The best part of April Fool's Day is making real, honest announcements that seem so ridiculous they sound like jokes.

So if we said that Sir Christopher Lee, the man who played Scaramanga and Count Dooku and dozens other characters, sang vocals on heavy metal albums, you might think that was a joke. And if we said those songs were coming to Rock Band Network, you might think that was a joke as well.

And yet, here we are. "Let Legend Mark Me as the King" and "The Ultimate Sacrifice", both from the upcoming "Charlemagne: The Omens of Death", are coming to RBN in the coming months. Seriously.

2013 is moving well already. We've hit our fourth release of our fourth year, with "Haben Haben Haben" arriving on Thursday, and so we'll keep with the numerology and offer up four new tracks.

The first pair comes from The Blue News- "Hypnotized" and "Stay Gone for Good" add to their bluesy repertoire. The second pair also sort of comes from The Blue News- or more accurately, their singer-songwriter side project James The Lesser. Coming from them will be "When You Think About Me" and "Come to Light", both relaxing full-band efforts with plenty of harmonies to sing.

It's that time of year- when people from all over come together to eat too much, spend too much, and resent their relatives if not mankind as a whole. There's also holidays! To celebrate the season, and keep you from crowds or spending too much, Distant Autumn has The Christmas Song arriving in the next RBN update, for only $1!

And if the entire concept of winter frightens you, you can just listen to hrmnzr, a summery electro artist who's bringing two songs- "Waves" and "Someone Else's Song"- to RBN.

As for the new site: you're looking at it! The fanciness is thanks primarily to Javascript dev Metafizzy, who likely has no idea he's being credited so heavily. Too bad!

As for the new partner: it's Goomba Music, an indie label from the upper Midwest. Like many of our partners, they've got a good share of metal artists- and the first to come along will be Scum of the Earth, making their return to Rock Band! They also make for our first Nu-Metal band, because we never really give up on the unusual genres.

Our mission at Fairwood Studios is to bring the world the best music it didn't know it needed. The Rock Band Network has been an awesome way for us to do that, thanks in no small part to the gaming community's willingness to support indie content.

And that spirit has been most apparent with the indie bundle phenomenon. Gamers get great indie games, game makers get tons of new fans, and charities get some much-needed financial support.

There's no reason it wouldn't work for indie music, as well.

So, we are proud to announce the Indie Allstars Bundle! Fifteen bands from around the musical world- some you may recognize, some you'll be glad to discover. You have through May 19th to pay whatever you want and help support EFF and VH1 Save the Music, and get all this:

• Pac-Man Fever by Buckner & Garcia
• Yours As Fast As Mine by The Main Drag
• The Silent City by Stagehands
• PPPPPP: The VVVVVV Soundtrack by Magnus 'SoulEye' Palsson
• Noplace Like Nowhere by Jim's Big Ego
• When the Dust Settles by The Parlor Soldiers
• The Darker the Sky Is, The Brighter the Stars Shine by Jonay
• Mo'Fi by Crooked Saws
• Lactophilia by Leche de Tigre
• Paths of the Restless by Cosmonauts Day

Pay above the average and you'll also get:
• Wartime Songs by The Blue News
• Gravity by Diggs Duke
• self-titled EP by Dance for the Dying
• self-titled EP by Mafia Track Suit
• Be My Guest by Through a Glass, Darkly

All this time, we've been licensing songs for Rock Band, collectively. It started because we were working with Rock Band 2, and kinda figured there would be a Rock Band 3. Seemed like good practice, and it was.

Because just today, Harmonix has announced Rock Band Blitz. The former RBN overlord, Matt Nordhaus, is in charge of this arcadey retro-rhythm title, and he's thrown the community a very kind bone. Every Rock Band downloadable track - including every track that we've authored for the Rock Band Network - is available in this new title. So soon, you'll have an all-new way to experience our constantly-growing library.

Rock Band Blitz will be available on XBLA and PSN as a downloadable title later this year. Details will be announced by Harmonix over the coming week.

