No Doubt Hit the Studio; Gwen Stefani Oversees Proceedings From Afar

No Doubt are going into the studio next month to work on their first new album in six years -- no matter that Gwen Stefani is on tour through the fall. "The three of us are going to lay down some songs with music only," drummer Adrian Young says. "When she gets done with the tour we'll all be there to do it. We've probably got four albums worth of ideas demoed." Young describes the new songs as "unlike anything else we ever made -- they're all over the place stylistically."

According to Young, Stefani just got the first batch of first songs and he's waiting to hear her input. The group has been inactive since a 2004 co-headlining tour with Blink-182. "We've been together since 1987 and we never took a break until three summers ago," Young says. "Now the break's been pretty long, so I think we're not burning anymore. It's kind of nice to be hungry again." Stefani has had a very active break -- releasing two monster solo albums and touring the world twice -- but Young says she's ready to fall back into No Doubt as soon as the tour is done. "Gwen's a workaholic," he says. "She likes to constantly be working." Young suspects the new record will come out sometime in 2008.

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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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