This week four songs were released for Rock Band. Three of them were released for $1.99 a track. They are Afterlife and Critical Acclaim by Avenged Sevenfold, and Hammerhead by The Offspring. The fourth track, Rock ‘n’ Roll Dream by Crooked X was 99 cents. As usual I played the songs with the guitar while on my bike. I play on medium so your opinion my vary depending on what difficulty you play on. All three of the $1.99 tracks sounded like they would be hard to play on the drums or sing. I may have to try that out later on. Anyway here is what I think of each song:

Avenged Sevenfold – Afterlife: This song was actually hard for me. It was not impossible, but I had trouble when I played it the first time. That made it very fun, and I will play it more often because of that fact. I was looking forward to some Avenged Sevenfold on here, and I finally got my wish. The solo was fun, but not too hard. Most of the song went from picking to chords which helped break the monotony. This was a great way to start off the pack.

Avenged Sevenfold – Critical Acclaim: This song was a lot harder sounding than it really was. This was easier than Afterlife, but still a challenge. This song had two solos. The first was a breeze to play. The second one took you through the scales, and provided a little more challenge. Both of these songs were fun to play.

The Offspring – Hammerhead: This is their new single. I will admit that when I saw The Offspring on the site and did not know the song I was disappointed. I was hoping for something from one of the old albums. This song was actually very good though. It reminded me of the old stuff. Maybe these guys are making a comeback. This song was very chord heavy and had no solo. Neither of these things should have come as a surprise. For some reason I was challenged by this song as well. I just was not hitting the chords when I should have been. I still scored a 98%, but it was harder than it should have been. Maybe it was the fact that it was before six in the morning. This is the third song in a row that seemed as though it would be murder to play the drums or to sing.

Crooked X – Rock ‘n’ Roll Dream: I had never  heard this song before so I looked it up on Youtube. The drummer looks like he is twelve. They do play some good music though. I heard these guys compared to Metallica, and after hearing the song I can say that they are no Metallica. They sound like a Disney version of a Rock Band. I got 100% on the song on the first run through. It only had 313 notes so it was fairly easy. It had two solos that were very easy although the second one was slightly harder. This was my least favorite of the four songs. It was good though, and for 99 cents how could you go wrong?

That is all for this week. Next week I will have the task of playing through all 18 songs on the Pixies album Doolittle.

This week four songs were available for download. I had never heard of any of the songs before once again. Some people online have complained about this, but I like it every now and then. Three of these bands won a MTV2 contest to get onto Rock Band. The fourth band is very big in Europe I have read. Hassellhoff big? I don’t know for sure. These songs will probably not get played when people come over, but they will be something for me to play when I am on the bike. Most people want to play songs that they know. If anyone I know has heard of any of these bands I would be shocked. The MTV pack costs 99 cents per song, and the Maximo Park song is $1.99. Here are my first impressions of these four songs:

The Myriad – A Clean Shot: This is the first of the MTV songs that were 99 cents each. I made one stupid mistake playing the song or I would have gotten 100% on it. The song was very easy. It was also chord heavy, but the same part over and over. That repetition could be bad or it could be good in the long run. There was also no solo, and a part in the song where you could put the guitar down for quite some time. That is a big deal for me because I play while on the bike. It was an okay song overall though. The drums did sound like they would be fun to play.

Them Terribles – Bullets & Guns: This song was even easier yet. Another 99% though (I hit a yellow note instead of a blue again). This song had very few notes, but was very catchy. It also had a solo which was rare for this pack. The solo was short and not very challenging.

The Material – Moving to Seattle: This song was the last of the MTV2 pack. It had a very slow opening followed by no guitar at all. The song picked up to the point where it was fun, but then went to nothing again. I was disappointed. I kept thinking will this song ever pick up? This song was by far the easiest of the three songs in the pack to play. It was not very challenging at all. I got 100% on it just sight reading it. The song had no solo in it at all. Some of the songs I give a hard time right away because they are not guitar friendly. This is one of those. The drums sound like they would be fun, and the song features a female lead singer so it has some things going for it. It just is not the best to play on guitar. It was probably my least favorite of the pack to play.

