The eight GTA-exclusive tracks DJ Green Lantern wrote for Liberty City's "The Beat" radio show, which he hosts, will be on the album, along with eight new songs inspired by the game. He's joined by some major hip-hop, reggae and R&B artists, including Busta Rhymes, Wyclef, Fat Joe, Styles P and Fabolous, and several other new artists and talent from DJ Green Lantern's label will feature on the album as well.

The Rockstar team has somewhat of a reputation for its particularity when it comes to musical selections for the game, and executive producer Sam Houser said he's excited about this album and its "true New York flavor." "Liberty City Invasion: Music from and Inspired by Grand Theft Auto IV" will be available digitally on May 20th, to be followed by a physical disc launch at an unspecified date.

Full release follows the jump.

Today, Rockstar Games and Future Green Entertainment are proud to announce the release of an original production album from The Evil Genius DJ Green Lantern featuring music from and inspired by Grand Theft Auto IV.

Containing eight brand new tracks crafted exclusively for DJ Green Lantern's "Liberty City Invasion" radio show on the in-game radio station "The Beat," as well as eight new songs directly inspired by Grand Theft Auto IV, The Evil Genius DJ Green Lantern has created an epic urban soundtrack. This special album release features an incredible lineup of hip-hop, reggae and R&B superstars including heavyweights Busta Rhymes, Wyclef, Fat Joe, Styles P and Fabolous as well as up-and-coming artists Mavado, Uncle Murder and Future Green Entertainment's own Johnny Polygon, Qadir and more.

Singles include "Where's My Money" from Busta Rhymes and "Nickname" from the brand new artist Qadir. The perfect summer anthem "I'm So Fly," featuring Fat Joe and Fabolous is inspired by Grand Theft Auto IV and while included on the album is not in the game.

"The Grand Theft Auto games have always featured stunning soundtracks and the amount of eclectic music in Grand Theft Auto IV goes above and beyond anything we have been able to do before" said Sam Houser, Founder and Executive Producer of Rockstar Games, "DJ Green Lantern's contributions give the soundtrack a true New York flavor and we're excited to be releasing his full album to fans."

"From making mixtapes, to being on the radio, to touring with the biggest artists on the planet, and then for the biggest video game title to solicit me to create exclusive music is something most people could only dream about, it's like a graduation," said Green. "Rockstar Games understood what I bring to the table as far as not just presenting music, but creating music."

Green Lantern originally came to prominence in the mixtape scene by consistently featuring exclusive self-produced music with hip-hop superstars like Eminem, Jay-Z, The Beastie Boys, Mike Shinoda's Fort Minor, D-Block, Busta Rhymes, Mobb Deep and many more. This led to an acclaimed career as a proper music producer in his own right which has yielded such Billboard hits as "Number One Spot" by Ludacris and "In The Ghetto" by Busta Rhymes featuring Rick James as well as the street hits Akon "Ghetto" feat. Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac, Uncle Murda's "Bullet, Bullet," and many more. Green Lantern can be heard every week nationally on his Sirius Satellite Radio show.

The Evil Genius Green Lantern makes his official production album debut with the release of Liberty City Invasion: Music from and Inspired by Grand Theft Auto IV. It will be available at all major digital retailers on May 20th with a physical release coming soon.

Grand Theft Auto IV is currently available for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system and the PLAYSTATION® 3 computer entertainment system.

The game will be coming out for the PS3, Xbox 360. Wii and the DS with each version having it's own distinct features but all will include a career mode and forty songs to play along with. Oddly, the console versions will not include vocals, but the DS version will. There is no official song list yet, so keep your eyes peeled for more announcements regarding that but I did see a few that were available on the demo which were Blitzkrieg Bop, Detroit Rock city, We're Not Gonna Take It and All The Small Things. There are eight playable characters and various locales ranging from garage to county fair to rock arena. Unfortunately, even though they showed off the drum kit at the presentation, they didn't provide any photos of it so keep an eye for that as well.

Is Rock Revolution going to be a Guitar Hero or Rock Band killer? Probably not, but it will be interesting to see how it actually does in the market. I'm afraid however, that this might be a case of too little too late.

