Now, he’s once again adding new tour dates under his own name, and also bringing back yet another of his old bands, the Desaparecidos.

The solo dates wrap around the Desaparecidos, and will kick off July 6 at the Ottawa Bluesfest in Ontario. The singer will then play five more shows before the end of July, with stops in Bethlehem, Penn.; Albany, N.Y.; Fairfield, Conn. and two shows in Newport, R.I. The first will be held at the Jane Pickens Theater on June 27 while the second will be an appearance at the Newport Folk Festival on July 29.

After the band shows in August, Oberst will play the Royce Hall in Los Angeles on September 27 and then Carnegie Hall in New York on November 21. There has been no word yet whether on more solo shows will be scheduled in that gap, or if they will be in support of any new record.

The Desaparecidos are a five-piece band that lean punkier than Obert’s typical folk fare, and were formed in 2001. They released the acclaimed album Read Music/Speak Spanish in 2002 but hasn’t toured since that same year.

The first date of the new tour will be on August 9 in Minneapolis, and the tour is currently scheduled to run through August 29 when the group plays San Francisco. In between they will visit Omaha, Seattle and Portland.

As might be expected, there’s also no word if Oberst has any future plans with Bright Eyes, though he has hinted that that group’s most recent album, The People’s Key, may be the last recorded under the name.

Henryville High  is in the Indiana town of the same name that was ravished by tornadoes earlier this year. Many students spent their Spring Break leading clean-up and recovery efforts, and the popular country act wants the kids to put aside all their tragedy for one night.

The band was not able to play the school’s actual prom in April due to scheduling conflicts, so instead they are throwing this bash for the 188 juniors and seniors from the school along with their dates. Additionally, each junior and senior got five floor tickets for the event.

When the band began the contest in March, they received entries on behalf of Henryville High from schools as far away as northern Wisconsin. Lady Antebellum singer Hillary Scott said the band was moved by those other entries.

“That was just such, honesty, an encouraging thing to think that those high schoolers, that generation, they’re that helpless, they want to help each other that much,” she said, adding that, “It was definitely an easy decision.”

Charles Kelly of Lady A said he hopes the bash will help the spirits of the community.

“We want to just go there and hopefully bring a little joy, meet them, shake their hands, encourage them to try to get through it as best as they can,” he said.

The concert also was a benefit for the town, and as of earlier this week, more than $119,000 had been raised for the relief effort.

First of all, the band has turned their previously announced West Coast 20^th Anniversary concerts into a full-fledged tour. The trek will kick off with the four previously announced dates beginning on May 26 in Seattle, as well as two gigs at the House of Blues in Anaheim, Calif. and finally an appearance at the JoshuaFest in Plymouth, Calif on August 31.

The newly announced dates will begin with a couple of east coast gigs – one at the Best Buy Theater in New York on July 6 and one at the Trocadero Theatre on July 7. There will be a variety of bands providing support for the concerts at different dates, including The Avalanche and Gasoline Heart.

But those band shows aren’t the only new concerts added to the list, as bassist and singer Mike Herrera also will perform a few solo dates with this year’s Van’s Warped Tour. The performances will take place on the Acoustic Basement Stage of the tour, which is presented by Full Sail University. Herrera will play four dates on the tour, all of which will take place in California.

As if all that wasn’t enough, the band also is undertaking the tour to support their recently released ninth studio album, Plans Within Plans. The album was released on April 3, and was the band’s first since 2007’s Secret Weapon.

Though the group didn’t release their first album until 1994, they first formed as a band called Magnified Plaid in 1992 when most of the members were 15-years-old. The band’s current name came out of that previous name being abbreviated M.P., and then having the periods replaced with “X’s.”

The 34-date tour will kick off August 1 in Seattle, and will run through September 15 when the groups play in San Francisco, Calif. Cities the bands will hit in between these dates include Chicago, Pittsburg, New York, Houston and Phoenix.

Lamb of God , the three-time Grammy Award nominated band from Richmond, Va., will be supporting their most recent album, Resolution, which was released earlier this year. The album debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Dethklok’s performances will be unique in that they will bring the animated band to life with real players while also incorporating animations and videos on a projection screen. The band is fronted by Brendon Small who co-created “Metalocalypse” and also composes all the music on the show. Small will be joined by an all-star band including Gene Holgan, Bryan Beller and Mike Keneally. The tour will be the first time the band has toured since they were supporting their second album, Dethklok: The Dethalbum II, with Mastodon in 2009. The group is reportedly working on its third album, which is expected to be released later this year.

