The Official Harmonix Podcast

The full team is finally back from travelling literally around the world. We get an incredible travel recap from John Drake, our own resident Amelia Earhart, who trekked across Asia peddling Dance Central 3, while Annette, Nick, and Jessa did the same in Europe. The rest of us stayed home sick. We also have a slew of really big deal announcements to discuss, so you’ll find that this podcast actually has some real content! Wait wait… have fun.

The gang is back from a super successful PAX Prime in Seattle, although none of them have gotten any rest yet. So sit back and marvel at these insane maniacs shout about all the crazy things they did at this year's PAXtravaganza!

With the release of our newest game, Rock Band Blitz, (coming next week - 8/28 PSN, 8/29 XBLA) this podcast is spent chatting with the game’s Project Director Matthew Nordhaus. The crew gets deep into some Rock Band Blitz play strategies, as well as discussing in depth a lot of the finer points of the game’s mechanics, as well as our brand new Facebook companion app, Rock Band World. This is probably one of the most information-soaked episodes, so listen closely, you won’t want to miss anything!

This week we discuss our favorite music movies. What is a music movie you ask? Documentaries, concert films, musicals, Muppet movies, movies with amazing soundtracks... basically anything goes. What are your top five favorite music movies?

Fans of fun will like this one. On our show this week is one of our Senior Sound Designers, Izzy Maxwell, who’s been in a ton of bands, including Death of the Cool, Count Zero, Plushgun, Anarchy Club, and Dr. Frog. He’s got a Death of the Cool song coming to Rock Band Network, so we thought it would be cool to have Izzy come on and talk about that, and regale us with stories of rock n’ roll, and the fine art of digestive system songwriting. We also take a trip down memory lane and chat about our first gaming experiences.

This week we’re talking about FIRSTS. First album and first concert. When you think about it, one’s first album (record, tape, CD, etc.) purchase can be a real signifier of things to come. It can also show us how much we’ve changed since we were kids. First concerts are an extension of that. More often than not, though, both leave most of us with a permanent, formative memory that lead us down our own individual paths of one of life’s most enjoyable experiences: music discovery.

Uh-DUH. This week the gang gets together to share their top 5 favorite frontpersons. That is, someone at the front of a band. It gets contentious right from the get-go, as it turns out we all have different opinions on what makes a frontman or woman. If you like hostile discussions about music, this is the podcast for you!!

You know how sometimes you stay up really late too many days in a row, and become a raving lunatic? That’s sort of what’s going on with the gang in this week’s episode. Fresh from our successful week on the road at E3, the team settles in for a loud, raunchy discussion of how the week went for everyone. Turns out we announced a brand new game, Dance Central 3, at the Microsoft press conference! In case you missed it, listen up for a full run down of the new game’s crazy feature set!

Sure, it’s not technically summer yet, but don’t tell that to climate change! It’s warm and sunny here in Boston, so we thought we’d kick the season off right by chatting about our favorite Summer Jams! A Summer Jam, if you’re unfamiliar, is a special designation for qualified songs. When asked for a definition, the curator of the International Museum of Summer Jams, Ryan Davis, responded: “The definition is too nebulous. It's like pornography, I know it when I see it.”

Our pal Sean (aka Dr. Sports) has been back for a while now, but in this episode we finally chat with him about where he’s been all this time. It’s a fascinating talk about overcoming serious medical roadblocks, rehabilitation, and Shaquille O’Neal. We also have a great discussion of upcoming DLC and an exclusive Rock Band Blitz reveal!

Jobs are a hot button issue these days, and as we are always on the bleeding edge of current events in our podcast, this is our subject today. We’ve got our resident jobs guru, Emily Gabrian, sitting in with us to talk about the current openings here at Harmonix, as well as best practices for those out there looking to get into the games industry.

Over the PAX East sickening and post-show laryngitis, we are BACK and ready to CHAT. About nonsense. Well, we recap our experiences at PAX East first, then delve into serious discussion about Pulp Fiction and Rock N' Roll trading cards from the early '90s! Shout outs and salutations are given to some of the fans who stopped by our PAX booth- could it be you?!? Serious thanks to all of you who made our show a huge, fun success. We have the best fans in the business, and you guys remind us of that every time you come out.

The Good Time Charlies at Harmonix have been producing a regular podcast for years now, dishing the latest Rock Band, Dance Central and Harmonix news, mixed with a healthy dose of irreverent banter. For the first time ever, we bring it to you recorded LIVE at PAX East. This show is chock full of special guests to boot, enjoy the show! Explicit Content Warning: this show contains some salty language.

This week we welcome Len Peralta to talk about the awesome portrait he made of our very own Alex Rigopulos for his Legends of Video Games in the Geek of the Week portrait series. Len chats with us about how he manages to churn out the awesome portraits each week and gives us the scoop on how he nabs interviews from across the geek spectrum.

Metal themed show alert! We've got a good one for you this week. Special guests Jason Kendall and Sean Baptiste visit us this week for a raucous round table discussion of everyone's top 5 favorite Metal albums.