Canadian alt-rockers Barenaked Ladies have announced they will undertake “The Last Summer on Earth” tour this summer, and they’ll bring Blues Traveler, Cracker and Big Head Todd and the Monsters along with them.

The extensive tour is set to kick off July 6 in Toledo, Ohio, and will run through August 19 when the bands play their final show in Bangor, Maine. In between, the groups will play all across America, including Chicago; Raleigh, N.C.; Dallas; Las Vegas; Boise, Idaho; Bethlehem, Penn. and Boston. The Barenaked Ladies’ website promises “more dates will be announced in the coming weeks.”

Barenaked Ladies singer Ed Robertson expressed his excitement about the possibility of working with the other groups on his band’s website.

“I love playing outside in the summertime,” he said. “To travel and hang around with a bunch of bands, and get a chance to do some collaboration is part of the magic of a summer tour.”

He went on to comment about the name of the tour, which refers to the doomsday predictions that use the end of the Mayan calendar to predict that the world will end in December of this year.

“I’m a man of science, and therefore I put zero stock in all of the disastrous predictions about the year 2012,” Robertson said. “But just in case, I think everybody should come out and see one last great summer concert tour! It can’t hurt, right? Here’s to hoping the Mayans just got tired of chiseling!”

In other Barenaked Ladies news, the band has been tapped to score a new musical version of “National Lampoon’s Animal House.” No performance dates have yet been set for the musical. Last year, the band released a greatest hits package, Hits from Yesterday & the Day Before. A second collection of rarities and unreleased tracks entitled Stop Me If You’ve Heard this One Before is expected to be released soon.

Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan minced few words about his thoughts of the music business yesterday at Austin’s South By Southwest Festival.

In a one-on-one conversation with author Brian Solis entitled “The End of Business as Usual” – the name of the author’s recent book – Corgan candidly expressed his thoughts about the current climate of popular music, at one point saying, “I was part of a generation that changed the world – and it was taken over by posers.”

Throughout the conversation, Corgan expressed qualms about artists specifically, as well as the music industry as a whole. He claimed that young artists now “have grown up thinking that being famous is the goal. Not to be respected – not to be dangerous.” He also compared new successful artists to prostitutes, saying that once a deal is made, “you’re just the fresh stripper.”

Corgan called out singer Lana Del Rey specifically to cite as an example, expressing his thoughts about her widely panned appearance on Saturday Night Live earlier this year. “It doesn’t surprise me that she crashed and burned, because she wasn’t ready for it,” he said. “I didn’t think it was that bad.”

After the chat, Corgan headed over to the Samsung Blogger Lounge for another interview. In this one, Corgan proclaimed himself “official online techie geek influencer social media elite expert.” He also spoke of the role of technology in music.

“There’s nothing wrong with technology,” he said. “It’s when technology is the story and not the artist, that’s the problem.”

Corgan currently is in the midst of working on the Smashing Pumpkins epic Teargarden by Kaleidyscope, which is a concept album set to eventually include 44 tracks. The album is being digitally released track by track as it is recorded, and it was recently reported that the band will issue Oceania, an “album within an album” later this year.

Back in February, Poison drummer Rikki Rockett announced via his Facebook page that his band would head out on the road this summer with Def Leppard. The problem was, at the time, no dates or cities were announced. Well, problem solved!

Not only has the exact tour schedule been announced, but with it came the information that the two groups will bring former Runaways lead guitarist Lita Ford along for support.

The 17-date arenas and amphitheatres tour will kick off June 20 in Salt Lake City, and will end at the Rock Fest in Cadott, Wisc. on July 22. Other cities the bands will play include Las Vegas, Denver, Atlanta, Nashville and Montreal.

Poison and Def Leppard last toured together in 2009, and Def Leppard lead singer Joe Elliot succinctly expressed his excitement for the show.

“We had such a good time going out with Poison in 2009 that we thought it only right to do it again!” he said.

Def Leppard’s website calls the released dates the “first leg” of the tour, so here’s to hoping there will be more dates added in the future. In an previous interview with Music Radar, Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen said he hopes the band can work up at least “a song or two” for the new tour. With that said, he also told the website that a new Def Leppard album likely wouldn’t be released until at least 2013.

“There’s so much involved with putting a record together,” he also said in the interview, “and the demographics for the people who buy album is shrinking.

Both Def Leppard and Poison have music featured in the upcoming film, “Rock of Ages.” Currently a hit on Broadway, the film will star Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin and Malin Akerman, among others. The musical tells a love story through the music of classic rock artists.

This year’s CMA Festival is shaping up to be perhaps the biggest yet, as it was recently announced that Blake Shelton, Alan Jackson and Scotty McCreery will perform at the already star studded event. Dierks Bentley and Brantley Gilbert also were recently announced as performers.

