Zooey Deschanel and Ben Gibbard Split Up

This isn't a good time to be part of a famous indie-rock couple: Just weeks after Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore announced they were separating, She & Him's Zooey Deschanel and Death Cab for Cutie's Ben Gibbard have split up, too.
Us Weekly reports the dissolution of the rock'n'roll union was "mutual and amicable," and a source told the magazine, "There was no third party involved." The pair got engaged in December 2008 and married in September 2009 near Seattle. Just a year ago, the two enjoyed the baseball postseason together; last week Deschanel returned to the MLB to sing the National Anthem solo.
This means SPIN must revise our gallery of 12 Indie Rock Couples Keeping the Dream Alive. Farewell, Zooey and Ben, and hello Bethany and Nathan!

Read More

Eminem: Prescription drug Ambien ‘wiped out five years of my life’

The rapper also says that the sedative contributed to a four year long stretch of writer’s block. Eminem says that the pills were ‘wiping out brain cells’. He added:

…a lot of my memory is gone. I don't know if you've ever taken Ambien, but it's kind of a memory-eraser. That shit wiped out five years of my life. People will tell me stories, and it's like, "I did that?" I saw myself doing this thing on [television network] BET recently, and I was like, "When was that?"

In the interview with Rolling Stone, Eminem said that he kept some of his writing from that period and that: “It fucking creeps me out. Letters all down the page – it was like my hand weighed 400 pounds. I have all that shit in a box in my closet. As a reminder that I don't ever want to go back.”

During the peak of his drug addiction, he revealed that he was taking up to 60 Valium and 30 Vicodin pills a day. In 2007, he overdosed on methadone. “The doctors told me I'd done the equivalent of four bags of heroin,” says Eminem. “They said I was about two hours from dying.”

The ‘Recovery’ artist revealed that Elton John was one of the people who helped him to overcome his addictions. “He usually calls me once a week to check on me, just to make sure I'm on the up-and-up,” says Eminem. “He was actually one of the first people I called when I wanted to get clean.”

Read More

Sonic Youth

"I Love You Golden Blue"
Throughout the band's major label heyday in the '90s, Gordon and Moore's lyrics didn't dive into topics of domesticity or romance — Gordon opted to write lyrics with a feminist bent ("Shoot," "Little Trouble Girl," "Panty Lies"), while Moore's tunes grew increasingly fixed on the political ("Youth Against Fascism"), the musical ("Theresa's Sound World," "Screaming Skull"), or the straight-up inscrutable ("Starfield Road"). That changed on 2004's Sonic Nurse, particularly with Gordon's devastating ballad "I Love You Golden Blue." This remains one of her most aching and confessional tunes ever — not to mention one of the band's most haunting and gorgeous. Over drizzling guitars and drummer Steve Shelley's delicate pitter-patter, she whispers about missing a long-lost lover's presence — and losing the will the hang on. "I can't find the time," she coos. "I love you, Golden Blue, I miss you." It's hard not to think that cracks in Gordon and Moore's relationship began to show around this time.

Read More