Garbage
This page was written by my friend Cait not me, so any complaints go to her ok?!
For all of you who may or may not know who Garbage is, they are by far one of the most talented, kick ass bands around. In the band itself there are 4 members: Shirley Manson (lead vocals), Doug Erickson, Butch Vig, and Steve Marker. Starting out with Erickson and Marker seeing Shirley on MTV in a video for her previous band, Angelfish, they recruited the young Scottish singer, and only then did Garbage take form. After a slow start with the release of their first self titled album in 1995, the group ended up selling over three million copies world wide. This success came as surprise to all the group members of course, except Butch Vig, who had previous recognition with his work with such bands as NIN and Depeche Mode (two more kick ass bands I might say).
Anyway, if you've never really got into Garbage yet (which I suggest you do), you might be wondering what the hell's up with their name, right? According to Butch, a friend of the group's came in to the studio one day (rumoured to be Trent Reznor, lead singer of Nine Inch Nails) and heard some of the bands recording work. When he saw all of the equipment that they were using and the technical devices, he stated something to the effect "All this shit around here looks like garbage.....do you guys have any idea what you are doing?" After hearing this, the band took his comments to heart and decided to name their band after it (strange...I know..but cool). So, that's how they got their name.
As for my
personal favourite person of the group (my idol.....), there's
Shirley Manson. In my opinion, she is most up front, honest,
intriguing, and( for all you guys out there) sexy woman in the
world. To give you a few of her stats, she's got flaming
red hair, HUUUGE green eyes, she's about 32 or 33 years old (I'm
not exactly sure),. She's from Edinburgh, Scotland, and her bands
previous to Garbage were Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie (back up vocals)
and Angelfish (lead vocals). She also has self-respect,
unlike the many sell out rock stars today. She turned down the
offer to be placed on the cover of Playboy, which in my opinion,
is something that takes guts to do (unlike the recent siting of
Brittney Spears almost naked on the Rolling Stone cover...but we
won't get into that). She, and the rest of the band, have
this immense respect for their fans too. From the times
I've seen them perform and from stories from other's experiences,
they have thanked their fans numerous times during performances
and can't say enough about their appreciation for their
support. ufortunately for you boys, she is married to a man
rumoured to be named Ed, who is a sculptor/artist in her home
country, Scotland. Anyway, getting on with this, all I have
to say is that Shirley Manson is the best woman in the music
industry today.
And now the boys ( I suppose men) of the group. Most of the guys are from the ever lovely state of Wisconsin. Don't ask me how they emerged to be so awesome from such a desolate place; it just happened (not that I have anything against the Cheese State). Anyway, there's 3 of them. Butch Vig (real name Brian) is 41 and yep, he's married. Then there's Steve who's 38. Duke, real name Doug, is from Nebraska (yet another desolate state) and he's 46. There's not much to say about these guys, except that their instrumental talent totally makes the band. Their music is so varied and awesome that it NEVER gets boring. They're great guys....and of course, they are in the best band in the entire world (to me, that is.
Alright, here we go with their current stuff. To date, Garbage has two full length CD's out: Garbage and Version 2.0. Both are great CD's, very different from each other, but still the best. They were currently nominated for Best Album of the Year for v2.0 at this years Grammies, but lost to Lauryn Hill (no comment...I think Garbage should have won, of course). Shirley also presented the award for best Female Soloist of the year (who turned out be Alanis) with Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins. They are on a current tour opening up for Alanis Morisette. Just recently, Garbage was awarded the European Platinum Award by the IFPI for 1 million sales of their current album across Europe. In the UuSA alone, v2.0 has sold over a million copies. That's pretty much what's going on with the band lately. I read somewhere that they are compiling an OFFICIAL Garbage B-sides CD (not like the ones that we all know everyone buys bootleg....*looks around innocently*). I don't know when..or IF..that will be coming out, but if it does, it will definitely be worth getting. Besides that, I hope I've convinced you all how awesome Garbage is...but if not, go out and buy their stuff. They are such a great band, and they deserve all the credit and support that they can get.
Caitlin
Just to let you know, I'm not smart enough to know ALL of this info on my own, so here are a couple of sites I got some info off:
The Official
Garbage Website @ www.garbage.com
www.absolutegarbage.net (great site...go to it)
http://members.aol.com/GarbageON/biography/html
Thanks for all this stuff guys! :)
And if any of this is wrong...or you want to tell me something
about this..
or you feel like emailing me....or you get
bored....or you need to procrastinate...or you want to give me
some more info....or tell me anything.
.. you can tell
Mark.....haha.
OK, because of that last comment, the e-mail link on this page is for Caitlin not me LOL.