Break out those tattered jeans and torn up flannel, because Guitar Hero: World Tour is getting a new DLC pack for the punk in all of us. Dubbed the Epitaph Punk-O-Rama Track Pack, the download features three tunes from three separate well-known Epitaph artists. It may be a bit more on the mainstream side of punk, but they're good tracks nonetheless.

Here's what you'll get (440 XBL / $5.49 PSN):

• "21st Century Digital Boy" by Bad Religion ($1.99 PSN / 200 Wii Points)
  
• "Linoleum" by NOFX ($1.99 PSN / 200 Wii Points)
• "Ruby Soho" by Rancid ($1.99 PSN / 200 Wii Points)

The track pack is available for download now in the US and Europe. Who's about to rock? We may or may not salute you.

If anyone belongs in a game called DJ Hero, it's Grandmaster Flash. The legendary musician has been at the forefront of hip-hop for basically forever, and is credited with inventing the art of messing with records to create noise, upon which the entire game is based.

In addition to appearing in-game, Flash contributed his own mixes to the soundtrack. In the video above, you can hear a segment of his mashup of Herbie Hancock's "Rockit" and N.E.R.D.'s "Lapdance." After the break, we've embedded a clip of the game featuring a mashup of his own "Here Comes My DJ" and Gary Numan's new wave anthem to isolation, "Cars."

MTV recorded footage of Flash trying the game for the first time, and let's just say his performance in the game is much more impressive than his performance of the game. For a more thorough writeup of Mr. Flash's thoughts on the game, check out GameDaily's writeup here.

The good news? We've got a copy of Jonathan Coulton's latest project to give away. It's a double-disc set that features a DVD full of videos from his "Best. Concert. Ever." that was filmed in San Francisco last year, and a CD packed with the music from the same event. That's over 20 tracks, the accompanying videos, and a nifty plastic-free box to hold it in.

The bad news? You have to read through our entire two-part interview with him and send us a footnoted and bibliographed book report on it. Okay, just kidding. But if you're the slightest bit interested, it's there for your reading enjoyment. Once you've moseyed through, leave a comment here telling us what your dream job would be.

• Leave a comment telling us what your dream job would be
  
• You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) – sorry! These aren't our laws :-(
  
• Limit 1 entry per person
  
• This entry period ends at 12:00pm ET on Wednesday, July 8. We'll randomly select 1 winner at that time to receive: one copy of Jonathan Coulton's CD+DVD project "Best. Concert. Ever." (ARV $19.99)
• For a list of complete rules, click here

Microsoft announced at their E3 keynote last month that Last.fm would be coming to Xbox Live. We're working on an interview with key players at both Last.fm and Microsoft to bring you more details about the collaboration soon. However, we can share one tidbit: today we spoke with Christina DeRosa, a general manager for XBL, and she let us know who the service will be available to.

"Silver users will be able access what we're considering a trial period of three hours a month, which comes with video advertising. Gold users will have unlimited ad-supported access, so they can use it 24 hours a day. There will also be a premium offering on a subscription basis from Last.fm, that will be commercial free and will also have more sophisticated personalization features, like Loved Tracks."

Last.fm's subscription prices are currently $3.00 US (€3 EU or £3 GBP) per month, so you'll have to shell out an additional $36 a year if you want to avoid the ads and have full access to their service. You'll also need a Last.fm account, in case you haven't set one up already. Luckily, that part is free.

How often is a publisher relaxed enough to announce a product with an extended joke? Usually, trailers are very carefully put together to attract the target market. None of that for AQ Interactive, however! The publisher revealed its new DSi-enhanced version of Korg DS-10 by having producer Nobuyoshi Sano give a fake Apple-style keynote presentation. And it's fantastic.

As for the program, it uses the extra processing capabilities of the DSi to double the number of analog synthesizers (to four) and drum synthesizers (to eight), allows the use of twelve tracks, and features real-time editing. Korg DS-10 Plus will be out in Japan on September 17. See the faux Stevenote after the break.

[Via Offworld]

You may not know this, but April is actually the biggest month of the year for banjo sales in the US. You see, the annual Jugband Jamboree takes place in April each year, across various states in the country, but nobody attended this year thanks to those darn Guitar Heroes, Rock Bands, and Singstars.

A new report (via GI.biz) came up with the data, based on research done by firm Interpret. In fact, aside from the staggering 25 million US gamers that got down with one music game or another, data showed that these gamers purchased 67% more CDs than those who didn't enjoy rhythm-based games. In addition, 29% of these wannabe rockers actually downloaded or streamed a music video in the past three months (compared to the 15% that partook overall), and 45% listened to music via a social network (versus 32% overall). So, as much as celebrities like to bash these kinds of games, it's helping more folks get into music, which, to us, is a good thing.

Unless you've been competing in a Starcraft lock-in all week, or living under a rock in the sub-Saharan desert somewhere, then you heard the news that Michael Jackson died yesterday in Los Angeles. As strange as the guy was in his later years, he made an indelible mark on the world of music which carried over into the world of gaming.

If you were an arcade rat back in 1990, then you probably spent time playing, or at least listening to Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, which featured the singer doing battle against baddies and rescuing children by performing dance moves and using "Dance Magic" powers, i.e. spinning around and screaming "HOOOO!". Yes, for real. The game featured simultaneous three-player action, and includes a robotic MJ that appears when Jackson meets up with Bubbles the Chimpanzee.

True story -- and there's more. Read on after the break for more about Moonwalker and a video clip of vintage arcade play, along with the other video games Jackson appeared in.

