WYEP Music Blog

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced the inductees for the “class of 2010″ yesterday. Among them were The Stooges, Iggy Pop’s influential protopunk group, who were on their 8th nomination for the honor. Also to be inducted are the Swedish-pop group Abba, who had also been previously nominated. Filling out the bunch is reggae star Jimmy Cliff, Genesis, and British-invasion group The Hollies.

To be inducted in the non-performer category is songwriting duos Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich and Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Also, songwriters Mort Shuman and Otis Blackwell and music impresario David Geffen.

This year’s induction ceremony will be at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City on March 15th.

The New Music Express reports today that Peter Gabriel has confirmed what and who’s songs he will be covering on his forthcoming album.   “Scratch My Back” will be released in January and will feature covers of songs from legendary artists like Talking Heads, Paul Simon, Neil Young, David Bowie and Randy Newman.  Apparently, his cover of Vampire Weekend’s “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” earlier this year was just scratching the surface of Gabriel’s appreciation of “younger” acts, as he will also be covering songs by Arcade Fire,  Bon Iver,  Elbow, The Magnetic Fields and Regina Spektor.

NME reports that the tracklisting for ‘Scratch My Back’ is as follows:

‘Heroes’ (David Bowie)
‘The Boy In The Bubble’ (Paul Simon)
‘Mirrorball’ (Elbow)
‘Flume’ (Bon Iver)
‘Listening Wind’ (Talking Heads)
‘The Power Of The Heart’ (Lou Reed)
‘My Body Is A Cage’ (Arcade Fire)
‘The Book Of Love’ (The Magnetic Fields)
‘I Think It’s Going To Rain Today’ (Randy Newman)
‘Apres Moi’ (Regina Spektor)
‘Philadelphia’ (Neil Young)
‘Street Spirit’ (Radiohead)

Many people here are still raving about the Nicole Atkins & The Black Sea performance in the WYEP studios yesterday.  If you missed it, or want to hear it again, the entire performance is now available in our On Demand Audio archive.

Rolling Stone reports today that Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn is working on the screenplay for a film version of Chuck Klosterman’s 2001 memoir “Fargo Rock City”. Finn is co-writing the screenplay with “Late Show with David Letterman” writer Tom Ruprecht.  “Fargo Rock City” is Klosterman’s book about growing up as a heavy metal fan in North Dakota.