Garbage Biography

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Garbage Biography

Using real live! grinding guitars and all the samples, loops and studio tricks at their disposal, Garbage tossed off the most imaginative hit album of 1995. With frontwoman Shirley Manson focusing the sound and lyrics, star producer Butch Vig and his studio-rat buddies, Steve Marker and Duke Erikson, casually stepped out of the shadows into the pop spotlight.

Wisconsin-born drummer/studio whiz Butch Vig (shortened from Vigorson) and Nebraska native guitar/keyboard/bass/studio whiz Duke Erikson had been in indie pop-rockers Spooner and the rootsier Firetown. Guitarist/bassist Marker, originally from the suburbs of New York, and Vig had founded the Madison-based Smart Studios back in '84. Since then, Vig had produced everybody from Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins to Sonic Youth, Soul Asylum and Killdozer.

Coming up with a few of their own ideas between remix projects, the trio of 40-ish knob-twirlers decided they needed a singer, spotted the gamine Shirley Manson (born 1967 in Edinburgh, Scotland)--then in Angelfish, previously in Goodbye Mr. MacKenzie--in a rare MTV video appearance, and asked her to join them. Unlikely as it sounds, the partnership worked beautifully. Garbage--their self-titled debut--was chock-full o' nutty production touches (the dropout on the intro of the lead track, "Supervixen"), dark lyrics and vicious pop hooks ("Only Happy When It Rains," "Stupid Girl," "Queer").

Centered by Manson's tough, icy vocals, the astonishingly solid album played like a smash single, and the band wound up doing hundreds of live shows.

While the world breathlessly awaited a follow-up, Garbage surfaced with another hit ("Number One Crush," recorded for the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack) and a cover of Vic Chesnutt's "Kick My Ass" for the tribute/ fund-raiser Sweet Relief II: Gravity Of The Situation LP. The band's sophomore release, Version 2.0, has been a relative commercial disappointment compared to their debut, but with compelling singles and videos like "Push It" and "I Think I'm Paranoid," Garbage continue to be a fascinating fixture on modern rock radio and MTV

Garbage Links

Garbage Official Website