Guitarists may get all the chicks, but some of us loudly and proudly played less popular instruments and heck, we ought to get a chance to be a hero too! While I plead with Harmonix to include the noble Euphonium in their next music game, you other band geeks can show solidarity with your instrument of choice by wearing it on your shirt. Torsopants has a crazy collection of Guitar Hero parodies for almost every musical player out there. Banjo Hero? Kazoo Hero? Didgeridoo Hero? All yours for US$19 plus shipping. [Torsopants via Boingboing]

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Any fans of Rock Band in the audience? I said, ARE THERE ANY FANS OF ROCK BAND IN THE AUDIENCE??? YEAAHHH!!!!!!! Rock Band 2 is on the way. Here are the full details, along with a picture of the new guitar.

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If the latest update over at Gamestop is correct, we have new details on Rock Band's upcoming stage kit, an easy way to bring real lights and fog to your otherwise fake performances. (Hey, I'm not bashing it. 99.9% of the population has failed at their dreams of rock stardom, including those who actually play instruments.)

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Robotics maker Mark Single hooked up a Rock Band guitar to Christmas light show software and scored 100% on Green Grass and High Tides on Expert, one of the hardest songs in the game. He's detailed how he did it so you n00bs can try your hand at it too. I've never really understood the point of modding a game to play itself, but in case you were one of the lame asses who needed to cheat to get sweet scores in Guitar Hero III and panicked at the thought of actually playing to pass songs in Rock Band, Pure Pwnage has got you covered. Though, at the end of the day, is it really worth it to get a perfect and still feel so empty? [Pure Pwnage via HacknMod]

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The days of only being able to buy Rock Band instruments in a gigantic pack are about to come to an end as the creators just announced dates and pricing on their instruments. The drums will be US$79 on February 12 and the guitar will be US$59 on April 1. The PlayStation 3 version of the guitar will work on both PS3 and PS2, and will also get the US$59 price tag. There's no announcement for the USB microphone, however, but you can rig up your own mic by using a standard USB mic or just the Xbox Live headset and a controller.

AU: Man, I'd just love it if we had a release date in Australia... Of course, I'm sure our good friends at Kotaku AU will update us when that happens.

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All the back and forth between Activision and Harmonix, it's starting to look like Poison vs. Motley Crue or Sammy Hagar vs. David Lee Roth or something. Today, Sammy (Activision) said that MTV Games/Viacom shot down a deal to use Guitar Hero's guitars with Rock Band—it wasn't just Activision throwing a bitch fit. But, since the press release (which you can check after the jump) is all about a scuttled "agreement," they're probably talking about signed papers and possibly money, which we're guessing MTV Games doesn't want to get into. We don't care about the legal wango tango, we just want a bass player on our PS3.

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The magical patch from Harmonix that was going to give Rock Band on the PS3 some sweet compatibility with Guitar Hero III's guitar has been cockblocked by Activision. It was ready to go on Dec. 4, but Activision threw its hands (and probably lawyers) up in the air, so the patch is in limbo. Harmonix, on the other hand, will provide support to any third-party developer who wants to support Rock Band's gear, which is pretty cool on their part. Check out Harmonix's whole statement after the jump.

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Not content to dominate living rooms with their upcoming Rock Band music title, Harmonix has made a Guitar Hero-esque iPod game called Phase that can take your own music and lay down a rhythm game on top. The game costs $5 and needs the iTunes 7.5 update we told you about earlier. Although you may be tempted to smash your iPod on the ground after a stunningly good set of Paint it Black, we advise you to just quietly celebrate your rock god-ness. [iLounge via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Some of you may not know about Rockband—but it's the follow up to the Guitar Hero series in which instead of only playing guitar/bass tracks, a whole band of otaku can join forces to virtually rock. MTV believes it may be the new paradigm in experiencing music, just as their own product was 20 some years ago. Here are the drums, as presented for the first time. It looks like red, yellow green and blue rims will define the various drum types in a marching band quad drums layout. So there's potential. We'll see how they play.

AU: The image actually says that this ISN'T what the drums will look like, but rather a recreation of the prototype kit the guys at Game Informer saw. -SB

Anyone who has played, or has been forced to play, Guitar Hero will be familiar with the idea of a guitar-shaped controller. If you enjoy said controller, chances are you've known for a while now that Harmonix's new game, Rock Band, is looking to up the ante by putting the player in control of a suite of instruments: guitars, bass, drums, and (perhaps unfortunately) even a microphone. Information has been released on the game's Fender Stratocasteresque guitar controller and it's looking, well, a little unusual.

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