So we announced a while back that we were partnering with a Rock Band Network authoring company called Kario Charts to bring fresh Anarchy Club to RBN. I’m here today to tell you that we’ve pulled the plug on this sad, sad episode. Turns out these guys are an “authoring company” the same way I am the emperor of the planet Xirxon. (Hint: I am not the emperor of the planet Xirxon.)
I’ve decided not to post my correspondence with these guys. That would be mean. I’ll hold my fire.
Anybody who was waiting on new Anarchy Club in RBN (and I know there were more than a few of you), hang in there. We have to start over.
Dethklok said it best: sometimes one must PULL THE PLUG, PULL THE PLUG…
Anarchy Club 
38 Comments
DAMMIT!!
This is the saddest thing I’ve heard all year.
I don’t want to live on this planet anymore… is planet Xirxon nice?
seriously though… owch… you should check the RBN forum, there is a lot of very willing REAL authoring groups that hang out there…
you’re right, but the catch is that we’d already done contracts with them and Harmonix/MTV. So those two songs are lost.
Damn. Well, this opens up some opportunities. How about something from The Way and its Power. Hidden by Blue, maybe?
Oh, and please, A Single Drop of Red.
If it were up to us, we’d throw the whole album up there! (Even the skits…)
But the catch is that these companies cost money to do the authoring. It ain’t cheap and we ain’t rich. For now we’re just focused on recording the new album, and maybe someday we’ll make another run at RBN.
I don’t want to be too presumptuous… but I think that if you asked for some funding from the fans that hang out here, you’d get it.
I know I’d be willing to chip in… I mean I donated $100 buying fraking peanuts to save Jericho… and donated a sum of cash to Pioneer One.. this cause is just… I see no reason not to support it.
Very interesting. We were already thinking hard about a possible kickstarter campaign to press the new album. Stay tuned…
(P.S. My former college girlfriend was one of the writers on Jericho. Random!)
I’m sorry to hear. I had been waiting for more Anarchy Club in Rock Band for a while, but hopefully you guys will be able to find an authoring group in the future to do you and the fans justice (read: one that will actually author and release the tracks).
I’m curious, though, since you mentioned that “those two songs are lost,” what does this mean for the mysterious reworked versions of “Behind the Mask” and “Collide” that were rumored to also be in the RBN pipeline?
Ah, the mysterious reworks. Even though they were on the table, I never signed any paperwork for those, because I wanted to see how the other two songs went first. Whew! Finally, I did something smart!
The big issue is that Behind The Mask is from the very beginning of the whole Guitar Hero/Rock Band era. (It was in the very first such game, in fact.) And at that time, you only had a single guitar track to play. For RBN, there would be drums, bass, guitar, and singing, and to be honest, we feel there’s not a lot going on in the song to keep all those parts interesting. (For example, the drums, while testicle-kicking, are pretty repetitive on the verses, same for the bass.) So we’ve been going back and forth for a long time about whether to “enhance” the song for RBN. That’s what the rework would be — finding ways to make playing the song in RBN more engaging.
So I’ve been meaning to put this question to everybody: if Behind The Mask showed up in RBN, but with a new guitar solo on the bridge and a lot more going on in the music, would that be sacrilege? Would you all freak out? I know people have strong emotions about that song…
While Behind the Mask served as my introduction to Anarchy Club’s music from way back in Guitar Hero, I don’t think that a tasteful reworking would do any harm. I’ve got good faith that the general vibe would remain intact, and the new parts could be neat but tricky surprises for Guitar Hero veterans on their first few runs.
That’s pretty cool… it was easily one of my favorite shows ever and it’s too bad CBS is just as stupid and out of touch with how people watch shows now as the other stations… relying on the “Nielsen” system is not working anymore and only good shows take the hits… did you get any inside info on what they wanted to do that never got done? I heard rumors about them visiting all the other hot-cities…
Fund Raising is pretty easy, it’s how I make a living now… Krispy Kream coupon cards bought for $6 and sold for 12 or (10 on ebay, for some reason no one buys them on ebay at 12) lol
anyway, point is, I’m pretty sure since we were all going to buy the songs anyway, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that we’d be willing to help get them into the game… just plain logic right there…
hell, throw a little extra incentive up for the high-donations (see Pioneer One’s list for examples though it has gotten smaller since they are no longer taking multiple hundreds or thousands of dollars at a time) and you’ll probably do even better… people are suckers for swag lol
Damn, Krispy Kreme coupons… that sounds like a hard-ass way to make a living!
I work for TAG another authoring group. We’d love to work with you guys. I also don’t think the two songs are lost the HMX contract isn’t it important and depending on the language of the other you may be able to get out of it. I realize you may be hesitant to jump right back in but we also don’t require payment, we normally do profit sharing so you wouldn’t have upfront costs. If you’re interested please feel free to email me at the address I provided to make this post and we can discuss specifics.
Best of luck,
Nick
I will email you.
Are you sure you can’t get out of the contract? Kario doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy to hold songs hostage like that. It’s kind of a running joke that Kario Charts takes forever to get stuff done, if you explain that they’re taking too long and you’d like to try your luck elsewhere maybe they’d understand.
And as for Harmonix and MTV Games, the RBN system doesn’t really involve a binding or exclusive contract with them at all (and MTV Games isn’t even in the picture at all anymore).
