You may know Harmonix as the developers of Rock Band and Guitar Hero I and II. But did you know they were founded out of the MIT Media Lab in 1995, and also released much lesser known games like their very first title, The Axe? It looked a little like this:

The Harmonix story is told quite well in the Newsweek article Rock-and-Roll Fantasy.

Behind this rock-and-roll fantasy is Harmonix, a Cambridge, Mass., game developer staffed by rock-star wanna-bes and game geeks. The creator of Guitar Hero, and now Rock Band, was founded in 1995 by two quirky artists, who turned their musings as MIT Media Lab partners into a booming business. Today, these old college chums, Alex Rigopulos, 38, and Eran Egozy, 36, oversee a staff of more than 200 in the former offices of Harvard’s Russian Studies department, where spike-haired and tattooed employees zip around on Razors among the detritus of musical instruments, both real and simulated. “It looks like we’re having band practice,” says online community manager Sean Baptiste as he strolls past a giant gong used to call staff meetings to order.

It’s a fantastic article; I highly recommend reading it. It also contains a tantalizing glimpse of what we might see in Rock Band 2 this November, or perhaps even further along — some type of free-form musical improvisation.

The most buzz, though, is about what Harmonix will do next. Add a keyboard? A turntable to scratch out hip-hop tunes? An iPod version of Rock Band? (Harmonix already has an iPod game called Phase.) Rigopulos and Egozy won’t reveal their next act, other than to admit they’re trying to land songs from bands like the Beatles, U2 and Springsteen. But something’s up. Harmonix is looking to hire 70 more employees. The biggest hint comes from Greg LaPiccolo, Harmonix’s product-development chief and former bass player for the indie band Tribe. “Now it’s like karaoke,” he says. “The long-term ambition is to give players more creative freedom.” That means you’ll eventually be able to create your own guitar leads and wailing vocal fills. It’s unclear, of course, whether that presumed artistry will help you gain or lose points in the game.

You can already do this to some extent on vocals and drum fills, but I’m unsure how it would map to guitar or bass.

I’m not sure how I missed this last year, but VH1 produced a hilarious tongue-in-cheek mockumentary of a Rock Band .. band.

I’ve completed Rock Band several times — and we always get a laugh out of the absurd idea of a cover band somehow making it into the Rock & Roll hall of fame. Of course, the difference between reality and fantasy can be pretty severe; fake plastic rock is clearly no substitute for actual instruments.

The continuing saga of Rock Band Band, the greatest group ever to rock out on plastic instruments, can be viewed online at VH1:

Yes, I realize this is basically an extended commercial for Rock Band, but it’s actually pretty damn funny, with a ton of real musicians in cameo roles commenting on the history of the “band”, oddball references to key rock history moments, and Kurt Loder narrating it all.

• Act 1
• Act 2
• Act 3
• Act 4
• Act 5

Worth a look, if you’re a true fake plastic rocker.

Since Guitar Hero for the Playstation 2 was originally released in late 2005, it was inevitable that someone would go about converting a real guitar into something you could use in the game. The first one I ever saw was toolmonger’s How-To: Build Your Own Custom Full-Sized Wireless Guitar Hero Controller.

Of course, gutting a real guitar to turn it into a fake plastic version of itself takes serious chutzpah. I’m also not sure you would end up with a very practical guitar controller for all that work, either. I wouldn’t expect a real guitar, designed for use with strings, to map all that well to buttons and a plastic strum.

But why build what you can buy?

I remember reading about Art Guitars real fake guitar controller last year; $399 for a guitar with plastic heart but the body of the real thing. The first reviews were mixed, which is sort of disturbing for a controller this expensive and high end.

But you could never really buy it. It looks like they’ve finally made these real products under the Peavey AG Riffmaster series, and you can buy them now at $399, with a 6-8 week build time.

You aren’t stuck with the default graphics; you can customize the Riffmaster and put your own graphics on there.

Unfortunately, this is only available for the PS2 at the moment. Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the AG Riffmaster are coming “fall 2008″.

As you move from medium to hard to expert Rock Band drumming, you might notice that kick pedal usage goes up. Way up. Single kicks become double kicks become triple kicks, and “missing” kick notes suddenly materialize all over the place in songs.

To deal with lots of kick pedal action in songs, real drumsets often have more than one kick pedal:

Through some clever hackery, it’s possible to set up dual kick pedal action for Rock Band drumsets as well.

I frown on this type of mod because it deviates significantly from the default Rock Band drumset — learning to play well with this mutant two pedal drumset will absolutely ruin you when you sit down on a stock Rock Band drumset.

Still, it is cool, and it does highlight the absurdity of playing those songs with crazy amounts of kick drum with only a single pedal.

If, like me, you’re an.. energetic.. drummer, then you may find the Rock Band drums mysteriously ending up further and further away from you after every song. This is not only annoying, it can actually screw up your drumming. As the distance between you and the drums grows, it interferes with your timing and muscle memory of where the drums “should be”.

As mentioned in Learning to be a Better Rock Band Drummer, it’s crucial to get the those drums locked down so they don’t move around on you as you’re playing. I should also warn you that if your drums are moving a lot then it’s highly likely you aren’t using the kick pedal correctly; definitely read the article on drumming to understand why!

One option is to use weights, if you have any. A few strategically placed weights can prevent the drums from moving as you play.

If you’re not on a carpeted surface, I recommend buying one of those friction anti-slip rug mats. I bought an 18 inch x 30 inch “rug grip for use on hard floors” from Target and it fit almost perfectly. I cut some of the excess off to use under the kick pedal and the legs.

Others have recommended taping the drums down (this might be frowned upon in some households) or using rubber anti-slip floor tiles — or even a small section of carpet, if you’re on tile. Whatever method you use, be sure to lock those drums down so they’re not moving around on you as you play!