Rock Band 2 free DLC is indie-tastic

by Xav de Matos on Oct 22nd 2008 10:45AM

We have good news and we have bad news. The good news is Harmonix has officially announced the 20 free downloadable songs [via IGN] they promised gamers with the purchase of Rock Band 2 -- make sure you're registered first! The bad news is the rumored list of tracks was completely bogus and said 20 tracks are from relatively unknown bands -- although we're sure some fans will argue that point.

Actually, scratch that. There is no bad news. Why? Because you're about to get 20 free tracks to play in Rock Band 2. Sure, it isn't anything of the same caliber as the upcoming AC/DC expansion but did we really expect big names to hand over their tracks on the arm out of good faith? They only have two mansions and three cars, you know? How can we expect them to give a song away for free ... you're just being insensitive to their grotesque wealth. The tracks will be made available for download on November 4, full listing of tracks after the jump.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

The 88 - "Sons and Daughters"
Authority Zero - "No Regrets"
Between the Buried and Me - "Prequel To The Sequel"
The Cab - "Bounce"
The Chevelles - "Get It On"
The Cocktail Slippers - "Give It To Me"
Dealership - "Database Corrupted"
Endeverafter - "I Wanna Be Your Man"
The Ghost Hounds - "Ashes To Fire"
Hollywood Undead - "Young"
Kutless - "The Feeling"
The Len Price 3 - "If I Ain't Got You"
Lesley Roy - "I'm Gone, I'm Going"
Opiate for the Masses - "Burn You Down"
Semi-Precious Weapons - "Magnetic Baby"
Shaimus - "Like a Fool"
Thenewno2" - Crazy Tuesday"
Tickle Me Pink - "The Time Is Wrong"
Underoath - "Desperate Times, Desperate Measures"
X Japan - "I.V."

Source

Tags: ea, electronic-arts, harmonix, mtv, rock-band, rock-band-2

Reader Comments (54)

haven't heard of a single one of these bands

That makes two of us.

I've heard of at least one... maybe TWO EVEN!

Does that make me hip? (I already know the answer to that... sadly).

ive heard of authority zero and underoath both awesome bands

I guess I can't complain about free songs, but this kinda pisses me off. Not a single well known artist.

On a side note, I still want more Rush. Is that obsessive? How about Freewill and Spirit of Radio?

More RUSH. Absolutely.

"They only have two mansions and three cars, you know? How can we expect them to give a song away for free ... you're just being insensitive to their grotesque wealth."

Xav, are you a democrat?

Can Canadians be Democrats or Republicans? I thought they all were socialists that is why they live in Canada.

I've heard Endeverafter and Underoath (hooray for compound names?) on my satellite radio, but I can't say I'm a big fan of either. I know The Cab is on their Rock Band Live tour. The rest... we'll see, but I'm not holding my breath. :(

Kutless and Underoath FTW psyched to see them on the list now :D

C'mon, you can't be totally surprised that it is the lesser known bands that are willing to give their music away in exchange for some exposure. Did you really expect to see 20 singles all from well known platinum-selling recording artists?

At least give them a listen or two. Semi-Precious Weapons, The 88, The Cab and Between the Buried and Me are all pretty respected groups in indie circles. If indie isn't your thing, better luck next giveaway.

I am totally pissed about this news but it doesn't surprise me. Why would Harmonix give away songs they obviously had to pay big money for? These bands probably PAID HARMONIX to get into the game. I'm not even sure if I'll download these....

I've never even heard of *any* of these bands. I don't know if I'll bother downloading any of these.

I found a bright side..... at least they are releasing all 20 of these no-name songs at once.... instead of bleeding them out slowly 3 songs per week after painful week.... I hate when the announced DLC is terrible.

I guarantee the PAX list was real and EA just forced Harmonix to charge for the songs at a later date.

I am not downloading any more stupid songs that only mess me, my family and my friends up when they get put in a random setlist.

Like my wife is going to sing any of this $hit.

People just get frustrated when songs like this pop up.

I'm from Arizona so Authority Zero is a well known band to me infact they're one of my favorite bands of all time and No Regrets is one of their best songs

Yeah, hum a few bars for us before I pollute my hard drive with it... :)

Honorablesauce, just look at it this way... music is like ice cream, there are a lot of flavors out there and everyone has there on favorites!

as for you and your wife, try exposing yourself to a larger group of music... that way you don't call things you dont know '$hit.' ..oh and it will help you not look so ignorant buddy ;-)

Authority Zero is the only one worth the download.

holy.... this blows chunks!
I've heard of Between Me and the Buried and Underoath... but I wouldn't even pay for it.

I was expecting something on the lines of bands that were kinda known.

LAME!

After listening through them all, I only remotely liked Kutless. The rest is utter CRRRRRRRRRRAP. Hopefully HMX knows these bands personally otherwise I would be embarrassed to put these out.

Maybe I can sell my code to someone who buys a used copy of RB2. :-)

then you might just have incredibly bad taste in music.

Give me rock and roll like the game states and I'm pretty happy. Someone screaming and growling in the mic is not music, sorry.

Well some people do know them. You can't please everybody. I play this game with people who don't even know a single Boston song, which flabbergasts me. Can't win them all.

At the end of the day, this game shipped with what? 80 songs or something? We're getting another 20 for free. I'm not about to bitch about that and for all I know I'll wind up loving some of these.

the X Japan track is a pretty good one. It was the song played over the credits of one of the Saw flicks. They're very, VERY well known over in Japan.

