PixelVixen707

Amidst the hurrah over the toy drum kit and the karaoke mic and the setlist, Rock Band slips a subversive feature under the noses of every young boy who got it for Christmas: it makes you play with girls. Try the solo tour or the Quickplay, and check out your backing band: odds are one, even two women will back you on the stage. They’re rocking big hair and leather jackets, or schoolgirl skirts and purple streaked bangs - but however they dressed, they’re ready to kill it. Are you?

Much as I loved the boy-centric, lunkheaded brute-rock of Guitar Hero II - I played Johnny Napalm, not Judy Nails - I’ve come to love Rock Band more, for its gauzy inclusiveness: you’ll get none of the caged dancers and cheesy cheesecake of Guitar Hero III. Of course, Guitar Hero has long had a reputation as a boy game. Even sex-blog-gal Bonnie Ruberg - loves ya, Bonnie - fell into the trap of thinking girls don’t play Guitar Hero - because girls don’t like guitar.

First off: Marnie Stern. Bonnie Raitt. Kaki King. Kristin Hersh. Mary Halvorson. Susan Tedeschi. Charlotte Hatherley. P. J. frakking Harvey. An all-girls mix for Rock Band would start with the Donnas and end with Sleater-Kinney and it would shear your ears from your head and make you scream, “Yes, ma’am.” Sorry, boys: the electric guitar is about so much more than your penis.