It's very rare that we ever write about happenings in the rarely-agreed-upon realm of music -- then again, we suppose it's also pretty rare that two extremely talented musical entities collaborate on a tribute to one of gaming's most underappreciated ancillary characters: Super Mario Bros. mushroom-headed bearer of bad news, Toad. In their upcoming album, Black Pear Tree EP, the folk-rock troubadours of The Mountain Goats teamed up with renowned guitar-tapping madwoman, Kaki King, to record Thank You Mario But Our Princess Is In Another Castle.

The track, which concludes the six-song EP, is available to stream and download for free on Pitchfork. If you're a fan of the artists involved (or a staunch supporter of Mario's polka-dotted companion), it's definitely worth a listen. Even if you aren't, it'd be nice to give your ears a break from the High School Musical soundtrack you've been listening to for the past hour. That's right -- we know.

Have you been curious about what Sting would look like all wire-framey and covered in ping-pong balls ever since you heard the news that the former Police frontman would make an appearance in Guitar Hero: World Tour? Good news, our little Desert Roses -- you need not look further than a recent promo for the title which we've conveniently posted after the break. We know that you usually rest your clickin' finger during the weekend, but we assure you, making the jump is worth it -- not only do you get to see Mr. Sumner's digital manifestation in action, you also get to hear about his lack of prowess when it comes to jamming on fake plastic instruments (though we hear his tantric usage of Star Power is a breathtaking sight to behold).

Three tracks from metal band All That Remains will be next week's Rock Band DLC offering. The songs "Two Weeks" and "Chiron" are off the band's latest album, Overcome, which will release Sept. 16. The tracks are offered at a special price for now and will cost double in one month.

All That Remains Pack (240 / $3)

• "This Calling" (80 / $1)
• "Chiron" (80 / $1)
• "Two Weeks" (80 / $1)

Videos for the tracks can be found after the break. The songs will be available for download next Tuesday and Thursday for Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively.

Joining Hendrix, Ozzy and others, Sting will be walking around the virtual concert halls of Guitar Hero World Tour. According to the press release, you can play as Sting during the vocal career "or play alongside him" in the Police track, "Demolition Man." Additionally, three songs from Tool (who are not bringing their likenesses to the game) have been confirmed: Parabola, Schism, Vicarious.

We now know about 65 tracks of the reported "over 85" tracks. With about seven weeks to go before its October 26 North American launch, when do we get to learn the rest of the tracklist? More importantly, where's our virtual likeness of Lars Ulrich?

Members of the Rock Band forums are reporting issues with this week's PAX DLC for PS3 owners. According to users, the pack just won't work. Apparently, the tracks are available in the game but get stuck on the loading screen.

We've sent requests to Harmonix and Sony to clarify what the problem is and when users can expect a fix. This would be the second time in recent memory that something has gone technically wrong with Rock Band's DLC.

The Make-A-Wish foundation, in conjunction with a slew of sponsors, will be holding a Rock Band competition in Vancouver, Canada, starting Oct. 4. The $100 entry fee, along with pre-purchase tickets for the finals at the Roxy Nightclub, go straight to the Make-A-Wish foundation. The first round of the competition will be held at the EA studios located right outside of Vancouver in Burnaby. From that event, the five finalist bands from each of the four divisions will then compete at the Roxy Nightclub on November 6 for prizes.

There are four divisions for competitors to register their groups: Competitive, Social, Corporate and 18 & Under. There are currently no details about prizes, but it sounds like a cool charity event. Isn't that enough?

Richard Mitchell, master and commander over at X3F, has put together a dandy little video chronicling what Xbox 360 owners can expect during the Rock Band export process, which Harmonix fully detailed today. The video shows the relatively painless process (with Benny Hill theme music interlude) involved in the 400 ($5) 1.5GB transfer.

Harmonix just officially announced that the update allowing Rock Band songs to be transferred to Rock Band 2 has gone live. Once Rock Band 2 is released, drummers, vocalists, and plastic guitar players will be able to transfer 55 songs from the original game to the sequel for $5 (400 MS points).

55 songs? That sounds like it's missing a few tracks. The press release details -- in tiny print at the bottom -- that the missing songs are: "Enter Sandman" by Metallica, "Paranoid" by Black Sabbath (cover), "Run to the Hills" by Iron Maiden (cover) and "Monsoon" by Tokio Hotel (a DLC song from the European disc). Sorry folks, but we can probably take a guess as to why Harmonix couldn't re-license some of those tracks.

