

325. Good Mourning/Black Friday

326. Won't Get Fooled Again

327. Mr. Grieves

328. Float On

329. Simple Man

330. Song With A Mission

331. Interstate Love Song

332. Hells Bells (Live)

333. Real World

334. Yomp

335. My Best Friend's Girl

336. If I Ain't Got You

337. Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.)

338. Feel The Pain

339. Something About You

340. Magnetic Baby

341. Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)

342. Enough Space

343. Mr. Brightside

344. Tom Sawyer (Original Version)

345. War Pigs

346. Territorial Pissings

347. Critical Acclaim

348. Perfect Insanity

349. Casey Jones

350. The Number Of The Beast

351. Shackler's Revenge

352. Any Way You Want It

353. ...And Justice For All

354. No Regrets

355. Devil's Island

356. Tom Sawyer

357. Shoulder To The Plow

358. No. 13 Baby

359. Radiohead

360. Walking After You

361. Should I Stay Or Should I Go

362. Tame

363. Good Times Roll

364. Countdown to Insanity

365. Blue Christmas

366. Database Corrupted

367. Apache Rose Peacock

368. Rock 'n' Roll Dream

369. I'm In Touch With Your World

370. Pump It Up

371. New Way Home

372. More Than A Feeling

373. Rio

374. "Die, All Right!"

375. Calling Dr. Love

376. Moving To Seattle

377. Last Train to Clarksville

378. Red Barchetta

379. Are You Gonna Be My Girl

380. Truth Hits Everybody

381. Tell Me Baby

382. Working Man (Vault Edition)

383. California ?ber Alles

384. Vasoline

385. Chop Suey

386. Master Exploder

387. Battery

388. Wave Of Mutilation

389. Girl U Want

390. February Stars

391. There Goes My Gun

392. Promised Land

393. Volcano

394. Lounge Act

395. Closer To The Heart

396. Hanukkah Blessings

397. My Poor Brain

398. Hillbilly Deluxe

399. Limelight

400. Beethoven's C***

401. Zero

402. Action

403. That's When I Reach For My Revolver

404. Up In Arms

405. Give It Away

406. Where'd You Go

407. Ladybug

408. Joker & The Thief

409. I.V.

410. Sleepwalker

411. Electric Version

412. Night Lies

413. Sin Wagon

414. Holiday In Cambodia

415. Green Grass And High Tides

416. Carry On Wayward Son

417. Caprici di Diablo

418. Get Your Rock On

419. Rockaway Beach

420. Buddy Holly

421. Tutto ? Possibile

422. "Hey, Johnny Park!"

423. Cream and Bastards Rise

424. Smile Like You Mean It

425. Down At The Whisky

426. Teenage Lobotomy

427. Black Hole Sun

428. Blood Doll

429. Amazing Journey

430. Gunpowder & Lead

431. The Middle

432. Slice of Your Pie

433. American Woman

434. Get It On

435. I Need A Miracle

436. Pain and Pleasure

437. Dammit

438. Alex Chilton

439. Rock Rebellion

440. Rock 'n Me

441. Tangled Up In Blue

442. Heatseeker (Live)

443. Reptilia

444. Outside

445. My Last Words

446. Highway Star

447. Visions

448. Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be (Live)

449. Drain You

450. Self Esteem

451. The Righteous and the Wicked

452. Mud on the Tires

453. Moving in Stereo

454. (Take These) Chains

455. Hey Baby

456. Breaking The Girl

457. Baba O'Riley

458. Call Me

459. Sir Psycho Sexy

460. The Hellion/Electric Eye

461. The Hand That Feeds

462. The Power of Equality

463. Jailbreak (Live)

464. The Time Is Wrong

465. Hammerhead

466. Naked in the Rain

467. Little Sister

468. I Wanna Be Your Man

469. High Voltage (Live)

470. Smokin'

471. Welcome Home

472. Riding on the Wind

473. Stay Away

474. Uncontrollable Urge

475. Give It All

476. Rob The Prez-O-Dent

477. Spoonman

478. Panic Attack

479. We Care A Lot

480. Time for Change

481. Behind Blue Eyes

482. One Step Closer

483. Shake

484. Heroes

485. She Goes Down

486. Melatonin

487. Spiderwebs

488. Eminence Front

489. Bloodstone

490. Livin' on a Prayer

491. Clouds Over California

492. Epic

493. Well Thought Out Twinkles

494. One Way Or Another

495. Message In A Bottle

496. A Jagged Gorgeous Winter

497. Brainpower

498. Young Man Blues (Live at Leeds)

499. Whole Lotta Rosie (Live)

500. Like a Fool

501. Alive

502. Pretty Noose

503. YYZ

504. Pinball Wizard

505. Our Truth

506. Jesus Christ Pose

507. Ace of Spades '08

508. Painkiller

509. She's a Handsome Woman

510. Capital G

511. PDA

512. Leaving Here

513. Claudette

514. Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)