Maximo Park – Girls Who Play Guitar: This song was originally listed as being 99 cents, but actually cost $2. In all the four songs only cost $1.25 each so there is not too much to complain about. The song opens with a two notes…two notes…two notes pace that feels old very quickly. When the song does pick up it is fun to play. It goes into the tedious portion again, but only for short periods of time. The song is short and easy. I got 100% on it on my first read. There is only 395 notes so that is not saying a whole lot. The song is also lacking a solo, but a lot of newer music is like that nowadays. I guess I am part of the older generation who expects a solo in every song.

Tonight  I went and saw the new Adam Sandler movie ‘You  Don’t Mess With the Zohan.’ I had read some bad reviews of it, but I really enjoyed it. I usually do enjoy the comedies that get a horrible review. This movie was a little over the top, but it was funny. It was not his best movie. It is a good movie though. He has a great supporting cast once again, and that helps make his movies better. Rob Schneider is great once again in a Sandler movie. Thank God for Sandler, because Rob would have a lot of spare time without him. That is too bad because he is very talented. John Turturro is great as Adam’s rival in the movie. This film was made for some over the top acting, and everyone delivered. Like I said I went in wondering if it would be good after seeing some reviews, and walked out of the movie thinking that I would go see it again if the opportunity presented itself. Once again Adam and Dennis Dugan deliver. I would go see any movie involving these two.

Next week four tracks will be available for download on xBox live. I have never heard of any of these bands, but I guess that they won some sort of MTV contest to get onto Rock Band. The songs are .99 cents each. Because of the low price I will probably get all of these. I will have a review of them on Tuesday. Here are the tracks:

MTV2 Pack

The Material – Moving to Seattle

The Myriad – A Clean Shot

Them Terribles – Bullets and Guns

Bonus Pick

Maximo Park – Girls Who Play Guitars

Anyone who has read my other blog Confessions of a Sports Junkie knows that I like countdowns. Continuing the trend that I started earlier I will count down the top 12 Sandler movies so far. This is all due to the fact that his new movie ‘You Don’t Mess With the Zohan’ comes out tomorrow. I have briefly recapped each movie the last few days so I just put a link to that post. Without further adieu here are the top 12 movies by Adam Sandler:

1. 50 First Dates
2. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
3. Reign Over Me
4. The Wedding Singer
5. Big Daddy
6. Click
7. The Waterboy
8. Mr. Deeds
9. Punch Drunk Love
10. Happy Gilmore
11. Billy Madison
12. The Longest Yard

Other movies that did not make the cut include Anger Management, Mixed Nuts, and Little Nicky

Ever since Guitar Hero released the free Aerosmith song on a Thursday and I missed it I check the marketplace on Thursdays to see if something new came out. Today I was greeting with a three pack of songs from Motorhead. Apparently they have a new cd because all three of the songs were from 2008. I played them while I rode my bike tonight, and I really liked the pack as a whole. Here are my thoughts on the songs:

Stay Clean - This songs was simple. I breezed through the 413 notes getting 100% on my first time through the song. The song itself was not bad. The chart was pretty boring though. You basically had to master a couple of sections, and then repeat. I remember thinking how upset I was that this was like a Rock Band chart.

(We Are) The Road Crew – This song was a little harder. I pulled out a 98%, but it was hard fought. I would put the difficulty of this song at medium/hard. I really liked how the song challenged me. There were two solos that were hard, but that challenge will get me playing this song until I get them. It is fun when you are trying to get the notes. With Rock Band most of the songs are a breeze. This pack made me remember why the Guitar Hero brand is much more fun to play on the guitar.

Motorhead – If the last song was hard, then this song was uber hard. Wow! I got 91% of the notes, and I don’t know how I did that. This was a fun song to play though. The notes came fast and furious, and that will keep me coming back. This pack went from very easy to Holy $%&@ in a heartbeat. We need some more of these!