We've hit and passed the two-year anniversary of the Rock Band Network opening. It's been a long and challenging process since our first release, "Minnesota" by Voodoo Pharmacology. Since then, we've released over 65 tracks and shown people dozens of artists they may otherwise have never heard of.

Speaking of, here's another band you may not have heard of: Goin' Places, a punk trio off of Staten Island. They released an album in 2002, disappeared, and reappeared this February with "Relationship Sneakers". And now, they're on their way to appearing in Rock Band as well with both the title track and "Nobody Gives a **** About Us".

In other new project news, we've put together a new partnership, this time with Sweden-based record label Despotz Records! This was actually in the works for a while, but the original plan fell through. Fortunately, Despotz also has The Unguided on their roster, so we're starting things off with their latest single "Phoenix Down".

Some of which, we just can't talk about yet. Other than to say, we're going even further in our mission to bring the world the best music it didn't know it wanted.

But what we can talk about- we've had many tracks make their way to PS3 over the last few weeks, including both of The Blue News' newest tracks and "Now or Never" from Stagehands.

On the new releases front, dB soundworks, Magnus Palsson, and Mafia Track Suit had their collections wrapped up while Niño Burbuja and Those Among Us bring some diverse picks to the Network. We've managed to avoid metal for nearly two months, and we're grabbing tracks from all around the world.

And we're beefing up our lineup with new proxy projects- including The High Strung- and new tracks from His Statue Falls and John Brandon's projects. We know what people like, so we're glad to give you more.

It goes without saying (so why are we saying it?) that this fall has been really busy for us. So let's go down what's been going on.

First up, we're bringing the largest, most original jazz project ever to Rock Band. Three tracks from Grammy-nominees Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band are in production for RBN. They're elaborate. They're difficult. They've got horns all over the place.

But in terms of songs you can actually grab right now, we've put out new material from SoulEye, dB soundworks, The Bloody Five, Coelacanths, and more. Everything from electronica to grunge to.... whatever Coelacanths is.

And last but not least, Bright Midnight has remastered and officially released their La Minuit album. Both of our tracks with the group- Hotel Saigon and White Shoes- are included in the collection in remixed renditions. And we'll soon be adding the title track to that collection. You can grab the album through our webstore or check it out on Spotify.

False. No news is "we've been lazy about posting news".

Not that things haven't been happening! The Story Changes and Bright Midnight have both returned with new tracks, and Redfield's latest release "Cody" by We Set The Sun has hit the store.

We've also revealed a bunch of new projects- British soul quartet Danny and the Lost Souls, techno composer Lockdown, and the highly-requested German deathcore of We Butter The Bread With Butter.

So there's our excuse. We've been too busy to announce that we're too busy. ...Yeah, we're gonna go with that. That works.

First things first: if you're a fan of Mafia Track Suit or you're looking for some modern blues, there's plenty of new songs in the store for you. Yesternight's Decision also makes their return this week, with the bass-heavy "A Sickness You Like".

But surely you're looking for something new? We always are, and we were lucky enough to come across a very talented Hawaiian group called Leche de Tigre. They describe thier music as Latin Gypsy Folk; so their track Desconocido will be Rock Band's first official Latin track!

We've been at this RBN thing for about two years now, and it took us this long to achieve a Network victory. We've had not one, not two, but five songs make their way over to Playstation 3! Only five songs a week make it over, but we've managed to send over "Give It Up! Give It Up!", "Potential for Anything", "Positive Force", "The Battle of Lil' Slugger", and "Betus Blues (Retro)" over the last month. With how much people love the Super Meat Boy and VVVVVV music, don't be surprised if more make their way over.

And since Redfield Records brought us our other PS3 track, we're keeping up with doing more material from the gang of Germans. It just makes sense for some of that to be in German. So we've started on the first RBN song entirely in German: "Haben Haben Haben" from Dampfmaschine, an energetic batch of classic punk.

We don't really advertise our proxy program too well. We provide it as a way for artists to keep more control over their tracks without having to go all the way and releasing the songs themselves. It worked for Askari Nari, after all.