Earlier this year it was announced that the festival lineup will include Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum, Braid Paisely, Luke Bryan, Zac Brown Band, Jason Aldean and Rascal Flatts. The event will be held at Nashville’s LP Field from June 7-10 this year, and additional performers are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Additional daytime concerts will be held during the day at Riverfront Park, which is next to the stadium. Fans also can expect autograph signings, celebrity events, fan club parties, family activities and more.

Originally known as Fan Fair when it debuted in 1972, CMA Music Festival is one of the biggest country festivals in the country, and set a record last year when 65,000 country music fans attended the event. The Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau reports that the local economy receives around $30 million during the event.

The CMA also donates half the net proceeds from the festival to Keep the Music Playing, an organization that provides musical instruments and other supplies to public schools. Part of the proceeds also go to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s Words and Music Program. That program helps language arts and music teachers teach students the art of songwriting in the classroom.

Since 2004, the event has been filmed and later broadcast as a network television special. This year’s show, called “CMA Music Festival: Country’s Night to Rock” will be aired on ABC later this summer.

Black Shelton is the reigning CMA Male Vocalist of the Year. He was presented with the award at the ceremony held late last year.

In 2010, German rock legends Scorpions set out on their farewell tour, and it turns out that tour is still ongoing. Recently they announced a slew of U.S tour dates.

The 19-date North American leg of the tour will kick off June 8 in Reno, Nev. and run through July 12 when the group plays a show in Washington, D.C. In between, the band will play other cities including Mountain View, Calif.; Salt Lake City; Los Angeles; Chicago, Toronto and Philadelphia.

So far, these are the last North American dates the band has scheduled, but they are planning to play some additional European dates before the tour ends in 2013.

The band released their final original studio album, Sting in the Tail, in March 2010, and it debuted at number 23 on the Billboard 200 albums charts. Additionally, they released a studio covers record and a 3D Blu Ray concert film earlier this year.

The concert film, “Get Your Sting and Blackout – Live in 3D,” captures the band during a 2011 performance in Saarbrucken, Germany. Director Gerd F. Schultze discussed the project in a statement.

“The preview audience was absolutely euphoric and stunned by the intensity and the never-before-witnessed power and intimacy in which they were able to experience the Scorpions’ fantastic concert,” he said. “The people left the screening with a completely new and never-before-seen concert experience and wanted to watch it all over straight away. Part of the reason is, that we have managed to create an unbelievable 3D depth with a specially developed method, which is very pleasant to watch.”

The new studio recording, Comeblack, mixes covers of classic songs by artists like the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Kinks with newly recorded versions of classic Scorpions tunes. Both the album and the Blu Ray were released on January 24 of this year.

Lewis Black and Bill Engvall are set to headline The Bill of Rights Comedy concert this May. The event will raise money to build a monument in Arizona to celebrate the bill of rights.

Presented by the Bill of Rights Monument Project, the concert will held May 13 at Symphony Hall in Phoenix. Money raised from the event will go toward building a Bill of Rights monument at the Arizona capitol, which the organizer’s website says will be “America’s first monument celebrating the Bill of Rights.” Other artist performing at the event will be Bobcat Goldthwait, Steven Wright, Tom Smothers, Dick Gregory and Kathleen Madigan. Little Feat’s Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett will be special musical guests at the event.

Since the event is for charity, there will be a couple of high end, VIP packages available for purchase, as well. Founders Circle Seats and Presidents Circle Packages range from $1,000 to $5,000 and, depending on the package, include prime seats and an invitation to an artist’s reception.

According to the official website for the Bill of Rights Monument Project, the group’s mission “is to promote an enduring awareness of and respect for the freedoms and the principles guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, through the installation of Bill of Rights displays in civic spaces across America.”

The sculpture will consist of ten massive blocks of limestone that are each around eight feet tall. The blocks of rock will be sculpted into the monument, which will be placed in the Wesley Bolin plaza across from the Arizona State Capitol. Chris Bliss, the project’s executive director, spoke to Phoenix’s local Fox affiliate about the purpose of the monument.

“The bill of rights is the heart of the constitution, the most important document in human history, but there’s not a single monument of it,” he said. “Arizona is going to have the first.”

Speculation has been running rampant recently as to who will replace ousted “X Factor” judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger, and earlier this week it was reported that show creator Simon Cowell was looking to put Britney Spears in a judge’s chair. And to top it off, he apparently offered her $10 million for her trouble.

But while that may seem like a large number, it is now being reported that it wasn’t quite large enough, and that Spears requested $20 million to do the show.

TheWrap.com reports that “a knowledgeable individual in Spears’ camp” said that the singer rejected the $10 million offer three weeks ago, and is instead considering an offer to undertake a residency at a Las Vegas hotel this fall. The same source reported that Spears asked for $20 million. No official word on these offers has been issued by the Fox Network, Spears or Simon Cowell.

Though the “X Factor” is currently holding auditions for its next season, it won’t require judges until May.

The article on The Wrap reports that ex-judge Paula Abdul was paid around $2.5 million for her duties last season. Additionally, it reports that NBC will pay pop singer Christina Aguilera around $10 million for her work on its hit show “The Voice,” which will compete with the “X Factor” this fall.

