peHUB First Read

* Our next round of peHUB Shindigs begin tonight in Washington DC, before moving on to New York and Boston. More than 950 tickets already sold, with just a handful remaining (altough none in New York, sorry). Get yours now.

* VC-backed life sciences companies are running out of cash.

* Private equity bosses in demand, as banks look to manage their troubled businesses.

* Morning call: U.S. futures down, European shares slide on financials and mining, Nikkei and Hong Kong also drop.

* Yesterday I wrote about how Rock Band maker Harmonix received a $150 million earnout from Viacom, and is expected to receive an even larger one next year. Odd thing is that lots of the press reports — like this one from Bloomberg — suggest that all the money is going to Harmonix’s founding executives. Not sure why they keep ignoring the VCs who originally funded Harmonix and who, I’ve since confirmed, are taking their pro rata share.

* KKR Financial secures $400 million in new credit lines, suspends its dividend and says it’s considering other alternatives like reorganizing as a bank. That last part, of course, means that an affiliate of KKR may soon be in theoretical position to receive federal bailout dollars. Kind of like what American Express is doing.

* Project Playlist raises $20 million and adds ex-Facebook exec Own Van Natta as CEO. But why?

*  John Crudele on bogus jobs reports.

* Jesse Eisinger on the death of hedge funds.

* The Web 2.0 keynote interview with John Doerr: