Thanks for the mini-reviews of the Rock Band songs, Adam. I went ahead and picked up the Rise Against, Rancid, and Weezer packs. I play guitar for the most part, but I've finally broken several skill barriers on the drums, thus allowing me to finish most of the songs on expert. Maybe not well, but it's passing. Anyway, haven't tried them on drums yet, but I'll take your word for it that they're fun.

Speaking of music, let's talk about Weezer for a second. For reasons unknown to me, I still visit punknews.org on a daily basis. Sure, I've outgrown 99.9% of new punk music, but I still check in. Today, there's a blurb about Weezer unveiling three new songs during a recent live show in South Korea. "Okay," I think. "That's kind of cool." And then I read the titles of these tracks: "I'm Your Daddy," "The Girl Got Hot," and "Can't Stop Partying." Then I listen to the YouTube videos of the songs and turn them off before making it halfway through each song. It's just awful. So what the hell happened to Weezer? Playing Weezer's back catalog on Rock Band reminded me how good the Blue Album and Pinkerton are. Even the Green Album is a strong offering, compared to these songs. Does Rivers Cuomo think he's still a teenager? Is he stuck in some bizarre time-warp where, to himself, he doesn't age but, to everyone else, he does? Honestly, the only explanation that would make me happy is if these three songs are part of an upcoming concept album poking fun of a band who can't grow up. But something tells me they're not that clever. They're still hungover from all the partying. (Really?)