Next week's Rock Band Weekly brings the announced three-pack from Green Day's 21st Century Breakdown album. The tracks are apparently the first offerings from an "exclusive partnership" between Harmonix and Warner Music to bring the band's songs to the platform. Green Day isn't even the angriest band this week ...

Green Day Pack (440 / $5.50/ 200 Wii Points apiece)

• "21 Guns" (160 / $2)
• "East Jesus Nowhere" (160 / $2)
• "Know Your Enemy" (160 / $2)

Mayhem Pack (1080 / $13.50/ 200 Wii Points apiece)

• "Conquer All" -- Behemoth (160 / $2)
• "What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse" -- Black Dahlia Murder (160 / $2)
• "Hammer Smashed Face" -- Cannibal Corpse (160 / $2)
• "Empire of the Gun" -- God Forbid (160 / $2)
• "Embedded" -- Job for a Cowboy (160 / $2)
• "Disposable Teens" -- Marilyn Manson (160 / $2)
• "Black Magic" -- Slayer (160 / $2)
• "This Is Exile" -- Whitechapel (160 / $2)

All tracks are original masters and are available for download next Tuesday on Xbox 360 and Wii. They make their way over to PS3 on Thursday.

Wedbush Morgan Securities' 2009 industry report includes a list of the top thirty brands of 2008. The report notes that of the companies whose brands appear on the list, Nintendo, EA, and Activision were the only three with more than one brand to generate over $100 million at retail in the US last year.

And boy, did they. The top brand of the year, Guitar Hero -- perhaps you've heard of it -- was responsible for $992 million in US sales in 2008. The next two brands, Mario Bros. and Rock Band, generated $761 million and $662 million, respectively.

One company is notably absent from the top brands list: "Most strikingly," the report reads, "Sony had no top 30 brands for the third year in a row." Microsoft had two brands on the list (Gears of War and Fable) and Nintendo had four (Mario Bros., Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Pokémon). See the list of brands after the break.

Rock Band Wiikly's tap has flowed with massive quantities of tracks for weeks now. Sure, the releases aren't exactly synced with Rock Band Weekly, but the back catalog of Rock Band DLC is certainly being filled in. Our concern that it would take until mid-2010 for the full catalog sync is slowly dissipating. This week's update of 16 tracks to the Wii music store includes the Pearl Jam tracks from a couple weeks back, along with a whole mess of other stuff. Find the full list after the break.

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.

As part of its sponsorship of the Vans Warped Tour, Harmonix will be giving attendees a chance to play Rock Band with the actual bands performing. The strange thing about Harmonix's post about this promotion is that the developer gives the name of the bands you'll have the opportunity to play with, but not the location of the tour at that time. So, take a look at the list of bands after the break and compare them to the tour stops in your area.

Next week's Rock Band Weekly has been revealed through Harmonix's Rock Band "community zine," sent through the intertubes by email. The great thing about the zine is that it gives an idea of what tracks to expect next week. The problem is that it doesn't give prices for tracks or packs. We'd guess standard rates apply, but we can't say for sure right now. We'll update when the "official" announcement is made tomorrow and add prices.

Vans Warped Tour 3 Pack (440 / $5.50)

• "Sweet Talk" -- Dear and the Headlights (160 / $2)
• "Hey John, What's Your Name Again?" -- The Devil Wears Prada (160 / $2)
• "Image of the Invisible" -- Thrice (160 / $2)

Foreigner Pack (440 / $5.50)

• "Blue Morning, Blue Day" (160 / $2)
• "Feels Like the First Time" (160 / $2)
• "Headknocker" (160 / $2)

Individual songs

• "Weapon of Choice" -- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (160 / $2)

All tracks are likely available for download next Tuesday and Thursday on Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively.

Update: Added prices, fixed Foreigner tracks.

It looks like Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison have more to do with The Beatles: Rock Band than thrilling journalists at Microsoft's E3 media briefing. In an interview with Crispy Gamer, the game's lead designer, Chris Foster, intimated that the former Beatles, along with Ono and Harrison, have shared quite a bit of input with the team at Harmonix.

Foster calls the group "the shareholders," and states that they helped put together the song list, its venues and gave input as to whether the game's "dreamscapes" adequately supported the songs. "They looked over all the characters, the animations ... they really kept us honest on whether we were capturing the spirit of the band as they were performing, which was a huge challenge for us," says Foster, noting that it's necessary to capture the joy that The Beatles expressed when playing.

According to Foster, seeing the former Beatles and their widows at Microsoft's E3 briefing "is about as validating as everything." He adds, "They don't get together for almost anything ... it has to be something important, something they believe in."

