The Return of Chinokk

Fellow cake-lovin' fat kid Bobby's comment about "Cowboys from Hell" being "so goddamn beautiful" (he's right) just reminded me that Guitar Hero II will be released in less than three weeks, and the track listing's already out.

For those of you who don't know, Bobby and his girlfriend crashed with me for a couple of days this past spring, and the three of us unlocked every song on the original Guitar Hero on an evening fueled by pizza, brownies and cans of Squirt. As you can probably surmise, we're both now diabetics but nonetheless stoked about the sequel's release. I've already agreed to ship a copy over to him in Taiwan.

Anyway, I wanna talk for a minute about the tracklisting, according to Wikipedia. Here it is, in case you have something against clicking on links:

1. Opening Licks

• Mötley Crüe - "Shout at the Devil"
• Danzig - "Mother"
• Cheap Trick - "Surrender"
• Wolfmother - "Woman"
• Spinal Tap - "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight"

2. Amp-Warmers

• KISS - "Strutter"
• Nirvana - "Heart-Shaped Box"
• The Police - "Message in a Bottle"
• Van Halen - "You Really Got Me"
• Kansas - "Carry On Wayward Son"

3. String-Snappers

• Foo Fighters - "Monkey Wrench"
• Alice in Chains - "Them Bones"
• Iggy Pop and The Stooges - "Search and Destroy"
• The Pretenders - "Tattooed Love Boys"
• Black Sabbath - "War Pigs"

4. Thrash and Burn

• Warrant - "Cherry Pie"
• Butthole Surfers - "Who Was in My Room Last Night?"
• Matthew Sweet - "Girlfriend"
• The Rolling Stones - "Can't You Hear Me Knocking"
• Guns N' Roses - "Sweet Child O' Mine"

5. Return of the Shred

• Rage Against the Machine - "Killing in the Name"
• Primus - "John the Fisherman"
• The Sword - "Freya"
• Thin Lizzy - "Bad Reputation"
• Aerosmith - "Last Child"

6. Relentless Riffs

• Heart - "Crazy on You"
• Stone Temple Pilots - "Trippin' On a Hole in a Paper Heart"
• Stray Cats - "Rock This Town"
• The Allman Brothers Band - "Jessica"
• Jane's Addiction - "Stop!"

7. Furious Fretwork

• Anthrax - "Madhouse"
• The Living End - "Carry Me Home"
• Lamb of God - "Laid to Rest"
• The Reverend Horton Heat - "Psychobilly Freakout"
• Rush - "YYZ"

8. Face-Melters

• Avenged Sevenfold - "Beast and the Harlot"
• Suicidal Tendencies - "Institutionalized"
• Dick Dale - "Misirlou"
• Megadeth - "Hangar 18"
• Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Free Bird"

Aside from the obvious mullet-metal goodness, I'm really looking forward to the Stooges' "Search and Destroy." The first time I heard that song was in 1992, when Nike used a Red Hot Chili Peppers' cover version for one mighty badass Barcelona Olympics commercial, and it's been inspiring me to break shit ever since.

Iggy Pop & the Stooges - Search and Destroy
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Search and Destroy (from The Beavis and Butthead Experience. Who knew, right?)

On a more somber note, I can already foresee "Institutionalized" as being "Cowboys from Hell, Pt. 2." I mean, have you heard that song? It's going to suck ass!

Random Fact: soulwhatisitworth was thisclose to being a video game blog. It probably would've gone by a different name, though. Like "donkeypunch kong" or something of that nature.