Their 1986 debut album, In the Heart of the Heart Country, launched Fire Town on a steep trajectory, Tom Laskin recounts. The Madison band was soon signed by Atlantic Records and tagged by Rolling Stone as the nation's hottest new rock act. The title of their new album, The Good Life, is more than a little ironic. "We're making a living now," says drummer Butch Vig, "but we're all very broke still. We owe the record company money, and we probably will for a really long time." After touring as the opening act for David Crosby, Fire Town goes dormant. Vig goes on to produce such seminal albums as Nevermind and, with Fire Town guitarist Doug Erikson and Shirley Manson, forms the nucleus of chart-topping Garbage.
Heart-broken
From the Isthmus archives, Feb. 10, 1989