Alt-rockers Garbage were trailblazers throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, offering an inventive sound of dirtied-up post-grunge electropop to the world. Their unique style and songcraft have carried them from decade to decade, proving their staying power as one of rock’s finest. While trash decomposes, Garbage does not.
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Behind the Name
The Madison, Wisconsin-formed band—made up of frontwoman Shirley Manson, multi-instrumentalists Duke Erikson and Steve Marker, and drummer Butch Vig—came to be in 1993. Their band name followed shortly after, and while it is a deceptive moniker, it stuck to the group like stink to … well, garbage.
According to the band’s 2017 autobiography, This is the Noise That Keeps Me Awake (via The Badger Herald), the name came from a studio journal Vig kept around the time of the band’s formation. The early creative process had apparently been arduous, and he detailed the band working non-stop “without coming up with anything cool … and when you least expect it, it all falls into place.” The last line of his entry, read, “I hope that all this garbage will become something beautiful!”
From that, Garbage was born. But the band, itself, isn’t garbage at all; in fact, they’re quite the opposite. For years, they were alt-rock, post-grunge heavyweights, crafting industrial pop hits with their unattainable style.
Garbage Today
After over a decade of performing together, Garbage announced an indefinite hiatus after the release and tour in support of their fourth studio album, Bleed Like Me in 2005.
A handful of shows and brief reunions took place after, but they officially regrouped in 2010 with the announcement of a fifth album. They are still rocking today with their original lineup, an eighth album supposedly in the works. They will soon embark on a co-headlining North American tour with Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds this summer. Kicking off in Auburn, Washington on June 2, they will crisscross the continent through July 15, playing the closing show in Boston, Massachusetts.
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