Liz Laribee
Not many bands take their name from a derogatory comment describing how a piece of music sounds. But that’s exactly what happened in the case of Garbage — a group with Madison roots that formed in 1993 during alt-rock’s glory days.
“I was working on a remix for Nine Inch Nails,” recalls Butch Vig, 59, about one of the many projects he did for high-profile artists after producing Nirvana’s 1991 industry-altering album Nevermind. “There were a lot of distorted drum tracks and feedback, with really no music.”
Someone at Smart Studios, the Madison recording facility Vig founded with future Garbage guitarist Steve Marker, walked in and said the remix sounded “like garbage.”
That moment stuck with Vig.
“In hindsight, it was a really bad name,” Vig acknowledges with a laugh. He’s on his cellphone en route to a Garbage recording session in Southern California, where he now lives. “But it made sense to us, because there was a lo-fi aspect to some of our earlier tracks. That remix work was the basis for Garbage.”
A homecoming show is expected during Garbage's anniversary tour later this year.
Those early tracks — featuring Vig on drums, Marker, Madison multi-instrumentalist Duke Erikson and, come 1994, Scottish singer Shirley Manson — blurred elements of hip-hop, fuzz pop and film music with surprisingly commercial-friendly results. On the surface, Garbage bore little resemblance to Spooner and Fire Town, the roots-rock bands Vig and Erickson had played in previously. “We threw all of these crazy sounds into a big noisy pot, and then threw the pot against the wall to see what would stick,” Vig says. “And that’s really been the Garbage sensibility all along.”
Though it may not be obvious, Erikson, 64, says his musical history with Vig played a big role in the evolution of Garbage. “What we learned in Spooner, we applied to Fire Town,” he says. “We gleaned ideas from those bands for Garbage. Garbage is much the same band as Spooner and Fire Town, in that we’re just trying to write good songs and do interesting things with the music.”
Critics and fans adored Garbage, which is why the band has sold more than 17 million albums worldwide since the release of 1995’s self-titled debut. Recorded at Smart, the album went quadruple-platinum and spawned the MTV-ready singles “Stupid Girl” and “Only Happy When It Rains.”
Over the next decade, Garbage made three more albums at Smart Studios (1998’s Version 2.0, 2001’s beautifulgarbage and 2005’s Bleed Like Me), each selling fewer copies than the previous one. (Smart closed in 2010, long after Vig moved west; the space is now home to a new studio, Clutch Sound.)
By late 2005, amid rumors of a breakup, Garbage announced a hiatus that lasted about 18 months. “We were all just physically exhausted,” Erikson says.
In 2012, the band released its fifth album, Not Your Kind of People, arguably Garbage’s best work since the ’90s, and followed that up with exclusive singles for Record Store Day in 2013 and 2014.
On April 18, Garbage will issue two more new songs on 10-inch colored vinyl for this year’s Record Store Day, including “The Chemicals,” a track featuring co-vocals by Brian Aubert from Silversun Pickups, who cedes the song’s lower range to Manson. “That song will give you a good idea of what the album will sound like,” says Erikson, who still maintains a home in Madison but spends much of his time in New York, Los Angeles and London.
Garbage also has about 20 songs that are 80% in the can (sorry), according to Vig. They are expected to be mixed and mastered by the end of May and officially issued in album form late this year. “Some of the songs sound like classic Garbage,” Vig says. “A lot of our songs become fully defined when we finish the final mix. That’s one of the fun things I like about this band.”
“It can get quite maddening in the studio,” Erikson adds. “Ideas are flying around almost too fast for us to try them all.”
The new album might come out around the same time that Garbage embarks on the small yet significant “20 Years Queer” tour. To honor the 20th anniversary of the debut album, the band will play the entire record in order, as well as B-sides from that era — which means hardcore fans might hear “Alien Sex Fiend” and “Girl Don’t Come” live for the first time. “Some of our B-sides are better than what ends up on the record,” Erikson says.
Dates for the U.S. have yet to be announced, but a hometown gig — Garbage’s first since an Orpheum show in April 2013, which followed a rainy day at Warner Park with the Flaming Lips in August 2012 — is expected to be on the itinerary.
“We want to keep the tour fairly small and manageable,” Erikson says. “But Madison is always a target date for us. We insist on playing Madison, so I hope it works out.”
Garbage and the environment
Garbage has always steered clear of political statements. As Duke Erikson says, “We’re more into personal politics.”
But it’s not the ’90s anymore, and bands that ignore the world around them do so at their own peril.
“I have a 9-year-old daughter now, and I look at the world through different eyes than I did when I was in my 20s,” says Butch Vig. “I’d be nuts if I didn’t pay attention to the way the world is going.”
Concerns about climate change and carbon footprints increasingly gnaw at the band. For now, though, Vig and Erikson say they’re not sure how to best incorporate environmental stewardship into what Garbage does.
Benefit concerts? Speeches from the stage? Each has been mentioned in conversations. And with a more diverse fan base than ever, Garbage’s message — whatever it winds up being — would likely connect.
“If there are ways we can contribute more toward change, we’re willing to consider them,” Erikson says. “Of course, that’s easy for me to say. I haven’t always done my share personally, either.”
