English rock band Spiritualized recently announced it will head out on the road in North America for the first time since 2008. The trek will support the band’s upcoming seventh studio album, Sweet Heart Sweet Light.

The tour will keep the band on the road through most of May, beginning May 2 at the First Avenue club in Minneapolis, and continuing through May 26, when the group plays The Rickshaw Theatre in Vancouver, British Columbia. In between those dates, the band will play 17 dates in cities across the North America including Chicago, Toronto, New York, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas and San Francisco.

Sweet Heart Sweet Light originally had a release date set for March 20, but Spiritualized leader (and only constant member) J Spaceman told Spin magazine recently that the album would be delayed because he is still completing it, though advance copies were already sent out.

“I had the rather foolish idea last November that I could deliver the record that’s been sent out and keep working on the real version,” Spaceman, whose real name is Jason Pierce, told the music magazine. “I’d meet the deliver date they need for reviews and things like that and nobody would be any the wiser that I’d be carrying on with the mixing.”

Spaceman also elaborated on how the new album would be different than the one reviewers have received.

“I think it’s quite different,” he said. “People say that all the little mixing moves I’m doing now are just for myself, but to me they’re no different than the mixing moves I did at the start of the process. Balancing things is what mixing is. Some bits are more realized and closer to what I wanted them to sound like, but I’m in the unenviable position now where the [album] that’s out there isn’t finished.

Spaceman formed Spiritualized in 1990, after his previous band, Spacemen 3, broke up.

After recently wrapping up an arena tour, Guns N’ Roses has announced a handful of theater dates throughout February, starting next week when the band will play three dates in New York during fashion week.

With each show held at a different venue, the first show will be held February 10 at the Roseland Ballroom. After that, the band will play Terminal 5 on February 12 and Webster Hall on February 15. For the show on the 15^th, the marquee for Webster Hall will be changed to the Ritz, which is what the venue was called when Guns N’ Roses last played there 24 years ago.

That performance was recorded as an MTV concert called “Live at the Ritz,” which is now a heavily sought after bootleg. The band has never played the Roseland Ballroom or Terminal 5 before.

Following the New York shows, the group will head to the Midwest for one show at the House of Blues in Chicago on February 19. Then they will head back to the east coast for a show in Silver Spring, Md. at the Fillmore and then another House of Blues show, this time in Atlantic City, N.J on February 24.

In other Guns N’ Roses news, it was announced in December that the band will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, along with the Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Faces/Small Faces. The induction ceremony will be held April 14 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Singer Axl Rose is the only remaining original member of Guns N’ Roses, which released the multi-platinum debut Appetite for Destruction in 1987. No word has been released as to which lineup will appear at the Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

The band’s most recent record, Chinese Democracy, was released in 2008, 17 years after the most recent album to that point, Use Your Illusion II.

The Fray’s upcoming third album, Scars & Stories, will be released February 7, and the band has announced a slew of spring tour dates throughout the U.S. to support the album.

The 17-date tour will kick off April 11 at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, R.I. and continue for exactly a month when it closes out on May 11 at Red Rocks Ampitheatre in Denver. In between, the band will play New York, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, New Orleans and St. Louis, among others.

Scars & Stories will be the Grammy-nominated band’s first official album since they released a self-titled record in 2009. The record has been preceded by the single “Heartbeat,” and singer Isaac Slade spoke on the Fray’s official website of the inspiration for that song.

“[Heartbeat] came out of a period of my life when I was trying hard to be open to whatever came my way,” he said. “I traveled through South Africa and Rwanda with a buddy, and at first it was really hard to stay open in the face of so much pain and heartache. But then I ended up meeting so many cool and inspiring people, and all these ideas for lyrics and melodies just started rushing in.”

The album was produced by Brendan O’Brien, who has worked with Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and Neil Young, among others. Slade said the record allowed the band to be themselves on record.

“On our first record, we didn’t quite trust ourselves yet,” he said. “We loosened up on the second album, but there was still some element of restraint. But on this one, we just stepped up to the plate and swung as hard as we could.”

The band first became known when their first single “Over My Head (Cable Car)” became a top ten hit in America, and more so when “How to Save a Life” was prominently featured on the show “Grey’s Anatomy” and other television series.

A little over a month after the indie music and film worlds converge on Austin, Texas for this year’s South By Southwest event, a new festival will be held to celebrate the world of comedy.

“Parks and Recreation” star Aziz Ansari, deadpan legend Steven Wright and “Saturday Night Live” cast member Seth Meyers will headline the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival, which will be held at the historic Paramount Theater from April 25-28. More than two dozen other comedians will perform at the four-day event, and organizers promise improv, sketch comedy and music comedy in addition to traditional stand-up. Additionally, a film festival will be held. Other comedians currently confirmed for the festival include “Saturday Night Live” writer Hannibal Buress, Maria Banford and Sean Patton.

In a press release, the festival organizers explained why Austin is the city for this festival.

