Remember that minor blogospheric meltdown when it was revealed that MGMT were to appear on Jay-Z’s Blueprint 3? Yeah… what a summer. Well, as we all know by now, the MGMT bros were left off Hova’s final tracklist (I figured they were bumped off by Alicia Keyes or Mr. Hudson or something) and here’s why: “MGMT turned me down,” Jay-z told Gotham (via Digital Spy). Perhaps it was that “Brian Eno” track and they wanted to keep it for their next LP.

R.E.M. are apparently back in the studio, as a recent photo of Michael Stipe with Accelerate producer Jacknife Lee was sent to fansite Murmurs by R.E.M.’s tour manager, Bob Whittaker. Murmurs says the photo depicts Stipe and company starting “work on the new R.E.M. record.” Watch ‘em twiddle them knobs here.

You’d think Paul McCartney would have better ways to set up collaborations than to tease the media, but he’s been fueling his own musical rumors lately and now he’s using the press to just flat out ask famous musicians to call him. Who needs a phone when you’ve got a constant news cycle to relay messages?

“I’d like to work on some more dancey stuff with MGMT,” McCartney told Zoe Griffin (via NME). “But it has to happen organically. We need to talk about it. I can’t call them. If they called me, I’d say, ‘How did you get my number?’ But I’d do it.”

Then there’s the big rumor that Bob Dylan and McCartney are set to record together this summer in Malibu, where they both own houses. This story started a while back when McCartney mentioned Dylan as someone he’d love to work with, which isn’t really news because he’s been saying things like that for years. Some tabloids, however, ran with it and made up a bunch of stuff about Ringo being involved, etc., but McCartney has now debunked the story, adding, “I did say I wanted to work with Bob but that was ages ago and he hasn’t been in touch. I can’t contact him. That’s not cool. Hey Bob, what’s happening? Where’s the party, man?”

Maybe Paul forgot to tell everyone whom the text was from when he sent out his new cell phone number. The ex-Beatle should just start a Twitter and call it a day.

Now this was a very cool move. As we previously reported, MGMT were involved in a legal scuffle with French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s political party, UMP, over the use of their song “Kids” in two campaign videos. The band were initially offered compensation of one euro for use of the song online, but their lawyers fought back, calling the offer “disrespectful” and “insulting.”

In a statement posted on their site last Friday, MGMT said the following:

Normally MGMT steers clear of mixing music and politics, but the fact that the UMP used our song without permission while simultaneously pushing anti-piracy legislation seemed a little wack. We believe that access to music benefits both the musicians and the fans, and has undoubtedly helped spread our music around the globe, while also expanding our personal musical collections. We didn’t want to be “typical Americans” and sue, despite the amazing monetary benefit and chinchilla coats and Navigators it would bring. Instead we’re using the settlement fee the UMP presented and donating it to artists rights organizations. Thank you France for the wonderful food. C’est bon. MGMT

Well played, gentlemen.