Yeah, I’m sure he’s a sweet, wonderful guy. Doesn’t change the fact that he shouldn’t be doing business if he can’t follow through.
Oh I agree, and I’m not trying to defend him, I’m just saying (with some knowledge of the RBN process and Kario) that I doubt that those two songs are necessarily “dead”.
My sarcasm was getting a little out of hand there. I don’t want to be a dick — but if you saw the complete email chain between me and him (them) over the past year, you’d understand.
I have a plan for those two songs. This little tempest-in-a-teacup may ultimately be a good thing for the band in the long run. I’m more determined than ever to get our stuff into RBN, come hell or high water.
if it helps, many authoring companies will author the song for a revenue share split instead of any upfront fees involved. Some even go as low as they’d keep 5%, you’d keep the rest. If it’s the upfront authoring fees that are too expensive, talk to groups like fairwood studios, or ThatAuthoringGroup.
Yep, these are all true facts.
I hate to battle the other teams to pick anyone up, but… we do authoring too, and we’re not idiots! So we have that going for us.
Who the fuck is “Kario Charts”?
Exactly.
At least we know they aren’t an authoring company.
Kickstarter… I’ve not heard of them before today but hell, i’d pre-order a copy of the next album even if it’s not been recorded yet!
(With the obvious exception of any album that has Lou Reed as a guest vocalist, I mean really…)
When I die and go to hell, I’ll be stuck in an elevator for all of eternity, with the Lulu album playing from the ceiling on an endless loop
“those two songs are lost” I suppose means that we will never see any of those two tracks (Rise And Shine and Riddle Me This(?)) on RBN other than the two posted videos. This, just about these songs, saddens me thinking bout how long I have been waiting to play Rise And Shine, especially as it is one of your bests song (well, not that you got any bad anyways…)
Anyway, I sure hope that you find a good author group, I’d like to see ALL your tracks in there!
And about a reworked version of Behind The Mask; I’d love to see that, it might very well be my most played song on Guitar Hero (and maybe even on real guitar being the second song i learned) and as long as you don’t mess it up totally (doubt it) it’d be a awesome adition!
Since this post seems to have generated a fair bit of notice on some message boards, a number of authoring companies have reached out to us this morning. So everybody hang on — looks like we will get our second wind on RBN in 2012!
i’m a saddend by the lack of response from Kario Charts. I hope you guys get in Rock Band soon. I havent heard any material, im pretty sure it’s quite badass!
~ASPMike
I’m not usually one to swear, but in this case… Fuck Yeah!
As for a reworked version of a classic AC track, I have to disagree with the other comments here about adding extra bits into a song. I might be in the minority but it would just feel wrong to me to be playing a song i know that unexpectedly has an extra bit in it.
I’ve lost count of the amount of times i’ve seen people leave a dancefloor once they’re aware it’s a re-mix of a well loved tune, and not the original version.
I’d prefer a new / previously unrockbanded song (or three).
Can’t wait for this!!!
I promise not to put a boom-chick-boom-chick beat underneath everything…
I’ll accept that if you also promise to stab Lou Reed if he lays a finger on the remixing process…
Yea, but I’m a stay at home father and husband 90% of the time. so it’s the only thing I have time for. it’s not the ONLY thing I sell, it’s just one of the more profitable ones… surprisingly… I’m more of a Dunkin Donuts guy…
it is REALLY nice to see all these RBN authors posting here. it’s even nicer to see songs getting worked on! I am sorry I haven’t been on for a while, busy couple of weeks…
Hello, this is Jerry from Kario Charts. Kris and I never meant for any of this to happen. We had every intention of releasing the songs. Both songs were fully charted and were just waiting for play testing and release. We were just a couple of dudes who just wanted to bring more music to Rock Band.
Sorry for not being funded by anyone and being completely independent and not paying people to play test our work..
I was feeling sympathetic until that last sentence.
You guys are _running a business_. You’ve been entrusted with the life’s work of all these bands. Your company isn’t up to the task. Finding that out slowly, month after month after month, was incredibly frustrating. I’m sure the many other bands on your roster are also wondering what’s going on.
Noble intentions aside, if you can’t do the job, don’t advertise that you can. Simple, really.
I know you’re probably good guys who just got in over your heads, and I consider this chapter closed. I hope all of us, Kario Charts and Anarchy Club, find good things in our futures.
End of transmission.
– A
I think you’re having difficulty understanding what I have been telling you.
Again, the songs were completely finished. They have been finished for them months you’ve been waiting. Hell I charted the drums.
Anyway, I know you guys must have been angry and whatnot but so were we. We did our part of the deal. The songs were in play testing forever.
The play testing process with RBN is a complete fucking joke. Kario Charts may be pretty much dead but deals are still being made. I like the idea of an Indie game through Xbox Live. But who knows what the future holds.
It was a fun experience, I have no hard feelings towards anyone or anything with this. I will purchase Anarchy Club songs if they are ever released via RBN or official Rock Band DLC.
Later, Jerry M.
What you’re saying contradicts a long email exchange between myself and Kris. Complain about the RBN process if you want, but the problem was Kario Charts. (For example, why are you still “making deals” if the company is “pretty much dead”? What could possibly go wrong with that…) I don’t want hard feelings either, so it’s important to keep it real.
I am glad you are still down with us — your positivity speaks well of you.
A learning experience for all.