Fake Guitars Gently Weep on September 9

Developer Harmonix officially unveiled The Beatles: Rock Band on June 1 at the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo. Featuring an impressive song list—spanning the Fab Four’s entire career—in addition to key Beatles venues such as the Cavern Club, the Ed Sullivan Theater, Shea Stadium and Abbey Road, this latest installment in the popular rhythm game franchise looks to be every game-savvy Beatlemaniac’s dream.

The game hits store shelves on September 9 of this year alongside Beatles instrument replica controllers: John Lennon’s Rickenbacker 325 guitar, Sir Paul McCartney’s Höfner bass, George Harrison’s Gretsch duo jet guitar and Ringo Starr’s drums with a black oyster pearl finish and a Ludwig-branded Beatles kick drum head.

Gameplay should be pretty familiar to anyone who’s played Rock Band before, but this version includes, for the first time, three-part vocal harmonies. The game also boasts a campaign mode that allows fans to experience the Beatles’ entire career, from their humble beginnings in Liverpool to their final live performance on the roof of Apple Records in 1969.

As an added bonus for Xbox 360 owners, Microsoft will be offering “All You Need Is Love” as an exclusive download via Xbox Live on September 9. All proceeds will benefit Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an independent humanitarian organization that provides emergency medical care to more than 60 countries in need.

In addition to “All You Need Is Love,” more songs from the Beatles catalog will be available for future download to supplement the 45 tracks available on-disc, including the entire Abbey Road album.

If you’re unsure as to whether the Beatles translate to video games, watch the game's gorgeous opening cinematic below.

Video Games | The Beatles: Rock Band | E3 09: Cinematic Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Bottoms Up at the MTV Movie Awards

Like a lot of people old enough to know better, I tuned in to the 2009 MTV Movie Awards and, since I’m not a Twilight fan or a teenage girl, I wasn’t all that impressed with the broadcast. Aside from some funny moments from host Andy Samberg—including a song tribute to action movie characters who nonchalantly walk away from explosions—and some brand-new footage from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, the whole affair was pretty bland. But, then again, at 25, I’m far removed from MTV’s target tween demographic.

Of course, everyone is talking about Sacha Baron Cohen (as gay, Austrian fashion journalist Brüno) aerially tea-bagging Eminem. Dressed as an angel, Cohen descended from the rafters until a “wire malfunction” placed him upside-down in front of the rapper with his ass cheeks exposed just inches from his face. As one might expect, Em was hardly amused, exclaiming “are you fucking serious” before making a hasty—and angry—retreat. It made for some interesting television, to say the least.

In the end, it’s very likely that the headline-grabbing incident was completely staged despite Eminem’s apparent outrage. After all, Eminem’s got a chart-topping album, Relapse, in stores now while Cohen’s Brüno hits theaters July 10. Everyone benefits from the barrage of free publicity.

Watch a clip of the cheeky stunt below.

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Relapse: A Wort Report Review

After nearly five years of semi-retirement, Eminem is back with a vengeance. His new album, Relapse, is a welcome return to form for the controversial rapper after sounding decidedly bored with his Slim Shady schtick on 2004’s Encore.

Fueled by horrorcore influence and backed by head-bobbing Dr. Dre beats, Em does a lot of venting on the album’s 15 songs (plus five skits) about his life-threatening addiction to prescription pills and other personal demons that have kept him out of the spotlight for the last few years.

While his ex-wife Kim is spared from a lyrical lashing this time around, Em goes after his mother fairly early with “My Mom,” on which he places the blame for his drug addiction squarely on her shoulders. In the next track, “Insane,” Em accuses his step dad of molesting him as a child. He starts it off saying, “I was born with a dick in my brain/Yeah fucked in the head/My stepfather said that I sucked in the bed.” Wow.

That line between disturbing fact and even more disturbing fiction is often blurred in Relapse, which is likely completely intentional. In the opening song, “3 A.M.,” he recalls wrapping up his cousin in Christmas lights, throwing him in a bathtub, chopping him up and proceeding to drink his bloody bathwater. There’s an autobiographical element to this album, to be sure, but the layer of fictionalized serial killer brutality in his lyrics recalls a hip-hop version of Heath Ledger’s Joker from The Dark Knight (and, yes, the late Ledger and the circumstances of his death are brought up more than once in Relapse). This is twisted stuff, but we’re nevertheless intrigued.

In the album’s more introspective songs—namely “Déjà Vu,” in which he poetically recounts how his drug addiction impacted his relationship with his daughter Hailie—Em’s inner turmoil is far more tangible as he turns his trademark rage on himself in ways unseen since his 2000 sophomore album, The Marshall Mathers LP.

