The Bamboozle Festival (May 18-20) recently announced a slew of after parties at local Asbury Park venues, including the Convention Hall, The Stone Pony, Wonder Bar and even a beachside bonfire hosted by Motion City Soundtrack.

An announcement from festival coordinators states: “After party headliners, Skrillex, DJ Pauly D and the Barstool Blackout will close each night’s after party line-up… [t]he after parties scheduled to begin at 11:00 PM will feature performances by Skrillex and Friends, DJ Pauly D, the Barstool Blackout FOAM party, Fishbone, Big Freedia, White Panda, Datsik, T. Mills, Dramarama, Tragedy: A Tribute To The Bee Gees, Outasight, and more, plus The Bamboozle special guest.”

It continues, “In addition to after parties, hours will be extended for all of the attractions along the boardwalk including restaurants, miniature golf, other family-friendly activities, a ‘silent rave’ on Saturday night at Bradley Park, and beach bonfires on Friday with performances by The Wonder Years, and The Story So Far, and on Saturday, Motion City Soundtrack and Ballyhoo at South Beach in Asbury Park.”

Be sure to check out the official Bamboozle site for more info on the after parties, and stay tuned to OurStage’s Plugged In Magazine for an in-depth festival preview later on this month. Rage on, Boozlers!

Just shy of two years past the release of Diamond Eyes, Deftones have announced that they’ve finished writing their next album and will begin recording it on July 9. The band has also confirmed that they’re sticking with producer Nick Raskulinecz for the album. Receiving generally positive reviews across the board, Diamond Eyes was the band’s first record since the 2008 accident that left bassist Chi Cheng in a coma. For that album, Deftones recruited former Quicksand bassist Sergio Vega to play tour dates and record, and he’s been working with them since. Though it hasn’t been explicitly confirmed, it would appear that Vega will be recording the new record with the rest of the Deftones crew, with vocalist Chino stating that Vega “has been working very well” in the band during an interview with Chilean publication La Tercera.

Photo and scoop courtesy of NME.

In case after case, the major record labels have sued everyone from college students to Napster, ostensibly on behalf of their artists. Unfortunately, it seems these gardian angels of the music industry may be less vigilant when it comes to their own accounting. According to Billboard, Weird Al Yankovic is suing Sony Music through his company, Ear Booker Enterprises, for $5,000,000. Yankovic is accusing Sony of acting improperly as the company took duplicate recoupments of his music – resulting in lower royalty payments. In addition, it is alleged the company has fallen short on their licensing contract with Yankovic – merely paying straight royalties for download sales instead of the 50% of revenues Yankovic’s licensing deal entitles him to. Most notably, Yankovic is accusing Sony Music of  hypocritically refusing to share any money it received from lawsuit settlements from sites such as Napster, Kazaa and Grokster. Further, the lawsuit states that Yankovic is entitled to a portion of deal Sony made with YouTube – providing the website with “White and Nerdy” and other “official” Weird Al content.

Billboard reports Sony Music has yet to respond publicly to the allegations.

Robert “Bobby” Pointdexter from the 1970′s soul group The Persuaders is suing Kanye West for the latter’s use of an unauthorized sample of Poindexter’s song “Trying Girls Out.” The sample is found on Kanye’s “Girls Girls Girls” 2006 remix on his mixtape Freshman Adjustment 2, but Pointdexter claims he was not aware of the copyright infringement until recently. ”By chance, I happened to discover the usage of the illegal version on the internet in 2011,” he says.

The singer says he has also tried to contact West to negotiate an out-of-court settlement, but never heard back from the superstar rapper. Poindexter has thus filed a lawsuit with the U.S. District Court in Southern New York, seeking $500,000 in compensation. This comes on the heels of another Kanye lawsuit, which he recently settled with singer Syl Johnson.

At 53, Madonna apparently still likes to party like she’s in college.

Her 12th studio album MDNA has received much criticism over the past few months, not because her music seems to have “fallen behind,” but because of the obvious drug reference the title makes. What’s more, her latest single “Girl Gone Wild” has been the center of controversy, causing a stir with Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis, as well as earning an age restriction on YouTube for being too obscene.

Now, EDM stars Paul Van Dyk and Deadmau5 have lashed out at Madge for yet another drug reference during her cameo at Ultra Music Festival. ”How many people in this crowd have seen Molly?” said Madonna, in what Van Dyk calls “the biggest mistake of her career.” While she has denied all claims that the comment was a reference to the drug ecstasy, we’re not quite convinced. At the very least, we’re hoping she chooses her words more carefully from now on.

According to Rolling Stone, television sensation Pauly D has signed to 50 Cent’s G-Note Records, the alternative dance/pop sister label to 50′s rap mecca G-Unit Records. Unlike his buddies on Jersey Shore, Pauly D is moving away from the one night stands, binge boozin’ and fake tanning (well, maybe not that) to step up his brand recognition as a DJ/TV superstar.

For the past year, Pauly D has been performing at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas as one of their resident DJs. Last night, Mr. D premiered his Jersey Shore spin-off show, The Pauly D Project on MTV, which is meant to focus more attention towards his musical career.

George Jones, known for timeless hits like “You’re Still On My Mind,” “Color Of The Blues,” “She Thinks I Still Care,” and “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” as well as for getting pinched for a DUI while cruising around town on a lawn tractor because his wife hid the car keys, has been hospitalized with an upper respiratory infection. Jones, now 80-years-old, was admitted to a Nashville hospital and will remain overnight for observation.