“Because Austin is a little blue oasis in a very red state,” the release read. “Because we live in a college town that knows when to skip class. Because we have a guitar, but never got around to taking lessons. Because comics and their fans are people of night. Because we will cast a beacon of light on the genre of comedy. We’re an anomaly. And we can take a joke like no other city. But more importantly we know funny and we know festivals. We know how to throw a party the world wants to attend. We know how to ignite locals and how to be a destination. So get your ticket. Grab a seat. Silence your damn phone. And remember to tip your bartender.”

The festival has some big-name sponsors lined up, including Funny or Die, the Onion, Esquire magazine and the InterContinental Stephen F. Austin Hotel.

In addition to the South By Southwest festival, Austin also is known for the Austin City Limits Music Festival, which will be held in October of this year at the city’s Zilker Park.

After nearly two years headlining the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas, Barry Manilow is set to take to the road this spring and into the summer to promote his 2011 album, 15 Minutes.

After residencies in Chicago and New York in February, the tour will begin in earnest on leap day, February 29 in Omaha. From there, the American leg of the tour will continue through March 28, when it concludes in Milwaukee. Other cities included in the American tour are St. Louis, Detroit, Des Moines, St. Paul and Green Bay.

After that, Manilow will take some time off before playing a hand full of European arena dates in May. There, the singer-songwriter will play five dates in the United Kindgom, in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Dublin. He will return to the U.S. to play three dates at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles as part of the venue’s summer season. Those concerts will be held July 2-4.

15 Minutes is the Grammy Award-winning Brooklyn native’s first original album in more than a decade. It is a concept album telling the story of a fictitious singer experiencing the ups and downs of fame inside the music industry. The record was released June 14, 2011 and debuted at number seven on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Manilow was first known as a musical director, arranger, and musician before releasing his self-titled debut album in 1973. That album contained “Could It Be Magic,” one of many hits Manilow has become known for throughout his extensive career, which also include “Mandy,” “Can’t Smile Without You” and “Copacabana (At the Copa).” “Could It Be Magic” also was a hit for Donna Summer in 1976.

More recently, the singer has been known for interpreting classic works, and has released a series of album celebrating the greatest songs of each decade from the 1950s through the 1980s.

Shirley Manson and Garbage are not your kind of people. Or, at least their next album is not.

The Madison, Wisconsin rock band has announced that its fifth studio album, Not Your Kind of People, will be released May 15. The album will be the group’s first record since Bleed Like Me was released in 2005. The group has essentially on hiatus since 2007.

Though no American tour has yet been announced, the band will perform a handful of dates in Europe later this year. Sporadic dates between May 9 and June 28 include concerts in London; St. Petersburg, Russia; Moscow; Paris; Hultsfred, Sweden; Aarhus, Denmark; Neuhausen ob Eck, Germany and Scheessel, Germany.

On the official Garbage website, the band said in a post that “this is a lightning in a bottle moment for us. We know it.” In a video posted on the same site, drummer Butch Vig said the new record shares aspects of early records by the group, but is more optimistic.

“It sounds, vibe-wise, like the first two Garbage records, even though it doesn’t sonically sound like those records, he said. “I think the album is very optimistic. For us, part of it comes from the fact that we were gone for a while and when we came back it felt so free and so easy. And in Shirley’s lyrics, there’s anger and intensity, but there’s also optimism and hope.”

Vig produced the album with the rest of the band, and he mixed the album with engineer Billy Bush. The album was recorded in various studios around Los Angeles.

Vig had produced various records prior to forming Garbage in 1994, including Nirvana’s landmark album Nevermind. Desiring female vocals for his next project, he recruited Scottish singer Shirley Manson for the band of other Wisconsin musicians. The band has had hits with songs like “Stupid Girl” and “Only Happy When it Rains.”

The Academy of Country Music (ACM) nominees were released yesterday, and Kenny Chesney and Jason Aldean lead the pack with nine nominations and six nominations, respectively. Winners will be announced when the 47^th annual award show airs live from Las Vegas on April 1.

Both Chensey and Aldean were nominated for the coveted Entertainer of the Year award, as were Brad Paisley, Blake Shelton and Taylor Swift. Shelton will co-host the awards ceremony this year with Reba McEntire for the second consecutive year.

Lady Antebellum was the most nominated group, picking up five nods, including one for Vocal Group of the Year. They have won that award two years in a row, and their most recent album, We Own the Night, is nominated for Album of the Year.

Swift is the reigning Entertainer of the Year, and also landed the most nominations for a solo female artist with three. In addition to Entertainer of the Year, she also is nominated for Video of the Year and Female Vocalist of the Year, an award she has been nominated for five times in the past.

Brad Paisley was nominated for Male Vocalist of the Year, an award he won every year between 2006-2010. He was nominated for three different awards, including two in the Vocal Event of the Year category. One was for his collaboration with the band Alabama on the song “Old Alabama,” and the other was for “Remind Me,” Paisley’s duet with Carrie Underwood.