[Thanks for suggesting this, Judd and Niko]

We're having a hard time wrapping our heads around this one, so do us a favor and bear with us while we put our heads down and power through. Microsoft is releasing a wireless microphone this fall meant to be used with "your favorite Xbox 360 music games," a list that includes: Lips, Guitar Hero: Metallica, Rock Band 2, Disney Sing It: High School Musical 3: Senior Year, Lips: Number One Hits, and The Beatles: Rock Band.

We know, we know -- you're asking yourself, "Why would Microsoft release more peripherals? Just to add extra confusion to the Joystiq instrument compatibility matrix?" According to Microsoft, the mics are meant to assist in your living room rockstar efforts, and will retail this fall for an "estimated retail price" of $50. Meanwhile, the promise of Lips mics working in Rock Band 2 has yet to arrive and an asterisk in Microsoft's press release from earlier today indicates that these new mics won't work either without a title update. Does that mean we'll finally see the allowance of Lips' mics in RB2 when these new mics ship in the fall?

Speaking at a press conference for a documentary, both the White Stripes' frontman Jack White and legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page discussed the popularity of music games like Guitar Hero. "It's depressing to have a label come and tell you that [Guitar Hero] is how kids are learning about music and experiencing music," White said. It may seem hypocritical that the man saying this fronts two bands in the new Guitar Hero 5, but White said he doesn't attempt to dictate "which format people should get their music in..."

Page added, "You think of the drum part that John Bonham did on Led Zeppelin's first track on the first album, 'Good Times Bad Times.' How many drummers in the world can play that part, let alone on Christmas morning?" It's true -- video games aren't doing enough to teach kids to be like John Bonham.

Neither one said that the games weren't fun, or that they shouldn't exist, or anything like that. If anything, the two musicians were commenting on the way kids choose to get their music now, which we understand -- having our music handed to us in game form by Activision is very different from discovering it on the radio or trading tapes. Plus, well, Page is old, and therefore gets a pass on matters of technology. And Jack White wrote "The Same Boy You've Always Known" and can basically say whatever the hell he wants, as far as we're concerned.

[Via Eurogamer]

So far, all we've known about "Codename Eden," the project Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q Entertainment is working on with Ubisoft, is that Mizuguchi is involved, and that Ubisoft didn't think it was worth cutting into its E3 press conference's Cameron Time to bring Mizuguchi up to talk about it. As a result, all we got was a brief mention of the project and an awkward wave from Mizuguchi's seat in the audience.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Ubisoft executive director Alain Corre offered substantial hints that the new project may be a music game. First, he described Q as "very advanced and specialised in how to exploit the music genre."

GI followed up by asking about Ubisoft's interest in entering the market and competing with Guitar Hero and the like. "We have been researching the music genre a lot," Corre said. "We know some iterations of music games are working very well in the music category. There are a lot of new things to invent in the future with voice or dance, so we're very much looking at what we can do in that respect."

This is no absolute guarantee that "Codename Eden" is some kind of music game, but the proximity of the two statements is interesting. And the prospect of a new music game from the creator of Space Channel 5 and Rez is wonderful.

During an interview with Gamasutra, The Beatles: Rock Band project lead Josh Randall revealed a great anecdote about a playtesting session. "I'm not that great, but the first time I sat in on a playtest session and saw three people singing in harmony together for "Here Comes the Sun," I swear I saw people tearing up at the end," he said. People crying while playing his game? What is this, Shadow of the Colossus?

He also points to another occasion where he saw people "hold hands -- total strangers holding hands, singing in harmony." Randall thinks the game has a lot of heart, and will evoke a lot of emotion from those who play. While we can't comment on that yet, we will say the game's opening cartoon did give us butterflies in our stomach!

The battle of the DJ games will be coming to a head soon, reminding of us when Armageddon went up against Deep Impact. But who's going to mix it up and come out on top here? Scratch: The Ultimate DJ just released a video that shows off some of the tech (and DJ know-how) that went into the Scratch Deck, and you can see how it stacks up against DJ Hero's controller.

Watch the video above and take a trip on their extremely urban adventure-themed website for more information. We like the addition of the separate drum pad to their deck, which DJ Hero has on the turntable with two fewer buttons. It's just that Scratch's characters look like they need to eat a sandwich or two. Numark calls the turntable the "first and only legitimate DJ controller for video gamers."

We're reserving judgment on these two until we can play them side by side, but the video above gives us a bit more confidence in Scratch. Now, let's see some more gameplay.

For those of you stuck in the Guitar Hero: World Tour bus, looking for some new tunes to crank out, know that some international influence is about to rock your copy of Activision's game. The sixth European track pack is now available for download, and includes the following songs:

• Placebo – "The Bitter End" (France) - 160 / $1.99 / 200 Wii Points
  
• Loquillo y Trogloditas – "Cadillac Solitario" (Spain) - 160 / $1.99 / 200 Wii Points
• Finley – "Adrenalina" (Italy) - 160 / $1.99 / 200 Wii Points

You can download each track individually for the listed price, or if you would like to grab them all together in one fell swoop, you can nab the pack for 440 or $5.49 on Xbox Live and PSN, respectively.

Should you mosey on down to your local GameStop and drop a sawbuck on any version of The Beatles: Rock Band,
you're going to get more than just the usual slip of paper. GameStop is giving everyone that pre-orders the game three exclusive tracks, as well as a code for an in-game photo album.

We already know that the Xbox 360 version of the game is getting the exclusive 'All You Need is Love,' and that Abbey Road will be DLC down the line, so these tracks likely won't come from that album. Also, it should be mentioned that Wii fans won't be left out in the cold, as they'll also get these three free tracks, as well as one additional item: a 2gb SD card.

[Via VG247]