Gojira, a French metal band, also has a new album to support with the tour. The band will release their fifth album, L’Enfant Sauvage, before the tour on June 26 on Roadrunner Records.

Lamb of God’s fifth album, Sacrament, is one of the group’s most well-known records, and its song “Redneck” received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Metal Performance in 2007. The band originally formed in 1994 and released its debut album, Burn the Priest, in 1999.

Of the seven new dates that were announced, five are in California, and the tour will kick off October 1 at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif. The tour will continue through October 10 when the band performs at the Pan American Center in Las Cruces, N.M., and the trek also will visit Santa Barbara, Calif.; San Diego; Los Angeles; Anaheim, Calif. and Phoenix.

On all dates of the tour, the Black Keys will be joined by indie rock duo (and identical twins) Tegan and Sara. About the upcoming dates, Sara said she has big plans for the performances.

“We are big fans of the band, and are honored to join them!” she said in a statement. “We’ll be doing our best to rock the hell out of the pre face melt crowd. No pyro, but maybe clothes with flames drawn on them.”

The Black Keys current U.S. tour will wrap up on May 19, and the band will take a brief break before performing at various festivals throughout North America and Europe for the remainder of the summer. And even after the newly announced West Coast dates, the band won’t be done touring yet. After the ne concerts, they will travel to Australia for a string of dates before returning once again to Europe.

El Camino is the Grammy winning group’s seventh studio album, and was released in December of last year. The album was produced by Danger Mouse, who also produced the Akron, Ohio duo’s previous record, Brothers. That album won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album and has gone on to sell over two million copies.

The move is part of a drastic overhaul of the lineup for the new fall season, and the new spot for “The Voice” will help the network focus on Monday and Tuesday nights. NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt says the move will help add flow to the lineup, using the momentum from Sunday football on the network.

Greenblatt acknowledges last fall’s ratings were not where he had hoped them to be, and hopes this move will be part of what brings the ratings back up. NBC would have finished fourth in the rankings of the television networks last fall had it not been for the large viewership it received for its broadcast of the Super Bowl.

“We’re trying to build a schedule that has lead-ins and flow – which is something we have been sorely lacking,” Greenblatt told the Washington Post. “We reconfigured Monday with ‘The Voice,’ which puts us in a really solid position there. We’re really focused on Tuesday and Wednesday. The further you get from Sunday and Monday, the harder it is to keep the momentum going. You can’t do it all at once.

The momentum will lead into NBC’s most successful night, Thursday, which will feature the same lineup it has this year with the shows “Community,” “Up All Night,” “30 Rock” and “Parks and Recreation.”

Greenblatt also said that the new version of “The Voice” will feature some tweaks to the judges duties, though he did not elaborate on what those tweaks would be.”

On Monday, Consequence of Sound reported that, “Recently, Weiland told ABC News Radio that the band, which includes former Guns N’ Roses members Slash, Matt Sorum and Duff McKagan, was ‘able to put egos and differences and old… conflicts aside and so that’s really cool… They have me a couple of songs and myself and [guitarist] Dave [Kushner] and [bassist] Duff [McKagan] are gonna be getting together for a song writing session next week.”

But Slash said in his own radio interview that this is not the case.

“He’s (Scott Weiland) out of his mind,” Slash told Minneapolis radio station 93x. “Maybe they (Weiland and Matt Sorum) know something I don’t.”

Feeding these rumors were the fact the band did get back together earlier this year for a one-time benefit performance in Los Angeles during a benefit concert for John O’Brien.

Velvet Revolver formed in 2002 with Weiland fronting a band made of most of the former members of Guns N’ Roses. The group released its debut album, Contraband, in 2004, and followed that up with Libertad in 2007.

Since Weiland’s departure, there have been multiple rumors that Velvet Revolver was looking for a replacement frontman, though no one was ever named to the position. In the meantime, Slash released two solo albums and Weiland rejoined his old band, Stone Temple Pilots.

