How do you feel about Sonic Youth’s 1994 cover of the Carpenters’ “Superstar” being called “just noise” in the film Juno?
Every once in a while, you’ll be asked whether your music can be used in a movie. Invariably, we always ask, “What’s the movie about?” Because you don’t want it to be some kind of grotesque film. I didn’t even remember that they’d used the song until I was watching it with my daughter, then I was like, “Oh my god!” [Laughs] When Mark (Jason Bateman) tells Juno (Ellen Page), “Here’s a Sonic Youth song, I think you’ll really like this,” and then he plays the song that’s the least indicative of our music—us covering a Carpenters tune—it’s such an odd choice. It’s also funny that she would be into totally hardcore punk—Iggy, Patti Smith, the Runaways—and then quantify Sonic Youth as “just a bunch of noise.” But I think she was just angry at the guy and trying to get back at him.