While we can’t condone blowing a good chunk of your life as a drunken disaster, we have to admit that Jones did it best. He is one of the great singers and songwriters in the history of early country music (and a little rock – see his ode to moonshine “White Lightning”) and now is as good a time as any to spend some time enjoying his tales of woe and heartbreak.

The Good

President Obama is sexy (and he knows it)

Who woulda thought that President Obama was such a big LMFAO fan? Turns out he’s been surreptitiously dropping lyrics to “Sexy and I Know It” into all his speeches. As long as he doesn’t collaborate with Madonna, we’re OK with it. Watch the Commander in Chief bring sexy back below.

Deadmau5 taps fan to collaborate

The Internet has elevated many things to a whole new level: spying on your exes, indulging your cat obsession and, in this case, interacting with your favorite musician. Deadmau5, otherwise known as Joel Zimmerman, streamed an unfinished track on his Web site to give fans a listen to the songwriting process. One industrious follower tweeted the DJ a vocal track, and Zimmerman liked it so much he promised to add it into the song. Oh Internet, will your powers ever cease to amaze? Watch the magic happen below.

The Bad

Jerry Lee Lewis marries for seventh time, to cousin’s ex-wife

File under gross: Jerry Lee Lewis, who is now seventy-six years old, got married to his seventh wife … wait for it … who also happens to be the ex-wife of his own cousin, Rusty Brown. But there’s more! Cousin Rusty is the younger brother of Myrna Gale Brown, who married Lewis when she was only thirteen years old. Lets hope this latest dysfunctional marriage cools those great balls of fire once and for all.

Earl Scruggs dies

Bluegrass pioneer Earl Scruggs passed away this week from natural causes at an area hospital in Nashville. He was eighty-eight years old. Scruggs, along with Bill Monroe and Lester Flatt, formed the most influential bluegrass acts of all time—the Blue Grass Boys. Scruggs is credited with popularizing the three-finger style of banjo playing. He went on to play with Flatt in the Foggy Mountain Boys (later known as Flatt and Scruggs). His hits—which include the theme song to “The Beverly Hillbillies” and “Bonnie and Clyde”—helped bring bluegrass to mainstream audiences. R.I.P.

The Ugly

Wayne Coyne bleeds collaborators for Record Store Day release

For his upcoming Record Store Day release, entitled The Flaming Lips and Heady Fwends, Wayne Coyne wasn’t content to give fans his figurative blood, sweat and tears. The Flaming Lips front man is including his actual blood as well as the blood of his collaborators on the vinyl and packaging of the record. That means folks like Yoko Ono, Bon Iver, Ke$ha, Biz Markie, Chris Martin, Erykah Badu and more will be donating a sample to this bio-hazardous album. Handle with gloves, people.

Bobby Brown arrested for DUI

Bobby Brown was charged with two DUI counts and a misdemeanor charge of driving on a suspended license after cops pulled the singer over on Monday. Brown faces up to six months in jail if convicted. His court date is scheduled for April 16. Our advice? We think Brown should pack up his group, get a grip, come equipped, grab his proton pack off his back and then split. Oh wait, that only works if you’re a Ghostbuster.

Miscellany

• Aerosmith announce summer tour dates
• Watch Cori B’s “Daddy’s Girl” video
• Andrea Bocelli welcomes daughter
• Bobby Womack diagnosed with colon cancer
• Amy Winehouse’s 4.6 million estate goes to family
• Are Lana Del Rey and Marilyn Manson dating?
• Diplo calls M.I.A. “abusive”
• Scots use Queen to protest Donald Trump golf course
• Jet breaks up
• Justin Bieber drops “Boyfriend”
• Usher will play Sugar Ray Leonard in biopic
• Madonna sings “Happy Birthday” to Nicki Minaj
• Madonna clears air with DeadMau5 via Twitter

According to Hypebot, the music streaming service/app Spotify will be extending its free listening period in the U.S. If the service followed their European model in America, listening times would be cut by at least 10 hours per month.

To the relief of their non-premium users, this morning’s announcement stated that Spotify will extend their free period indefinitely: “We’ve been so overwhelmed by the US response to Spotify that we’ve extended the honeymoon for unlimited free listening.”

The news is unexpected since the combined income of advertisements and Spotify Premium memberships - making up just 10% of the company’s revenues - only covers a fraction of their operating costs, which include paying artists and rights-holders for every stream. As Spotify moves to extend free service in America, it will also be launching a huge funding campaign with a $3.5 billion valuation. To date, the company has raised $100 million.

In a recent interview with Billboard, DJ Afrojack revealed that he and Shakira have been working together in the studio.

“She’s really nice and that’s why we started working together,” says the DJ. “She has a unique voice and really loves the new dance thing. Like when a beat drops, she makes this like… face. She’s feeling it.”

This sheds some additional light on Shakira’s recent announcement that she has returned to the studio to work on a new album. Other sources have revealed that she will also collaborate with LMFAO, Akon and RedOne, but whether or not her tracks with Afrojack will be on the album is still unsure. “I never want to put a name tag on something,” says Afrojack. “I wanna just see what happens, but probably. We’ll see.”