This has to be one of my favorite Sandler movies. I am watching it as I write this, and I remember why I like it so much. Once again Drew Barrymore and Adam are paired together. They pick up where they left of in the Wedding Singer. They are great together, and the movie is the better for it. Rob Schneider is once again a great sidekick to Adam. He just seems like he cannot miss in these roles. Dan Ackroyd and Sean Astin also are great in the movie.

This movie is so great because of the ways that Adam tries to woo Drew everyday. He has to get her to accept him, and then when he does he has to keep her. This is made near impossible by the fact that she lost her short term memory, and cannot remember him the next day. This is a great movie for date night, or just when you need a movie to make you laugh.

This movie once again has a great soundtrack. They remade a bunch of eighties hits with a Hawaiian flavor. It is great during the movie, and later on in the CD player.

Last Night I watched Big Daddy. It had been a while since I had seen the movie. This was one of the first DVD’s that I purchased in college when I bought my first DVD player. I have seen this movie so many times that I burned out of it for a while. Looking back now I really appreciate how good the movie really was. It was still a Sandler comedy, but it was a little more grown up. Rob Schneider once again is a sidekick with a crazy accent. The two twins who played the boy did a great job. In this movie you laugh, but you also feel for the main characters.

Adam stars in yet another remake. This one is the updated version of the Frank Capra classic Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Sandler plays the title role of Longfellow Deeds a simple country man who comes into billions and moves to New York City. He then falls for a girl (Winona Ryder), and cannot get used to being constantly followed by the media. Things get further complicated when he finds out that his love is part of the media.

This movie is great because of the supporting cast. Peter Gallagher plays a great villain. Winona Ryder is very attractive as the leading lady. John Turturro steals the show though as the butler. He makes every scene that he is in much better. Allen Covert also is great again in a Sandler movie.

Here is a classic Sandler movie. Set in 1985 it follows Robbie Hart a singer who lost his rock career and now of course sings at weddings. He falls for Drew Barrymore (who is great in it by the way) who is planning her wedding to Miami Vice loving playboy. Will Robbie get the girl? Once again you will have to see the movie to find out.

This movie works because most of the things that they make fun of were what made the 80’s so much fun back in the day. His friends Allen Covert, Robert Smigel, and Jon Lovitz all are great in the movie. Adam and Drew have very good chemistry. You really think that they must have had a blast making the movie. This was a great movie to watch in college. The soundtracks also helped bring back my love of eighties music.

Today was an exciting day for me. First of all the Disturbed tracks that I had been waiting on finally were available. I really wanted to play ‘Outside the Fire.’ I have also been very interested in how the Jimmy Buffett songs would be to play. As usual I have only played the songs so far on medium difficulty on the guitar. I will set up the drum kit someday so that I can play the drums on these songs. Here is what I think of each of these songs:

Inside the Fire – As I said before I have been hearing a lot of this song on the radio lately. I like the song so it is no wonder that I wanted to play it first this morning. That’s right I downloaded the songs at 5 am so that I could have a crack at this one. I watched the video of the song on youtube when it was announced, and I have thought differently of the song ever since. I don’t really know how I feel about the song being about suicide. I guess Fade to Black one of my all time favorite songs is about that subject so it does not really matter to me. Back to the song in the game. It was actually fun to play which is a plus when you like the song. I love the Metallica song Ride the Lightening, but it is so repetitive in the game that I do not play it very much. This song is fun to play with an okay solo.  The chart was okay as well. This song went from chords to picking, and that is was made it fun to play. It was easy to play because the chords were easy to hit. If you have trouble with chords it is probably a medium song to play. I have played this song twice since the initial play as well, and it has not lost its fun yet.

Indestructible – The title track off of the new album made its way to Rock Band as well. I never heard the song before I played it, but it is a solid song. This song is very chord heavy. If you can handle the chords it would be easy for you to 100%. If you cannot, then it is probably a medium song for you to play.