Kutless is an amazing band. Not known because they are a Christian rock group. Though the song " The Feeling" does not sing about Jesus or relegion in any way. A great song choice for that band. Not all Christian music is bad guys.

Ditto on Kutless being an amazing band. Glad they made it on the game. I would love "Strong Tower" but unlikely chance of ever getting that on RB.

Personally I am super pumped about this list.

I am a huge fan of both Underoath and Between the Buried and Me and I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for Harmonix to add in some really hard rock/technical songs to play.

I am fairly confident that Between the Buried and Me's "Prequel to the Sequel" will deliver on the challenge. "Desperate Times, Desperate Measures" is just going to be fun to play on drums, especially the breakdown about halfway through the song.

I haven't heard of any of the other bands, but hey, its all FREE, so who can really complain?

technically they are songs included / advertised on the box that you'll get 20 more songs... not 20 more songs that you've never heard of. It's bad enough that they have unheard of bands / Harmonix employee bands in the game already... but this is just really crappy.

The biggest complaints are because these are very small, fairly unknown bands. IF Harmonix had said when they released RB2 that "the 20 free tracks will be from smaller artists/independents" people would not be as upset. I haven't redeemed by code yet, so it'll be going on eBay as I said earlier. I'm going to skip these.

Just because it's free, doesn't mean it's good. DON'T try to convince me I should be happy Harmonix is giving them to me "FREE." I took a dump this morning. I'll mail it to you, for FREE.

You might be able to sell that too on Ebay. :-)

Most of those are pretty...'meh', but...X Japan?! Seriously?! X-freaking-Japan?! WIN!

W00T! Between the Buried and Me's Prequel To The Sequel is gonna be amazing in Rock Band! if you haven't heard them go do so now!

BTBAM's 8 and a half minutes of awesome will make this worth it.

Ya very nice to see "The Feeling" by Kutless, suits the game well vocally and instrumentally. Underoath too ... can't go wrong there! Wish I recognized the other bands too, but then again these are free ...

BTBAM makes the freeness even better!

Damn, once again, I'm late to the party. I've cataloged all the recent and upcoming DLC on my blog and am now linking to Amazon for MP3 purchases. I'll do my part to keep it up, if you guys want it. Let me know.
http://blog.javadevelop.com/?page_id=1150

You guys seem to forget the concept of discovering new music. I discovered bands I did not know and now enjoy via RB 1 and GH1,2,3...

Bands you have never heard of is not necessarily a bad thing. Plus, if you have never heard of any of these bands, you shouldn't be discussing music. Broaden your scope a little bit, some of the best music in the world is not main stream crap playing on the radio.

Not to mention... Complaining about free... That's sinking to a whole new level.

Peace brothers.
(PS - The authority song's gonna rock)

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd much rather have these tracks than the AC/DC set. "Burn You Down" by Opiate for the Masses is one of my favorite current songs.

For christsake, they are NOT FREE. You can't download these tracks unless you spend the 60 bucks on the game. Regardless of Harmonix labeling them as "free," they are not. Quit using that as a talking point to tell people to stop complaining. You paid money to have access to these tracks. The end.

I don't know any of these songs, and therefore, I think it is reasonable to be disappointed. And I listen to a ton of indie music, so I'm not even upset that it's not major label stuff, though it would have been nice to get some jems along the lines of The New Pornographers and Silversun Pickups. I thought the idea of the downloadable songs was a space issue on the disc. Therefore, I think everyone expected it to be representative of what's on the disc (i.e. 50%+ songs you've heard, mixed with songs you didn't know the name of or bands you knew, but didn't know the song, and then some mediocre indie stuff.) But you already got 80 songs, which was more than the last game, and they're still gouging us on incomplete DLC (3/4 of a Nirvana album.) My biggest worry is that you'll have to download it as a pack, and then if I only like a few of the songs, I will have to choose between deleting all of them of having 17 songs I don't want coming up in random playlists.

I'm pumped for this, best track pack yet. I'm actually a pretty big fan of EVERY ONE of these bands, Underoath being my fave at the moment.

What a bunch of ungrateful whiners this site's readership is! Bitching heavily about FREE songs!

Personally, I am looking forward to hearing songs by bands I have never heard of.

I actually like this set.
It'll open up quite a few people to new music.

and i for one love prequel to the sequel by btbam

and underoath could be fun.

hollywood undead is the only band ive heard of, and yet, it wasnt even one of my favorite songs by them. =(, still, id download it.

BTBAM, the cab, underoath will rock...

esp. btbam...being eight and a half minutes of madskillz!

I've heard of some of these bands. The ones I've heard of, suck. Blathering blatherskites. Now, I don't have Rock Band 2 or anything but free music is free music. Grab it by the horns, rockers!

I love how people are bitching about getting free stuff. What are you losing by them releasing songs you've never heard before? Nothing! Maybe you'll find something cool that you like in this pack. Jesus christ its 20 songs - thats huge!

I myself don't know any of these songs. A few of the band names jump out as being familiar but I can't connect them to any sort of music in my head.

HOW THE HELL do none of you know Between the Buried and Me?

COLORS is one of the best Metal CDs ever made.

Prepare for one of the hardest songs in Rock Band history.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lb3rE17Sak

*The reason the song jumps right in is that the COLORS CD plays continuously from start to finish, no pauses*

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Rock Band 2 free DLC is indie-tastic

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