515. In Dreams

516. Stop!

517. Mean Woman Blues

518. Welcome to the Neighborhood

519. Moonage Daydream

520. Real Good Looking Boy

521. Complete Control

522. Suffragette City

523. "Oh, Pretty Woman"

524. Fever

525. "Sick, Sick, Sick"

526. Toxicity

527. Bang A Gong (Get It On)

528. Ooby Dooby

529. B.Y.O.B.

530. Love Spreads

531. Hysteria

532. You Got It

533. Round & Round

534. I Get By

535. March Of The Pigs

536. Foreplay/Long Time

537. Blackened

538. They're Red Hot

539. For Those About To Rock (We Salute You) (Live)

Status updates

Okay, so I haven't made a post in over a month, but I wanted to let you know where we stood. We've been cranking out many hours of practice with the DLC. I sent my GoodWoodMods in for warranty repair (the heads were getting really soft and missing notes) and just got them back. I haven't even had time to get them remounted yet. We're still working on getting all of the DLC and with the holidays, money's been an issue, but I guarantee that we will have all of the DLC when we do the run on the 9th. We are having trouble securing the location that we originally had planned, so we might be streaming from our house. Again, sorry for the lack of updates, but I'll get back on it.

GoodWoodMods are in; ACDC Track Pack Soon

So, my GoodWoodMods stealth mesh drum heads came in yesterday. I'm shocked at how quiet they are. I'll post a review pretty soon. Also, expect an update of DLC downloads. Sounds like I'll be getting some DLC with some money I'm getting in. Also, the ACDC Track Pack is getting released on November 2nd, 2008. It  will be priced at $30 for Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and PS2 versions.

New Mods; Back In Order; Updates on Status

After taking a break from Rock Band (I know, such sacrilege), RedDevilD and I are back in Rock-Band mode. We've been playing around with drum kits and guitars. We've found a good mod that will work REALLY WELL with an EL kit.

What the mod is: Take the heads off of a QM set, put them in a specific way on a EL set.

What this achieves is this: You get a lot more rebound and the notes always register. How to make a bad EL set and a bad QM set good essentially. If you take the red pad, there will be a post on the bottom of the drum head that is supposed to go into a slot. Well, the EL kit doesn't have these slots, so we are going to put that post on the Southwest corner of the drum kit. The yellow pad post is going in the Northwest corner. The blue pad post in the Northeast corner. The green pad post is going in the Southeast. This makes the posts as far as possible from each other, cutting out the crosstalk.

Also, on a side note about drum kits. If you are experiencing crosstalk (you hit yellow only and the blue fires as well in game), take the pad head off and rotate it 90 degrees. The post should be farther away from the pad it was crosstalking with. Like if I hit the yellow pad and it crosstalks with blue, I would turn the pad 90 degrees clockwise to get the post farther away from the blue pad.

Guitar mods: If you take a pedal and plug it into the tiny headphone jack (located near the XBox/PS3 button) on the new RB2 guitar (the sunburst one), you can use the pedal to activate Overdrive. Protip: If you hold down the pedal, you won't be able to activate Overdrive by tilting the guitar. If your guitar is activating Overdrive a lot on it's own, look into this.

RedDevilD recently moved in with me, so we are playing Rock Band a lot more now. This is gonna be interesting to see JUST HOW MUCH we play now. Don't worry guys, we are still doing 500 Songs to Freedom.

Crunch Time, T-Minus 3 months

So, with the beginning of the next week, we've hit the 3 month mark. We've hit crunch time. This is the time when we kick up our practicing and we start refining our technique. We start making it so that we aren't practicing passing songs now; we are working on getting great scores. Some people still call this a long shot for us, but it's not a long shot, not by any means.

New DLC is being released every week. It's hard to afford it all, but we are making due. If anyone would like to help us out, feel free to donate.

RockPedal Review

Okay, so here it is. The RockPedal review I promised. Let's start from the top.

The RockPedal comes in a big brown box. It's a decently weighted box and the pedal is surrounded by your standard brown paper (similar weight to newspaper). It also comes with a very professional warranty and info sheet to help you get your pedal to the appropriate settings for you. Also, this sheet also contains information needed to contact the people at RockPedal in case you have any trouble whatsoever. On to the pedal itself.

The pedal is very solid. It's full metal, top to bottom, save the sensor itself, and the velcro on the bottom. The bottom is a solid plate, so it sits flat on the floor. There are 3 strips of velcro on the bottom of the pedal, each about 6 inches long, to keep the pedal from moving on carpet. This works very well. 

Moving up from the bottom plate, we have two spikes (one on each side of the footboard) that can be screwed down into carpet to keep the pedal from moving, if it's still moving after the pedal is placed on carpet. These spikes have not been needed in my playing with the pedal. 

