I just got my Starbucks’ cover album Sweethearts (Our Favorite Artists and Their Favorite Love Songs) CD in the mail! Each artist has a short quote about the song they chosed to cover. I’ve transcribed what Zooey and Matt said about  their cover song:”I Put a Spell On You”:

‘I Put a Spell On You’ is a haunting sog about the dark side of love. We figured everyone would be doing happy love songs, so why not round out the lineup with a song for all the lonely hearts out there. It’s our favorite obsessive long song. Hopefully ths version will help people appreciate their normal relationship on Valetine’s Day.

It’s a pretty sweet cover. You can check it out here if you can’t make it to a Starbucks to pick up a copy.

She & Him have been nominated for the MTVU Woodie Awards this year – in the “Left Field” category.
You can vote for the band now and get more information about the awards HERE.

Voting closes on the 7th November, so cast your vote now!

The Boston Globe has an article on She & Him:

On paper, She & Him doesn’t make sense grammatically. And, in theory, the pairing of actress Zooey Deschanel and indie guitarist M. Ward seems odd, too. But on record, specifically the duo’s debut album, “Volume One,” the quirky couple transcends grammar and expectations.“They are in many ways the male and female nexus of what is cool,” says Martin Hynes, who inadvertently helped create one of 2008’s most beguiling records by hooking up the star of his recent film, “The Go-Getter,” with the friend he enlisted to provide the score. “They have a cache among people who are very savvy and like good art, whatever that art is.”

In Deschanel’s case, that art tends to be split between well-regarded and intelligent indie films (“All the Real Girls”) and big-budget studio flicks (Will Ferrell’s Christmas comedy “Elf”). Ward, who frequently tours with like-minded troubadours like Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes and Jim James of My Morning Jacket, is a critically acclaimed purveyor of cinematic Americana that came to full realization on 2006’s “Post-War.”

She & Him is part of the influx of younger acts at this weekend’s Newport Folk Festival, which also includes James, Cat Power, the Black Crowes, Trey Anastasio, Jakob Dylan, Calexico, and Son Volt. And in another left-field booking, Jimmy Buffett will strip off his Parrothead feathers for an acoustic headlining set on Sunday. (She & Him performs tomorrow at 2:50 p.m. on the Harbor Stage.)

Hynes introduced Deschanel and Ward – whose first initial stands for Matt – over dinner while trying to persuade them to record a cover of the Richard and Linda Thompson duet “When I Get to the Border” for the end credits of “The Go-Getter.”

During a post-meal communal jam, the director recalls Deschanel asking Ward if he knew the sprightly ’50s vocal-group gem “Mr. Sandman.”

“They played it just perfectly the first time through and she sang it beautifully,” recalls Hynes. “I thought they would sound really good together, but I had no idea they would be so simpatico.”

It turns out that the duo – both California natives – had iPods full of the same songs, some of which were their own recordings of favorite songs.

“I had made an a cappella version of [the Beatles'] ‘I Should Have Known Better,’ ” says Deschanel on the phone from New York. “And he had recorded it, too, and we were like, ‘What? That’s weird.’ And we had also both recorded Neil Young’s ‘Lotta Love.’ ”

Then the shared list began to flow: Smokey Robinson, Sam Cooke, and “a lot of old country,” says Deschanel.

“Once we got to see each other’s process in the studio [recording the song for the film], we sort of realized that this is somebody who is involved in music for the same reasons that I am,” Ward says from his home in Portland, Ore.

Those reasons included “participating in this tradition of expressing oneself and that it’s not about being a star,” says Deschanel, who had performed in bands on and off and had boxes and boxes of demos she had kept to herself since she began playing piano and writing songs at age 8. “All these sorts of things that maybe a lot of people would think were silly or idealistic Matt actually totally agrees with it.”

“Eventually I heard her demos, and it’s so rare that you come across songs that nobody’s heard before that are great,” says Ward, who says the recording process was quick and collaborative. “She steered the boat for vocals, and I steered the boat as far as the production of those different instruments – drums, strings, guitar, and keyboards – go.”

