The recently defeated Chicago Cubs are not the only ones experiencing hopping on a metaphorical time machine. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Garbage’s 1995 self-titled debut and as such, Shirley Manson, Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Marker are on the road celebrating that milestone. Throw in the fact that a special deluxe 20th Anniversary version has been reissued containing all the original tracks remastered and a bonus CD containing remixes, previously unreleased versions of songs and some B-side covers and there’s plenty for the band and its fans to celebrate. And according to Vig, that’s exactly what’s going on as he relays how it’s been so far.
“This tour has been a gas. It’s fun to go back and relearn some of the songs we haven’t played for 20 years,” he explained on the way to that night’s show in Detroit. “Basically, the set we’re playing is everything we wrote in 1995 and 1996—the entire first album and about 10 B-sides. I think we’ve managed to pace the set so people who know most of the tracks on the record [will be blown away by] some of the obscure B-sides. We’re just trying to throw some curveballs in there. The shows have been great. We’ve done about 10 gigs so far and they’ve all just been really run and the crowds have been amazing.”
Among the in-concert quirks are a self-described “almost dubby jam” on a cover of The Jam’s “Butterfly Collection” (which is also on the deluxe reissue) along with the 1995 b-side “Trip My Wire” and a “four-chord guitar rave-up with a bit of techno” reading of “Girl Don’t Come.” And while there’s much to be said about two decades of longevity, Garbage almost didn’t get off the ground in the beginning. All this despite the fact that Marker came to Vig and Erikson raving about a Scottish singer who fronted a band called Angelfish whose video for their song “Suffocate Me” aired exactly once on MTV’s 120 Minutes, which Marker fortuitously thought to record for his band mates to see.
The first meeting wasn’t very good. [Shirley] worked on these songs, but we weren’t really sure what to do and she wasn’t sure what to do,” Vig recalled. “So she flew home and called us two weeks later and said she thought she knew what to do. She flew back and the first day back she sang ‘Queer,’ ‘Vow’ and ‘Stupid Girl,’ which are three tracks on the first record that really define it.”
While Vig acknowledges how much fun he’s having revisiting the past, Garbage is very much forging ahead and is set to drop a yet-untitled album next year.
“We have a new album that’s almost done. We have a couple of tracks. We have to get [ex-Jane’s Addiction and current Garbage touring member] Eric Avery to play bass and Shirley has to finish lyrics on a couple of songs but we’re going to mix it in January and it’s coming out May 1,” he explained. “Half the songs sound very much like classic Garbage and half of them are a departure for us. There are a couple of stoner, goth-rock jams on them that are six or seven minutes long.”
With Vig’s musical resumé dating back to the ‘80s and his eventual rise to becoming a household name as a producer thanks to his work on seminal albums by Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and Sonic Youth, he’s seen the music industry go through turmoil that’s wreaked havoc down to its infrastructure. But he’s also clear that the age-old act of playing live continues to be a thriving part of his experience as a music that continues to thrill.
“Obviously, the whole old-school business model is broken and maybe that’s a good thing that everyone is trying to figure out. It bums me out that music has become so devalued that people don’t want to pay for it but there’s nothing I can really do about it because you have to adapt to it,” Vig said. “But one thing that hasn’t changed is the communal [vibe] you get when you walk on a stage and play music with people. That’s what we keep finding when we go on tour and what we found in these shows over the last couple of weeks. It’s just such a great adrenaline rush and such a strong bond you have. We’re lucky that we have such a hardcore fan base—the shows have just been this crazy celebration every night. It’s really fun.”
Garbage will be appearing on Oct. 23 at The Space at Westbury, 250 Post Ave. in Westbury. For more information, call 800-745-3000 or visit www.thespaceatwestbury.com. The band will also be appearing on Oct. 24 at Kings Theatre, 1027 Flatbush Ave. in Brooklyn. For more information, call 929-210-8419 or visit www.kingstheatre.com.