Perfect Insanity – My first time through the song I only missed one chord. It was a stupid mistake at that. I had never heard the song before I played it in the game. It was actually pretty good. Maybe bands will start to figure out that this game would be an awesome promotional tool. I liked the three songs that I have seen from the album so maybe I will go out and buy the album. I could’ve bought the album first and gotten two tracks, but from what I have seen most of those people had trouble redeeming their codes today, and ended up just buying the tracks anyway. Back to the song in the game. The intro was pretty cool to play. The lead singer even gives his patented monkey noise at the beginning. That could be hard to do if you are singing. I may have to plug the mike in later and try it out. This is a good song overall, but the solo is short and lacking any kind of punch. This Disturbed pack was great though. This was a good week for DLC.

Magaritaville – I was shocked when I saw that this Jimmy Buffett classic was coming to Rock Band. This song was fun to play on the guitar, but I bet all of the Buffett songs would be even more fun to sing. You spend most of the song playing second fiddle. By that I mean that your guitar part is more accompaniment then anything. That is okay. It is still a blast to play. The song is full of chords except for the solo. The solo is not hard, but you are so happy to not be playing chords that it is fun. This song also has the improv section at the end that allows you to gain even more points. I like the fact that the songs were re-recorded so that you could have a bigger part in them. For this song they even had backup singers saying “salt, salt, salt” during the chorus. This was fun to play, and I am glad that they put it in.

Cheeseburger in Paradise – This song played a lot like margaritaville. It was easy to play, and was very chord heavy. You are the backup player in his band. Not a bad place to be. Another song that would be the most fun for the singer. The beginning of the song highlights you the most, and is the hardest part of the song to play by far. This song also has the improv section at the end. I kind of like just wailing on the guitar getting extra points.

Volcano – I got 100% on this song the first time through, but it only had 338 notes. This song was harder than I expected though. Knowing the song I didn’t think that you would have had much of a part. They must have added a little to it for the game. One cool thing that they did add was a shout out to Rock Band. During the song Jimmy says: “just want to be a couch potato playing Rock Band.” A small touch that is pretty cool.

This was an interesting mix of songs. I played them as I came across them in my career while I was riding my bike. I went from Buffett to Disturbed, and then back to Buffett. That is definitely a change of pace. I could tell that my pace on the bike was different as well depending on what I was playing. Overall these were six solid songs to add to my library.

Today it was confirmed that Metallica is getting their own Guitar Hero game much like Aerosmith did. I am happy on one hand that I will be able to play a lot of songs from their catalog, but also I am worried that Rock Band will not be getting the tracks now. I would love to play the songs on all the instruments. Although Rock Band 4 will already have been released at that point so maybe we can play all of the instruments. The game is set for a Q1 2009 release. I will have the preorder ready as soon as they let me. More on this as info becomes available.

This was one movie that I was really looking forward to when it came out. Look at the cast, it is great. Burt Reynolds in the remake of one of his classic films. Forget about it. Chris Rock is good in a supporting role as well. This movie updates the 70’s classic. The beginning is great with Adam smashing up Courteney Cox’s car all over town, then bumbling for the cops. He plays Paul Crewe a former quarterback that now finds himself in jail. He was kicked out of the pros because he supposedly threw a game. Will he have to face that dilemma in prison? You have to watch the movie to find out.

One thing that I did not like about the movie was the casting of Michael Irvin. I just don’t like Irvin from his days with the Cowboys. Nothing personal, just that he played for a rival team.

This is one of Adam’s movies that I like, but I don’t watch all that often. I guess it is the way that it ends that just seems fishy to me. I know it is movies and everything, but I don’t like how everything ends. I also don’t like the fact that the Yankees are in the movie. Maybe that has something to do with it. Everyone is good in it, and I even like the people in the group as a supporting cast. Something just does not click here though. Jack is vintage Jack as well in the movie. It is a good movie, just not great.

This movie is another classic. Adam plays a waterboy that has anger problems. His coach, played by Henry Winkler, decides to take advantage of that. Adam becomes a defensive sensation. Adam playing a role of a man with an anger management problem? Never. Maybe a future movie that I will look at can base the entire movie on that premise. Back to the Waterboy though. Adam really picked up some film buddies on this one. You started seeing faces here that you would continue to see in the majority of his movies after that. This movie takes two things that I love (comedy and football), and mashes them together. The result is a movie that I watch at least a couple of times a year. (You have to get ready for football season somehow.)