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?

Rock Band Wiikly's main attractions this week are the geeks who became chic and the manorexic musical visionary-turned-slice-of-beefcake. Weezer, Nine Inch Nails and many other bands are added in this week's update of 16 tracks to the Wii music store. Find the full list after the break.

Individual songs (200 Wii points apiece)

• "One of THOSE Nights" -- The Cab
  
• "Hands Down" -- Dashboard Confessional
  
• "California Über Alles" -- Dead Kennedys
  
• "Holiday in Cambodia" -- Dead Kennedys
• "Police Truck" -- Dead Kennedys
• "All Right Now" -- Free
• "Burn" -- Nine Inch Nails
• "Capital G" -- Nine Inch Nails
• "Last" -- Nine Inch Nails
• "They Say" -- Scars on Broadway
• "This is it" -- Stained
• "Electric Crown" -- Testament
• "Yomp" -- thenewno2
• "Dreamin'" -- Weezer
• "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" -- Weezer
• "Troublemaker" -- Weezer

All tracks are masters and will be downloadable tomorrow, June 23.

In addition to this week's Rock Band Weekly featuring Maroon 5 and artists from the Warped Tour, those pranksters at Harmonix snuck in some Pearl Jam tracks. The three tracks were bundled with the re-release of Pearl Jam's Ten album earlier this year.

Pearl Jam Ten Bonus Pack (440 / $5.50)

• "Brother" (160 / $2)
• "Alive (Live: Drop in the Park)" (160 / $2)
• "State of Love and Trust (Live: Drop in the Park)" (160 / $2)

These master recording will be available tomorrow and Thursday on Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively.

Next week's Rock Band Weekly brings artists from the Warped Tour, an extreme-sports-meets-music thang. There are also three tracks from the Grammy Award-winning (2005 Best New Artist) Maroon 5. However, the tracks for next week are from the band's album It Won't Be Soon Before Long, which won a Grammy for "Makes Me Wonder."

Warped Tour Pack (680 / $8.50)

• "The Downfall of Us All" -- A Day to Remember (160 / $2)
• "21st Century Digital Boy" -- Bad Religion (160 / $2)
  
• "I Didn't Say I Was Powerful, I Said I Was a Wizard" -- Chiodos (160 / $2)
• "The Flood" -- Escape the Fate (160 / $2)
• "Reinventing Your Exit" -- Underoath (160 / $2)

Maroon 5 Pack (440 / $5.50)

• "Little of Your Time" (160 / $2)
• "Makes Me Wonder" (160 / $2)
• "Wake Up Call" (160 / $2)

All tracks are masters and will be available for download next Tuesday and Thursday on Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively.

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!

This week's Rock Band Wiikly brings tracks from a few artists who recently performed at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Tennessee. Keeping up with the latest tradition for Rock Band tracks released on Wii, along with the Bonnaroo songs, there's 18 more tracks that were previously released on other consoles in the mix. If Harmonix keeps up this recent pace of Wii-lease, it might have full sync across consoles by the holidays.

The Rock Band track packs have been rather unexciting for the many of us that have internet access (read: you). The previous packs compiled already-available DLC onto a single disc at a slightly discounted price making it attractive exclusively to those that -- for one reason or another -- can't buy songs from the in-game music store.

Looks like things will change for the upcoming country music Track Pack. Available July 21st on every platform, the Track Pack will offer exclusive songs that are new for the Rock Band franchise. In fact, 13 songs will be brand new, making the Track Pack a much more exciting purchase for country music-lovin' Rock Band aficionados.

The $29.99 disc will feature 21 songs from the Dixie Chicks, Keith Urban, Kenny Rogers, Shania Twain, Willie Nelson and more. You can read the entire track listing after the break.

Spinal Tap lands on Rock Band next week and will be ready to turn it up to 11. Just remember to keep an eye on your drummer -- Spinal Tap and drummers don't mix well. Next week's Rock Band Weekly also adds Evanescence. Male vocalists shouldn't even bother. Seriously, it's one thing to sing "Bring Me to Life" with the windows rolled up in your car, but it's a little different trying to do it with others around.

Spinal Tap Pack (560 / $7)

• "Back from the Dead" (160 / $2)
• "Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare" (160 / $2)
  
• "Saucy Jack" (160 / $2)
• "Warmer Than Hell" (160 / $2)

Evanescence Pack (440 / $5.50)

• "Bring Me to Life" (160 / $2)
• "Call Me When You're Sober" (160 / $2)
• "Weight of the World" (160 / $2)

All tracks are masters and will be available for download next Tuesday and Thursday on Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively.