The Beatles

Game Music, Reviews

The Beatles Rock Band: Goo Goo Gajoob? (Review)

November 27, 2009 | Jayson Napolitano | 1 Comment Share this

Most people thought this game would be impossible to pull off. We’d been watching this game for a long time, and were really excited after getting a peak into the development of the game in our interview with the dev team at E3. From rights to the music to actually recreating the universe of The Beatles, Harmonix had some pretty heft expectations to meet, but I think they’ve done it.

The Beatles Rock Band is pretty much the same Rock Band that you’ve all known and loved, but in the form of Beatles heaven. I guess your opinion of this game may be biased one way or the other depending on your like or dislike of The Beatles, but I can’t help but love this game and the improvements it makes in many areas that bugged me the most in other Rock Band titles.

More about that and other aspects of the game in our The Beatles Rock Band review after the jump. (more…)
Game Music

19 More Tracks Revealed for The Beatles: Rock Band

August 18, 2009 | Gideon Dabi | 3 Comments Share this

MTV and Harmonix revealed 19 more tracks from their upcoming The Beatles: Rock Band today.

The Beatles: Rock Band 19 New Songs Revealed With Featured Venues:

– “Boys” / Cavern Club
– “A Hard Day’s Night” / Ed Sullivan Theater
– “I’m Looking Through You” / Shea Stadium
– “If I Needed Someone” / Shea Stadium
– “Ticket to Ride” / Shea Stadium
– “Drive My Car” / Budokan
– “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” / Abbey Road Dreamscape
– “Getting Better” / Abbey Road Dreamscape
– “Good Morning” / Abbey Road Dreamscape
– “Hello, Goodbye” / Abbey Road Dreamscape
– “Hey Bulldog” / Abbey Road Dreamscape
– “Dear Prudence” / Abbey Road Dreamscape
– “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” / Abbey Road Dreamscape
– “Helter Skelter” / Abbey Road Dreamscape
– “Something” / Abbey Road Dreamscape
– “Come Together” / Abbey Road Dreamscape
– “Don’t Let Me Down” / Rooftop Concert
– “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” / Rooftop Concert
– “I Me Mine” / Rooftop Concert

This brings the total number announced tracks to 44!

At E3, Patrick and Tim had the chance to interview Harmonix Creative Director Josh Randall. You can find that interview HERE.

Have they named your favorite Beatles hits yet? What are they missing? Sound off in our comments and keep checking back at OSV for more The Beatles: Rock Band coverage!
Game Music, Miscellaneous, Reviews

Blurring the Lines with Cellythm: Those Who Distorted (Review)

July 15, 2009 | Jayson Napolitano | 2 Comments Share this

We told you about this album a couple of months ago, and after hearing it, I’m still confused as to how this album came into existence. Who would have thought it possible to feature the music of Final Fantasy, Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and Edward William Elgar all on one disc? Sounds like some sort of cosmic accident, but I guess that’s the purpose.

For those who are unaware, Cellythm is a cello quartet made up of three beautiful ladies and one… lad, we’ll say. And if the list of artists featured on the album doesn’t sound strange enough to you, the arrangements of the Final Fantasy material are based on The Black Mages’ arrangements of the original source material… and now I’m confused.

Try not to get your brain all distorted in our review of Cellythm’s Those Who Distorted after the jump. (more…)
Game Music

E3 2009: The Beatles: Rock Band Interview

June 8, 2009 | Tim Sheehy | 4 Comments Share this

During E3, Patrick and I had the opportunity to check out the latest installments of the Rock Band series. We arrived on scene, being ushered into a line outside of a makeshift Abbey Road. Soon enough, we found oursevles seated in front of a stage where we were treated to several performances of MTV Games’ latest title, The Beatles: Rock Band.

After the performance, we were given the opportunity to interview Harmonix Creative Director, Josh Randall. Some of you may remember Randall for his involvement in the mid-90’s synthcore scene as a member of Institute of Technology. His music has also been featured in games such as Frequency. He’s since been working at Harmonix on many of their recent titles.

Check out our interview with Josh Randall after the jump. (more…)
Game Music

Dog Ear, I think you got some Cello in my Black Mages!

March 16, 2009 | Michael Schiciano | 2 Comments Share this

Dog Ear Records is at it again. Fans of The Black Mages might want to pay attention later this month, as March 25th will see two new releases from the Japanese label. One of these items is a DVD of a live concert performance of The Black Mage’s third album, Darkness and Starlight. The other release set for the same day will be a CD based mini album entitled Those Who Distorted, performed the cello quartet Cellythm (Kazumi Ando, Takaya Anada, Yoko Ohta, and Yumi Shimazu).

Those Who Distorted is apparently rock themed, and set to have six tracks, half of which are arranged from the rock arrangements previously performed by The Black Mages (“Those Who Fight Further,” “Battle Theme” (FFVI), “Clash on the Big Bridge”), with the remaining tracks devoted to arrangements of other works (“Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin, “Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles, and “Land of Hope and Glory” by Edward Elgar). While it’s not uncommon to have come across string based arrangements of both pop/rock and video game music, this makes for a rather interesting existence where we have arrangements based on rock arrangements of video game music.

Those Who Distorted is currently set to sell for 1800 Yen (roughly 18$ USD), and samples can be found on Dog Ear’s page for the album here. A preview for the Darkness and Starlight Live DVD can be found here. Both pages are Japanese only, but it’s easy enough to get the info one needs easily from them.

Are you looking forward to either of these releases? Are you happy to see rock classics and The Black Mages together at last?