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Robyn Hangs With The Backstabbing ‘Gossip Girl’ Crowd For A Night

Robbie Daw — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 13:58:07 +0000

Robyn braved the bitchery of Gossip Girl to appear in a scene last night where she was the entertainer a party. Our favorite Swedish body talker donned a red dress and giant gold earrings and performed a stripped-down version of her single “Hang With Me” while Blair and Serena each frantically droned on about something or other. In the end, after much drama, Blair and Chuck end up in bed together. Good to know nothing has changed in the two seasons since we last watched!

Last week Robyn premiered her safe-sex-friendly music video for new single “Indestructible.” Her full Body Talk album, which will contain 15 tracks, is due out November 29.

Robyn Performs On German TV — And ‘Gossip Girl’!

Becky Bain — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 18:10:02 +0000

Robyn sang a sorrowful, stripped down version of both “Dancing On My Own” and “Hang With Me” on German talk show SAT1 Frühstücksfernsehen (please don’t make us say that one out loud), and it’s these subtle, sensitive performances that make us wish the Swedish singer was a more present force on the mainstream pop landscape in the U.S. Hopefully her upcoming Gossip Girl cameo will drum up some more buzz for her trio of Body Talk albums. Watch Robyn masterfully sing live on German TV below.

Robyn — “Dancing On My Own” (Live)

Robyn — “Hang With Me” (Live)

Meanwhile, Robyn tweeted a photo of her on the set of Gossip Girl — we can’t wait! If there’s any justice in the world, she’ll get more screen time than she did at the VMAs. (That is to say, more than 35 measly seconds. Ugh. MTV! We’re shakin’ our fists at you!)

Robyn will be joining an impressive list of pop stars who have performed on the show—Cyndi Lauper, Lady Gaga and No Doubt have all had cameos on the CW drama. What do you expect from a TV show that has two (somewhat) respected musicians as part of its main cast?

[Stereogum]

‘Gossip Girl’ Creator’s Best Of The Decade List Seems Awfully Familiar

Becky Bain — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:31:09 +0000

Josh Schwartz, the dude who brought us boob tube guilty pleasures like The O.C., Gossip Girl and Chuck, took a break from writing angsty teen dialogue for mutants long enough to share his picks for the albums that defined the last decade with EW’s Music Mix blog. It’s hard to dispute that Schwartz has been incredibly influential in music and pop culture throughout the Noughties—credit him with introducing the world to Jason Schwartzman’s other gig (we’re still bummed), and for making Death Cab For Cutie famous enough that they could eventually move on to even more soundtrack work. Heck, we kinda love him, too, for booking power acts like No Doubt and Lady Gaga on Gossip Girl — a show that spawned two of its own potential music stars (even if it only promotes one of them), so we generally approve of what he has to say. A sampling of Schwartz’s self-titled categories after the jump:

Best Albums by the Defining Artists of the ’00s: Radiohead’s Kid A; Jay-Z’s The Blueprint

Best Albums That Saved Their Respective Genres: The Strokes’ This Is It; OutKast’s Stankonia

Best Albums That Changed Those Genres: Kanye West’s College Dropout; Arcade Fire’s Funeral

Best Albums That Capture What This Decade Felt Like: M.I.A.’s Kala; LCD Soundsystem’s Sounds of Silver

We’re noticing a pattern here on all these end-of-the-decade lists: OutKast’s Stankonia and Jay-Z’s The Blueprint held up especially well (even Jay-Z himself says so), as did Kanye’s College Dropout. Guess not everybody hates him as much as we think. (Especially not with six Grammy nominations… We just want to plant the seed now: Lil Mama should interrupt every one of his acceptance speeches, anywhere.)

One more nitpick: what, no love for X-tina on any of these lists? Stripped? Back to Basics? Hello, McFly, anyone remember these fantastic pop albums besides us (and fellow commenter James?)

Check out the rest of Schwartz’s picks at EW’s Music Mix.

‘Gossip Girl’ Singers Feuding Over Whose Songs Appear On Their Crappy Show

Becky Bain — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:49:05 +0000

Uh oh, there’s trouble a-brewin’ behind the scenes of Gossip Girl between aspiring double threats Leighton Meester and Taylor Momsen. Hollywood Life reports that Taylor’s miffed that GG producers have prominently featured Leighton’s musical output (her own “Somebody to Love” and Cobra Starship’s “Good Girls Go Bad”) on the show—in addition to premiering the video for “Somebody to Love”—while they haven’t bothered to reach for any of the music yet recorded by Momsen’s band, The Pretty Reckless. Truth be told, Taylor should be more upset about the horrifying clothes the costume department forces her to wear on the show, but hey, she’s picking her battles.

A rep for the show says, “The show will support Taylor and her music when the time is right, but her music is not ready yet.”

Of course it’s not ready yet. The Pretty Reckless, though signed to Interscope, doesn’t even have a full album recorded yet, and their biggest claim to fame (besides having a Courtney Love-non-beefing teen TV star as their frontwoman) was opening on tour for The Veronicas. And maybe Taylor shouldn’t be too upset. Even with Gossip Girl’s help, “Somebody to Love” didn’t even dent Billboard’s Hot 100.

Anyway, Taylor should take the show’s evident lack of interest as a compliment that her band’s rock/punk songs don’t fit in with the schlocky drama on Gossip Girl. If her band can generate just a little more heat, her songs can probably land on a better show.

