Hey Rocksmith fans!
August brought a whoppin’ ten songs from Rick Derringer (incluing Real American!) that are phenomenal on lead and bass, a special content drop of five Hail the Sun songs that the same goes for, a handful of Tom Baxter (four lead/three bass), three songs each for rappers Nas and Too $hort, and then a few charts for a couple of songs from a number of assorted artists: Alice Cooper, Alicia Keys, Cocteau Twins, DJ Quik, Echo and the Bunnymen, New Order, Paul Gilbert, and Play Dead. And of course, there’s always a number of other random songs, I’ll do my best to mention anything that might slip under the radar.
BASS
If you played bass on Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo in 2014, you know how fantastic the bass parts to Rick Derringer songs can be – if not, hey, it’s already in Rocksmith+ too! All of the songs added this patch are great times on bass, with the majority having no downtime as they move from fantastic riff to riff often tied together with fills of some kind.
Also in classic rock, both No More Mr. Nice Guy Live by Alice Cooper and his version of I Got a Line on You by Spirit (also already in the game, though not available everyone his version is – licensing is weird!) are enjoyable, the former moreso than the latter. In other rock offerings, Get It by Paul Gilbert has a driving bass full of fun fills and movement, while additions from Japanese bands Freedom by FLOW and Seven Deadly Sins by MAN WITH A MISSION each have some great bits, the latter including pop and slap.
The Hail the Sun special content drop might not be the one you’re waiting for, but it’s certainly worth looking at. All of them are pretty weird in fun ways, with Mind Reader probably being the most weird among weird with pop and slap riffs and chords.
The Tom Baxter songs are all lower energy songs focused on acoustic guitar, but honestly the bass parts on songs that have them are all fun, probably more than said focus.
Death metal doesn’t always have involved bass parts, often it can fall into ‘just very fast root notes or long sustains,’ but this patch has a good handful of ones that aren’t just that. Intoxicated by Obituary is the most fun among themI feel, switching death metal riff to death metal riff without getting stuck in anything. The Fire Still Burns by Cradle of Filth and Empty Words Live by Death get stuck in fast root notes or sustains a bit more at times, but certainly offer enough fun elsewhere that I recommend them as well.
Country can ALSO often be boring with very slow sustains, but a number added in this patch are quite fun and worth checking out. Take Me Away by Morgan Wade is a lot of slow fun – once it gets started it never stops, while Mr. Guitar by Chet Atkins, c.g.p., and Tommy Emmanuel offers quite a fun bass part that thankfully doesn’t melt your face anywhere as much as lead and Who Says Whiskey is Meant to Drink a Woman Away by Jake Owen is also fun if you can stomach the lyrics.
In new wave, both Sideways Eight and Parthenon Drive from Echo and the Bunnymen have fun bass parts made of a few simpler mod rock riffs, and Shine and Gaze by Play Dead are are just as fun but a bit weirder charts leaning towards gothic rock. Finally, the live version of Blue Monday by New Order added plays nothing like what you might expect, but that also makes it actually pretty fun.
In R&B/Funk/Soul, Dragon Days by Alicia Keys has a great driving line that adds fills when it needs to, while DJ Quik’s Quik’z Groove II is II fun grooves II groove II.
And as always, there’s some stuff worth checking out spread throughout various genre this patch. In blues, I Got Some Help (I Don’t Really Need) (a/k/a Outside Help) Live by B.B. King has a consistently fun and varied chart, and jazz has George Benson’s cover of White Rabbit which take a bit to build up but never takes a break when it gets going. While I felt the many of the Script offerings we got last patch were middling, Anybody There is a fun build-up unexpectedly in C# Standard. And in weirder, more niche genres, Evangeline by the Cocteau Twins is a good shoegaze bassline, while Cuca keeps doing their alternative metal thing in Cara de Pizza. And in Latin subgenres, No Se Ha Dado Cuenta by Grupo Fiesta is fun even if it’s charted a bit different than how similar rhythms usually are.
And in pop punk, Emily by Bowling for Soup is a fun offering, with riffs reminiscent of Green Day or some of the stronger blink-182 basslines, worth a poke for anyone. Told ya I’d mention them when I felt it was appropriate! Hopefully we have more like this in the songs still to go.