He gets particularly emotional in the self-produced and stripped-down “Beautiful,” which is a weirdly touching and borderline inspiring break from Em's usually violent, homophobic and misogynistic lyrical content.

Does Relapse ever go too far? Absolutely. Em spends too much time on this disc indulging in chilling, over-the-top rape and murder fantasies without the necessary South Park-esque satirical wink. It should be dark comedy, but often it’s just dark.

Em also takes aim at the late Christopher Reeve in “Medicine Ball,” which at this point is not only unfunny but played out. Em shrugs off such criticism, rapping, “Now everybody is pissed at me like it’s my fault/His name rhymes with so many words. Geez!” He then takes the role of the late Superman actor and allows Reeve to have the last word before challenging Em to a breakdancing contest.

While the bulk of the album is solid, lead-off singles “Crack a Bottle” and “We Made You” just aren’t very good and don't seem to fit with the rest of the album's material, particularly the latter. Yes, it's another goofy celebrity diss, but it's never a good sign when many your targets (Amy Winehouse, Sarah Palin) bowed out of the public eye months before the album's release.

It offends, sure. But that’s the point. Relapse isn’t Em’s best album, but his jaw-dropping, head-turning and at times stomach-churning rhymes are oddly refreshing in the artistically stagnating world of mainstream hip-hop.

21st Century Breakdown: A Wort Report Review

A follow-up to Green Day’s Grammy-winning, multi-platinum American Idiot (2004), 21st Century Breakdown is yet another grandiose concept album that infuses the trio’s pop-punk sensibilities with classic rock influence and a heavy dose of power balladry. If you liked the politically minded American Idiot, you'll be delighted to know that this spiritual sequel is more of the same. Arguably, it's even better.

21st Century Breakdown is a three-act story revolving around two young characters, Christian and Gloria, who are finding their way in post-9/11 America and contending with war, poverty and misguided leadership. They’re hurt, confused and, in keeping with Green Day’s punk rock origins, they’re pissed off. Never is this more apparent than in the song “Horseshoes and Handgrenades,” when frontman Billie Joe Armstrong screams, “I’m not fucking around!” We believe him.

But 21st Century Breakdown isn’t all cynical rage and despair. Among its 18 tracks are some of Green Day’s best tunes, including the infectious “Know Your Enemy,” the epic “¡Viva La Gloria!” and the haunting “21 Guns,” on which Armstrong displays an impressive vocal range. While there are plenty of great standalone songs on this album, it’s best enjoyed as a beginning-to-end experience. It’s refreshing that Green Day is championing concept albums in the iPod age. We need more of these.

They’ve matured a great deal since their 1994 breakout album Dookie, but Armstrong, drummer Tré Cool and bassist Mike Dirnt have never been more relevant or more ambitious. With American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown, Green Day has successfully made the transition from bratty pop-punkers to larger-than-life, socially conscious stadium rockers. And they’re only improving with age.

21st Century Breakdown is an operatic, fist-pumping triumph.

Marvel Team-Up: Eminem and the Punisher

In anticipation of the May 19 release of Relapse—his first studio album in five years—Eminem is invading the Marvel Universe for Eminem/Punisher: Kill You, a comic book teaming the controversial rapper with Marvel’s bullet-spraying antihero. The first half of the comic is in the June issue of XXL while the second half is available on Marvel.com. The comic is penned by Fred Van Lente (Amazing Spider-Man) with artwork by Salvador Larroca (Invincible Iron Man).

The story itself is pretty much what you might expect. After a concert, Slim Shady is betrayed by a former friend named Barracuda, who has been hired by a censorship group to murder the controversial rapper. The Punisher, literally, is assigned to protect Eminem from censorship. It’s silly, it’s short and it’s kind of dumb, but it’s all in good fun. Plus, we get to see Eminem kill someone with a chainsaw. That’s always a plus, right?

Eminem takes that shocking level of violence to a whole new level in the video for his latest single, “3 A.M.,” which is incredibly bloody and even quite disturbing at times. However, it’s nice to see that Eminem is still pushing boundaries after all these years. It doesn’t hurt that his lyrical construction and delivery are incredibly solid on this track, a major improvement from his previous and decidedly lame effort, “We Made You.” If “3 A.M.” is an indication of things to come, Relapse could be one of the best rap albums in years.

