Topping the list of this year’s inductees into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (at least in name recognition) are Guns N’ Roses, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Beastie Boys as the 1980s get most of the love from the Hall. Additional recognizable names include the Small Faces/the Faces, songwriter Laura Nyro, British folkie Donovan and blues musician Freddie King. On the production side, Glyn Johns, known for his work with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and many more, got the nod, as did Tom Dowd, Don Kirshner and Cosimo Matassa. The induction ceremony will be held next April at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in downtown Cleveland.

Rod Stewart and Ron Wood, both of whom played with the Faces, will join a small number of musicians who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame twice. Rod Stewart was inducted as a solo artist in 1994, and Ron Wood was inducted in 1989 for his membership in the Rolling Stones. Eric Clapton is the only artist that has ever been inducted three times, for his work with the Yardbirds in 1992, his work with Cream in 1993 and in 2000 for his solo career.

While both Stewart and Wood played with the Faces, the band was originally formed as the Small Faces in 1965. That band disbanded in 1969, and the remaining members recruited Stewart and Wood from the Jeff Beck Group to form a new group, which they named the Faces. Because of the distinctive personnel and sound of each band, there has been some controversy as to whether the two should have been inducted as one group.

Nominees that were not inducted this year include notable names such as Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, the Cure, Heart and Rufus and Chaka Khan.

Adam Horovitz of the Beastie Boys has ruled out plans for touring to support the group’s new album until Adam Yauch has recovered completely from cancer.

Since July 2009, Yauch (also known as MCA) has undergone treatment after a tumor was found inside his parotid gland.

Yauch is also utilizing ancient Chinese medicine and following a very strict vegan diet to help him battle the disease. Yauch does have a good prognosis, however Horovitz has admitted the band is holding off plans for any dates to support “Hot Sauce Committee Part Two” until Yauch has fully recovered.

He is doing ok, Horovitz said. He is still undergoing treatment. It isn’t clear 100 percent. However, it is looking good.

We will get the record out, but we are not touring. Until he’s better, which will definitely happen, we won’t make any plans.

Horovitz says he is confident that Yauch will be able to rejoin the band and make a complete comeback very soon. He thinks the group will be able to bounce back even harder when it’s time to record the next album.

Horovitz added, I think our next record will be the insanest party album ever heard. After going through a thing like what Yauch is going through, you must feel awfully good after that.

The comments from Horovitz came four months after Mike D of the Beastie Boys said that Yauch had been cleared, which prompted the ailing Yauch to clarify that he was still undergoing treatment.

There’s a saying ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’, but the Beastie Boys took the beating to a whole new level. If they can’t beat leakers and trackers from leaking their new album, “Hot Sauce Committee Part 2”, they can turn the tables around them instead.

When leakers dished out the entire clean or edited version of the said album, the trio outsmarted them by uploading the more sought after dirty or unedited version of the studio set on their website.

“So as a hostile and retaliatory measure with great hubris we are making the full explicit aka filthy dirty nasty version available for streaming on our site. We hope this brings much happiness, hugs, and harmony. Enjoy Kikoos for life!” the group announced via a press release. In addition to online streaming, all tracks from the album can now be purchased online except for the song “Say It”.

The album includes 16 tracks and also features Santigold lending her voice to the cut “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win”. The album officially hits the shelves on May 3.

Hot Sauce Committee Part Two by Beastie Boys

After a four year hiatus, Grammy Award winning rap group Beastie Boys is back on the scene with a two-part release set to hit stands in spring next year, however, the sequel of the two-part release, “Hot Sauce Committee Part 2”, would hit the markets first while its predecessor would not see the light of day for who knows how long.

“Hot Sauce Committee Part 1” was first reported to drop in the shelves last month after it was put on hold for a year due to Adam Yauch’s (better known to BB fans as “MCA”) continuing bout with cancer of the lymph nodes and preaortic gland. At present, the release of “Part 1” is – as the band would put it via their web message – “delayed indefinitely”.

On the lighter side of things though, the long time rap act is in the running to be inducted into the prestigious Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. If inducted, they would rank with the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and more contemporary artists such as Madonna and the late Michael Jackson.

The Beastie Boys were all ready to rock out with a 3-month tour launching at the All Points West Festival at month’s end. Life seems to have had other plans for the group as they were forced to cancel all tour dates and put their latest album on the backburner as it was announced that Adam “MCA” Yauch has cancer. The cancer is reportedly located in his left salivary gland and requires immediate surgery.

In a video statement to fans, Yauch stated, “The good news is that they did scans of my whole body and it’s only localized in this one area and it’s not in a place that affects my voice. So, that’s nice. That’s convenient.”

He is looking to have surgery next week with chemotherapy to follow. No word as yet as to how long the tour will be delayed, yet Yauch apologized to those who had already made plans for the upcoming Beastie Boys tour dates. Among them were headlining many of the big upcoming festivals including Austin City Limits, Outside Lands and Lollapalooza. The new album “Hot Sauce Committee Part 1″ that was due for release on September 15 has also been shelved for the moment as the band supports their brother in need.

“Bizarre” is how Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch, better known among the group’s fans as MCA, describes the direction and theme of their upcoming release and their first since 2007, the tentatively titled “Tadlock’s Glasses”.

Yauch won’t reveal any specific details about the record, but told BBC Five Live that the album is in the finishing stage. “It’s a combination of playing and sampling stuff as we’re playing, and also sampling pretty obscure records…We’re tweaking some mixes and we’re going to master it in the next couple of weeks. There are a lot of songs on the record and there are a lot of short songs and they kind of all run into each other,” the bassist shared.

As for the record’s quirky title, Yauch explains that they borrowed it from their tour bus driver’s name, whose name was Tadlock, and his eyeglasses that were gifted by the King of Rock n’ Roll himself, Elvis Presley.

While a definite release date for the album is still yet to be announced, the bassist revealed that they will be in the UK by fall to back up the forthcoming release.

Grammy Award winning rap trio Beastie Boys will be hosting a three-day gig to motivate voters to go out and be counted in the coming presidential elections via the Get Out and Vote tour which will drop by Richmond, VA on October 28, St. Paul, MN on November 1 and Milwaukee, WI on November 2.

“We hope that you can come out, have a nice night, dance, sing, get your freak on, and then wake up the next morning and get everyone that you possibly can to get out and vote,” the group said in an October 10 interview where they also mentioned that they are supporting Democratic presidential bet Barack Obama.

The boys are also enlisting the help of fellow Grammy Award winning artists like Norah Jones, Sheryl Crow and Jack Johnson for their Virginia show, which also includes a performance from Reggae hip-hop artist Santogold. Those in St. Paul can also watch other featured artists such as Ben Harper and rock act Tenacious D lead by Jack Black, while the tour’s final stop in Milwaukee will feature David Crosby and Graham Nash. The Beastie Boys will also be performing in all three stops.

Ticket details are posted on the Beastie Boys’ website.