Joseph Cultice
Members of the band (from left) Duke Erikson, Steve Marker, Shirley Manson and Butch Vig.
Until you actually spend time with This Is the Noise That Keeps Me Awake, it might be difficult to accept that Madison’s most famous band deserves the coffee table book treatment.
But this heavy-duty, 208-page collection of arresting professional photos, candid shots and oral histories featuring all four members proves Garbage is indeed worthy. In fact, the boldly designed pink-and-black book is almost as much fun to read as it is to look at.
The band’s story begins, of course, at unassuming Smart Studios — where producers Butch Vig, Steve Marker and Duke Erikson quietly made noisy records with local bands until word spread. Eventually, Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins came knocking.
Sonic experimentation led to Garbage, and the boys decided a female vocalist would complement their fuzzy, buzzy sound. Enter Shirley Manson, then the frontwoman for the fledgling Scottish band Angelfish. Garbage would be a short-term gig, almost all involved believed.
But when Garbage released its self-titled debut in 1995 to critical acclaim, the band became a phenomenon and quickly grew past the easy but inaccurate description of “three producers and a girl.”
This Is the Noise That Keeps Me Awake chronicles Garbage’s rise and brutal fall, which coincided with a sea change in the record business. (The band never broke up, according to the book, and released its sixth album, Strange Little Birds, in 2016.)
Garbage and co-author Jason Cohen don’t sugarcoat the dark years, and the book’s humor and candor reflect the band’s Midwestern roots. Even the reclusive Manson seems less mysterious these days.
Special sections throughout focus on Madison landmarks and lore — from the late, great Cafe Montmartre, where Garbage road-tested its earliest material, to The Edgewater Hotel, where Manson lived for many years, to a chronological listing of every band in which Vig, Erikson and Marker claim membership. (Hello, Spooner, Fire Town and Rectal Drip!)
Additionally, recurring sidebars titled “Fill Your Glass With Garbage” provide cocktail recipes for the notoriously thirsty band’s most memorable drinks.
The book also makes multiple references to the fact that Garbage was older than most bands when they experienced international stardom; Manson turns 51 and Vig hits 62 this month, while Marker is 58 and Erikson is 66.
“I think if we had been young, we probably would have perceived it as, It’s going to go on forever,” Vig says in the book, referring to unexpected success. To which Erikson adds: “We probably would have partied way more than we actually did. Therefore, we would all be dead.”
