Sonic Youth Set to Bring "Starpower" To "Gossip Girl"

Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and the rest of Sonic Youth are joining Chuck Bass, Blair Waldorf and the cast of TV's hottest show Gossip Girl — for one episode. The New York band will feature on the fifth show of the upcoming season for a "very special event" that warranted a special guest the magnitude of Sonic Youth, showrunner Stephanie Savage told EW's Music Mix. Sonic Youth aren't using their GG appearance to promote their latest masterpiece The Eternal; instead, the band will dig into their back catalog for an acoustic performance of "Starpower," off 1986's EVOL.

Check out Gossip Girl's steamy RS cover shoot.

This isn't the first time Sonic Youth have contributed to Gossip Girl: Last season, Thurston Moore and former Be Your Own Pet singer Jemina Pearl covered the Ramones' "Sheena is a Punk Rocker," one of Rolling Stone's favorite music moments from the hit WB show.

Savage tells EW that Sonic Youth's affinity for GG first came to her attention when she learned Moore was using Gossip Girl as a backdrop while playing solo Psychic Hearts shows last year. "I hope it was a cool, edgy homage! And it turned out that it was — tongue in cheek for sure, but definitely with love, and that they were fans of the show," Savage said.

The Nasty Thrill of Gossip Girl: On the Set of TV's Hottest Show in Rolling Stone.

As Rock Daily previously reported, No Doubt appeared on a flashback episode of Gossip Girl last season to perform a rendition of Adam & the Ants' "Stand and Deliver," the first new song recorded by the band since their reunion.

Sonic Youth have long been the authority on pop culture and art in New York City — from their performance at a Merce Cunningham dance show to a MOMA installment dedicated to David Bowie — and Gossip Girl has become synonymous with Big Apple culture in its short tenure. Plus, Moore and Gordon's daughter Coco is 15 now, so she's likely a fan of the program like every other 15-year-old girl in the United States. Season Three of Gossip Girl premieres on September 14th.

Related Stories:
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• Gossip Girl: The Steamy Rolling Stone Cover Shoot With Terry Richardson
• Sonic Youth's "The Eternal": Most Diverse Record Yet from Indie-Rock Vets

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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