'From First to Last' Steps in the Ring with Arcade-Style Boxing Game Facebreaker From EA Sports

Suretone/Artwerk Artists Showcased Via Music And Likenesses In All-New Game As Their New Album Hits Stores & Tour Begins

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—The worlds of new music and gaming collide in the ring as Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced that Suretone/Artwerk band From First To Last will be showcased in EA SPORTS' upcoming arcade-style boxing game, FaceBreaker™. The band, whose self-titled debut album was released last week, will have three new songs on the FaceBreaker soundtrack as well as being featured as animated characters within the game itself.

"FaceBreaker is the beginning of a classic new EA franchise," said Steve Schnur, EA's Worldwide Executive of Music and Marketing. "It looks and plays like no other game on the market today and deserves a soundtrack to match. We were looking for a left-of-center band to connect with a great soundtrack opportunity, and From First To Last is the ideal act to showcase in this game. Add in their new album, their upcoming Warped Tour appearances and a few surprises still to come, and you've a 360˚ partnership that totally 'gets it'. Simply put, we've matched the new with the new like never before. The dual impact of FaceBreaker and FFTL is going to be undeniable."

Along with lending their music and likeness to the game, From First To Last will also promote the game during 45 shows on their upcoming spring and summer tour. The band will hold public presentations of FaceBreaker via projection screens prior to each concert, and band members will pull selected fans on-stage before their show kicks off to demo the game.

Additionally, EA will feature game demos, merchandise and the FaceBreaker band bus at each stop of the tour, as well as exclusive FFTL downloads, profiles, band playlists, contests and more on the FaceBreaker website. To round out the marketing campaign and create online buzz, From First To Last will also participate in the making of 10 viral videos of live concert footage married with FaceBreaker clips to be released on the web.

"By signing FFTL to EA's music publishing company Artwerk, we've made a commitment to create unique marketing opportunities for them," says Schnur. "In addition to FaceBreaker, their music will be featured in the soundtracks of several other top EA titles in the months to come. FFTL's music, concert tickets and merchandise will soon become an even bigger part of their fans lives. The ultimate goal is for the guys who we believe to be the best post-hardcore band in North America today to be heard by the largest global audience possible tomorrow."

"World's Away", along with other tracks from FFTL's new self-titled album are available on EA's music website at www.ea.com/eatrax. More information on From First To Last is at http://www.fromfirsttolast.com/.

There is commercial pressure from Sony who want us to create a viable business product but we're more after the critical acclaim. I think there's less pressure now because when we were an independent developer we had the pressure of paying the wages every month. Now we don't have to worry about the next game or what we're going to be doing.

It takes talent and patience to lay down these tracks with that kind of interface, is all I can say. I'm trying to imagine someone working on the percussion for "Never Gonna Give You Up." and can't believe they lasted more than six runs through that opening drum roll without quitting in disgust. Guess that means they got it right on the fifth try.

(And I can't believe I made it through a post about Chocolate Rain without the obligatory move away/breathe in joke.)

We've linked the YouTube video of the Zelda theme and Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" after the jump. The rest can be found at the link.

Theme from Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!
Chocolate Rain
Rick Astley: "Never Gonna Give You Up"
Theme from Sonic the Hedgehog
The Beach Boys: "I Get Around"
Theme from Super Mario Bros. 3
Genesis: "Land of Confusion"
Queen: "Bohemian Rhapsody"
Nirvana: "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

The 10 Most Creative Mario Paint Compilations

Journey: "Don't Stop Believing"

Theme from The Legend of Zelda

"It's an exclusive deal for this game," Aerosmith publicist Marcee Rondon told Harris. We confirmed this with Tim Riley, Activision's vice president of music affairs, who told us through Activision PR that "I can say that we do have the band exclusively, and their catalogue should be exclusive to us beyond the one or two tracks they had licensed out to Rock Band before we made our deal." (According to MTV's Rhythm Game Track Finder, it's one song: "Train Kept a Rollin'.")

Hit the link for N'gai's take on the info he uncovered and why it was both inevitable and, likely, will not be the last time this happens in the increasingly broad genre of rhythm games.

The Guitar Heroes at Red Octane Lock Up Aerosmith With An Exclusive Arrangement, Leaving Harmonix and Rock Band to Dream On [Newsweek]

"When we were doing the focus group testing, we asked people how they'd feel about a remix done by a current band. We got booed out of the place," Goss said. "People were really against it, going, 'You can't do that, there's only one song for Ghostbusters!' It was incredible. So we were like, okay, we won't mess with the Ray Parker Jr. song then."