This is the movie that started it all. ‘Going Overboard’ was a flop. He also had some parts in other movies, but Billy Madison is what put Adam Sandler on the map. This movie is far from a smart comedy. It is comedy on its lowest level. It is great though. You can’t always think. You have gags like a penguin that only Adam can see, a clown that gets killed and just stays there for weeks, and of course nudie magazine day. It is for all of these reasons that I think this movie is great. This movie is also a reason that Adam was not taken seriously right away. He may still not be taken seriously. After watching this again for the umpteenth time I realized that this movie will never get old.

This may be the most off beat movie that Adam has been in. In fact this movie is down right weird. For some reason though I can’t stop watching it. Adam plays a character named Barry Egan that is so controlled by everyone around him that he just snaps at times. His fits of rage provide some of the most interesting moments of the movie. The movie also teaches you fiscal responsibility. Barry finds a loophole in a Healthy Choice promotion so he buys up as much of their pudding as he can in order to redeem the UPC codes for free airline miles. This is not the typical Sandler movie, and I think that it is the reason that I like it so much. He also has some great scenes with Emily Watson. They both have issues so they end up being a great match for each other. This movie also provided Adam with some new faces for his next couple of movies.

This movie does not feature Adam Sandler, but it was made by his production company Happy Madison. I was shopping today at Best Buy and decided to try this movie. I saw it at the theater, but wanted to get the DVD to try out the special features. This is another DVD that had me disappointed that their were outtakes. With this group together I thought that something good would have to be going on. I guess once again we will have to wait until the special edition to see that. Zahn is the lead followed by an all-star cast. Allan Covert, Jonah Hill, Kevin Hefferman, Harry Hamlin, Jeff Garlin, Peter Dante, and Justin Long all play big roles in the movie. With this cast of characters it is hard to believe this movie could miss. It is a funny movie, but the best part is still the shark scene where they make fun of it over and over. I still laughed just as hard the 4oth time as I did the first time. I guess that it shows you how dumbed down my sense of humor really is. This movie is a definite rent, but I don’t know if I would recommend spending the $19.99 that they are asking now to buy it. It will be in the five to ten dollar bin soon, and it is worth that for sure.

Part of the Sandler marathon has to go to the beginning. His second major movie was Happy Gilmore. His follow up to Billy Madison was this movie about a hockey player who finds out that he can absolutely crush the ball. A golf pro played by Carl Weathers sees him at a driving range and helps him get on the PGA Tour. Part of the fun of the movie is seeing Happy adjust to the rules of golf. His hockey background gets him into trouble quite a bit. The main part of the trailer that got me to watch the movie was his fight with Bob Barker of ‘The Price is Right’ fame. I watched this late last night while trying to go to sleep. Of course once I got into the movie I couldn’t go to sleep until it was over. I didn’t know if Happy would win, but thank God he did win.

The people at Harmonix keep finding ways to surprise us. Everyone knew from the promotion the Best Buy had going on what the DLC would be this week. Then the announcement came today, and threw everyone for a loop. First off we have the three songs from Disturbed’s new album. They are sold as singles for .99 cents or as a three pack for $2.99. That is according to the official announcement released today. I have trouble believing that anyone would buy the three pack when it costs more money than downloading the songs individually. I am guessing that a typo was made. The three songs that are being released are Inside the Fire, Indestructable, and Perfect Insanity. I really like Inside the Fire so I will download all three of these for sure at the low rate.

The other announcement today was that there will be a Jimmy Buffett pack as well. This 3 pack features Margaritaville, Cheeseburger in Paradise, and Volcano. All three of these songs were re-recorded for the game. That is pretty exciting, and these songs should be fun to play. The songs are priced at the normal $1.99 a song or $5.49 three pack pricing. Last week I had the whole Cars album to play on Tuesday, and this week I will have the six of these songs to play. Another great week.