If sepia were a sound as opposed to a color, then Deschanel’s voice would have it. “Volume One” is most assuredly retro, cross-pollinating all of the pair’s stated influences, including a dreamy take on their favorite Beatles song and a sparse version of Robinson’s “You Really Got a Hold on Me.” The rest, all Deschanel originals like “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here” and “Change Is Hard,” evoke everything from the vintage pop of Dusty Springfield to Jeannie C. Reilly’s country classic “Harper Valley PTA.”

“I think [Deschanel's] songs definitely toe the line between old and new in a really interesting way,” says Ward. “And because her voice has that classic sound, it lends itself, I think, to that interpretation.”

“I hate irony in music,” says Deschanel.

“Zooey is one of the most uncynical people that I’ve ever met,” Ward later confirms.

Both are aware of the skepticism that often greets actors’ attempts at crossing over into music. “People have no reason to believe that I would be able to write music,” says Deschanel matter-of-factly. “I don’t hold any grudge against someone who is surprised.”

“I’m surprised to hear a great song by anybody,” Ward says with a laugh. “I’m especially surprised to hear one from somebody who makes their living as an actor or anybody outside of music.”

The only one who isn’t surprised is Hynes, who, when asked if he’s received any kind of token of gratitude since helping the pair strike gold, replies with a laugh, “No gift basket necessary, the gift is a great album of music.”

Pretend, for a moment, you do not recognize Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward. You have never seen the cerulean, saucer-eyed actress who has been lighting up scenes since 1999. You have never heard M. Ward’s voice and guitar crackle, making speakers sound like some old-time phonograph. It is with that knowledge, or lack thereof, that She & Him should be heard.

The fact that the name they’ve chosen for themselves, as well as their debut album, Volume One, bear the earmarks of anonymity is no accident. With a record store’s worth of actor’s records, preconceived notions and vanity projects-gone-wrong working against them, Deschanel and Ward wanted to present their songs without trading on their known selves. “In whatever small way, we hope people can listen to the music first before making a fuss about who’s making it,” says Ward.

Like a modern-day Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra, Deschanel’s voice is the velvety tone to Ward’s rougher pitches. Like Hazelwood and Sinatra, She & Him traffic in the same ’60s-infused country-pop, with Deschanel’s voice as the focal point and Ward’s production the perfect complement. Unlike their predecessors, however, these songs are the product of years of Deschanel’s clandestine bedroom songwriting sessions, eight years of dulcet yearnings and prescient observations logged on her computer.

That the two were cast together by director Martin Hynes was a happy accident, never intended to evolve to its present state. Tasked with recording Linda and Richard Thompson’s “When I Reach the Border” for the soundtrack of The Go-Getter, Ward and Deschanel quickly finished their duet, and found themselves with the time and inclination in the studio to record another song. “I think I asked him if he knew ‘Mr. Sandman,’” says Deschanel, a selection indicative of the influences both Deschanel and Ward were reared on in their radio-laden, Southern California upbringings. The two kept in touch, and when Deschanel mentioned that she’d recorded some demos, Ward asked to hear them. “I loved them right off the bat,” says Ward. “Simple and beautiful and to the point. It’s not something you expect from people who don’t write songs for a living. It’s not even something you expect from people who do.”

“I’ve been singing since I was a tiny thing,” says Deschanel. “It was always part of the plan.” It was in 2003’s Elf, the Will Ferrell holiday smugfest, that the happy confluence of Deschanel’s singing and acting occurred in front of an audience of millions. “Elf was the first time I had seen her in a film,” says Ward. “Just from seeing her onscreen, she seemed like a normal, down-to-earth person.” Cast as a jaded department store elf short on cheer, director Jon Favreau tailored the script specifically to Deschanel’s talents. “The director knew that I had a cabaret act for years [If All The Stars Were Pretty Babies] and he wanted something the character could do well, so when they cast me, he made the script more focused on singing,” explains Deschanel of her revelatory scene incorporating “Baby It’s Cold Outside.”

