Culture Club Lead A New Wave Of Rock Band 3 Tracks

This week, the Rock Band 3 track update from Harmonix features an odd mix of artists. Tracks this week come from acts such as Culture Club, Faith No More and Loverboy – hardly an obvious collection to group together. What this update does do however, is promote the variety of musical styles that feature in, and are supported by, Harmonix in the Rock Band Music Store. More than seventy-five million songs have now been downloaded over the Rock Band Network, across various consoles and the track counter is now registering at over two thousand, seven hundred different songs currently online.

From the realms of eighties pop, we have the offerings of “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me”, the 1982 number one smash from androgynous crooner Boy George and his band, Culture Club. On top of that, we have 1981 number two hit “Working for the Weekend” by Loverboy – perhaps most fondly remembered in recent times for its use in the Ben Stiller comedy film Zoolander. Fans of jam band Phish are given two new tracks to “jam” on, as “Stash” and “Tweezer” make their way into the Rock Band Music Store, via their 1992 album A Picture of Nectar.

And rounding out the selection of downloadable content this week are two tracks from two big rock acts. The Stone Temple Pilots bring an amazing eleventh track of their Alternative Rock to console owners with 1996 song “Big Bang Baby” being added to their already impressive selection available in the Rock Band Music Store. And eighties rockers Faith No More also boast their no-quite-as-impressive fourth track on Rock Band, as “From Out of Nowhere” is made available to fans, from their most successful album, The Real Thing, from 1989. Harmonix couldn’t be accused of catering to any particular musical tastes, and it is good to see that such a wide number of genres from different eras can be enjoyed by modern gamers.

These tracks will be available for Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 on May 3rd, although in Europe they will come to PlayStation 3 on May 4th (PSN status allowing). They will cost £0.99 (160 Microsoft Points / 200 Wii Points) per song. The Pro Guitar and Pro Bass upgrades for “Working for the Weekend”, “Stash” and “Big Bang Baby” will cost an additional £0.59 (80 Microsoft Points/100 Wii Points). All tracks are original artist recordings.