Despite not advertising, somehow two different piano rock artists got wind of what we do and decided to join in. First is Brad Gerke, bringing a pretty quick but active track "Of Dirt You Were Made...". Along with him is Sweden's Silent House, bringing a pair of tracks to Rock Band. "In Between" and "Nightfall" from their debut EP are making their way through the system.

We're always trying to spread around the genres we work with. Usually we succeed. Sometimes we get stuck in a random electronica rut. Oh well. This time, we succeeded! With two songs in two genres that haven't been properly represented in RBN so far (at least, we think not).

First is Giraffes? Giraffes! (That's two giraffes!) This somewhat.... quirky duo is our first math rock group. What is math rock, you may ask? Take prog and turn up the crazy. And so you know there's crazy when you're coming in, we're working on a little ditty called "I Am S/H(im)e[r] As You Am S/H(im)e[r] As You Are Me And We Am I And I Are All Our Together: Our Collective Consciousness’ Psychogenic Fugue" for the Rock Band Network.

And since I'm now out of breath from that song name, let's blend Soundgarden's grunge with Ben Fold's inability to count and grab The Bloody Five, a Canadian quartet and the Network's first grunge band (though not the first grunge-ish band). We're doing "Never Again", the lead track from their debut EP "Bedroom Music".

Yay alliteration!

We're happy to announce our first foreign-language tracks, courtesy of Spain's synth-pop quartet Niño Burbuja! Two songs from their debut EP, "La Inclinación de la Balanza" and "Mil Rosas", will be making their way to the Network soon, carrying a bunch of energy and sing-along harmonies with them.

It turns out May is Cystic Fibrosis Awareness Month. It's really convenient, then, that "Leave Me Be" was released just before the month started, since after all the proceeds from each Kylie D. Hart song benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

It should be no surprise that authors keep in contact an awful lot. So when "Leave Me Be" hit the store, Paolo from Chart Toppers brought up a little idea- use CF Awareness Month and some swag to help raise awareness and money.

The result is the "Good Hard Luck" contest. It's a straight-up battle between studios to help raise money, and give away some points and CDs while we're at it. Check the contest page for the full details! You've got until May 31st to enter.

As much as we love discovering new music, it doesn't always have to be from new sources. The Blue News swapped out from their alternative rock experiment of "Good at Falling" and went back to their classic electric blues style. Their new album, "Wartime Songs", doesn't release until the fall, but they'll be debuting two of its blues tracks on the RBN before release!

Along side that announcement is one we know all five of you who like "Apocalypse for Breakfast" will appreciate. Coelacanths are bringing their self-titled experimental track to the Network as well!

The full breakdown:

• The Blue News - "Hitman Blues"
• The Blue News - "Just a Game"
• Coelacanths - "Coelacanths"

GameInformer recently interviewed Chris Rigopulos about the state of Harmonix's DLC world and Rock Band franchise.

Along with announcing some big-name releases coming from Harmonix themselves, Chris had plenty of good news on the state of the market. Over a million users get new content every month- usually a different million every month. That's led to over 100 million downloads across official DLC and RBN. And even with the claims that the industry is receding, Rock Band 3's new user base has been growing recently.

There's plenty of reason to join in the Rock Band Network, whether it's for the money or the promotion, and we're glad to hear Chris give real numbers to quiet the critics. There's still great surprises coming both from Harmonix and the RBN community, nobody's giving up on the idea.

Serious question- why isn't there more piano rock on the Rock Band Network? Sure, since RBN2.0 we've seen plenty of keys parts, and lots of synths. But not many bands that say "we have a piano player and we're not afraid to use them".

SHIROCK (all-caps on purpose) is one of those groups. So we're helping get their genre up and moving with two songs from the deluxe edition of their album Everything Burns. "New Solution" (hopefully a solution to the 'everything burning' problem) and new single "Still Young" will be making their way to RBN in the coming months.

We've decided to break some rules and tick some people off. We're not very good at it though, but fortunately we have some edgier friends. So when we figured out that we could break the no-covers rule with a track called "Clubbed Baby VVVVVVeal", of course we were going to do it.

