On Wednesday, Gwen Stefani donated $1 million to “Save the Children’s Japan Earthquake-Tsunami Children in Emergency Fund” to help with recovery efforts.

According to Us Magazine, the singer said in a statement, “I’ve been inspired by Japan for many years and have a true love, appreciation and respect for the Japanese people and their culture. The disaster in Japan is beyond heartbreaking, and I want to do anything I can to help. I would never be able to make a gesture like this without the love and support of all the fans over all these years.”

In addition, a limited edition Harajuku Lovers T-shirt designed by Stefani will be available next week through her band’s official website, with all proceeds going to the relief efforts in Japan. A charity auction is also going to be organized where fans can bid on the chance to join the singer at a special fundraiser in Los Angeles.

As if Rock Band music-gamers didn’t already have enough Gwen Stefani to shake a microphone to, Harmonix and MTV Games today announced next week’s Rock Band DLC tunes naming No Doubt’s Tragic Kingdom album the songs in question.

Most of the album’s singles, you know, the popular ones “Just a Girl,” “Excuse Me Mr.,” “Spiderwebs,” Sunday Morning” and “Don’t Speak,” are already available in the Rock Band store. But next week Harmonix adds the “deep cuts,” to complete the album.

Oh, one song each  from Orianthi and Picture Me Broken are also arriving next week. Here’s the full list.

Available on Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 system (May 4):

No Doubt — "Different People" +
No Doubt — "End It on This" +
No Doubt — "Happy Now?" +
No Doubt — "Hey You" +
No Doubt — "Sixteen" +
No Doubt — "The Climb" +
No Doubt — "Tragic Kingdom" +
No Doubt — "World Go ‘Round" +
No Doubt — "You Can Do It"
Orianthi — "According to You" +
Picture Me Broken — "Dearest (I’m So Sorry)" *

+ available in the LEGO: Rock Band music store

* 99 cent song

If you didn’t notice, next week marks the first week that songs have arrived in all three system’s respective Music Stores on the same day. Awesome!

This week’s Deal of the Week on Xbox Live is a discounted “No Doubt: The Singles Album” for Rock Band and Rock Band 2, for a sliver off the normal price.

This week only, Xbox Live Gold Members (sorry Silver guys and gals) can snag the album for 1200 MS Points instead of 1600.

No Doubt

The album contains, as you guessed, in not so many words, every good No Doubt song.

For fans of the band who don’t yet have this DLC, now is pretty much an amazing time to do so, as you’ll save yourself some scratch.

Me though? All I need is “Don’t Speak” and “Just A Girl,” both of which I already purchased, individually.

Deal of the Week: Rock Band No Doubt

Guitarist Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker have departed from Las Vegas-based rock band Panic At the Disco.

The band has several tour dates lined up for the summer, including opening for No Doubt and a stint on the Blink 182 reunion tour, including a stop in Boston on August 6 at the Comcast Center. There has been no definite news about the fate of those scheduled shows but Ross and Walker released this statement on the band’s official site earlier today.

“Ryan Ross and Jon Walker will be leaving Panic At the Disco to embark on a musical excursion of their own. Though the four of us have made music together in the past, we’ve creatively evolved in different directions which has compromised what each of us want to personally achieve. Over the years, we have remained close and honest with each other, which helped us to realize that our goals were different and that parting ways is truly what is best for each of us. We are all excited for the future, you should be too.”

Lead singer Brendon Urie and drummer Spencer Smith are tentatively planning to continue on under the Panic name. More updates about the status of the shows and who will be replacing Ross and Walker are said to be coming from Urie and Smith in the coming days.

“Panic At The Disco is alive and very very well. We are working on new songs that we are excited for you to hear,” Urie and Smith said in a statement on the website. “Our dates
with Blink and Fall Out Boy start in a little less than a month, and we wouldn’t miss those for the world.”

“Crossing the Rubicon” the latest offering from Swedish synth-pop quintet The Sounds, borrows its name from a phrase meaning “to pass a point of no return.” Historically, it refers to the act of war Julius Caesar committed by crossing the Rubicon River in Northern Italy in 49 B.C.

So it would be perfectly understandable to wonder if the band is exploring new sonic territory on their latest offering, which hits shelves June 2. What’s ironic, though, given this context, is that the strongest moments on “Crossing the Rubicon” “" and there are many “" emerge when the band sticks to the winning formula it honed on 2006′s “Dying to Say This to You” “" danceable guitar riffs and synthesizers on top of upbeat rhythms.