It was announced earlier this year that Abdul and Scherzinger would not being returning to the show this season, and host Steve Jones was also ousted. Cowell will return to the show as a judge, along with record executive L.A. Reid. There also has been no word yet on who will replace Jones as the host of the show.

The inaugural season of the U.S. version of the “X Factor” ran from September to December of last year. In the end, singer Melanie Amaro was named the winner of the show. For the honor, she received a recording contract and a $5 million prize.

Only two weeks after announcing his first U.S. tour in two years, John Mayer has been forced to cancel all 18 dates of the tour due to a return of an ongoing medical issue with his throat.

A granuloma that forced the singer to undergo extensive vocal rest in 2011 has returned after it appeared to have healed. The tour was to support his upcoming fifth studio album, Born and Raised, which will still be released as planned on May 22.

Mayer took to his Tumblr page to announce his break from touring.

“During rehearsal on Tuesday, it came to mind that I should see my throat doctor because something didn’t feel/sound right,” he wrote. “I went in for a visit on Wednesday and a scope of my vocal cords revealed that the granuloma has grown back where it had mostly healed… Because of this, I have no choice but to take an indefinite break from live performing. Though there will be a day when all of this will be behind me, it will sideline me for a longer period of time than I care to have you count down.”

He also explained the medical issue to avoid “confusion” about the condition.

“A granuloma forms and continues to snowball because it’s in a spot where the vocal cords hit together and there’s no way to really give it a chance to heal without a good stretch of time and some pretty intensive treatment.”

He goes on to say that Born and Raised will be released as scheduled, and that he is going to use the time that he would have been on tour to begin writing his next album.

“I feel very vibrant as a writer at the moment and there’s no reason not to begin the next album project,” he wrote.

A message on the singer’s website says that fans that have already purchased tickets for the tour should return to their point of purchase for refund details.

After recently announcing their first album in seven years, rockers Garbage have announced their first United States tour since 2005.

Shirley Manson and company will kick things off with two dates at the El Rey in Los Angeles on April 9-10, and will stay on the road through April 22 when they play the KDGE 102.1 EdgeFest in Frisco, Texas. Other than two more Texas dates in Austin and Houston, the tour will take place entirely in the Western U.S. Other cities the band will play are Las Vegas; Tucson, Ariz.; Tempe, Ariz.; Aspen, Colo.; Denver and Salt Lake City.

The tour will support the new album, Not Your Kind of People, which will be released May 15. A previously announced European tour will keep the band on the road across the Atlantic from May 9 to July 19.

It also was recently announced that the first single from the album will be “Blood for Poppies.” Lead singer Shirley Manson spoke about her inspiration for the song on the group’s website.

“The song is meant to feel sort of like an abstract dream,” she said. “The inspiration came from a story I had read in the Los Angeles Times about the opium trade and also from watching the documentary “Restrepo.” It’s not literal in any sense whatsoever but it’s a song about disorientation and delusion and the human struggle to stay sane in the face of insanity.”

The album will be released in two forms, a standard edition and a deluxe edition. The latter will contain four bonus tracks.

Butch Vig, producer and drummer for the band, recently spoke about the sound of the record.

“It sounds, vibe-wise, like the first two Garbage records, even though it doesn’t sonically sound like those records,” he said in a video on the group’s website. “I think the album is very optimistic.”

Some of the biggest names in the music world have signed on to pay tribute to the legendary Johnny Cash and celebrate what would have been his 80^th birthday this year. Kenny Chesney, Sheryl Crow and Willie Nelson are among those that will appear at “We Walk the Line: A Celebration of the Music of Johnny Cash,” which will be broadcast on the legendary “Austin City Limits” television show.

The show will be held April 20, and will later be produced and distributed by Legacy Recordings. Other performers playing at the event include Lucinda Williams, Kris Kristofferson, Shooter Jennings, Jamey Johnson, Chris Cornell, Ronnie Dunn, Ray LaMontagne, John Hiatt, Rhett Miller, Carolina Chocolate Drops and Evanescence singer Amy Lee.

In addition to paying tribute to Johnny Cash, the event also will be benefit a charity. Money raised will go to Charley’s Fund, a group that fights Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a fatal childhood disease.

Cash’s son spoke of the great lineup in a press release.

“Our family is honored to know that this amazing lineup of artists will gather together on one stage to pay tribute to the music and history of my father,” said John Carter Cash. “There is no doubt in my mind that, although he is no longer with us in body, his spirit will shine true on this night thanks to these inspired artists.”

The artists will be backed by a band directed by acclaimed producer, Don Was, who also spoke of the event.

“Having had the privilege of working with Johnny Cash on a Highwaymen project in 1995, I was able to experience firsthand the incredible spirit and musical gift that lived within Johnny,” he said. “We have an all-star lineup of incredible talent performing the songs that made Johnny a legend including fellow Highwaymen Kris and Willie. It will be an incredible evening of music of special combinations, duets and jams”