Leighton Meester Takes On A Christmas Classic

Robbie Daw — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:49:23 +0000

Among the slew of new releases today—Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Susan Boyle and Adam Lambert, to name a few—comes the A Very Special Christmas Volume 7 compilation. Yes, it’s chock full of the usual holiday suspects. But hark! AVSC 7 also features a cover of the yuletide classic, “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)” by Gossip Girl starlet Leighton Meester.

So will Blair Waldorf’s rendition of the holiday fave become as celebrated as the Darlene Love original and the 1987 cover by U2 (which, incidentally, appeared on the very first A Very Special Christmas album)? Have a listen to a clip of it after the jump and see what you think of her prospects.

Hmmm. Sorry, Upper East Siders, but we’re thinking this could use a little sexing-up by Robin Thicke.

Other artists on A Very Special Christmas Volume 7 include Miley Cyrus (”Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”), Colbie Caillat (”Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”), Kellie Pickler (”Santa Baby”) and Kristinia DeBarge (”Do You Hear What I Hear?”).

Lady Gaga Does ‘Bad Romance’ On ‘Gossip Girl’

Robbie Daw — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:31:27 +0000

Admittedly, it’s been awhile since we tuned in to Gossip Girl. Whereas Season 1 offered up decent fodder worthy of original Melrose Place-type watercooler chit chat, Season 2 got a bit off track. And though the Hilary Duff stunt-casting/lesbian kiss wasn’t enough to draw us in recently, there was an overall morbid curiosity to watch last night’s episode and see how Lady Gaga’s performance of “Bad Romance” (not to mention her neverending red gown) would factor into it all.

Thankfully, that’s where YouTube comes in handy. Catch Lady Gaga briefly weaving in and out of Dan, Vanessa, Serena and Nate’s forever-tortured love lives after the jump.

Lady Gaga Makes ‘Gossip Girl’ Watchable

Becky Bain — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:29:47 +0000

Here’s a sneak peek of Monday’s Gossip Girl featuring Lady Gaga, performing “Bad Romance.” Thankfully, the idea of being a distracting celebrity musical guest doesn’t seem to weigh Gaga down, and she makes her mini-performance just as wacky as you’d expect it to be. (Plus, I want that neverending red gown, and the dress-waving men to go with it. Do you think they have a cheapo version of that at Forever 21?)

Is anyone going to watch this ep of GG now that almost all of Gaga’s guest appearance has been leaked online?

Taylor Momsen’s Birthday Party Was Not Really A “Sweet” Sixteen

Maura — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:00:36 +0000

Last night I ventured to New York’s Hiro Ballroom for the 16th birthday party of Taylor Momsen, who stars on the cult-beloved TV show Gossip Girl and who fancies herself a rocker chick in the Sassy cover girl mold. (Note this recent quote from her Teen Vogue cover story: “I would eat a boy my age alive.”) The “party” wasn’t a meet-and-greet affair as much as it was an opportunity for her band, the Pretty Reckless, to perform in front of a crowd of radio-station contest winners, assorted VIPs (including some video-camera-wielding family members), and co-stars. (Who, it should be noted, I didn’t see at all, due to them presumably being ensconced in the club’s roped-off upstairs area.)

Momsen, clad in a sheer pink baby-doll dress, a black bra, and a pair of knee-high lace-up boots, led her all-brunette-male band ably through the 10-song set, veering from underage coquette to genuinely excited birthday girl (and sounding not unlike 30 Rock’s Jenna Maroney when describing the menacing “Zombie” as one of her favorite self-penned songs) easily. Despite having all the sartorial trappings of a ’90s alt-rock frontwoman—her dress was covered by a leather biker jacket for the set’s first few songs; her blonde mop, red lipstick, and heavy eyeliner were straight out of the 1994 edition of the Courtney Love Guide To Grooming—her band was definitely operating in more of a ’70s idiom. The grooves were basic and kinda sludgy, with her sort of guttural voice leading the way through lots of songs about bad relationships and even worse boyfriends. The standouts were probably “Void And Null,” which sounded like a more disillusioned version of Kelly Clarkson’s “Long Shot,” and “Heart,” a ballad that made perhaps the sole musical reference to the alt-rock era. (Bush’s “Glycerine.”) Momsen’s performance made me want to hear what she might do with Babe Ruth’s “The Mexican” or other rock songs from the era way before she was born.

The songs were all pretty brief—the set, despite having 10 songs, a crowd singalong of “Happy Birthday,” and a break, lasted barely longer than a half-hour—but they got their point across pretty well: Momsen’s already been around the block during her 16 years, and she’s ready to sing all about that fact. I wonder what she wished for when she blew out her cake’s candles?

Taylor Momsen turns 16! [YouTube]

Spoon Have A Multi-Day Music Festival In Austin To Call Their Own

Maura — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:00:08 +0000

• Spoon masterminding three-day Austin festival in July [Pitchfork]
• John Legend’s tour to be green, because that’s a novel marketing hook [Billboard]
• Kills/Dead Weather wailer Allison Mossheart hospitalized in Colorado, thanks to the thin mountain air [NME]
• Girl from TV show about rich teenage brats that is way overhyped by too many adults of my acquaintance signs one of those celebrity record deals that always end so well [Billboard]
• Rihanna in the studio with “Take A Bow” producers Stargate [EW]