Garbage (band)

Garbage is an American rock band formed in 1993 in Madison, Wisconsin. The band's line-up consisting of Scottish musician Shirley Manson (vocals) and American musicians Duke Erikson (guitar, bass, keyboards), Steve Marker (guitar, keyboards), and Butch Vig (percussion) has remained unchanged since its inception. All four members are involved in songwriting and production. Garbage has sold over 17 million albums worldwide.

The band's 1995 eponymous debut album was critically acclaimed, selling over four million copies and achieving double platinum certification in the UK, the US, and Australia. It was accompanied by a string of increasingly successful singles, including "Stupid Girl" and "Only Happy When It Rains". Follow-up Version 2.0 (1998) was equally successful, topping the UK Albums Chart and receiving two Grammy Award nominations. The band followed this by performing and co-producing the theme song to the 19th James Bond film The World Is Not Enough (1999). Their third album Beautiful Garbage (2001) was also critically praised, but failed to match the commercial success of its predecessors, despite selling over a million copies in its first three months.

Garbage quietly disbanded amidst the troubled production of their fourth album Bleed Like Me (2005), but regrouped to complete the album, which peaked at a career-high number four in the US. The band cut short their Bleed Like Me concert tour and announced an indefinite hiatus to pursue separate interests. It was briefly interrupted in 2007, when they recorded new tracks for their greatest hits album Absolute Garbage. The band reunited in 2011, and self-released their fifth album, Not Your Kind of People (2012), on their own label Stunvolume to positive reviews. They followed it with Strange Little Birds (2016) and No Gods No Masters (2021). The band's eighth studio album, Let All That We Imagine Be the Light, is scheduled for release on May 30, 2025.

Duke Erikson and Butch Vig had been in several bands together, including Spooner and Fire Town (with Steve Marker as a sound engineer). In 1983, Vig and Marker founded Smart Studios in Madison and Vig's production work brought him to the attention of Sub Pop. Spooner reunited in 1990 and released another record, but disbanded in 1993 as Vig and Marker's career as producers took over. In 1994, as Vig had become "kind of burned out on doing really long records". He collaborated with Erikson and Marker by doing remixes for acts such as U2, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, and House of Pain. The remixes featured different instrumentation, and often highlighting new guitar hooks and bass grooves. This experience inspired the three men to form a band, where they "wanted to take that remix sensibility and somehow translate it into all of the possibilities of a band setup."

According to Vig, the team drew inspiration for its name from a hostile early comment, when a friend of the band heard recording material said, "This shit sounds like garbage!" However, according to This Is The Noise That Keeps Me Awake, an autobiography of the band, Vig wrote in his 1993 studio journal about the creative process; of working for long periods of time, "without coming up with anything cool... and when you least expect it, it all falls into place." The name derives from the last line of this entry: "I hope that all this garbage will become something beautiful!".

Initial sessions with Vig on vocals, along with the members' past work with all-male groups, led to the band's desire for a woman on lead. Vig declared that they wanted to find a female vocalist like "Debbie Harry, Patti Smith, Chrissie Hynde and Siouxsie Sioux—all really strong, unique personalities". Marker and Vig desired someone "who didn't have a high, chirpy, girly quality to her voice" and who could sing in an understated way, in contrast to "these alterna-rock singers [that] have a tendency to scream". Marker was watching 120 Minutes when he saw the music video for Angelfish's "Suffocate Me", and had been watching 120 Minutes in order to seek a singer for the newly formed band by himself, Vig and Erikson. He showed the video to Erikson and Vig while their manager Shannon O'Shea tracked down the band's singer, Shirley Manson. When Manson was contacted, she did not know who Vig was and was urged to check the credits on Nevermind, the Nirvana album which Vig had produced.

On April 8, 1994, Manson met Erikson, Marker, and Vig for the first time in London. Later that evening Vig was informed of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's suicide. Garbage was put on hold until Angelfish was finished touring North America in support of Live. Erikson, Marker, and Vig attended the Metro Chicago date, and Manson was invited to Madison to audition for the band. The audition did not go well, but Manson socialized with the men while there and they found they had a similar taste in music. Angelfish disbanded at the end of the Live tour. Manson called O'Shea and asked to audition again, feeling that "it could work out".

