Chicks Don’t Even Know the Name of My Band

Rockband.com (warning: music) updated with some ridiculous new features. Read bits of info about the songs (well, some of them anyway). Have a really expensive action figure made of your character. Best of all, make free digital pictures of your bands and bandmates. As you can imagine, this last feature is getting hosed by thousands of users making thousands of free pictures. But after a few days I’ve amassed enough to make this post, which I wrote a little bit ago but didn’t have the images to really spice it up.

Band names are unique because they get posted on online leaderboards. There is also a very strict censoring system so anything that any loaded word could be rejected (like for example, Bruce Dickinson). Originally I wanted something for hardcore gamers. I was inspired when I heard a game magazine’s review band was called “Dogs of the AMS,” which I recognized from a random line of dialog from House of the Dead 2. For some reason I wanted something related to the cult series Shenmue. I toyed around with naming my band the Chiyoumen (the secret organization of bad guys), or the Mad Angels (a gang of foreigners terrorizing the docks). I decided it was too obscure though, so I instead tried to think of something humorous and understandable by a majority of the rock band-playing population. So, behold my band:

Band with the Runs!

{Click for giant version.}

Our motto is “Live and let fly.”

And this is our logo.

RB2 has a new feature where I can choose who fills in the positions I’m not playing in my band with my stock of characters . So for the first time, all of my RB1 characters appear together on stage while I play as one or two of them. Introducing:

Osteon: My first RB1 character, though back then he was named Guitaroo-Chan (a riff on the old rhythm game Guitaroo-Man (what’s with me and obscure game references?!)). He is my guitarist. He has a bone theme going for him, of course.

ZOMGoth (pronounced Zoh My Goth): My other guitarist, made for online playing. She now plays bass for the band.

K: A temporary name until I can think of something better. In RB1 he was originally named Keith-on-da-Mic, then K-on-da-Mic, then his name changed to match whatever costume he was wearing. Last time he was seen in RB1, he was “Ringmaster 9000,” so imagine that get-up. For a while in RB2 he is wearing the expert vocalist costume (far below, looks like a deer), which I hear is inspired by black metal (believe it or not, not my scene). For now he’s dressed plain like me… an athletic, chiseled me (above).

Keeley Walker: A college student by day, vigilante by night, and drummer… in between. For those who care, no her RB2 appearance is not canon. Neither are her stints in the Smackdown! vs. Raw, City of Heroes, and Tony Hawk games.

{Everyone wearing their respective impossible costumes. Click for giant version.}

I have another band to show off, but I’ll do that another time. They’re uncannily astonishing though.