No theme tune remix for Ghostbusters [Eurogamer]

Soviet Connection [The Theme From Grand Theft Auto IV] by Michael Hunter
Dirty New Yorker by Mobb Deep Feat. Havoc & Prodigy from H.N.I.C. Part 2 Sessions
No Sex For Ben by The Rapture
No Fraid A by Munga
Where's My Money by Busta Rhymes
I Want You by C.J.
Rocky Mountain Way by Joe Walsh
Stand Up Jamrock by Bob Marley & The Wailers and Damian Marley
Liberty City: The Invasion by Seryoga
Vagabond by Greenskeepers
On A Journey by Electrik Funk
Nickname by Qadir
Holy Thursday by David Axelrod
War Is Necessary by Nas
Zombie by Fela Kuti
5:23 by Global Communication

NINTENDO VS SEGA EP [RAC]

Shortly after they hit the scene, we tracked down the bands members to talk to them about their apparent connection to New Hope International Church, a Bellevue, Washington-based Christian church that hopes to "turn lost people into fully devoted Spirit-filled disciples of Jesus Christ in our city and all over the world."

The band's leader, Phil Fischer, denied the connection and said that the band was formed in hopes that Microsoft would eventually back them.

Today Fischer contacted Kotaku to let us know that Microsoft has officially nixed the idea, saying that they couldn't take the time to track how their logo and name was being used:

I wanted to write this letter to you and advise you that Microsoft officially told us that they would not endorse us, so the band is breaking up. For months I was angry at you for the story you wrote about us, but I got over it.

We decided to go into the studio last week and blow the last of my savings on a song about someone I have been in love with for years, Cortana. I put it up on our myspace page at www.myspace.com/thexboxboys.

Anyway, I never got to know you that well, but I think your forum kicks ass and I wish you well.

The game helpfully advises us that there are "one million possibilities to get tones from a cello." I am definitely expert on the first: a sphincter-clenching, fingernails-against-the-chalkboard grind.

Post your high scores in the comments. I can get to about 455 points before I start writing apologies to everyone who has ever handled this graceful instrument.

Cello Challenge [Berliner Philharmoniker, via Reddit]

I've never played it. I don't get those games at all. I mean, I haven't tried them. But they must be fun because people love them. But, to me, it seems like if you're going to put that much effort into playing something, you should just play a real instrument. [laughs]

Beginning tomorrow and running through May 21, people who attend the Seether and Flyleaf tour will get a chance to play against members of the two bands on Rock Band. Competitions will be held at each venue with winners receiving a copy of Rock Band and a chance to co-hose Saturday Rock the Deuce on the channel with the two bands.

The whole tour, and the Rock Band offs, will be documented on MTV2.com with some of the better stuff showing up on the All That Rocks block on Saturdays at 6 p.m. from now through May 24.

"Sponsoring the Seether and Flyleaf tour is another way for us to give Rock Band fans the opportunity to connect with the bands they love and provide a stage for them to live out their rock fantasies," said Paul DeGooyer, SVP DVD, Gaming and Audio, MTV. "By supporting this tour, it allows us to expose great young talent like Flyleaf, who are a true Rock Band success story. The inclusion of their single "I'm So Sick" in Rock Band has helped propel them from gold to platinum selling artists."

The release isn't totally clear on how people will be selected to jam against the bands, but I suspect it will be pretty obvious at the venues.

MTV Games' Rock Band™ and MTV2 Hit the Road with Seether and Flyleaf

Rock Band and MTV2 Present One of the Hottest Rock Tours This Spring Beginning April 8th

New York, NY - April 7, 2008 - MTV Games, a division of Viacom's MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), announced today that Rock Band™(www.rockband.com) and MTV2 (mtv2.com) will hit the road as the presenting co-sponsors of platinum-selling rock act, Flyleaf (www.flyleafmusic.com) and chart topping alt rock act Seether, (www.seether.com) on their co-headlining tour this Spring kicking off in Denver, CO on April 8th. A perennial gold-selling artist, Seether currently has two top ten hits at active and modern rock radio simultaneously with "Fake It" and their follow-up smash "Rise Above This". After scoring 3 top ten hits at modern and active rock radio on their eponymous smash debut, Flyleaf is finally mining pay-dirt at Top 40 radio with their haunting ballad, "All Around Me"

"Sponsoring the Seether and Flyleaf tour is another way for us to give Rock Band fans the opportunity to connect with the bands they love and provide a stage for them to live out their rock fantasies," said Paul DeGooyer, SVP DVD, Gaming and Audio, MTV. "By supporting this tour, it allows us to expose great young talent like Flyleaf, who are a true Rock Band success story. The inclusion of their single "I'm So Sick" in Rock Band has helped propel them from gold to platinum selling artists."

