Can’t talk. Too busy playing Guitar Hero III.

(several failed attempts at Slayer’s “Raining Blood” on Easy difficulty later…)

The Guitar Hero series trends heavily towards a mix of classic rock and 80s metal/hard rock standards. There’s a sprinkling of 90s alt-rock singles and present-day hits as well, but generally it’s the broad crowd-pleasers that get centre stage. It’s kinda hard to argue with this logic—one go-through of Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” or “Paint it Black” by the Stones should put a smile on most people’s faces—but it does mean surprises are few and far between. But Harmonix, and now Neversoft with the third iteration of the game, have thrown wildcards into the rhythm game’s repertoire. For example, Harmonix are big fans of synthpop band Freezepop, as they’ve thrown the band into Frequency, Amplitude, and the first two Guitar Hero games. The last part is especially notable, considering Freezepop doesn’t use guitars—or any traditional instruments, for that matter. It turns out that one of Freezepop’s members is also the music director for Harmonix; this also explains how Freezepop songs get into the games before they appear on an album.

Slightly less bizarre but perhaps more exciting is the inclusion of a Sonic Youth song in the latest Guitar Hero game. Sure, “Kool Thing” is about as close to a hit as anything Sonic Youth has done, and it does feature Chuck D’s memorable interlude with Kim Gordon. But it’s still a Sonic Youth song, and therefore slightly odd company against a backdrop of songs by Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine and the Beastie Boys. Me, I would’ve preferred “Pattern Recognition,” but I guess you can’t have it all.

Lest anyone forget, there’s yet another guitar rhythm game coming soon: Harmonix will release Rock Band in about a month, adding a microphone, bass guitar and drum set to the mix. Looking at the tracklist for Rock Band brings even more surprises: “Wave of Mutilation” by the Pixies, “Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and “Electric Version” by the New Pornographers (!) are among the songs that made the cut. Now you too can live the dream of singing like Karen O or Carl Newman. Whod’ve thunk?