The Second Annual Beatles Complete Ukulele Festival Will Take Place on December 5 and 6 in Williamsburg; Every Beatles Song Will Be Played on the Ukulele…And All Money Goes to Yoko Ono (Last Year, It Went to Warren Buffet); All Reading This Ought Be As Confused As I Am [Jezebel Music]

Stream a Re-Recording of Wavvves Cut “To the Dregs,” and a New Wavves Song “Horse Sholes” – Have an Existential Crisis Over the Fact that You Don’t Really Hate Wavves Anymore, As Zach Hill Brings Much-Needed Chops to the Project; Feel Dejected; Claim to Hate Wavves Anyway [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Brooklyn Over-Hyped But Endlessly Catchy Dance-Pop Duo MGMT Title Upcoming LP Congratulations, As In: Congratulations, MGMT, You’ve Succeeded in Making a Typically Boring Album Title [Pitchfork]

Watch The Flaming Lips Cover Pink Floyd’s “Eclipse;” You Decide What’s More Entertaining: The Cover, or Wayne Coyne’s Self-Absorbed, Convinced-He’s-Funny Babbling [Stereogum]

Cash Money Records Says Lil Wayne Will Release Two Albums Before The End of 2009; The Rebirth, The Much-Delayed Weezy-Goes-Rock Album, and Tha Carter 4, The Follow-Up to Wayne’s Lauded 2008 Offering…My Guess: Neither Will Come Out and I Just Wasted Time Writing These Sentences [Pitchfork]

Beyonce Cancels a Show in Malaysia Due to Malaysia’s Islamic Conservative Party’s Concerns That She Might Promote “Western Sexy Performances;” I’m Outraged Over Use of the Word “Might” in That Sentence. All The Woman Does is Western Sexy Performances [Billboard]

U2 Frontman Bono Believes President Obama is Having Difficult Time, Realizes the Harsh Reactions Obama Faced When Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, Doesn’t Know No One Gives a Shit About His Political Opinions, and Just Wants Him to Sing “With or Without You” In Front of Some Starving Kids [Idolator]

Watch Spike Jonze’s New Short Film Starring Kanye West, We Were Once a Fairytale; Features Kanye Being Hilariously Douche-y, Getting Really Drunk, And Then Vomiting Rose Petals With This Little Monster…So It’s Just Like the Real Kanye [NME]

No Age, Rain Machine (TV on the Radio’s Kyp Malone), Mew, and Jay Reatard All Opening for Pixies Doolittle Shows; Universal Agreement Made That This Concert Will Be “Very Good” (Alternatively, “Beyond Satisfactory”) [CMJ]

compiled by Max Sebela

Weekly Review
For the small number of you not out at the first official Pool Party of the summer (or for the many of you waiting in the forever-long line with your iPhones and nothing to do), here’s a wrap-up of this week’s music news…

At the local level: 2009 Summer Park Jams (already underway) and Siren Festival (taking place next weekend), schedules finalized. Both promise to be rollicking good, sweaty summer times. Also, Sufjan (Brooklyn resident) reworking Enjoy Your Rabbit for the Brooklyn quartet Osso. Resulting LP will be called Run Rabbit Run.

At the state level: Shellac, Crystal Castles, and Sufjan (crossing local-state boundaries), have been added to All Tomorrow’s Parties lineup. Will take place from September 11th-13th in Monticello, NY.

At the national level, in order of importance: Foo Fighters played 4th of July party last Sunday for Obama, debuted new song; NIN has announced lineup of final shows; and Panic at the Disco now (again) Panic! At the Disco.

At the international level, Leonard Cohen has enforced strict no-more-“Hallelujah”-cover policy. And, the only piece of news to reach an intergalactic level, David Bowie will release new EP this month, featuring “Space Oddity,” to celebrate the 40th anniversary of man walking on the moon.

by Elana Jacobs

VIRTUAL JUNGLE
Last October, Congress fulfilled Pandora founder Tim Westergren’s wish by passing the Webcaster Settlement Act. The bill gave Internet radio providers the opportunity to negotiate lower royalty rates with SoundExchange, a royalty-collecting branch of the RIAA, which had intended to double rates by 2010.

Now, after nine months of talks, many webcasters still have not reached an agreement with SoundExchange even though negotiation time is running out. Therefore, Congress has opted to give webcasters more time to find a proper royalty rate. Without the bill’s update, webcasters could face potentially bankrupting royalty rates. Once the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009 is signed by President Obama, it will give webcasters an additional 30 days to negotiate reasonable royalty rates through 2010.

Affected webcasters include non-NPR noncommercial webcasters, religious webcasters, small “Pure Play” webcasters, and large webcasters associated with Digital Media Association. Digital Media Association represents Internet radio stations such as Pandora, Slacker, and Live365.com.

Jonathan Potter, Executive Director of the Digital Media Association, issued a statement following the Senate’s approval that commended Senator Ron Wyden and Senator Sam Brownback “for quickly pushing this bill through the Senate and on to President Obama’s desk for his signature.”

Potter also said, “Hopefully, as Congress continues to focus more broadly on sound recording performance rights legislation, more comprehensive legislation will soon level the regulatory playing field for all forms of digital radio.” Webcasters hope to reach royalty agreements similar to those of satellite and cable radio.

by Ben Benson

VIRTUAL JUNGLE
During his first week in office, President Obama has already started an upheaval of the federal branch and a makeover of America’s image. He ordered Guantanamo closed, overturned a conservative abortion measure, proposed an $825 billion stimulus plan, and advocated for federal government transparency. However, in the next four years, President Obama probably will not make liberal changes to copyright protection policy.

We already knew that Vice President Biden has long sided with big-time media companies for intellectual property protection and anti-piracy policy. But now President Obama has appointed two more pro-copyright staff members to high levels within the Justice Department.

First up is Neil MacBride. President Obama nominated MacBride for the Justice Department’s Associated Deputy Attorney General. MacBride comes from the Business Software Alliance, an international organization that represents the largest software companies and their hardware counterparts. At BSA, MacBride oversaw efforts to fight Internet-piracy and fronted anti-piracy efforts on four continents. MacBride also designed a BSA program that rewarded individuals who phoned in leads about software piracy. He even helped start the International Anti-piracy Caucus, the same board that Biden co-chaired.
More on President Obama Chooses Pro-Copyright Staff for Top Positions