If you have the pedal facing you (it angles up and away from you and the carpet spikes are on the far side of the pedal), on the right side, you will find a screw sticking out away from the pedal and at an angle upwards. This screw allows for you to clamp the pedal down onto a practice pad (from what I gather). Right above this clamp screw (still on the right side), we find the spring tension adjustment screw. How this works is a three step process. The first step is to loosen the screw that is holding the spring tension adjustment from moving. The second step is to adjust the spring tension adjustment to pull on the spring further, or to release the spring a little to make the pedal easier to push down. This won't make a huge difference in your play. The last step is to tighten the screw back down once you have made the adjustment to suit your needs. 

Moving on the other side of the pedal, on the left side of the footboard, we find the holder for the drum key. In the middle, facing you so that you can read the word "pulse" inscribe on it is the footboard. This is where all the action takes place. You push this part down to activate the sensor and cause the pedal to hit. 

Moving further up the pedal, back over to the right side, and above the spring, we have another tension adjustment that does this in a roundabout way. How this tension adjustment works is when you loosen this screw, you increase the angle of the pedal, causing it to travel further to trigger the sensor, and causing it to pull the spring farther which creates more resistance.

Moving on over to the left, the next screw we find is for the beater to be inserted. The next screw is the lower of the two last remainng screws. This screw is what determines exactly when your pedal will trigger and how much your pedal will travel past the trigger point. This one was the one I spent the most time adjusting first. Once I got this one right, it's pretty much a "Set it and forget it." I have not touched it since I got it exactly where it is. How it works is that it has you increase the angle of the pedal to trigger the sensor later and decrease the angle to have it trigger earlier. Decreasing it too much will cause it to smack into the clamp bar, while increasing it too much will cause the pedal to not trigger at all. 

The last screw is the screw that releases the double chain drive from the pedal. You shouldn't ever need to touch this.

I think one of the coolest things about this pedal is the use of a proximity-style sensor. It doesn't have any parts that smack together, nor do any of the sensor's parts move. If this pedal didn't have a wire, you would probably never have know it could be used for Rock Band. The sensor blends in with the rest of the pedal. This pedal is the most professional looking pedal I've seen.

Playing with the pedal is interesting. It can be played out of the box, but I was double hitting with it a lot out of the box. I adjusted the pedal to hit just before the pedal bottomed out. Being that this is pretty much an actual pedal that can be used with a drum kit, you can do a lot of the foot techniques to achieve double bass hits and other pedal tricks. 

I've used the pedal for a good week now, and it's phenomenal. It's well worth the money. If you've hit the brick wall with the stock Rock Band pedal, or you pedal has broken one too many times, I would suggest investing in this pedal. I hit the brick wall with the stock pedal, and I've stepped my game up by investing in this pedal. It is the Official Pedal of 500 Songs to Freedom.

The link to the RockPedal website is RockPedal.com.

RockPedal Teaser

Rock Pedal is THE official pedal of 500 Songs to Freedom. I bought it and it is amazing. It is very smooth to play with. I have nothing but praise for this pedal. I'll do a much more in depth analyzation of it at a later date.

13 Hour Rock Band 2 Review

After playing Rock Band 2 for around 13 hours, RedDevilD and I have some thoughts about it. RedDevilD's main thought is: "Everlong occurs way too much in the later Mystery Setlists." My main thought: "Rob the Prez-o-Dent is BS."

Overall, the setlist is pretty good. Some songs I could care to do without. The rerecorded Ace of Spades '08 was a pretty big letdown. It seems like it was trying to be too "heavy" if you will. Some songs to note were Eye of the Tiger, Battery, and Painkiller. Eye of the Tiger was the first song we played and was actually pretty fun. Battery wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be on drums (sightread expert with a 90%). Painkiller, there's not much to say except for this is REALLY hard on drums. Everything is fast in the expert chart.

I was surprised at the types of charts. The drum charts seem to be taking a very different path than Rock Band did. There's much more varied charts earlier on, and the latter tier chart are much more difficult. There were multiple songs that were FC'd by myself and RedDevilD. I thought that the timing window was smaller and so did RedDevilD.

The World Tour isn't much different from Rock Band. There are now daily challenges. There are new venues and the venues that are there are much better looking. Anytime you get the option do to a music video with lasers, do it.

Week of 9/15 DLC: Peace Sells . . . but Who's Buying? and Rock Band Tour 1 pack

So, this coming weeks DLC is going to be the Megadeth album Peace Sells . . . but Who's Buying? and the Rock Band Tour 1 pack. The Megadeth album looks very promising in my eyes, and RedDevilD and I feel the same about the RBT1 pack. We aren't fans of it. The songs are:

Peace Sells . . . but Who's Buying?