Iron Man Versus "Iron Man"

Chances are, you’re completely aware that Iron Man hits theaters on May 2. The iconic character is currently plastered on the sides of buses, staring out at us from massive billboards and starring in a steady stream of television spots showcasing Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) affinity for red and gold bionic body armor. In a smart—albeit obvious—marketing move, Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” is blasting in just about every one of the film’s commercials begging the question: does the heavy metal classic have anything to do with the Marvel Comics character created in 1963 by the team of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Larry Lieber and Don Heck? Not at all.

Naturally, you’re surprised. Sabbath’s “Iron Man”—released on their 1970 album Paranoid—is about a man who travels to the future and witnesses the apocalypse (not the big blue fellow, you nerd). When heading back to the present he is caught in a magnetic field and turned to iron, which renders him unable to warn mankind of its impending fall. Silenced and shunned by his peers, the “Iron Man” takes revenge on all humans and ends up causing the very apocalypse he had previously seen.

Tony Stark may not be a model citizen—particularly after his fascist turn during Marvel’s Civil War event—but Sabbath’s murderous “Iron Man” clearly isn’t referring to ol’ Shellhead. Still, it’s got one of the most badass riffs in rock music, so we’ll let these inconsistencies slide just a tad.

Interesting note: While the song and the superhero were not initially related, Marvel retconned Iron Man’s origins to include the song as Tony Stark’s inspiration in naming his alter-ego. Thanks to revisionist history, it was the Marvel character that was influenced by the song, even though he was created seven years before Sabbath released it.

What I’m Listening To: Andrew W.K.’s I Get Wet

Sometimes, you need to thumb through your CD (or MP3) collection to find a specific album or a song that takes you back to a certain time and place in your life. I purchased Andrew W.K.’s I Get Wet in the spring of 2002 just months prior to high school graduation, the precursor to that summer of invincibility before that fateful first trip to college. Andrew W.K. seemed at first to be a novelty act, and maybe he was. His first single “Party Hard” was a simple, bombastic yet infectious ode to partying that I couldn’t resist.

I would be lying if I said that this album was incredibly deep. Each of the album’s 12 songs is about little more than partying, getting the girl and never giving up. That’s pretty much it. However there’s a palpable energy behind each synthesized note and each grizzled vocal. Andrew W.K. is passionate about each of these songs, and damn it, you should be too.

I Get Wet is like the soundtrack for the best 1980’s movie that hasn’t been filmed yet. From the first guitar riffs of “It’s Time to Party” to the bizarre fight anthem “Ready to Die” to “I Love NYC” to the oddly uplifting “Got to Do It,” you’re taken on a musical journey. And I think that was the idea. It’s simple music that tells a simple story, and it’s obviously not for everyone. Andrew W.K. is sort of like Monty Python: Either you love him or you hate him. And, like Monty Python, if you do turn out hating Andrew W.K., I secretly judge you.

Radiohead Returns to Form with In Rainbows

It’s taken me far too long to write a proper review of Radiohead’s new album In Rainbows, partially because I didn’t want to short-change it after a single listen. Or a second or a third. After spending some quality time with its 10 stripped-down tracks, I can safely say that In Rainbows is Radiohead’s strongest album since OK Computer.

Don’t get me wrong. I thought Kid A and Amnesiac were breakthrough albums worthy of their praise. But they also require the listener to be in the proper mood for them, and be able to sit down and appreciate the album as a whole. If “Like Spinning Plates” hits my ears when my iPod is on shuffle in the middle of my commute, chances are I’ll skip it. Not a fault, necessarily, but Radiohead's early work on Pablo Honey, The Bends and the aforementioned OK Computer is far more approachable and more, dare I say it, listener-friendly.

Like most people, I liken 2003’s Hail to the Thief to a melancholic funeral dirge. The energy just isn’t there for a vast majority of the album and the gang just seems bored. Even Thom's soulful vocals can't save most of the tracks from being depressingly dull.

Thankfully, In Rainbows rectifies its predecessor’s faults. Thom Yorke seems to have purged himself of his techno-demons with last year’s synth-heavy solo project The Eraser, giving guitarists Ed O’Brien and Jonny Greenwood plenty to do .

Favorite tracks? “Bodysnatchers” easily sits at the top, with its chaotic guitar distortions. I also liked the trippy “Faust Arp” and the socially critical “House of Cards.”

In Rainbows is Radiohead at the top of their game, mixing their best past sensibilities while at the same time moving forward musically.

Head on over to inrainbows.com and name your price for the download. Call it arrogance or generosity, but Radiohead is letting fans decide how much they’d like to pay for the album. A boxed version of the album, complete with a second CD, two vinyl records, artwork and a lyrics booklet will hit stores December 3rd. A standard version will be released in January.