"Seether and Flyleaf are some of the most requested bands in rotation on MTV2," stated Andy Hunter, SVP, MTV2. "Bringing together Rock Band and MTV2 to support these popular rock artists, hits home with our audience by bringing them bands they want to see in concert and the music video game they want to rock with."

Beginning Tuesday, April 8th and running through Wednesday, May 21st, music fans that attend the Seether and Flyleaf tour will be given the chance to play against the members of Flyleaf and Seether on Rock Band. Local competitions will be held at each tour location where several lucky contest winners will be given the chance to receive copies of Rock Band, create a hot MTV2 video playlist as well as co-host "Saturday Rock the Deuce" on MTV2 with Seether and Flyleaf. In addition, exclusive video clips from the tour will be available on www.mtv2.com and a tour diary chronicling Seether and Flyleaf's interactions with fans will air on MTV2 as they host the All That Rocks block on Saturdays at 6PM for 8 weeks premiering on April 5th through May 24th giving viewers weekly updates and footage from the road.

For more info, specific tour dates and locations, please visit Seether's website, www.seether.com, and Flyleaf's website, www.flyleafmusic.com. In addition, fans can visit www.mtv2.com and www.rockband.com for more information on dates, locations and Rock Band news.

Rock Band is a new platform for music fans and gamers to interact with music like never before, challenging users to master the lead/bass guitar, drums, and vocals as solo artists or cooperatively as part of their own band. Built on unprecedented deals with the world's biggest record labels and music publishers, the music featured in Rock Band will span all genres of rock and will include many master recordings from the greatest songs and artists of all time. Rock Band was the top winning game at this year's E3 show, winning the overall "Best in Show 2007" award and garnering the most Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 2007 with five nominations and three awards.

I want any of you parents out there whose children have this game to know that I did not grant these people my permission to pervert my song and am disgusted with the result. Unfortunately I lost the publishing rights on the song many years ago in a settlement with a former partner and the license to Guitar Hero was granted by the company who now owns the publishing.

Actually the game really has a dark side complete with grotesque monsters on stage with the band, strange, eerie lighting effects and all manner of weird things popping up on the stage.

The other part of me recognizes that Charlie wrote some of the greatest songs of all time, Devil included, and I should probably just let it go unless I want to get my ass seriously kicked. I live in Georgia, where in the summer they regularly project one of his songs onto the side of a mountain with lasers. Lasers! Not a good place to be dissing the man.

Instead, I leave you with Charlie Daniel's parting words from his soapbox entry last Friday.

At this time I don't know if I have any legal recourse, probably not, but I wanted you folks to know that I vehemently disagree with what has been done to a piece of my work. And would like to pass along a little advice to parents of young children.

This game looks innocent enough but if you have a child who is playing it, take the time to sit with him or her while they're playing along and take a serious look at the images on the screen.

You may be surprised at the world they're being exposed to.

We were very much given control of the core experience, what we wanted to create with a 50 Cent game. He took a look at it and he was like, 'You know, it looks really cool, I'd like something a little bit more.' The guy's a gamer, which in and of itself is actually an advantage because he came in with a very honest, very open opinion - 'As a gamer, I want more than just a core experience'.

Old? Painfully. We're talking 2007 here, people. Still, I'd personally never come across one of Zack Kim's dual-guitar YouTube creations, a good portion of which are video game cover tunes, so forgive this internet excavation. Above, The Legend of Zelda Overworld theme. After the break, a Chocobo ditty and Korobeiniki, which you may known better as one of the classic Tetris themes.

Not bad, not bad, but what we really want to jam to is a one man oompa band playing some Streets of Rage 2 soundtrack selections.

The full press release can be seen here

http://www.criteriongames.com/article.php?artID=49

The video can be seen here

 http://new.music.yahoo.com/videos/WyclefJean/Fast-Car--58602070;_ylt=Ai_xsrK.ZG.EXARic4HYcsresyUvS

Great way to tarnish the game.