“Crossing the Rubicon” starts on a high note, with the infectious, guitar-heavy first single “No One Sleeps When I’m Awake” and continues with a handful of equally catchy tunes, including the New Wave-y “4 Songs and a Fight” and delightfully bizarre Blondie homage “Beatbox.”

Unfortunately though, the 12-song offering loses some of its steam in‚ its final third, with the later songs failing to reach the extremely high bar set by the first ones. The title track, which sounds like gothic monks singing over an excerpt from a dramatic movie score, marks the middle point, and its placement is jarring to say the least “" especially since it’s book-ended by the accessible “Midnight Sun” and “Underground.”

The Sounds will spend much of the summer on the road, having landed the opening slot on several dates of No Doubt’s reunion tour. Like the headliner, they are anchored by a powerful frontwoman “" sassy singer Maja Ivarsson, whose vocals range from pained to empowered “" backed by male supporting musicians who tend to stay in the background.

Their position on the No Doubt tour, combined with the band’s decision to stream “Crossing the Rubicon” in its entirety nearly a week before its official release date, indicate the band is trying to expand its American fanbase. Their radio-friendly pop is likely to win over some early-arriving audience members.

The working title of Gavin Rossdale’s first solo offering, “WANDERlust,” out June 3, should have been “Family Values 101.”

The last time Rossdale had a hit record, back when he was the lead singer of alterna-grunge British band Bush, the Internet was still a relatively new concept, MTV still played music videos and “the other” Clinton was in the midst of his second term as president.

Needless to say, times have changed — and, if the lyrics on “WANDERlust” are any indication, so has Rossdale’s perspective on music, love and personal happiness. The singer who once growled about “the little things that kill” now finds himself “Feelin’ invincible / This moment’s mine,” according to ballad “Beauty in the Beast.”

The hordes of teenage girls who swooned over Rossdale in the late ‘90s (myself included) will be relieved to know that the 40-year-old’s signature raspy voice is still intact throughout “WANDERlust,” But it’s singing a much happier tune.

After the members of Bush parted ways in 2002, Rossdale flew under the radar musically, forming the short-lived group Institute, which released a record in 2005. His personal life, on the other hand, became a different story. Since marrying Gwen Stefani in 2002, Rossdale has become a tabloid staple, with photos of the couple and their son Kingston, born in 2006, regularly appearing in the pages of celebrity gossip magazines and on entertainment news shows. (Stefani is expected to give birth to the couple’s second child later this year).

It’s obvious, however, that Rossdale has adapted nicely to domestic life. Lyrically, “WANDERlust” is a collection of mostly love songs, presumably written with Stefani in mind. It’s poppier than anything Rossdale ever released as a member of Bush, and occasionally toes the line between touching (first single “Love Remains the Same”) and saccharine (“The Skin I’m In,” which the singer describes as “just a nice song for my girl.”)

Even when veering into political pontificating (the overly-earnest “If You’re Not With Us, You’re Against Us” and the soaring, oddly peppy “Frontline” are described as anti-war songs), Rossdale revisits the pervasive wife and kids theme. Either he’s been watching a lot of Dr. Phil or he and Stefani have somehow figured out the secret to a successful celebrity marriage.

Rossdale says he briefly considered collaborating with his old bandmates and releasing “WANDERlust” as a Bush record. Instead, he decided to go it alone, and recruited four musicians to play during the recording sessions – as well as a number of guest collaborators, including renowned songwriter/producer Linda Perry on the piano-driven “Forever May You Run,” and Shirley Manson of Garbage, who contributes vocals to “The Trouble I’m In.”

While “WANDERlust” isn’t groundbreaking by any means, the songs are catchy enough to satisfy Rossdale’s old fans and probably earn him some new ones as well. But while his status as a rock star will likely take a back seat to his role as a father and husband, it’s apparent that the role of family man is one that Rossdale embraces.

Activision announced Thursday that several hit songs from No Doubt’s diamong-selling Tragic Kingdom album will be released as a downloadable track pack for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

The set includes the songs “Don’t Speak,” “Excuse Me Mr.” and “Sunday Morning.” The track pack is currently offered on Xbox Live Marketplace and was made available later Thursday on the PlayStation Store on PS3.

See also: our Guitar Hero III review