Manson described her first session with the band as "a disaster", as she had no experience as a session player, and she and the band were "two parties totally uncomfortable with the situation", but the "mutual disdain" from that meeting managed to pull the band together. Manson was granted a second chance by the band who were instantly impressed by her "quiet vocals" on the song "Queer". As a result, Manson relocated to Madison, Wisconsin from Scotland to begin work on the bands debut album. The first songs were skeletal versions of the songs "Stupid Girl", "Queer" and "Vow", which led to some ad-libbed lyrics by Manson. Manson had never written a song prior to this session; nevertheless, this time she was invited to join the band. Lyrics were penned at a cabin in the north woods of Wisconsin while the songs were recorded at Smart Studios. Conscious of the grunge genre that had made their names, particularly Vig's, the band made every effort to avoid sounding similar, deliberately striving to make a pop record.

Garbage sent out demo tapes with no bio, to avoid a bidding war over Vig's production history. Garbage signed with Mushroom UK worldwide (excluding North America) and secured the band a Volume magazine compilation inclusion. The only potential candidate for release was "Vow", as it was the only song for which the band had completed production. When released in December, "Vow" began to receive radio airplay on XFM and from Radio 1 DJs Steve Lamacq, John Peel, and Johnnie Walker. Word-of-mouth on "Vow" took the track back to the US. On December 21, Garbage signed to Jerry Moss's label Almo Sounds for North America. Manson was licensed to both Mushroom and Almo by Radioactive Records for a single album, with no compensation from any of Garbage's labels.

Garbage had not considered "Vow" for inclusion on the album or even as a single. Because the exclusive licensing of Volume prevented a full commercial single release, on March 20, 1995, Mushroom issued "Vow" in a limited 7-inch vinyl format through Discordant, a label set up just to launch Garbage. By May, commercial alternative radio in the US had picked up on the track, and it began to receive heavy rotation nationwide. "Vow" debuted on Hot Modern Rock Tracks at No. 39. It climbed gradually over the following weeks, peaking at No. 26 in July. "Vow" bubbled under for two weeks before it spent two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 staying at No. 97 both weeks.

On August 15, 1995, Garbage debuted on the Billboard 200 at No. 193. In the United Kingdom, its release was preceded by non-album track "Subhuman" and "Only Happy When It Rains" as singles to promote the album instead of "Queer". The album debuted on the UK album chart at No. 12. In Australia, the album debuted at No. 5. "Queer" was quickly released in the United Kingdom and Europe, while Garbage began their first tour. Garbage was nominated for Brit Awards for Best New Band and Best International Newcomer. Following the initial success of the album, Jim Merlis, the public relations manager at Geffen Records claimed that "Vig was the only member of this band that matters" as a result of his previous success as a record producer. Recollections of the meeting between both Manson and Merlis differs between the two, however, Merlis claims that he did not insinuate during the meeting that Vig would be needed to promoted in order for the band to sell records. Following the meeting, Geffen Records concluded that the band appeared to "want the press campaign to go", and that they wish to be perceived "as a band, and not as a Butch Vig side project".

Following the release of Garbage, Manson's personality during interviews was highly praised, with Merlis claiming that she treats an interview "like a performance", acknowledging that in reality the press was not interested in Vig, but rather were equally interested in Manson. Initially projected as "three producers and a girl", the band were critical of this statement given each of their musical history in their respective bands prior to forming Garbage. Garbage had no plans to perform on stage, but once urged to play live during the recording of the music video for "Vow", they enjoyed the performance and decided to schedule a tour. The Garbage tour started in November 1995, and continued throughout 1996, with the band making their first public performance in Minneapolis with Daniel Shulman recruited by the band to play bass guitar. During the tour, Manson later recalled she "didn't feel like I belonged there" or that "anyone would take her seriously" which lead her to feeling self conscious. Almo was considering cancelling the remainder of the Garbage tour after only four performances as they were not impressed by the band live, however, after convincing Almo to remain committed to the tour, the band's live performances throughout the tour began receiving critical acclaim.