Elektra Records Returns With Justice, Little Boots, Cee-Lo

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After five years of dormancy, Elektra Records will relaunch with a fresh roster of artists, Atlantic Records announced today in a statement. French dance duo Justice, Gnarls Barkley's Cee-Lo and RS Breaking artist Little Boots are among the first musicians on the label, which in the past was home to the Doors, Eagles and Phish. Mike Caren, who was Executive Vice President of A&R for Atlantic Records, and John Janick, the founder of Fueled By Ramen, will serve as co-Presidents of the new venture.

"Elektra Records will mark its 60th Anniversary in 2010, and it feels like the perfect time to recapture and reignite the spirit which made the label a beacon of great music and eclectic artistry," Janick said in a statement. Elektra was founded in 1950, and eventually went on to sign acts like the Stooges, MC5 and Love, before merging with Asylum Records in 1972 to bring artists like Tom Waits and the Eagles into the fold. In 2004, after Warner Music Group was sold by Time Warner, Elektra and Atlantic Records were merged, marking the temporary end of the Elektra brand.

Thus far, the biggest acquisition for the Elektra reboot is the second album by Justice, who released their hit 2007 debut † with the indie label Ed Banger. Little Boots' Hands, due out next week, finds a WMG distributor in the States after being assigned to WMG's Sixsevenine in the U.K. Cee-Lo, who released his first two solo albums through Arista but is signed to Atlantic for his output with Gnarls Barkley, rounds out the new Elektra roster. Additionally, the label also recently released a soundtrack for the HBO series True Blood.

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Song Stories

“V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.”

Fishbone | 1985

Quite a few musicians have utilized initials for song titles -- Michael Jackson's "P.Y.T.," Abba's "S.O.S.," Donald Fagen's "I.G.Y.," etc. But the more curiously initialed tune has to be "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F.," short for "Voyage to the Land of the Freeze-Dried Godzilla Farts." Fishbone's original guitarist, Kendall Jones, explained to Rolling Stone, "When Norwood [Fisher] wrote it, he introduced it to the band saying, 'Man, I've been hearing about all these Nazi right-wing groups on the news saying the Holocaust was staged. So what if America said it never dropped two atom bombs on Japan, that it was actually Godzilla popping a couple off?' Only Norwood would come up with something that out." The same year "V.T.T.L.O.T.F.D.G.F." was released, the film Godzilla 1985 appeared in North America.

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