In a little over twelve hours, I will have The Beatles: Rock Band.  I am more excited by this than I am the remastered CDs.  I'm still steamed at the underwhelming value for the dollar of the remasters.

No, I'm excited about The Beatles: Rock Band and here's why.  I will be singing with the Beatles.  Sure I've sung along with the albums for my entire life but this time it's very different.  This time when I plug in my microphone and sing along with the game, the Beatles instruments will be playing the songs.  So I will be singing with the Beatles. 

That has me jazzed.

The most wonderful woman in the world and I have been enjoying the Beatle programming on VH1 Classic tonight.  I had to tell my son that they are a Sacred Cow and that he is not allowed to sigh or comment during the wall to wall Beatles coverage which will likely continue through 09/09/09.

I then had to explain what a being a Sacred Cow means.

Now I'm the one sighing.

With Tuesday's or 09/09/09's (get it, number 9, number 9 number 9) release of the Beatles entire recorded works in remastered (but not remixed) stereo and separate (argh!!!!) mono box sets and single CD stereo releases, along with The Beatles: Rock Band video game, several media brain trusts are calling this Beatlemania Redux.  They say this is when a whole new generation of Beatle fans will be indoctrinated to Beatle Fandom.

I personally think I'd rather wait to see how it plays out before making such pronouncements.  Yes, the Stereo and Mono Box Sets are all but sold out of their first pressings at online retailers and reports that brick and mortar stores have seen their shipments both box sets number in the 3 - 5 range but I will still wait to see what really happens. 

The initial reports had the mono box set limited to 10,000 sets in the US (!?!?).  That really is undershooting demand as that is not a lot of boxes for the entire country, especially with the hype of it being the way the Beatles themselves preferred their music. 

I do think that the amount of money spent on the Beatles on that day will be huge.  I'm just not so sure it will be anyone other than us old fogies buying Beatles music all over again.

So as I said, we'll see what happens on Tuesday.  I have my Rock Band on pre-order and will pick up Rubber Soul, Revolver, the White Album and Abbey Road after work.

Here's what some well know Chicago Beatlemaniacs have to say about the remasters from the Chicago Tribune.

The CGI Beatles help normal, every day folks cross Abbey Road and play video games in this exciting new commercial for The Beatles: Rock Band.  I hope a few of them decide to pick up real instruments, as well.

With news today that Robert Zemekis is in talks to remake Yellow Submarine, I turn my attention to the upcoming Beatles remastered CDs.  The sound difference is supposed to be huge but I’ve only heard it in compressed format on the Beatles website so I’ll have to take their word for it.

The only difference between the box set and the individual CDs is the short documentaries on the CDs are collected into a DVD and they all fit into the big black box.  

I’m ticked off that the mono versions are in a separate box set.  With these things running at 30 minutes per, up until Pepper which is still under 40 min, there is no reason they can’t put stereo and mono on the same CD like the Capitol Albums.  Only the White Album and Past Masters would have to double up the number of discs because of their running times. 

So if you get the Stereo ($180 Amazon) and Mono ($240 Amazon) box sets they will set you back over $420, $350 (I calculated with the wrong price for the mono box when I originally wrote this, yikes).  And let’s see, I’ve purchased many of them more than once on vinyl, the 1987 CDs, the Capitol CDs and now they want me to buy the remasters in stereo and mono separately?  No thanks.  I’ll pick up Rubber Soul, Revolver, Abbey Road and maybe the White album.  Then I’ll maybe wait for the inevitable triple or quadruple dip where the stereo and monos will be packaged together.

The individual CDs look to be going for $12.99 for single and $16.99 for the doubles.  We’ll see what they are in brick and mortar shops come September 9th.

The big news yesterday was that The Beatles Rockband trailer hit the E3 Expo in LA.  Paulie, Ringo, Yoko and Olivia were on hand.  Partial tracklist featured in the trailer is

• I Saw Her Standing There
• I Want to Hold Your Hand
• I Feel Fine
• Day Tripper
• Taxman
• I Am The Walrus
• Back In The U.S.S.R.
• Octopus’s Garden
• Here Comes The Sun
• Get Back

There have been videos around the web of people playing the Beatles instruments and there has been confirmation that three part harmonies possible.

This game just looks great.

This evening the Mrs and I kicked off Mother's Day weekend by taking in the Classic Albums episode exploring John Lennon's Plastic Ono Band album.  If you are not familiar with the Classic Albums series, they cover albums with their creators and give insight into the recording and writing of the songs.  They often give the viewer isolated track playback of the master tapes.

The Plastic Ono Band edition is probably one of the best.  Even though John joins us via recorded interview dating back as far as 1970, the documentary features then current interviews with Yoko, Ringo, Klaus Voorman, Dr. Arthur Janov and various EMI recording engineers nvolved in the making of the album.  The insight from all involved is wonderful.

The music discussed starts with John's Live Peace in Toronto concert, Instant Karma and then the POB album itself.  The hour running time on the televised feels terribly abbreviated.  The DVD version features 52 minutes of documentary and 35 minutes of "outtakes".  It really should be seen in its full glory.

If you have not seen this documentary, it is available for purchase or from Netflix.  Get it today.

Paul McCartney played at Coachella this past weekend in California.  Two things of note occurred over the weekend that bear mentioning.

The first is Paulie used footage from the upcoming Beatles Rock Band video game as the backdrop video during the performance of Got To Get You Into My Life.

Next is that Paulie's set ran over the 12:00 cutoff by about 55 minutes.  Based on Coachella's agreement with the local authorities, that's $55,000 in fines.  He was allowed to finish his set.  The Cure found themselves in a similar situation Sunday night and ran over by about 30 minutes.  They had the plug pulled, though, and walked off the stage in befuddlement.  Unfortunately for Robert Smith, he was not in the Beatles.

The Beatles mad a big splash today by announcing that they will be releasing remastered versions of their albums in stereo and mono on 09/09/09.  Get it?

This is really great news but with a caveat.  For those of us who purchased them the first time in 1987, then purchased volume one and two of the Capital Albums are now faced with the prospects of purchasing them again, possibly twice more.  The stereo albums will be released individually and in a box set with the mono versions in a box set only.  They look to be nice discs with new liner notes, photos and a video file with the making of each album embedded in the CD or on a DVD if you pick up teh box set.

It really is worth picking up at least one of the two but completists will want both.  No word on what it will cost.  And don't forget, Rock Band:The Beatles comes out that same day.

More details here.

Number 9, Number 9, Number 9, Number 9, Number 9...

The first official news about the Beatles Rock Band video game came out today.  The most important news is the release date of 09/09/09.  Figures... Number 9, Number 9, Number 9. 

Other important info I received in an email from TheBeatles.com