So, in addition to the official VVVVVV and Super Meat Boy! tracks coming to RBN, the mash-up remix Clubbed Baby VVVVVVeal will be coming as well. It's the first cover of a copyrighted track to come to RBN, and we figure it'll be worth the effort to make it happen. If only to tick people off with the name.

It really started about a month ago, of course, but at this point RBN2.0 is running at full steam. There's been a couple songs with keys released, but today marks the first song with harmonies- "28 Days" by Mafia Track Suit. Now there's tracks with every new RBN2.0 feature included, and plenty more to come.

There's plenty to come from us as well. We got a ton of projects started during the change-over, from a lot of new artists (and a few veterans).

• 2nd Thought - "Soul Sparks"
• Askari Nari - "Reviving a Dead Language"
• His Statue Falls - "Give It Up! Give It Up!" from Redfield Records
• The Blackout Argument - "Satisfying Angst" from Redfield Records
• Kylie D. Hart - "Leave Me Be" charity release
• The Story Changes - "New Ground" from Future Destination Records
• The Story Changes - "Constellation" from Future Destination Records
• Yesternight's Decision - "A Sickness You Like"

I should've figured something was up once Danny started asking questions. But apparently, Joystiq just got word of our Super Meat Boy! project. So if you just stopped by after seeing that... welcome! Have a seat, there's drinks in the fridge.

There's also a new song on tap. Along with Abraham Nixon and Rockapella making their Network debuts, Those Among Us bring their second selection, "Disco Ball", to the Network. After I Thought I Knew You, we suggested that they send over a tougher song. And they did, and how. That song will mark the end of our RBN1.0 tracks, as we gear up for next week's RBN2.0 opening! Check back for previews from Mafia Track Suit, SoulEye, and a few new announcements.

Whenever possible, I've been taking this opportunity to get that song stuck in people's heads. But the name is appropriate; in a few weeks, the original RBN pipeline will shut off and make way for the new and improved format. There's a little bit of cleaning to do before that happens, and you can play some of that progress right now. Bright Midnight's "Hotel Saigon" and Mafia Track Suit's "Samiam" are both currently available in the RBN store.

That just leaves four tracks- Abraham Nixon, Rockapella, Morgawr, and Those Among Us- before we start coating the Network with a fine layer of our RBN2.0 selections. They should all appear within the next two weeks.

And lastly, vVv is back from their break, and they're producing more RBN review videos. Word is, they'll be tackling some of our tracks in the next few editions.

For those of you who've been following things closely, you know that RBN is about to make the big shift to having Rock Band 3's new features- and, Rock Band 3 exclusivity.

The date of that change has finally been set. Valentine's Day, Feb. 14th, is the last day of RBN1.0. From that day on, authors will be able to release songs with keyboard parts and vocal harmonies, as well as a bunch of technical tweaks and additions you probably won't notice but we definitely appreciate.

Of course, we knew this was coming, and we've been preparing. So, on Valentine's Day, you'll get to see our first ever RBN2.0 content- tracks from Mafia Track Suit, SoulEye, and more, as well as a few announcements and surprises.

To be fair, though, some of these were released way back in 2010. Remember those days? Yea, me neither.

Either way, we've got a lot of new stuff for you from the last month. Fans of metal can check out Daas Bosh's Eternal Divine Angel Death, which is far mellower than it seems, or check out Morgawr's second RBN release, Lindisfarne.

On the rock side, though, we've got the 80's style Falling Apart by BSM, and our latest proxy release All I Need by California's modern rockers Monte Casino.

And let's not forget all the tracks we have left to release before RBN2.0 comes out this spring. You'll be getting your first taste of Mafia Track Suit and your second taste of Those Among Us very soon.

We love doing stuff that's a little odd. A little off-kilter. Something that's never been done before. Usually for good reason.

But there's no reason we couldn't do this: bring Rockapella to Rock Band. Arguably, the fact that they don't play instruments is a good reason, but it wasn't good enough for us. And as crazy as it sounds, we think it worked. Look for "Bang" to come to RBN this winter.

If anyone's wondering where we've been lately... Rock Band 3 came out. That sort of threw everything into chaos, partly because of website issues and partly because yay new game.

