News on Sonic Youth, Radiohead, and other bands

Stars Hollow, meet Daydream Nation: As EW’s Ken Tucker reported last week, legendary noisemakers Sonic Youth will appear on the May 9 season finale of the beloved navel-gazing WB meta-soap Gilmore Girls. On the episode, taped last week, self-professed fans Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon, along with their daughter Coco on shakers, will perform an acoustic version of the song ”What a Waste,” from their upcoming June 13 release Rather Ripped. If you won’t be paying to see them open for Pearl Jam in July, go catch them June 18 at Tennessee’s Bonnaroo Festival…

Speaking of Bonnaroo, that Down South happening may also be your only chance to see Bright Eyes. Conor Oberst and his band will be performing there June 16, before returning to the hard work of completing a BE album due for release next spring. Among the record’s slated guests: Sleater-Kinney/Quasi drumming powerhouse Janet Weiss, alt-country sweetheart Gillian Welch, and folk troubador M Ward…

Also (whew) at Bonnaroo, Radiohead — though you’ll likely be getting more chances to see them play if you live in or near Montreal, Philadelphia, Toronto, or Chicago, where the band is eyeing multiple-night stands starting in June; details TBA while they work on polishing their newest release…

Also tweaking the details on a new one: Soul Asylum. Following the sad death (from throat cancer) last June of bassist Karl Meuller, the Minneapolis homeboys are in the studio to complete The Silver Lining, the band’s first new album in eight years. Filling in on bass for two tracks: the Replacements’ Tommy Stinson. Look for the record July 11 on Legacy…

Bridging a even larger gap (32 years, exactly), what’s left of the New York Dolls — that would be singer David Johansen and guitarist Sylvain Sylvain — is at work on a sequel to their last record, 1974’s Too Much Too Soon (they’re not kidding there; original guitarist Johnny Thunders died in 1991, drummer Jerry Nolan in ’92, and bassist Arthur ”Killer” Kane in 2004). Though the record (the band’s third) is not yet titled, they’re touting it as a return to the bluesy roots they say they always had in them, beneath all the glam gutter-punk camp…

And finally, for our fair Australian readers (how we treasure you three!): If you show up for a Raconteurs gig Down Under, don’t expect to see the new Jack White/Brendan Benson outfit; you’ll most likely be treated to the sound stylings of a little-known jazz collective of the same name. Instead, look for a group called the Sabateurs; that’s the only-in-Aussie-land name White and Co. will be taking on while traveling there, to avoid copyright infringement. Steady as she goes, friends…