In the Studio: She and Him's Sunny Folk Rock Returns on "Volume 2"

Zooey Deschanel may be married to Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard, but she tells Rolling Stone that nobody — hubby included — is getting a listen to the new She and Him album until she and bandmate M. Ward are satisfied that the LP is finished. Volume Two, due March 23rd, features sunny folk-rock alongside two covers from the Sixties and Seventies, Deschanel tells Rolling Stone in our new issue: Skeeter Davis' "Gonna Get Along Without You Now" and NRBQ's "Ridin' in My Car." "If I could go back in time, I'd want to be an AM Gold artist," she says.

Take a look at more actors who rock, from Johnny Depp to Juliette Lewis.

Volume 2 — the follow-up to 2008's Volume 1 — was cut in three different studios in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, as Deschanel worked on acting projects and Ward toured solo and with Monsters of Folk. RS writer Charles Cross writes that on first single "Into the Sun," Ward generates an acoustic Wall of Sound while Deschanel croons like Ronnie Spector. As Rolling Stone previously reported, Tilly and the Wall also provide guest vocals on "Sun."

For more on She and Him's upcoming disc, grab our new issue, on stands now.

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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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