If Deschanel’s film roles could be characterized as cynical or sardonic, her recorded output will be recognized for its complete lack of those traits. “Part of the charm is that it seems she’s writing from somewhere far away from where the music business is right now, which is very appealing,” Ward says of Deschanel. The statement is an echo of something she said in an earlier conversation: “As someone who’s completely new to the music business, and because it’s something that I did sort of secretly for a while, I’m totally idealistic about it.” And this was the mentality Deschanel took with her to Portland for the first of a few 10-day recording sessions.

Many of Deschanel’s songs are perfectly aligned with the work that comprises Ward’s solo career; both seem more affected by eras than genres, yet each are able to construct a cohesive album in drawing upon seemingly disparate influences. “I think she’s writing from the same places I write from,” says Ward, “which is taking inspiration from the songs you grew up with, not just a specific artist or a song or a record, but drawing back on all the records you’ve loved in your entire life.”

Drenched in harmonies, Deschanel’s voice is unhurried and clear. “Take It Back” sounds like the best tune Stephen Sondheim never wrote—a torch song dripping with sadness, with Ward’s pedal steel grounding the ballad. “I Was Made For You” begins like an updated version of the Shirelles classic “I Met Him on a Sunday,” with a similar message of female agency. Elsewhere, Deschanel drops Didion references on what she calls her “L.A. song” “I Thought I Saw Your Face Today” and twangs alongside Ward through “Change Is Hard.” Of the two covers on the album, Smokey Robinson’s “You Really Got a Hold on Me” became a stripped down duet, recorded in 30 minutes. And separately, each had covered the Beatles song “I Should Have Known Better”—Ward had set his countrified track aside without vocals, so Deschanel’s arrival at his Portland studio made it an obvious addition.

“We never started with the intention of putting a record out—it was a hope. At the beginning I thought of it as a present to myself,” Deschanel says, with some surprise at the reception the record has received thus far. “Everything fell into place exactly the way it was supposed to, in a really lovely way.”

These kinds of things are never supposed to work, only Zooey Deschanel’s voice is so big and pure and clean (it sounds like her eyes look, if that makes any sense), and M. Ward’s production is so dusty and crackly and warm that somehow everything falls directly into place. A genuine treat of an album, full of songs about love and loss and sounds that burble and plink; it reminds me of Richard and Linda Thompson’s I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight. Scarlett Johansson should take note.

With a pair of Hollywood starlets gracing the world with albums this fall, could their combined box office draws pump some life into a struggling music industry?

Not quite, but early results have Zooey Deschanel’s bid at a music career faring a bit better than that of her superstar peer, Scarlett Johansson.

Deschanel’s “She & Him” project with indie singer/songwriter M. Ward was released back in March, and the much-hyped debut from Johansson hit digital and online outlets last week. Out of the gate, “She & Him” exactly doubled the first-week sales of Johansson’s “Anywhere I Lay My Head,” her love letter to indie eccentric Tom Waits.

Johansson’s album came with a bit more star power — David Bowie guests, and it was produced by TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek — and it earned a heavy online marketing push from Warner Bros. imprint Rhino. But audiences haven’t yet seemed to have taken to Johansson’s deadpan delivery and the set’s atmospheric swirl. “Anywhere I Lay My Head” sold 5,100 copies in its debut week.
Meanwhile, “She & Him” took a more traditional approach, and scored better results, all while releasing the album with indie label Merge Records. The act’s debut, “Volume One,” sold 10,200 copies when it premiered back in March. To be fair, it’s a more accessible record, driven by Deschanel’s understated, soulful pop approach.

As a side note, Thursday night brings the premiere of Deschanel film “The Go-Getter,” which will screen at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The film actually brought Deschanel together with M. Ward, and the pair recorded a cover of Richard and Linda Thompson’s “When I Get to the Border” for the its soundtrack.

I’ll be in attendance and will share some thoughts as soon as I can, but in the meantime, The Playlist has posted an interview with the film’s director, Martin Hynes. The director talks about introducing the two in the post: “I had no idea they would hit it off the way they did,” Hynes is quoted by Playlist. “I remember Zooey turning to Matt and saying, ‘Hey, do you know the chords to ['50s classic] “Mr. Sandman’? And he did.”