Check this out — Strawberry or Die — the new single/video I just released with my man Blaze Kelly. Crazy to think that just weeks ago I was banging heads with Ike about colors, and now I’m writing and producing my own music — all the stuff I’ve been dying to do for so long. As Blaze says….”Mike’s dropping beats and I’m dropping bombs…” Um, Ike, what are you doing?

~Mike

Well I guess there’s some advantage to being in the news a lot these days: I got to preview Rock Band Blitz before it gets officially released this summer. (Ike, stop whining that I’m always first even though “I” comes before “M”.) In case you’ve ever doubted whether legit musicians get into “Guitar Hero”, “Rock Band” and other music/rhythm-based gaming, the answer is: we definitely do. I mean, we’re human: what’s not to like about adding an element of competition and visual stimulation while playing a song you wish you’d written? I admit it’s kind of a cheap thrill compared to the real thing but I’ve never been above that. ;-) So I was never fully into the earlier Rock Band series because frankly if I’m going to play guitar, I’m going to plug my Gibson Les Paul into an amp, not plug a Toys-R-Us gadget into my XBox. But Rock Band Blitz uses the regular controller, like “Frequency” and “Amplitude” did, which I like because I am never for one second going to confuse playing music with playing a video game. Part of why I got sick of “Freq” and “Ampli” was that song selection. I could only do so much techno / dance music. Rock Band Blitz comes with 25 solid, diverse songs (I’m not supposed to mention details but “Jesse’s Girl”, “Once Bitten Twice Shy” and “Pumped Up Kicks” are leaked already - if not, oops, sorry Harmonix) plus you can transfer songs you downloaded to Rock Band 3. The biggest difference is that they had to dumb the note patterns waaay down in order to use the regular controller so you are only choosing between TWO notes instead of five. And actually they aren’t even really ‘notes’ in a true sonic sense; you’re just keeping time with the rhythm within each instrument track. It boils down to a lot of right-left-right-left thumb flicking. This makes it less musical and more like an arcade game. But it ends up as a great arcade game! It’s actually pretty sweet getting into a thumb-groove, racking up points and zoning out to the music which always sounds good no matter how much you mess up. Plus it’s actually harder than you think during certain sections, and there are pinballs and other effects to keep you alert and guessing. Keytar for sale, real cheap. :-)

~Mike

Did anyone else catch The Voice this week? I admit it, I did watch. Thankfully Jessie J rocked us all with Domino as it was not the best week for performances, by far. OK, let’s just get right to what everyone is freaking out about. What the heck was with Erin Martin’s “Walk Like An Egyptian” performance? I wonder what The Bangles are thinking after that horror of a cover. Seriously. And Karla Davis doing “Airplanes”? Talk about a surprise. Just when I was kinda feelin’ her do her country thing, she pulls this. But I gotta give her props for attempting a hip hop song. Now Mathai sounded great – did you hear that acapella intro? Sweet. Anyway, so I’m not surprised that Erin got voted off after that performance, even given her cool sound. Seriously, I should be a judge on this show. I’d be more honest than Cee-Lo, that’s for sure. Just ask Ike. I always spoke the true word with him but those softy arteest types can’t always take the heat. But it’s who I am and I’m not changin’.

~Mike