some sounds we like

In the last 15 years of my life I’ve veered almost entirely to the electronic side of the musical spectrum, but I can’t deny that my roots are in headbanging. I just got Guitar Hero 2 and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s freakin’ amazing. It’s giving me a nice flashback to my musical youth, and it’s an interesting study in interaction design, interface design, game design, graphic design… it goes on and on how interesting and fun this game is.

As I’ve been going through the game (just passed medium, woot) my wife and I have both come to the conclusion that there are so many songs that we’ve heard all our lives but never really appreciated them for their guitar work. Amazing, no? Well, if you already play guitar, maybe this is old news to you, but I never had guitar playing on my list of things to do when i was a kid, so I just never had the ear skills to pick apart a rock track in the unobvious places until now. Some of the newer tracks are incredibly hard to play and start to feel *incredibly long* after about 4 minutes. Others which are more familiar to me feel like so much fun to play and seem to end too quickly.

Now, I know, or know of, most of the tracks in the competition playlist… but there were a few that I didn’t, so I figured I’d go through the itunes store and see if I could locate them. With the exception of 1 track, (danzig’s Mother) I was able to find them. Here is the list with links to the itunes store:

1. Opening Licks

• Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil
• Danzig - Mother
• Cheap Trick - Surrender
• Wolfmother - Woman
• Spinal Tap - Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight

2. Amp-Warmers

• Kiss - Strutter
• Nirvana - Heart-Shaped Box
• Police - Message in a Bottle
• Van Halen - You Really Got Me
• Kansas - Carry on Wayward Son

3. String-Snappers

• Foo Fighters - Monkey Wrench
• Alice in Chains - Them Bones
• Iggy Pop and the Stooges - Search and Destroy
• Pretenders - Tattooed Love Boys
• Black Sabbath - War Pigs

4. Thrash and Burn

• Warrant - Cherry Pie
• Butthole Surfers - Who Was in My Room Last Night
• Mathew Sweet - Girlfriend
• Rolling Stones - Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’
• Guns N’ Roses - Sweet Child O’ Mine

5. Return of the Shred

• Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the Name Of
• Primus - John the Fisherman
• Sword - Freya
• Thin Lizzy - Bad Reputation
• Aerosmith - Last Child

6. Relentless Riffs

• Heart - Crazy on You
• Stone Temple Pilots - Tripping on a Hole in a Paper Heart
• Stray Cats - Rock This Town
• Allman Brothers - Jessica
• Jane’s Addiction - Stop

7. Furious Fretwork

• Anthrax - Madhouse
• Living End - Carry Me Home
• Lamb of God - Laid to Rest
• Reverend Horton Heat - Psychobilly Freakout
• Rush - YYZ

8. Face-Melters

• Avenged Sevenfold - Beast and the Harlot
• Suicidal Tendencies - Institutionalized
• Dick Dale - Misirlou
• Megadeth - Hangar 18
• Lynyrd Skynyrd - Free Bird

Any of my friends readin’ this have a PS2 version of guitar hero and want to meet up to play? hit me up!

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