Lately, we helped get the debut from Lyrics for Monday, the song "Runaway", into the store. And vVv did a review of our recent release "Bang Bang Bang". And now we're left with a noble challenge- learning to play keys so we can author those parts for RBN2.0. That's gonna be interesting.

Things tend to snowball around here. On top of the recent VVVVVV announcement, we're happy to announce that Team Meat is on board with RBN! Daniel Baranowsky of dB soundworks is producing three special remixes just for Rock Band based on his Super Meat Boy soundtrack.

But wait, there's more! We've established a partnership with Ricochet Management, giving us access to many of their underground metal acts. The first up from us: The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza.

On the less silly side of things, Wisconsin-based rock band Abraham Nixon is making their way to the game with "Secondary Gain". And four of our past groups are returning for RBN2.0: Highlord, Blue News, Those Among Us, and Lightwires will have new tracks coming. Highlord is bringing "The Scream", Those Among Us bring "Disco Ball", and both Blue News and Lightwires will bring singles from their upcoming 2011 albums.

So here's what you get:

• The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza - "Yippie-Kay-Yay Mother!@#$%^"
• The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza - "I Am Sammy Jankis"
• Abraham Nixon - "Secondary Gain"
• Highlord - "The Scream"
• Those Among Us - "Disco Ball"
• dB soundworks - Level 1 Boss Theme (Remix)
• dB soundworks - Level 2 Retro Theme (Remix)
• dB soundworks - Level 3 Theme (Remix)
• New singles by Blue News and Lightwires

Or three.

We're halfway through the month, and it's already our busiest yet. Three Fairwood bands have made their RBN debut: Yesternight's Decision, with "Dying Wish of a Living Man", The Virginmarys, with "Bang Bang Bang", and Those Among Us, with "I Thought I Knew You".

The best part is, we're not even done. We've helped Lyrics for Monday get their pop-punk track "Runaway" into the store for the Rock Band 3 launch, with more tracks- ranging from black metal to post-punk- following close behind.

It's a big deal. 11 songs total are getting unveiled today, thanks to three major projects:

Mafia Track Suit Brings Debut EP to Rock Band

Soundtrack to Award-Winning VVVVVV Comes to Rock Band 3

Post-Punk Chiptuners MidiMidis Make Video Game Debut

For the lazy, here's the full list of tracks:
Mafia Track Suit - "Samiam"
Mafia Track Suit - "28 Days"
Mafia Track Suit - "Funeral on Parade"
Mafia Track Suit - "My Future Life"
Mafia Track Suit - "Fairweather Stranger"
Mafia Track Suit - "Forest for the Trees"
Magnus 'SoulEye' Pålsson - "Positive Force"
Magnus 'SoulEye' Pålsson - "Pressure Cooker"
Magnus 'SoulEye' Pålsson - "Potential for Anything"
Magnus 'SoulEye' Pålsson - "Max Confidence"
Midimidis - "There's Just Far Too Much Going On Upstairs for Me to Feel Truly Comfortable with Myself"

Oh yea. We're busy.

You think you're good? You probably are. Congrats on that. But Yesternight's Decision is pretty good at Rock Band too. And since their song "Dying Wish of a Living Man" came out on RBN on Friday, they've put out a challenge- beat them at their own game, and you can win their debut CD, or more. So if you're a fan of the group, and you think you're good enough, get the band together and take them on. Full details are available with the band's contest video.

Every now and then, we get contacted by a strange band. Sometimes it's a bad strange, sometimes it's a good strange. Coelacanths, we think, is in the good strange category. It's not music for everybody, that's for sure, but it's unique and worth adding to the Network. So you can expect "Apocalypse for Breakfast" to come to Rock Band in the future. Hopefully, by then, we'll figure out what's going on with it.

Not hard as in difficult, per se, more hard as in heavy. As in, we've got some heavy rockers to add to our roster.

First is the deceptively light alternative metal of Sweden's Daas Bosh. Sure, the acoustic guitar and piano of "Eternal Divine Angel Death" give it a softer sound, but look at that title! That's heavy, man.

