It wasn’t until Peter Gabriel abruptly canceled his scheduled Academy Awards performance (after they demanded he cut his song down to 65 seconds earlier this year) that I realized what an awesome artist he truly is. Late to the party, I know, but it looks like he’s going to start getting respect all over very shortly. The tracklist to his upcoming album of orchestral cover songs was leaked by the distributor in Japan and it’s a doozy.

All we knew before today was what collaborator John Metcalfe had teased on Gabriel’s official site: that Scratch My Back (due out early next year) consisted of “song swap[s] with some of the world’s most legendary artists.”

Does that mean that Arcade Fire, Radiohead, Neil Young, Lou Reed, Bowie and more will be covering Gabriel’s songs in return? We can’t confirm that, but here’s the tracklist, which Metcalfe refused to confirm or deny to the Guardian. All he would say is that “there are some very, very famous singers and bands involved,” and “there should be something in there for everybody.”

Yes, indeed (via Barks via Guardian):

Singer Manu Chao is embroiled in a controversy over comments he made last week at the Guadalajara International Film Festival about a violent incident in San Salvador Atenco where police intervened in a hostage situation two years ago. National Human Rights Committee reported (via The Observers), hundreds of people were injured, 2 were killed, and 27 women were allegedly raped by police officers when violence erupted at a protest against the building of a Wal-Mart.

“What happened in Atenco was, in some way, state terrorism,” Chao said at a press conference. “[The authorities] are saying ‘don’t say a word when we seize your land, because you better watch out, the same thing will happen to you as happened in Atenco.”

Two days later, Mexican government officials informed the press that they were investigating Chao, who was born in Spain and currently lives in France, for possibly offending part of their constitution that says foreigners are not allowed to meddle in their political issues.

The next day, actor Diego Luna and singer Peter Gabriel (who both met with the Mexican President Felipe Calderón last week to discuss the issue of Feminicide) spoke out in defense of Chao.

For more info click here, or here (links via The Daily Swarm).