 Part pop band, part noise experiment, Garbage has seen their popularity explode since the release of the eponymous 1995 debut album. In 1993 Vig, Erikson and Marker found themselves working together on remixes for bands like Nine Inch Nails and House of Pain. An impromptu jam session led to the birth of Garbage. The three producers experimented endlessly in the basement of Smart Studios, working to extract the strangest noises from their instruments that they could. Things could have continued on this way forever, but one night in 1994, Vig was watching MTV when a video by a band called Angelfish came on. The singer was a stunning redheaded Scottish beauty named Shirley Manson and Vig knew that she was the voice of Garbage. The name for the new band came when a friend was visiting them while recording at Smart Studios. He listened to the innumerable loops and noise and said "This sounds like garbage!" Replied Vig, "Exactly, and we're going to turn this garbage into a song."
Garbage spent a year preparing their 1995 eponymous debut, released on Almo Sounds. Garbage met with enormous critical and commercial success based on the strength of singles like "Vow," "Queer," "Only Happy When it Rains" and "Stupid Girl." The album has sold 4 million copies to date. Hot on the heels of the album's success, Garbage appeared on the Romeo and Juliet soundtrack in 1996 with a B-side, "Number One Crush." The song topped the alternative charts, and the band earned three Grammy nominations. In April 1997, after two years of touring, Garbage finally started to work on their sophomore album. With three perfectionist producers in the band, it's not surprising that much of the time in the studio was spent recording, re-recording, then recording some more. Songs continued to evolve throughout the recording sessions, often ending far from where they began. The second album, Version 2.0, was released May 12, 1998.
Garbage has a new album, "Bleed Like Me", in stores in 2005, and will be tourning.
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