November 17, 2005 Guitar Hero, the new video game released this week by Red Octane / Harmonix, has been getting
incredible reviews and selling out across the country.
The game comes with a scaled-down guitar controller (five buttons on the neck, a strummy thing on the body) that you plug into your PS2. Choose from a list of rock classics, and suddenly your onscreen character is onstage shredding with the band in front of huge crowds. Your score is based on how well you hit the right notes at the right time, like in Dance Dance Revolution.
They licensed 30 cool songs for the game (Iron Man, More Than a Feeling, Cochise, I Wanna Be Sedated, etc.), but since they're not allowed to use the actual recordings, they record new versions in the studio -- which sound
exactly like the originals. So they need singers to sound exactly like the original ones.
Singers like me. You can go to
the Guitar Hero site to hear me take on Franz Ferdinand ("Take Me Out"), David Bowie ("Ziggy Stardust"), Eric Clapton ("Crossroads"), and Queens of the Stone Age ("No One Knows").
I'm also on the new
Karaoke Revolution Party -- where you sing instead of play guitar -- doing Tears for Fears ("Everybody Wants to Rule the World"), Neil Diamond ("Sweet Caroline"), and A-ha ("Take On Me").
And if you're like really into this, I'm also on
Karaoke Revolution 3, doing Simple Minds ("Don't You Forget About Me"), B-52's ("Love Shack"), Switchfoot ("Meant To Live"), Frank Sinatra ("New York New York"), Good Charlotte ("Hold On"), the Beatles ("Twist and Shout"), and David Bowie again ("Under Pressure"). On
Karaoke Revolution 2, I did Elvis ("Heartbreak Hotel"), The Darkness ("I Believe in a Thing Called Love"), Three Days Grace ("I Hate Everything About You"), Kiss ("Rock and Roll All Night"), and Steve Miller ("The Joker").