It may seem odd that we're still talking about leaking Guitar Hero World Tour tracks, especially when we've had a full set list for the competing Rock Band 2 for months now (heck, we've had the whole thing ranked by difficulty for a week). Nonetheless, four more included tracks were revealed at an Activision press conference in New Zealand. The newly revealed songs (as reported by Gamespot) are:

• "Prisoner of Society" by The Living End
• "La Bamba" by Los Lobos
• "Scream Aim Fire" by Bullet for My Valentine
• "Our Truth" by Lacuna Coil

In addition, the event revealed a Nov. 12 release date for the game in Australia. With 64 tracks already confirmed by various sources, we have to wonder when the rest of the reported "over 85" tracks will finally be revealed.

Who says you can't teach old bands new tracks? (Insert groans from audience). Activision sent word today that the Guitar Hero World Tour track list will include three classic songs that have been re-recorded just recently. First off, MC5's 40-year-old classic "Kick Out the Jams" has been "updated and modernized" by MC5's Wayne Kramer, with help from Alice in Chains' Jerry Cantrell and Guns 'N' Roses Gilby Clark. The Sex Pistols will be offering up a newly recorded version of 1969's "Pretty Vacant" and Motörhead came back to the studio to re-record their 1979 hit "Overkill" for the game.

Activision is casting these re-recorded classics as a way for fans to get "a unique experience of old yet new legendary sounds." Still, we have to wonder if the decision might have had more to do with missing or incomplete master recordings, a problem that afflicted the "Who's Next" DLC that was planned for Rock Band. Either way, it's nice to see some classic rock stars coming together to support a thoroughly modern interpretation of their songs. If only they all felt that way.

Serving as a great anecdote for the old saying, "You don't know what you got 'til it's gone," an Activision representative has confirmed that Guitar Hero: World Tour will be lacking Rock Band 2's party-friendly "No Fail" option, either as a menu option or as a cheat code. Also interesting is that you can't save your bandmates should one fail; instead, you can comparatively miss more notes than in RB and stay alive.

The lack of a "No Fail" option certainly isn't going to be a game-changer -- after all, its predecessors (including RB1) sold very well without it. And although the virtual rock elitist might scoff at the notion that it's now harder to fail songs, GH:WT does have the added bonus of presenting a detailed analysis of your performance after each song (we've placed an exemplary image after the break Update: Now it really is after the break). We'll have more on our time at PAX 2008 with the game, specifically the drums, later this week.

Aural squash annihilation news now, with Activision already promoting Guitar Hero: World Tour DLC in the form of a Smashing Pumpkins track pack. In addition to the hits "1979" and "The Everlasting Gaze," the downloadable pack will feature the exclusive debut of a new single dubbed "G.L.O.W." Unsurprisingly, you can expect the content to become available for download sometime after the game's launch later this year.

Those hoping to find lead singer Billy Corgan on the game's disc won't be disappointed either as, well, he's actually on there. Corgan will appear as an in-game and undoubtedly creepy character, singing and gyrating (probably) through the band's "Today," or whatever other career song you choose to fling at him. Be gentle.

Having just exercised our right to go broke at the Pink Godzilla mini-store on this year's PAX 2008 showfloor, we were surprised and elated to turn around and see Darth Vader and a merry band of Stormtroopers taking the stage to play Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know" on Rock Band 2, with vocals being handled by some unknown non-cosplayer. Apologies for the quality, as the moment was rather impromptu, but we had to share this with you.

We knew that as we came closer to the games' respective release dates, the feud between Harmonix/EA's Rock Band 2 and Neversoft/Activision's Guitar Hero: World Tour would reach critical mass. In the quarrel's latest smack talk salvo, Guitar Hero director Brian Bright discussed rival Harmonix's cymbal attachments for their sequel's drum kit peripheral with Eurogamer, providing some highly quotable zingers -- and buddy, we don't mean snack cakes.

Bright condemns Rock Band 2's cymbals for being "dual-mapped", meaning they'll share the functions of one of the pads of the standard kit, making the attachments somewhat unneccessary. He also dismisses them for being a panicked copycat reaction to World Tour's cymbal-equipped kit -- based on the familiar gameplay we've seen from the latest installment in the Guitar Hero franchise, we assume Neversoft would be the unparalleled experts on matters duplicative.

Rock Band is going charitable, with a special PAX Pack for next week's DLC. All three bands are performing at this weekend's Penny Arcade Expo, and all money for the tracks go towards Child's Play charity.

PAX Pack 1 (240 / $3)

• "Skullcrusher Mountain" - Jonathan Coulton
• "Livin' on the Corner of Dude and Catastrophe" - MC Frontalot
• "Shhh…." - Darkest of the Hillside Thickets

All songs are master recordings and "Shhh" is a previously unreleased track. The songs will be available for download next Tuesday and Thursday for Xbox 360 and PS3, respectively.

[Note: Image a Jonathan Coulton lyrical word cloud.]