Additionally, the members other than Weiland were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this year for their work in Guns N’ Roses. Founding Guns N’ Roses member (and the only original member remaining in the band) Axl Rose refused to attend the induction ceremony.

The first stop of the trek will be the Manchester Arena on May 22, and the short tour will continue through May 30 when the group plays the SECC in Glasgow. Other stops will be at the O2 Arena in London (May 24), the LG Arena in Birmingham (May 26) and the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield (May 28).

The tour will be Rush’s first visit to the U.K. since the band played three-and-a-half hour show each night as part of their Time Machine Tour in 2011. The dates will support the group’s upcoming album, Clockwork Angels, which is set to be released June 12 (June 11 in the U.K.).

The tour announcement comes soon after the posting of an extensive North American tour schedule for this fall, which will kick off in September and run through December. In all, 33 dates are scheduled for the North American tour. It has not yet been announced whether other dates are expected to be added to the world tour.

Clockwork Angels will be the band’s 20^th studio album, and was preceded by the single “Headlong Flight,” which was released April 19. The album also is the band’s first on its new record label, Roadrunner Records.

The album was recorded in Nashville and Toronto, and the group worked with producer Nick Raskulinecz. The producer also worked with Rush on their last studio album, 2007’s Snakes & Arrows, and also has worked with artists like the Foo Fighters and the Deftones.

The album, which features lyrics by Rush drummer Neil Peart, has been described as “a you man’s quest across a lavish and colorful world of steampunk and alchemy as he attempts to follow his dreams. The story features lost cities, pirates, anarchists, an exotic carnival and a rigid Watchmaker who imposes precision on every aspect of daily life.”

Spears was announced first as a judge, and will reportedly be paid $15 million for her appearance. It was not immediately clear what Lovato will be paid. The two will join the other current judges that carried over from the previous season of the show, creator Simon Cowell and record producer L.A. Reid. Spears and Lovato will be filling the spots of Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger, who left the show after the initial season of the show.

Along with Abdul and Scherzinger, host Steve Jones also left the show earlier this year. Though Scherzinger claimed she was leaving the show to focus on her music career, many reports say that the three were forced off of the show after Fox wasn’t happy with the ratings of the first season of the show.

Rumors that Spears would appear on the show began earlier this year, and it was reported that she turned down the show’s initial $10 million offer while requesting $20 million. It would appear the two parties found a middle ground they were both happy with – it also was reported that Spears was considering a Las Vegas residency for this fall if she was not going to appear on the show.

Other reports say that Paula Abdul was paid $2.5 million for her role on the show last season. In another comparison, Christina Aguilera reportedly made $10 million last season for her role as a coach on NBC’s hit reality singing competition, “The Voice.”

There has still been no word yet as to who will replace Jones as the host of the show.

The summer tour features a few festival dates sprinkled throughout June and early July, and then will kick off in earnest on July 8 at the Wolftrap in Vienna, Va. The trek is scheduled to run through August 27 when the singer visits Soul Kitchen in Mobile, Ala. In between, the tour will visit Hampton Beach, N.H.; Atlantic City, N.J.; Portland, Maine; Milwaukee; Dallas; St. Louis and Myrtle Beach, S.C, among many other cities. Most dates will also feature the Dirty Heads.

Matisyahu’s festival dates will kick off June 1 at Dancefestopia in Kansas City, Mo., and he will also perform at Wakarusa 2012 in Ozark, Ark. on June 3.

The artist also has announced that his fourth album will be titled Spark Seeker and will be released in the midst of the tour on July 17. The album will feature J. Ralph, Shyne and Ravid Kahalani, and is produced by Kool Kojack, who also has worked with artists like Nicki Minaj, Ke$ha and Travis Barker.

Matisyahu released his first album in 2004, but it was his second album, 2006’s Youth, that brought him widespread attention, along with the live album Live at Stubb’s. The former debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 albums chart upon its release. The album became known for its mainstream reggae sound that backed lyrics that often explored the themes of Matisyahu’s Hasidic Jewish beliefs.

After long being an artist associated with his religion, it came a surprise to some when photos of the singer without a beard were posted to his official Twitter account late last year. The photos were accompanied by the following message on the singer’s official website:

No more Chassidic reggae superstar. Sorry folks all you get is me… no alias… Get ready for an amazing year filled with music of rebirth.