Hoping to make all their downloadable content available to everyone, Harmonix and MTV Games announced that they have released Rock Band Track Pack Volume 2, the second installment in its track pack series. It is now available for PS2, PS3, Wii and Xbox 360 for $29.99.

The pack features 20 tracks ranging from Lynyrd Skynyrd and Motley Crue to Red Hot Chili Peppers and Duran Duran. It can be played as a standalone game for all consoles. However, you will also be able to export the songs for play with Rock Band and Rock Band 2 using a free offer on Xbox Live or PlayStation Network.

Can’t get enough of Rock Band? Or Energizer batteries, for that matter? The dudes at Energizer have decided to give away one piece of downloadable content with their new Advanced Lithium Batteries.

This site has more details. It is applicable to both PlayStation Store and Xbox Live.

And yet another week is coming up, prompting Harmonix to announce the coming week’s downloadable content for Rock Band. This week they are offering us three different packs and one single.

The first pack is from Dead Kennedy, which includes “Califonia Uber Alles”, “Holiday in Cambodia” and “Police Truck”. The second pack is also three songs from Mission of Burma: “Mica”, “That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate” and “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver”. Finally, the third pack is a trio of songs from metal bands fronted by women: “Forever” by In This Moment, “Closer” and “Swamped” by Lacuna Coil. Oh, and the single is “Gone” by Crooked X.

Each pack is available for 160 points ($1.99), with the packs going for 440 points ($5.49).

Hoping to cash in on the holiday season, Harmonix and EA have jointly announced a new Special Edition bundle for Rock Band that will be available for the PS2 and Wii starting at $99.99. It will also be available for PS3 and Xbox 360 at a starting price of $139.99.

The Special Edition bundle will feature the microphone, the guitar controller and drum controller. Gamers will be able to rock out to the game’s hundred-plus songs, most of which are available through Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. You will also be able to export 55 of Rock Band’s 58 songs in the game’s sequel for yet more action.

The bundle is now available.

Rock Band is surely big business, especially for Harmonix, the developers themselves, and Viacom. However, it is even bigger business for the founders of the studio – Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy – who have gotten a bonus of $150 million this year, based on the stellar sales performance of the franchise.

Even better yet (for them, anyway) is word that Viacom will be paying them even more this year as bonus. It is “expected to exceed this year’s payment,” noted Viacom, implying that it will be more than $300 million in bonuses, though how much more is yet not known.

"We may not have anticipated the payment would be that high, but it’s based on what they have achieved,” said Viacom spokeswoman Kelly McAndrew. "If they are making more money for us and we have to give a little back, that’s OK."

MTV Games and Harmonix send word that AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack is now available in Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores across the States. The game, an offshoot of Rock Band, features 18 live recordings from the popular hard rock band’s live performance at Castle Donnington.

The tracks are below:

"Thunderstruck"
"Shoot to Thrill"
"Back in Black"
"Hell Ain’t a Bad Place to Be"
"Heatseeker"
"Fire Your Guns"
"Jailbreak"
"The Jack"
"Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"
"Money Talks"
"Hell’s Bells"
"High Voltage"
"Whole Lotta Rosie"
"You Shook Me All Night Long"
"T.N.T."
"Let There Be Rock”
"Highway To Hell”
"For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)”

All these songs can also be played in Rock Band and its sequel by entering a special export authentication code for the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions.

The game is available on PS3 and Xbox 360 for $40, PS2 and Wii for $30.

This week’s additions to Rock Band are three new tracks - Radiohead’s “My Iron Lung,” Weezer’s “Buddy Holly,” and a cover of Pretenders’ “Brass in Pocket.” The songs sell individually for 160 Microsoft points.

New tracks for Rock Band are now available for the game via Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network for their specific platforms. The three new tracks are The Clash’s “I Fought the Law,” “Rockaway Beach” by Ramones, and a cover of Buzzcocks’ “Ever Fallen in Love”.

They are bundled together for 400 MS points ($5.50), while each song can be purchased separately for 160 MS points ($2).

Ahead of the game’s release next month, Harmonix has announced details behind ROCKBAND.com, a website that will hook into the upcoming rhythm game’s multiplayer and band features. The social community site will launch alongside the game on November 20 and will feature in-depth leaderboards, personal and band home pages, and a “Musicians Meeting Musicians” classified section to help form bands online. The site will offer members the opportunity to message each other and blog about their musical tastes and accomplishments. Here’s the deal:

• Personal & Band Pages: ROCKBAND.com will automatically load your in-game characters and game stats from an online database so your personal profile page will always be up to date. Choose from four genres in the game to customize your profile pages with cool background skins that reflect your rock tastes.

• Band Classifieds: Find and create your own band through the ROCKBAND.com Band Classifieds page. Here you can advertise your own rocker skills or search through dozens of rocker profiles to choose band mates who share similar music tastes.