Megadeth - Wake Up Dead

Megadeth - The Conjuring

Megadeth - Devil's Island

Megadeth - Good Mourning / Black Friday

Megadeth - Bad Omen

Megadeth - I Ain't Superstitious

Megadeth - My Last Words

Rock Band Tour 1

The Cab - One of those Nights

Dashboard Confessional - Hands Down

Panic! At The Disco - She's a Handsome Woman

Plain White T's - Natural Disaster

The Megadeth album should be available for $10.99 (880 MS Points) and the RBT1 pack should be $3.99 (320 MS Points).

On a side note: RedDevilD and I have been playing Rock Band all day. Tomorrow, we'll be playing most of the day, and on Sunday, we'll be going through the career mode on RB2 with a few other people (probably 5-6 total).

More DLC

Just bought more DLC, bringing my total DLC count to 159 songs. My total song count is 217. RedDevilD and I are planning on finishing up the remaining DLC on Saturday, and playing Rock Band 2 all day Sunday. Hopefully, we can get some reviews of the songs up for Rock Band 2.

All That Remains + Stephen and the Colberts DLC

The All That Remains pack was released today for PS3 ($2.99) and earlier this week on Tuesday for the 360 (240 MS points). The ATR pack is definitely a pain in the butt for drums and from what I understand, and from RedDevilD's point of view, really fun to play on guitar. Haven't looked at the other charts really, but will definitely have to.

Also, Stephen and the Colberts have a song for free up on the XBox marketplace and soon to be on the PS3 Store for free.

This DLC is definitely welcome. I've been waiting for some joke songs (Colbert) and songs to make me cry (ATR). The New Songs are:

All That Remains: Chiron

All That Remains: This Calling

All That Remains: Two Weeks

Stephen and the Colberts: Charlene (I'm right behind you)

EDIT: PS3 Store just allowed me to download the ATR pack, but SaTCs still wasn't available. It's 5 before 5pm on the east coast.

In the Meantime . . .

So in the past 2 weeks, there hasn't been much updating on my part. RedDevilD went out of town and took a break on the 3-day weekend from Rock Band. I've downloaded a bunch more DLC (all of the packs/albums minus the Cars). I'm now up to 130 songs of DLC, which brings my total song count up to 188. RedDevilD and I have been rocking on the new DLC I bought (under the team name Bob Marley and the Joan Jetts) and we can be found on this page:

Team Page

We haven't played any of the main setlist stuff yet. Maybe I can con RedDevilD into it sometime.

Locksley Pack Up for grabs on the Market

Locksley pack is indeed up for grabs on the market. I just checked and it can be purchased.

Behind the times, but I'll update you on the Moving Pictures DLC

I know I'm behind on the Moving Pictures DLC updates. Moving Pictures is delayed. There's rumors of new DLC being put up on the market in Moving Pictures' place. The rumored DLC is from the band Locksley, and the three songs are "All Over Again", "She Does", and "Don't Make Me Wait." There's isn't a definite release date on Moving Pictures yet, but I'll keep you updated. Supposedly, the Locksley DLC is up on the market already, but can't be purchased. I'll update when I get home.

Downloading DLC at the moment . . .

Waiting for the DLC to download. Picked a bunch of the harder songs for the drums charts. RedDevilD is doing a similar thing but with the guitar charts. We are definitely in for a wild ride when 500StF comes around.

Currently downloading Nine Inch Nails pack 1. Just got done installing Best of the Who. A lot more songs to play once all of this finishes and I can play. I'm gonna cry when I look at the entire list to play.

The one song I'm afraid to play is Kool Thing. I don't like the song, and I'm afraid of what I'm going to get hit with in the drum chart.

What is 500 Songs to Freedom?

I was thinking about this over my lunch of Teriyaki Stix's Hot 'n Spicy Bowl, and I really don't think I've ever state EXACTLY what is 500 Songs to Freedom.

500 Songs to Freedom: A two-man effort (RedDevilD and GQD2008) attempting to complete all of the Rock Band, Rock Band 2, and Rock Band Downloadable Content as of January 7th-9th, 2009. A live stream will be available. We are currently working with the school we attend to see if we can do it at the school.

Harmonix has stated that there will be 500 or more songs by the end of the year. So, whatever is available as of January 7th, 2009, we are committed to playing. It doesn't matter if it gets released January 6th. It will be played. I just hope we don't get screwed with a bunch of t9s.

Rock Band 2 Song List Difficulties up on Wiki; GameSpy Shows Instrument Order

Using GameSpy's article that was put up on the 20th, the List of Songs in Rock Band 2 Wikipedia page has been updated to reflect the song difficulties. Everything's been put in order and made pretty to boot. I found the article particularly interesting since it has the order of songs for each instrument. The mashup images they made are fairly tall, so you'll be doing some scrolling, especially if you want to look at the high quality versions.