BAND INFORMATION & HISTORY

CHAPTER 4

  It was in the UK that Garbage's meteoric rise began. For several years, a highly respected and popular compilation collection had been released under the name of Volume, whereby a group of excellent contemporary acts submitted tracks, which were accompanied by interviews and articles in a plush, full colour booklet. Garbage were asked to contribute and duly forwarded the track 'Vow'. As it was rather untypical of most of their material, it was almost a throw-away gesture. The song itself was very dark - although it was not about the slashing exploits of Lorena Bobbit (as was rumored), the song did touch on sado-masochism. Incredibly, once Volume was released, many underground DJ's started to play 'Vow' and most importantly the enormously influential and near - legendary Radio 1 DJ, John Peel, picked up on the track as well. In Los Angeles, the essential radio station KROQ had also started to heavily rotate the track on its playlist (although initially interest was European based). Within weeks of volume's release, the band were being flooded with requests for a release date for this phantom single.

Under duress, they finally and officially put the single out in March 1995. Immediately, the singles packaged hinted at one key feature of Garbage that the separated them from their peers - they were insistent on releasing unusually packaged records, with a variety of versions of songs and artwork. This first record came in a specially designed tin box, and was restricted to a maximum pressing of 3000 copies. With grunge long gone, and Britpop in the process of taking the UK by storm, America was revelling in the new punk explosion spearheaded by Green Day and Offspring. Garbage didn't really fit into either of these categories, but that seemed to have no effect whatsoever on their success.

If 'Vow' had been an unexpected and rather limited success, their next single was to mark the full and unreserved explosion of Garbage onto the world music scene. 'Subhuman' was a harder release, delving into the depravity of the human mind and condition, with a B-side 'No1 Crush (later used on the sound track to the 'Romeo and Juliet' film starring Leonardo Di Caprio), about a stalker. This time they launched the single on a riverboat cruise down the Thames, as the Sex Pistols had done in 1977 for their provocative 'God save the Queen' single. Unfortunately, unlike the riotous Pistol's launch, Garbage's event was rather more subdued and awkward, with the boat even setting off from the shore without the band on board! Even so, this did nothing to stall the single's success - again, only 3000 were pressed, again in an unusual package (slippery rubber casing) and again they sold out very quickly.

Most bands would have been happy to springboard off these early successes and into a debut tour, perhaps sticking to smaller venues whilst they learned their craft. Not so Garbage. At this point, they were still unsure as to whether they ever wanted to tour at all. With an idiosyncrasy that would become typical of this unusual outfit, they decided their next step was to release their debut album. It was November 1995.