• Rock Band Leaderboards: Climb to the top of the charts as a solo artist or band! From band rankings to solo scores, the ROCKBAND.com leaderboards will earn you fame and fortune as you progress on your journey to Rock Band stardom.

• Rocker Blogs: Find out what’s happening behind the scenes with your favorite bands through their blogs. Use your blog to communicate with band mates about practice times, meet others with similar musical interests and keep your groupies in the loop with the website’s unique blogs.

• Rock Band Forums: Interact with other rockers and music lovers about anything and everything rock!

• Photo Creator: (Coming Soon!) Take the ultimate promo band or solo shot with the website’s Photo Creator. Pick a location, the right lighting, and a coordinated (or not!) pose for your band. Take it over the top cheesy or seriously intense. It’s all about your band’s total image.

More big bands have joined Rock Band’s kickass lineup. As reported by 1UP, songs from KISS, Soundgarden and Red Hot Chili Peppers will appear in the game as master tracks. The songs are “Detroit Rock City” by KISS, “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden and “Dani California” by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The abovementioned songs brings the game’s set list to 34 songs, ranging from the ’60s to now.

Want to rock? Harmonix, MTV and EA have heard you! The trio has announced that Rock Band will be hitting the road on a coast-to-coast tour to give consumers the chance to try out the upcoming music game. Additionally, they are also asking budding musicians to participate in a “Rock Off” audition for an opportunity to appear on MTV’s TRL. Two selected bands will participate in a live “Battle of the Bands” with the top group being asked to open for one of rock’s biggest bands at the Rock Band launch concert this Holiday season.

The tour will kick off this Sunday at Las Vegas during the “2007 MTV Video Music Awards” weekend. Rock Band outfitted tour rigs will spread across the country on a 24 city tour to give music fans the chance to play on a full concert style stage with all of the lights and sound systems they’re used to seeing in regular concerts.

As for the “Rock Off” auditions, participants will be asked to perform on the tour bus main-stage where they will be captured on video and viewed by MTV casting directors. Two bands will be chosen and flown to New York City to spend a day with a real rock band and receive rock star training. The auditions will culminate with the bands rocking on-air on MTV’s TRL, with one opening for the main band at the Rock Band launch concert.

Full details and dates of the tour just after the jump.
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It was revealed through an IGN video that Rock Band will feature sons from Hole and Pixies. The playable tracks are “Celebrity Skin” and “Wave of Mutilation”, respectively. Also, in a corresponding preview piece it was revealed that the Yeah Yeah Yeah track “Maps” and “I Think I’m Paranoid” by Garbage will also be included in the game. All these four tracks will ship with the game.

Harmonix, MTV Games and EA officially announced that Rock Band will also be released on the PS2 alongside the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. They also revealed that the game will be released in Europe in early 2008, while US will get the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions this Holiday season.

Rock Band for the PS2 will feature the same content featured on its next-gen brethren, but will also debut new game elements specific for the platform. European versions of the game will also feature extensive localized music content for multiple territories, both on-disc and through downloadable content.

Additionally, ten new songs were revealed at the Games Convention, bringing the total of officially announced on-disc songs to 26. Here’s the current full track listing:

1960s
Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter”

1970s
The Who “Won’t Get Fooled Again”
Mountain “Mississippi Queen”*
David Bowie “Suffragette City”
Black Sabbath “Paranoid”*
Blue Oyster Cult “Don’t Fear the Reaper”
The Ramones “Blitzkrieg Bop”
Deep Purple “Highway Star”

1980s
Rush “Tom Sawyer”*
Bon Jovi “Wanted Dead or Alive”
The Clash “Should I Stay or Should I Go”
Faith No More “Epic”

1990s
Foo Fighters “Learn to Fly”
Metallica “Enter Sandman”
Nirvana “In Bloom”
Stone Temple Pilots “Vasoline”
Weezer “Say It Ain’t So”
Smashing Pumpkins “Cherub Rock”
Radiohead “Creep”
Beastie Boys “Sabotage”

2000s
The Hives “Main Offender”
Queens of the Stone Age “Go With the Flow”
The Strokes “Reptilia”
Jet “Are You Gonna Be My Girl”
OK Go “Here It Goes Again”
Nine Inch Nails “The Hand That Feeds”

*Indicates a cover song, all other songs are original master recordings

Citing the September issue (what?!) of GamePro magazine, Joystiq reports that Rock Band will also feature Nirvana’s “Nevermind” as a full downloadable album to rock out to. This comes after word at E3 that albums from The Who and Metallica will be released as downloadable content.

The report also states that the game will do away with fictional locales found in Harmonix’s previous series Guitar Hero. Instead it will feature 41 venues, spread out across various cities like New York, Tokyo, Paris, Amsterdam, London and more.

Joystiq also contacted Harmonix about the date provided in the magazine article - November 6. The response? “Holiday 2007.”