Is it Sunday already? Wow, time flies, doesn't it? Anyway, it is once again time to nourish your noggin with oh so nutritious music news. Thanks again for the notes, you guys are kewl. We've got a lot going on this week, so let's hit it!

Reverb

International

The Smiths have long been the soundtrack of the lives of jaded, disillusioned young folks for nearly 3 decades now, so it makes total sense that their music would the focal point in 500 Days of Summer, a buzz-heavy romantic comedy that is said to be the best film about world-weary, navel-gazing pseudo-philosophical young Caucasians since Zach Braff's Garden State.

The soundtrack will feature mostly jaded, shoe-gazing, morose, and ponderous white kids singing classic songs popularized by the Smiths. Regina Spektor, Feist, Carla Bruni (aka the First Lady of France), and She & Him can be found on this sure to be yummy compilation.

Yes, She of She & Him is Zooey Deschanel, who stars in the film with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. She & Him are covering the Smiths' "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want".

And as an emo, jaded, disillusioned, pseudo-philosophical (part-) white boy myself, I really really like that song. The album will be out July 14th through Sire records.

Elektra Records, the Warner Music subsidiary that went belly-up five years ago, is set to return under new management. And it appears that the new Elektra will be a pretty rocking joint. The label's first three signings are EQ-happy French house duo Justice, Gnarls Barkley frontman and hall-of-fame Southern rapper Cee-Lo, and British electro diva Little Boots.

Former Atlantic Records hip-hopper guy Mike Caren will serve as co-president of the re-launched Elektra, alongside John Janick, founder of the assembly line emo label Fueled By Ramen.

The first release on the new Elektra is the soundtrack for the tantalizing HBO vampire drama "True Blood", which is out now. But Justice have been camped out on the remix circuit ever since the release of their brain-shattering 2007 debut +, and Cee-Lo hasn't released a solo album since 2004's unappreciated gem Cee-Lo Green Is the Soul Machine. If a new Elektra means new albums from those two, then a new Elektra is good news.

San Diego's indie harbingers of doom the Black Heart Procession are alive! After the collapse of their former label, Touch and Go, they've signed with Temporary Residence. Black Heart Procession plan to release their first album for Temporary Residence in October, which they will follow with a world tour.

If you're keeping track at home, the recently reunited B.H.P. precursor band Three Mile Pilot have also signed with Temporary Residence, so have Pinback , the other band to come from Three Mile Pilot's breakup.

So Temporary Residence is basically the home of all things TMP. I've been a fan of the Black Heart Procession since 2001, so this is seriously good news for me. Keep a lookout for the new offering.

Indie Rock pioneers and flag-wavers Yo La Tengo are ready to release Popular Songs, their follow-up to 2006's I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass on September 8 courtesy of Matador records, according to a post on the label's website.

The record was created in their native Hoboken, New Jersey, and in Nashville earlier this year. A description of the record claims "there are portions of Popular Songs where a cursory needle drop reveals a band that doesn't sound instantly like Yo La Tengo." Sounds interesting. Judging from the roadhouse-esque "Periodically Double or Triple", sounds like someone's been obsessing over their Booker T. & the MG's records a little too much.

And now for some not so happy news:

The website for UK's music mag NME reports that the British producer/mixer/overall sound-shaping genius Jonny Dollar, who worked his mix-magic on the classic Massive Attack album Blue Lines, died of cancer last weekend in London. He was 45.

Singer Koko Taylor, known to hardcore fans of deep dark Chicago Blues as the "Queen of the Blues", died this past week in Chicago, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The 80-year-old's death was due to complications from surgery for a gastrointestinal bleed, according to a statement from her longtime label, Alligator Records.

Taylor, born Cora Walton in Memphis in 1928, began singing at a young age. She moved to Chicago in 1952 and soon started performing in blues clubs. In 1962, she signed to the legendary Chess Records, scoring a big hit in 1965 with the Willie Dixon song "Wang Dang Doodle".

She signed to Alligator in 1975, and released nine albums for the label, the last one being 2007's Old School. Over the course of her lifetime, Taylor won 29 Blues Music Awards, more than any other artist. She was nominated eight times for Grammy Awards, winning once, in 1984. Taylor played with everyone from Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf to Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and continued to tour around the world right until the very end. Her last performance was on May 7 in Memphis. Rest In Peace Koko (September 28, 1928 - June 3, 2009)

That about wraps it up for this week's Reverb. Stay tuned next week!

Meanwhile, do drop me a line at undergroundhum@yahoo.com and if you've got a band or know of any cool bands with gigs coming up, email me the full details and I'll be sure to include it in the next Reverb.

See y'all next week!

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