I wasn't a crazy video-game head. But my son is crazy about them, so he sits and plays them all day. I'll play with him ... he beats me at those games. He likes to bring me around so he can beat me.

Abletonator [Abletonator via Create Digital Music]

Def Leppard Songs to Appear in Guitar Hero 4 [Guitar Hero News]

Their are no lack of options when it comes to Tetris freeware clones, but this one, well it has a pair of worthwhile twists, its psychedelic presentation notwithstanding. Tetroid 2012 plays with the formula by adding other familiar block-busting elements, including an inverted play field that turns the mechanic on its head, switching to Arkanoid/Breakout style play. A fantastic concept. Add to that the soundtrack which features a collection of 21 electronic artists and you'd be a fool to pass up the download. More details and download links at Simon's blog.

Tetroid 2012 - DemoNetLabelArkaTetris Weirdness Alert! [GameSetWatch]

Somebody within my camp said that they were interested in doing some stuff. We sat down and it ended up like a whole radio show. This particular show, there's a little bit of budget involved. It's not the normal licensed-out music. When you jump in the car, you're going to be able to hear a whole Green Lantern radio show filled with nothing but exclusive music I produced for the game. I think it's the first time that's ever been done.

UPDATE - OK, little confusion here. Mostly my bad. Rockstar have let us know that while Lantern's got his own show on the station - on which every song played is one he's produced - it's not the only show on the station. So there is more than one artist. Sorry for the confusion, but hey, good news is that makes it sound like these stations have a lot of content.

The included sounds come straight from Korg themselves for authenticity and credibility. Even cooler? Wireless support lets multiple musicians hook up for group performances. Interested?

Here are the official specs:
- Two patchable dual-oscillator analog synth simulators:
- Four-part drum machine that uses sounds created with the analog synth simulator
- Six-track (analog synth x 2, drum machine x 4) /16-step sequencer
- Delay, chorus, and flanger sound effects available from the mixing board
- Three note-entry modes: touch-control screen, keyboard screen, matrix screen
- Real-time sound control mode via touch-control screen
- Exchange sounds and songs and play multiple units simultaneously through a wireless communications link

The software is set to debut at the International Musikmesse Frankfurt this week, if you happen to find yourself there. If not, it ships in Japan this July for 4800 yen. It's officially "for Japan only", so you may want to import.

The KORG DS-10 site has an MP3 sample of what the software sounds like. Expect me to be recreating my own Yuzo Koshiro remixes all summer long.

KORG DS-10 [AQI]

Epic Records credits Madden 2003 as being instrumental in the breaking of Good Charlotte. Avril Lavigne was first introduced to European audiences through FIFA 2003. Fabolous was first introduced in America via NBA Live, and went on to sell over 2 million albums here. JET got their American iPod commercial based on exposure in Madden 2004. Avenged Sevenfold were an unsigned act when we featured them in Madden 2004. In the weeks following the game's release, their independent album sold tens of thousands of copies without radio airplay, and they were signed to a major label soon after ...

He goes on to list a ton of other examples. It would seem that it's less about being on a video game soundtrack and more about being on a Madden soundtrack, but be that as it may - Schnur has an interesting perspective on one part of putting together great (and not-so-great) games.

Games That Launched the Band [GameCareerGuide]

Kotick claims that, shortly after the game's release, "every single artist" who appears in Guitar Hero III saw their featured tracks become their most-downloaded on iTunes. Which is making the artist money. And every time a kid boots up the game and is introduced to an artist like Aerosmith or Van Halen for the first time, that's more money an artist - and their label - will make.

Which has Activision in a unique position. Kotick says that if artists and labels are making money off Guitar Hero, they want to be making money off the artists and labels, in terms of both straight profits and in things like advertising and marketing presence (presumably on tours, via endorsements, etc). And if Universal (yes, he mentions their new labelmates by name) don't cough up, well, they'll just go and find another label who will.

Looks like somebody's got his swagger on.

Zelda on a carrot [Jyouhouya]

"Games have overtaken music massively this year — music revenues are down on last year's figures and game sales are huge in comparison now... Games prices hold up a lot better against music and DVD — it won't be long until games revenue overtakes DVD. In years to come, games and DVD will vie to become the biggest market.