Nirvana bassist impressed by Rock Band

By Tom Bramwell Published 19 January, 2009

But he can't play his own song properly.

Former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic has paid tribute to Rock Band for encouraging people to buy music again, but admitted he's rubbish at it himself.

"Rock has found new life with video games, and the phenomenon is leading to a revival of bands that have been around for a long time," Novoselic wrote in his Seattle Weekly column (thanks Kotaku).

"Instead of file-sharing, people are actually buying music again! HA!!!" he added.

However, when he actually played Nirvana's "In Bloom" in the game recently, having come across a try-before-you-buy set-up in a shop, he "couldn't quite master this new, different way of playing it".

"The game reminded me of Space Invaders. I tried to hit the notes cascading down the screen, but could barely keep up."

As is so often the way, he was promptly shown up by a child. "I handed it to him, and he proceeded to jam on the song - and was really good! He had no idea that I was the musician he was emulating on the game, and I didn't tell him." To be fair, we wouldn't recognise Krist Novoselic either.

On the whole though, he's a fan of both money and game. "I like how the game makes the player focus on certain components of the music," he wrote. "When I listen to songs, I'll usually tune my ear to the bass line. With Rock Band, you can do that, but also see the procession of notes."

Novoselic isn't the first musician to praise Rock Band - or Activision's similar Guitar Hero - of course, nor the first who probably makes a bit of money off it to do so. The game also has its musician detractors, including The Who's Roger Daltrey, who said it "bored" him.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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