Hard-rockers Incubus will hit the road with the Deftones as their special guests on the second leg of the band's U.S. headlining tour, according to a Deftones spokesperson. The outing is slated to kick off in October and run through November. ...

Pearl Jam are looking for volunteers to register voters at their concerts, according to a note on their Web site (www.sonymusic.com/artists/PearlJam). The band is guaranteeing one ticket for each volunteer. ... The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland is planning a monthlong fifth birthday celebration beginning Sept. 5. Admission will be free of charge every Monday and Wednesday evenings. ...

John Mellencamp has been making surprise appearances in the downtown areas of several cities, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, according to the singer's official site (www.mellencamp.com). He plans to perform a short, acoustic set Friday (Aug. 18) in Detroit. ... Universal Music Group, whose labels are home to such artists as DMX, Shania Twain and Beck, will make thousands of tracks available for paid downloads in the fall, Reuters reported. The company will continue to sell its music online in its proprietary Bluematter format, the report said. ...

Punk-rockers the Offspring are eyeing a mid-November release date for the follow-up to their multiplatinum 1998 LP, Americana. The band is finishing production on the LP with Brendan O'Brien (Stone Temple Pilots) and will move on to the mixing stage in the coming weeks, sources said. On Wednesday, the Offspring posted new video footage from the studio on www.offspring.com. ... After a stint on the Vans Warped Tour, Weezer are finishing the summer with a short outing of their own. Weezer will hit the road Aug. 23 in New York and play around the East and Midwest through a Sept. 3 date in Chicago, a band representative said. ...

System of a Down are in the studio with producer Rick Rubin, working on their second album, a spokesperson said. The band's label hopes to have the disc out this December. ... Pop-rockers Barenaked Ladies have come on strong at radio with "Pinch Me," the lead single from their forthcoming album Maroon, due Sept. 12. The song is the most-added track at several formats this week, including Pop and AAA, according to radio research reports. "Pinch Me" also appears on the soundtrack to the VH1 movie "At Any Cost," alongside tunes by Eagle-Eye Cherry and Beyond Gravity. (Sonicnet.com's parent company, Viacom, also owns VH1.) ...

Parachutes, the Mercury Music Prize–nominated debut record from British rockers Coldplay, will be released Nov. 7 in the United States, according to a spokesperson for album licensees Nettwerk America. "Yellow," the LP's first single, will hit radio in January, before the band launches a North American tour. ... Rock quartet Versus have completed work on an album titled Hurrah, due Oct. 3, according to Merge Records. It will be the band's first full-length since 1998's Two Cents Plus Tax, though they released two EPs in the interim: Afterglow and Shangri-La. ...

Monday's birthdays (Aug. 21): Carl Giammarese (Buckinghams), 53; Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple), 48; Joe Strummer (Clash), 48; Steve Smith (Journey), 46; Budgie (Siouxsie & the Banshees), 43; and Liam Howlett (Prodigy), 29.

— sonicnet.com staff report