....Okay, not buying that? How about the Zeppelin-inspired garage rockers The Virginmarys? We're bringing their recent free iTunes single "Bang Bang Bang" to the game as well. And that's a song that hits as hard as its title implies.

We just can't help ourselves. We've added three groups to our roster in the last few days, all of them with plenty of 80's influence. Which is great to us; we've all been really influenced by the 80's here.

First up is RBN veterans Bright Midnight. While other teams work on their older material, we'll be bringing "A Hotel in Saigon" from their newest album to the game.

Next up is a pair of groups featuring UK songwriter John Brandon. We're bringing "I Thought I Knew You" from Those Among Us, and "Falling Apart" from BSM, to the game.

Well, it's more like yesterweek. Yesterweek? Yester....

At some point in the past, Mississippi's Yesternight's Decision joined our roster, with "Dying Wish of a Living Man". These guys pretty much had to come to Rock Band eventually, since they owe part of their existence to Harmonix in the first place- their bassist, Brad, took up the instrument because of Guitar Hero.

See? Playing these games is good for something.

This is a little too big for a simple news post. You'll want to go here for the full press release.

Their new album "These Things Happen", is, according to the band, something of a new beginning for folk rockers Vision Through Sound. Their lineup has changed, their style has changed. Something else is new: they're now lined up to appear on the Rock Band Network!

We're planning to bring two songs from their just-today-released new album: "Rinse and Repeat" and "What's Yours is Mine". There's hints of surf, lounge, folk, and all sorts of rock dotted throughout these two tracks. Should make for pretty interesting charts.

It's good to be busy. After a relatively slow May (with only You've Got Someone being released), last month saw two new songs hit the RBN store from Fairwood Studios: Janie, the debut from The Raspberry Ants, and Molten Death, the second Man Parts release. (Stop giggling.)

The rest of the summer is looking just as busy, too. The first of our seriously metal tracks, Simple Man by Highlord, will be appearing in the store after the Independence Day weekend. Our latest project, Morgawr's Herlathing, will be hitting the public test crowd shortly. And you may want to watch this space, since we've got a new band coming in a few days that we're very excited about. You probably haven't heard of them, but we're hoping to change that. Stay tuned!

If you've ever wanted a band whose name makes you feel like you just ate taffy, this is the band for you. But far from being sweet, Morgawr brings epic, orchestral Pagan Black metal to the show with an intensely moody sound. Fairwood will be starting with their more pronounceable 9-minute epic Herlathing, but keep your eyes open- there's rumors that the entire Blood Saga album could make its way to Rock Band!

Summer is fast approaching. For our younger friends, that means a break. For our older friends, that means wishing they were our younger friends so they could have a break. But either way, the bands have been busy with plenty of their own projects.

First off, Voodoo Pharmacology is helping sponsor Maryland's Summer of Rock contest for young bands. The best rockin' band not only gets a professional CD recorded, they'll also have a song in RBN thanks to- well, us!

If you'd rather watch than participate, Stagehands is putting on a stage performance of their album at 2010's Fringe Festival Toronto. They'll be performing non-stop from June 30th to July 11th.

Last up is pretty tough for us. Both Blue News and Voodoo Pharmacology are in the running for the Scott Pilgrim Indie Rock vs. The World contest. The winners get to join in a special concert this summer and will be in the Scott Pilgrim vs. The World DVD. First round voting ends May 28th, so if you're a fan of either band, get moving!

Time to announce another of our Reddit buddies: this time it's noisy indie band The Raspberry Ants, out of North Carolina. We're bringing their poppiest track, Janie, to RBN in the coming weeks.

Right behind them is another first for us: our first (and potentially RBN's first) grunge track. It's another from Voodoo Pharmacology, this time from their second album Radio Testimonials of the Coming Apocalypse and that isn't even the whole actual title. We're working with the epic Vaticinium Ex Eventu, which is Latin for I have no idea. What I do have an idea of is, it's getting a brand-new guitar solo just to make it more interesting. As if seven minutes of rocking isn't interesting enough.