Nominees for New Artist of the Year were not released because fans currently are voting for the semi-finalists in the category. That vote will be closed January 30, and fans can vote on the final nominees from March 19 up until 5 p.m. on April 1. Fans also are able to vote for the Entertainer of the Year award, and can vote up until the third hour of the award show.

Rockstar Energy Drinks has announced that, for the fourth year in a row, it will present the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival, a touring metal festival that will make its way around the country this summer.

A post on the festival’s Facebook wall announced the headliners for the show’s main stage at each event will be Slipknot and Slayer. Additionally, the announcement lists “Special main stage guests to be announced March 5^th.” Ultimate-Guitar.com reports that the special guest is rumored to be metal legends Motorhead.

Additional performances on the main stage each day will come from As I Lay Dying, The Devil Wears Prada and Asking Alexandria, who will rotate sets to fill the fourth spot. The second stage of the festival has been upgraded this year, according to the post, and is now known as the Jagermeister Stage, and will be headlined by Anthrax. Support for Antrax will also come from a rotation of As I Lay Dying, The Devil Wears Prada and Asking Alexandria, as well as from Whitechapel and High on Fire. The post notes that “bands may vary per market.”

This year’s tour will begin June 30 in San Bernardino, Calif. and will continue through August 5 in Hartford, Conn. In between, the tour will hit 24 cities, including Mountain View, Calif.; Boise, Idaho; Phoenix, Ariz.; Albuquerque, N.M.; Dallas; Tampa; Atlanta; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Cincinnati; Camden, N.J. and Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

The Rockstay Energy Mayhem Festival was created in 2008 by Kevin Lyman, who also created the Vans Warped Tour. In addition to the two stages, the festival typically features autograph booths, as well as video game booths and other vendors. The initial release offered no details on exactly what kind of vendors can be expected at the 2012 version of the tour.

After becoming increasing popular on the pop music scene throughout 2011, Odd Future looks like they will be keeping just as busy during 2012, including a 12-date North American tour that will begin March 9 in Tempe, Ariz. The tour will support a new mixtape by the band, The Odd Future Tape Vol. 2, which will be released as a digital download March 20.

The North American tour will run through April 11, when it ends in Seattle. Other cities on the tour will include Minneapolis, Toronto, New York, Boston, Atlanta and San Francisco. During the North American Tour, Odd Future will hop across the Atlantic for five dates in the United Kingdom before coming back to the U.S. to finish the tour. They currently are in Australia playing the remaining Big Day Out festivals.

But the mixtape and tour are only the beginning of what the collective, officially known as Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, or OFWGKTA, has planned for the rest of the year. At least two members, Tyler, the Creator and MellowHype also will release solo albums. Tyler’s second solo full-length album, called Wolf, will be released in May, while MellowHype’s debut solo album will be released in the summer and is likely to be called Numbers.

Additionally, the group’s Adult Swim sketch comedy show, “Loiter Squad,” will premiere March 25. Not too much information has been released about the show, but Adult Swim’s website claims it will be a “live-action show that features sketches, man on the street segments, pranks and music from Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All.”

Odd Future member Earl Sweatshirt apparently will not appear on any planned releases. Sweatshirt has been in the news over the past year because he is reportedly at a school in Samoa called the Coral Reef Academy, and it has been reported that his mother forced him to attend to the school and that she is not allowing any of his music to be released. Assuming this all is true, it is worth noting that Sweatshirt will turn 18 in February.

Given Fiona Apple’s past history of album release delays, it was hard not to be a bit skeptical on Sunday when Epic Records CEO L.A. Reid tweeted that her long awaited new album would be released in the next few weeks. Well, it turns out the tweet was a slightly too good to be true, though a new Apple album will be released this year.

The tweet by Reid read, “Lots of good music coming from @Epic_Records in the next few weeks. Stay tuned music fans. Welcome back Fiona!” But when TIME magazine got in touch with Epic, Apple’s record label, a spokesperson said the tweet was “taken a little bit out of context.” The spokesperson went on to say that, though the album would not be released next week, “It’ll absolutely be this year, but timing wise, I don’t know exactly when.”

Apple hasn’t released an album since 2005’s Extraordinary Machine, which also was released six years after her album prior to that. Extraordinary Machine also had many delays before it was released, mainly coming from the fact that Apple rerecorded much of the album with a new producer.

In fact, it took so long for the album to come out that Apple’s fans began a campaign against Epic parent company Sony Music to have the album released. The remnants of one of one aspect of the campaign can still be found at freefiona.com.

Eventually, an official version of Extraordinary Machine was released, and the original version of the album, recorded with producer Jon Brion, was widely available as a bootleg. It is reported that many fans and some media outlets preferred the bootleg version to the official album, though the official album did debut at number seven on the Billboard 200 album charts, Apple’s highest debut to date.

Apple first became known in 1997 for her single “Criminal,” off her debut album Tidal.