Garbage

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Garbage is a Scottish/American rock group formed in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1994. The band members are Duke Erikson, Shirley Manson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig.

Garbage released a string of increasingly successful singles in 1995–1996, culminating in the hit "Stupid Girl". Their debut album, Garbage, was an unexpected smash, selling over 5 million copies and reaching double platinum status in the UK, USA and Australia. Garbage spent two years working on their follow-up album Version 2.0 which topped the charts in the UK and hit #13 in the US. It was nominated for two Grammy Awards, Album of the Year and Best Rock Album and sold over 5 million copies. In 1999, Garbage performed the theme song to the James Bond movie The World Is Not Enough. That year, Garbage also contributed the song "When I Grow Up" to the Adam Sandler movie Big Daddy.

Garbage struggled to sustain their initial success, and Garbage's 2001 third album beautifulgarbage failed to match the commercial success achieved by its predecessors. Garbage struggled to remain together and almost split in 2003, before returning with Bleed Like Me in 2005, peaking at a career-high #4 in the United States.

Garbage cut short their 2005 world tour, and announced an indefinite hiatus, but emphasized it was not a break-up. Garbage recently announced they were reuniting and are working on a greatest hits album set for release in July.

Vig, the producer of such influential albums as Nirvana's Nevermind and the Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream, decided he wanted to play in a band again. He asked fellow producers Marker and Erikson, with whom he had played in Spooner and Firetown, to join him. After Steve Marker saw Manson on MTV (in the music video "Suffocate Me" with her band Angelfish), they invited her to audition for (and after two auditions, asked her to join) the band. Early auditions saw former Pigface vocalists, Lesley Rankine and Meg Lee Chin try out. According to Vig, Garbage was named before Manson joined the band, after Pauli Ryan walked in while Vig was working on a remix for Nine Inch Nails and said it sounded like garbage. A longstanding rumor attributes the statement to Trent Reznor.

Garbage's angry, emotional lyrics contrasted with their catchy, pop alternative rock music. Garbage utilizes samples, electronic loops, grungy guitars, and various other effects to produce haunting and melodic tracks, made distinctive by Scottish singer Shirley Manson's sultry vocals. The fact that Garbage is composed of three music producers is made obvious by the high production quality, with many layers and a "wall of sound" production aesthetic.


Garbage released a string of increasingly successful singles from 1995 to 1996, culminating in the hit "Stupid Girl". They released their debut album, Garbage, later that year, on the Mushroom Records label, signed by Gary Ashley. It went top 20 in the United States and top 10 in the United Kingdom.

Garbage spent two years working on their follow-up album, during which time Manson became well-known by the technologically savvy by being one of the first artists to maintain a blog. "Push It" was released and became a summer hit in 1998, reaching #9 in the UK and #52 in the U.S. Their second album Version 2.0 topped the charts in the UK and hit #13 in the US. It was nominated for two Grammy Awards, Album of the Year and Best Rock Album. In 1999, they performed the theme song to the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough and contributed "When I Grow Up" to the Adam Sandler movie Big Daddy.

After again retreating into the studio for several years, Garbage released beautifulgarbage in 2001. While it represented Garbage's most eclectic and mature sound to date, it contained no standout commercial singles. Hence, no songs charted in the US, and the four singles released in the UK only reached the top 30. Still, the album managed to reach #6 in the UK and #13 in the US, though it quickly slid down the charts. Garbage followed the album with a successful tour of the US and Europe.

Garbage's newest album, Bleed Like Me, was released on April 11, 2005. It hit the charts in many countries, including a #4 peak in the United States and a radio rock hit single, "Why Do You Love Me". It originally had the working title "Hands on a Hard Body", but Manson announced Garbage had come up with a new title, Bleed Like Me, that better fits Garbage's improved dynamic following a period of tension and crisis in October 2003. Manson has also said Bleed Like Me is more hard rock and a return to Garbage's roots after the eclectic experiment of beautifulgarbage, an announcement that resonated with most fans.

In late 2005, rumors swirled that Garbage would break up, and Manson was reported to have said on stage that this was the last time they would "do this" together. In September 2005, Garbage's official Web site refuted the rumors of a breakup but confirmed an indefinite hiatus.

In May 2006, Garbage also confirmed that a Greatest Hits album, a B-Sides album, a live DVD from the Bleed Like Me tour, and a video compilation DVD are set to be released if all goes right with their label-related legal issues. The greatest hits album, Absolute Garbage, to be released in 2007.

Having been making records for over a decade, Garbage has to date sold in excess of 14 million albums worldwide, including more than 4.7 million in the United states and 500,000 in Australia alone.


Fans had speculated on whether or not Manson would record a solo album following Garbage's hiatus announcement. By the beginning of the year it had been confirmed that Manson was indeed writing new tracks. In March James Bond composer David Arnold's official website stated that the singer had been booked in for sessions. It was later confirmed that the pair had written and recorded a song together.

By mid-March 2006 Manson had finally confirmed she was indeed recording a solo record in a Billboard magazine interview, stating that she has no timetable for completing the project, and above all wants to have fun and enjoy herself at that point in time. In an interview with the Sunday Times in July 2006 she revealed she'd enlisted Blue Nile singer Paul Buchanan to co-write with. "I thought he’d be very moody and introverted, but he’s not like that at all. He’s quite outgoing and charming. Neither of us has ever written with anybody else before. It’s going to be strange. We’ll see how it goes — it could be a complete unmitigated disaster.” On October 29, 2006, The Sunday Mail reported that in addition to Paul Buchanan and David Arnold, Shirley Manson is working with Billy Corgan (The Smashing Pumpkins) & Jack White (The White Stripes, The Raconteurs) on her new solo album. They also report that her debut solo album will be issued in 2007.

Manson has also been involved in various appearances playing tribute to both Blondie and The Pretenders, and appeared in the promo video for She Wants Revenge's single "These Things" and in Wendy Schneider's self-abuse documentary "CUT: Teens and Self Injury"

The boys from Garbage have also been reported to be keeping busy outside of active Garbage duty. Butch Vig has produced records for Jimmy Eat World and Against Me!, as well as written the music for two films that are currently in pre-production. If all goes as planned Vig will finish the post-production early in 2007. According to a blog posted in Jan 2006 by Manson, Duke Erikson has been busy putting the finishing touches to an American folk music anthology, whilst Steve Marker has also been involved with a film score.

Garbage played a show on January 31, 2007 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale, CA as part of a benefit for their friend Wally 'Llama' Ingram. They played "Queer", "Cup of Coffee" and "Bleed Like Me" semi-acoustic along with a string quartet, and when they were finished their fans screamed for more, but they only returned at the end of the night when everyone who played that night sang a Bob Marley song together. Sheryl Crow, Bonnie Raitt, several members of The Pixies, Jackson Brown and many, many others also played (including Butch and Duke in a different band).

Butch Vig has since revealed that Garbage is set to re-enter the studio to record "a couple new songs" for a greatest hits album in late February. Tentatively titled Absolute Garbage, the compilation was scheduled to be released in March 2007, however Amazon now has "Absolute Garbage" listed with a release date of July 17, 2007.

On May 19, 2007, a video for "Tell Me Where It Hurts" began airing on Teleport Music in the U.K. Directed by Sophie Muller, the video is for the first new track from Absolute Garbage.

The single itself is out on July 9 followed the next week by the best of collection Absolute Garbage. Collectors should look out for a special edition containing a bonus disc with remixes from Unkle, Massive Attack, Felix Da Housecat and others. A DVD will be released as well, holding 15 videos next to interviews, backstage footage and live performances. The second single from the new album is called "It's All Over But The Crying".

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