April has been a pretty crazy month for us already. We've had "Home" by Fear Without Reason - the 200th English-language song in the RBN store - and "Motorcide" by Man Parts - the shortest song in the store - both approved over the last two weeks.

Of course, none of this is the end or anything; we've still got lots of songs in development, and a few discussions and projects we can't reveal quite yet. So a huge thanks to everyone who's supported us and bought our songs!

Get it? Because you hammer metal. To shape it. That's what anvils are for.

You know what has nothing to do with anvils? Hair. So let's start with the hair metal band Shokkher, who'll be bringing Burn Her Out to Rock Band.

And having nothing to do with hair? Pianos. Which is the big unique element of Electric Moon's single Thunderclap. Another big element? It's crazy hard and 7 minutes long.

I don't know what makes news blue. Is it sad? It shouldn't be sad. This is good news! Especially if you're a fan of light alternative rock. Or if you're in Blue News, but if you were you already got the news that "You've Got Someone" is coming to Rock Band Network.

Where was I? Oh, right. Stagehands! The band, not the people behind the stage moving sets around and acting like you can't see them when you totally can. Those outfits aren't magic. Neither is "Welcome to Our Town", which we'll be bringing to RBN. That's because magic isn't real. Sorry. Maybe that's the sad news?

Finally, the day we've been waiting for! There's over 100 songs available right now, and Minnesota should be coming tomorrow. So go check it out! Then check it out tomorrow when our song is available.

Normally we throw together a slightly whimsical news post when we announce a new band. Something a little lighthearted, keep the mood loose. But we can't do it with this one. I don't think we could do it to any band that actually has a Wikipedia page.

So we'll just be direct: Italian power metal band Highlord is bringing Simple Man, the lead track on the just-released Death of the Artists, to Rock Band Network. And it's exactly as difficult as you may hope- our resident drummer was limping after the first test.

Kids today. Don't take anything seriously. Like these guys from Minnesota (why does that part sound familiar?) calling themselves Man Parts. Shameful. And to think, they're bringing two songs- "Motorcide" and "Molten Death"- to Rock Band Network!

Good thing we have respectable, mature groups like 2nd Thought. They're bringing their song "Just Hang On" to the network as well. Finally, some music from mature, responsible adults, the kind of-

Oh they're kids too? They're actually the youngest group so far? Well then.

With the RBN going into full-on open beta, it's probably a good time to be adding a couple more bands to our catalog. So we did. Take that.

First up, we're bringing Lightwires to Rock Band. They've got their entire EP up for download; you might want to download Magician, since that's what we're bringing to the game.

But just in case you thought we can only do alternative indie rock, we went and grabbed Blinded by Down Factor too. They're metal. Very metal. Like, steel alloy metal.

Maybe the joke was really obvious. Maybe I'm not good at the whole "writing an interesting blog post" thing. But we're not in the blog posting business, we're in the music authoring business. Which is kind of like writing, except you don't use words, and there's no such thing as paragraphs, and people can play it.

Where was I? Oh yea. Fairwood's first import, Fear Without Reason, is bringing their song Home to RBN. Give it a listen, and here's a little tidbit: the song's got 7 guitar lines. Seven. There's a lot of guitar.

I mean, putting an entire state up for download seems rather convoluted, not to mention sort of defies logic and physics. How are we going to get 10,000 lakes in a video game? That's a lot of lakes! Not to mention the whole Minneapolis/St. Paul area, the snow, Jessie Ventura...

Wait. You mean the song Minnesota, by Voodoo Pharmacology? Well that makes a lot more sense.

Rock Band Network is kind of a big undertaking, so it's not a huge surprise to learn that the public unveiling of the Network has been delayed to early 2010. This doesn't affect us as authors; the public beta is still coming up in a few weeks and we'll be on pace just the same. If anything this will mean even more Fairwood work will be available when the Network opens.

Hooray!

We've finally decided to open our doors for submissions. Thanks to a bit of networking (social and otherwise), we've got a number of bands expressing interest in the Rock Band Network. As we finalize the deals, they'll start showing up here on the site. Hopefully you'll enjoy playing them; we're already enjoying listening to them.