Hall of Fame Nominees

Dec. 6, 2009

Hall of Fame Nominees
Include RHCP, Stooges, Abba
Next year’s ballot for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees features yet another diverse roster of artists eligible for induction 25 years after their debut release (which means this crop released their first single no later than 1984.) The final list of inductees will be announced in January 2010, with the ceremony set to be held once again at New York’s Waldorf Astoria in March. The Red Hot Chili Peppers and LL Cool J are up for nomination alongside the likes of ABBA, The Stooges, The Hollies, Darlene Love, and Jimmy Cliff, among others, with RHCP and Cool J making the ballot on their very first year of eligibility; if Cool J gets inducted, he’ll be the third hip-hop act in the Hall, after Grandmaster Flash and Run DMC...
Canadian singer Avril Lavigne is currently completing her fourth album, which she says will show off her “mellower side,” as many of the songs are acoustic-based, as opposed to her previous punk-pop collections. Lavigne collaborated with Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley, on the album, (Whibley took on production duties for most of the songs); Butch Walker and Evan Taubenfield also contribute to the set. Lavigne is still sending her own line of clothing to Kohls stores, and will be adding an Avril Lavigne fragrance as well as releasing the new album, which is due this month and will be followed by a North American tour in February, 2010...
A Michael Jackson music tribute that was previously set for September in Vienna, Austria has now been rescheduled for June 2010 in London; the event was rescheduled mostly due to scheduling conflicts amidst the many big names that were slated to perform at the event, among them singers Mary J. Blige, Natalie Cole, and Chris Brown. Although the original tribute was supposed to be staged outside a 17th century palace in the Austrian city, no venue has been selected yet for the London event...
And a recent report in Variety confirms that singer-songwriter-dancer-actor Justin Timberlake has been cast as Napster co-founder/Facebook founding president Sean Parker in the upcoming movie The Social Network. The movie’s plot outlines the process that the founders of the social network Facebook went through in developing the ubiquitous time-sucking website; the script was written by The West Wing’s Aaron Sorkin, and is being exec-produced by Kevin Spacey...

MODERN ROCK LINK OF THE WEEK:
Bob Dylan’s early holiday gift, the album Christmas in the Heart, was just released at the end of October, and now concert-streaming website Wolfgang’s Vault is offering an unearthed concert from Dylan and The Band’s 1974 tour that was recorded on Valentine’s Day; stop by www.wolfgangsvault.com to listen to the show that resulted in the live album Before the Flood - and for free, too...

MINI BUZZ:
Aussie band The Go-Betweens have had a bridge - formerly the Hale Street Link - named after them in their hometown of Brisbane; the bridge will now be called The Go Between Bridge, which the band’s Robert Forster says is “perfect, as bridges are romantic and poetic”...
Former Mazzy Star singer Hope Sandoval is prepping for the U.S. release of her new solo album with backing band The Warm Inventions...
Los Lobos have announced that they’ve found a new label at Shout! Factory Records, and they’re targeting early 2010 for the release of their 18th full-length disc...
Keith Richards has been keeping busy, as he recently spent some time recording a few songs with Jack White; Richards also told press that if he has his way, The Rolling Stones will start working on a new album in 2010...
Ex-Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler has selected early 2010, too, to launch his North American tour in promotion of the release of his new Get Lucky full-length album...
The Futureheads will be back with a new album sometime next year (although fans will likely be able to catch them on the road in the meantime); the band’s guitarist, Ross Millard, recently confirmed that the band is wrapping up tracking and mixing, and that the new album is more “complicated” than previous sets...
And as complicated or simple as they might be, these are this week’s new releases... ON CD: Memphis Bleek’s The Process E2... Alicia Keys’ The Element of Freedom... Timbaland’s Shock Value 2... Janet Jackson’s Number Ones... and Fall Out Boy’s Believers Never Die: Greatest Hits... ON DVD: Fall Out Boy: Believers Never Die - Greatest Hits*... and The Jonas Brothers’ Lines Vines and Trying Times... and that’s the buzz for this week’s Modern Rock.

Questions, comments, rants, raves, suggestions on this column or your favorite musicians? Send ‘em to Kristi at modernrocker@gmail.com