Discounted tracks for Thanksgiving! A significant DLC milestone is reached next week, too. Read on to learn more.

December 2, 2008 (360) / December 4, 2008 (PS3)

Singles ($0.99 / 80 MSP each)

• Children of Bodom – Are You Dead Yet?
• Finley – Tutto È Possibile
• Platero y Tú – Hay Poco Rock N Roll
• Squeeze – Tempted
• Tokio Hotel – Ready, Set, Go!
• The All-American Rejects – Real World
• The Naked Brothers Band – Body I Occupy
• The Naked Brothers Band – I Don’t Want To Go To School

Singles (Free)

• Miranda Cosgrove – Headphones On

More info on all of these tracks, and this week’s milestone, after the break.

This week’s milestone is that the Rock Band song library is surpassing the promised 500-song mark. For reference, 500 songs is more songs than the GH1, GH2, GH80s, GH3, and GHWT setlists combined, including DLC for all of those games. Jeez.

First up is what many people – like most of those in the 19-page bitchfest over at Scorehero – will see as the only “good” DLC this week, Children of Bodom. This is because a significant portion of the professional GH/RB community only like metal and hard rock, but there’s no denying that this track will kick ass on guitar and drums. Listen to the guitar riff that starts around 1:25 into the video (above) for evidence. Vocals don’t promise to be anything interesting beyond the usual screamy metal talkies, though. The first five singles this week all hail from different European countries, and Children starts us off with Finland. Not that they have a particularly Finnish sound, really, but…
Download this track if: You like metal and want to add another difficult guitar/drums track to your collection.
See also: All That Remains Pack 01.

Finley’s “Tutto È Possibile” takes us south across Europe to hit Italy. This pop-rock track (with a touch of punk to it) has a fairly catchy chorus, though I’m sure most people who buy this song will be mumbling through it on vocals (did you take any Italian in high school?) It’s got several “whoa-oh-oh”-type sections that are excellent for singing along, and “Tutto”’s energy promises to be a great party song if you can get your friends past the whole Italian thing. Instruments sound fairly bland here, though there’s a few nice guitar hooks hidden here and there and a good drum section for the bridge.
Download this track if: You enjoy songs with lots of energy, or enjoy singing background vocals while playing an instrument. Or if you speak Italian.
See also: Honestly, I’m reminded most of RB2’s on-disc “Give It All”. Possibly “Perfekte Welle”, from the first set of Euro singles, though it’s got a different feel.

Next up is Spain, with the now-defunct Platero y Tú’s “Hay Poco Rock N Roll”. This song starts with an interesting buildup and jumps directly into a really solid guitar solo. It’s sung in Spanish, but don’t let this detract from the song’s energy and definite AC/DC feel. (For a song released in 1994, “Hay Poco” is a rock anthem straight out of the ’80s.) Instrumentally, guitar is the only thing getting any love here; drums are the same pattern the entire time, and the bassline is mostly repeated eighth notes on the same fret. The solos are fantastic, though!
Download this track if: You speak Spanish. Or if you’re a guitar-centric player that enjoys laying down some sweet-sounding, though not particularly difficult, solo riffs.
See also: The entire AC/DC Track Pack.

Squeeze represents Britain with a track that is both incredibly famous and much, much better than their on-disc song: “Tempted”. Take a short listen to it – if you don’t recognize “Tempted”, you apparently never listen to the radio. This song is absolutely a must-buy if your RB setup gets frequent party use, as this song is a karaoke staple. Unfortunately, though, the instrumentals here don’t get the same love as the vocals. The guitar isn’t an important part of the song and is mostly basic rhythm strumming, and the drums – aside from a few nice fills – see just the same basic, slow pattern throughout. The bass is a fairly interesting melody, though, as RB basslines go. Fun fact: Elvis Costello, also featured on-disc, sings one of the lines in the second verse.
Download this track if: You want to build your collection of well-known songs or primarily play vocals or bass.
See also: Oasis Pack 01, arguably, though it’s got more going on instrumentally.

The final European track is Tokio Hotel’s “Ready, Set, Go!”, rounding out the Euro countries with Germany. The first Tokio Hotel track (”Monsoon”) got a lot of flak from the community upon its original announcement; apparently Tokio Hotel is well-known as Europe’s counterpart to the many American whiny emo bands. That may be, but both of their RB tracks aren’t half bad, though “Ready, Set, Go!” is much more upbeat than the soft, laid-back “Monsoon”. Guitar here is nothing special, seemingly just a chordfest during the verses and a single-fret pattern for the choruses. Drums are all right, but also nothing terribly out of the ordinary.
Download this track if: You like the sound, honestly. I did mention all of these tracks are $1, right?
See also: The All-American Rejects, Fall Out Boy.

America strikes back against all of this European shenaniganry with The All-American Rejects‘ first RB single since Christmas ‘07. This single is actually from their as-yet-unreleased third studio album, When the World Comes Down, set to be released in December. “Real World” sounds quite different from “Move Along” and “Dirty Little Secret”; I don’t want to say it’s more “bland”, but it is, in a way. The optimistic energy of Move Along seems to be absent on When the World, for better or worse. Anyway, the instrumentals here are fairly bland as well. The guitar breaks from its chain of chords here and there, but it’s mostly nothing particularly interesting, and drums are about the same (nothing as fun as “Move Along”).
Download this track if: You like the band, or have a dollar lying around. Seriously, it’s $1, why not?
See also: Most of the bland rock songs in RB.

I’ll keep this fairly brief. The Naked Brothers Band aren’t a real band so much as they are a Nickelodeon publicity stunt, and their inclusion in RB is almost certainly a nod to MTV’s robot overlords at Viacom (who own Nickelodeon). When “Get Your Rock On” was released, the feces hit the fan among the dedicated DLC fanbase, but it was nothing compared to this. All I can say is: Remember that DLC is optional. These tracks are $1, making them accessible to their pre-teen fanbase, but you don’t have to buy them. With that out of the way, “Body I Occupy” isn’t THAT terrible, despite going on for about a minute and a half too long. Take a listen. The drums have a little bit going on, and the guitar is a fairly interesting acoustic pattern. The best part is that the vocals are tolerable, though, which can’t be said for “I Don’t Wanna Go To School”. Ugh. I…you know, I really don’t want to have to talk about that song.
Download these tracks if: You have a younger brother or sister who will be into them, or you can tolerate “Body I Occupy” long enough to enjoy its drums and guitar. Don’t download “I Don’t Wanna Go To School” for any reason.
See also: Uh…no idea. Perhaps our final track this week.

The last track this week is FREE, and Nickelodeon joins the not-terribly-illustrious ranks of Portal, The Rocker, and The Colbert Report. Miranda Cosgrove is an actress that headlines “iCarly”, a preteen Nickelodeon show that seemingly encourages its viewers to be camwhores. (I know the live-action Nick shows weren’t much better back in the ’90s, but come on.) This song is from the show’s soundtrack, and…well, honestly, we could be doing worse for a free track. Listen to it all the way through, however grudgingly you have to. It’s mostly generic rock, but it’s not particularly bad in any way except the mild grating of the teen pop vocals.
Download this track if: You have any space open on your hard drive. The worst case is that you end up deleting it, and you lost only about 5 minutes of your life, all told.
See also: Once again, running low on comparisons, here. It’s almost like “I’m Gone, I’m Going”, except not nearly as good.

Check back next week, when we get concrete information on the leaked Best Of No Doubt pack. As usual, you can find the information about all songs, released and rumored, on my Online Master Song List.