LEAD
Folks might not know how great Rick Derringer’s offerings are offhand. Even outside of Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo (already available in RS+) and Real American (now available and quite fun), you might know him through his collabs with Johnny Winter, or more famously his brother Edgar Winter, including playing on the hits Frankenstein and Free Ride (a few Edgar Winter songs got added to the library with this new batch of Derringer, hopefully we see charts and we see more in time!). And while all of the songs are at least pretty fun, they’re all quite different from one another as well and teach a variety of techniques – Rock is a spacey number, Sittin’ by the Pool has two fun leads – one in Double Drop D, the other in E Standard (and uncharted slide guitar that would also be fun), and his solo version of Still Alive and Well is that eighties kind of blues rock that even has a sax solo. I gotta shout out my personal fave, Beyond the Universe, which feels like a mix of Black Sabbath and psychobilly, I think it’s as weird and fun as that sounds. For sure check out any offerings that catch your ear as a rock guitarist, I think there’ll be something to learn from any of ‘em.
Other rock offerings include No More Mr. Nice Guy Live and I Got a Line on You by Alice Cooper, which are both fun even if the former seems to follow a different guitar than one might be used to in 2014’s chart. Gilberto Concerto by Paul Gilbert is the virtuoso playing neo-classical guitar for eight minutes, which if that sounds like fun to me like it does to me, it probably is.
In prog-adjacent offerings – something you might notice is often missing from these write-ups outside of its not-so-distant cousin jazz fusion – the Hail the Sun special content drop brings scaling riffs and unique chords that’ll twist your fingers something fierce, with all songs not only being blasts but having two different lead charts as well. While they’re all worth checking out, I do feel Chunker is the exemplar of the pack to me, particularly because of its fun tapping part.
Speaking of jazz fusion, Semente by Snarky Puppy is a seven minute alt-charting of instrument to instrument that’s a real blast, including I think even some real guitar in there! In less fused jazz, La Fiesta Live by Joanne Brackeen and One Note Samba by Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra are equally fun alt-charts of purely horns, the former running almost nine minutes.
New wave sees Fascination Street Live by the Cure, which is a fun assortment of Cure riffs that don’t overstay their welcome, and Sideways Eight by Echo and the Bunnymen which similarly is a mix of fun leads. The crown jewel for the genre this patch though is This is the Day by The The, a song in Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and seeing a resurgence on classic rock radio as a result, which is superfun and diverse while staying on the simpler side of proficiency required.
In R&B/Funk/Soul, Alicia Keys brings two surprisingly fun leads – Butterflyz has a fun arpeggio rhythm with flamenco fills over it, while Dragon Days has a great sound and funky riffs whenever guitar is involved. In death metal, The Fire Still Burns by Cradle of Filth has all the fun parts of death metal guitar, and kindly switches to a clean tone during the piano break so you can widdly over it without crushing distortion too. Two Fingers of Whiskery by Jack White and Elton John is an unlikely pairing that ends up pretty fun. Finally, rap rarely shows up in these reccs due to the oft-repetitive nature of sample, but City of Dope by Too $hort has a live funk style melody part that stays in a scale but plays around with it every few bars.
OTHER NOTABLE RELEASES AND WILDCARDS
Three songs from Nas! These songs have a great sound but as one might expect from rap they get a bit repetitive playing along with the samples.
Right Here, Right Now by Fatboy Slim got an authentic bass part. Similarly as you might expect, just a bit repetitive playing the sample.
We Have a Technical Live by Gary Numan builds on his offerings in the library, but it’s eight minutes and gets stuck droning G for too much of both paths.
Disorder Live by Joy Division got authentic bass and lead and Elegia by New Order got alt lead to go with its verified community lead, all of these are good offerings if you like the sound.
Love Like Blood Live by Killing Joke falls into the same category.
54-46 Was My Number by Toots and the Maytals is an awesome, iconic reggae song to see in the library, but as one might expect both the lead and bass are mostly a single riff, though liking the song myself I certainly find it fun to get lost in.
Building towards the anniversary! And we had that teaser of a big update ‘soon!’ We’ll see if we know any more what that’s about next time we meet.
