In early March, Garbage drummer and producer Butch Vig had just gotten news that “Why Don’t You Love Me,” the lead single from the group’s new CD, “Bleed Like Me,” was ready to crash the top 20 at modern rock radio.
| 8 tonight at the Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., Seattle. $30.50, 206-628-0888. |
“We’re totally over the moon that there seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for the record,” Vig said.
He had good reason to be thrilled with early response to the single, which has since risen to 11 on Billboard’s modern rock chart.
For one thing, Garbage was coming off a CD, “Beautiful Garbage,” that with sales of 370,000 had been a major commercial disappointment.
Then came the crash of 2003, when for a time it appeared Garbage would be no more.
Looking back on the near-demise of the band – which includes Vig, singer Shirley Manson, guitarist Duke Erikson and guitarist Steve Marker – what’s notable is how quickly the atmosphere changed.
Despite the tepid response to “Beautiful Garbage,” and two separate illnesses that kept Vig from performing with the group for much of its 2003 tour, the band began the year seemingly riding a crest. A high point came in February when the band played a benefit for Music Cares.
“It was in front of 2,000 industry people, including Jimmy Iovine (head of Universal/Interscope Records), and we played a cover of (U2’s) ‘Pride In The Name Of Love,’ which is always kind of scary because that’s such a classic song,” Vig remembered. “And we totally brought the roof down. I mean, we absolutely nailed it.”
Stoked-up band members convened a couple weeks later to start work on a fourth album. That’s when things went sour.
“We wrote ‘Right Between the Eyes’ and ‘Sex is Not the Enemy’ really fast,” Vig said. “And then we just started spiraling downhill.”
“… Because we had been together so long, we just, I think like a family being in each other’s faces, a lot of little personal idiosyncrasies started bubbling to the surface and getting in the way of music. We started fighting about everything – everything.
“… I finally walked in in early Ocotober and said ‘(That’s) it, I’m out of here. I can’t deal with this anymore,’” Vig said.
Garbage had formed in 1994 after Vig, Marker and Erikson (who had been in the bands Spooner and Firetown in the ’70s and ’80s) recruited Manson after seeing her on MTV in a video by her former band, Angelfish.
Given a few months to think about what the band meant to him, Vig contacted his bandmates about reconvening.
This time, there was a twist. They agreed to hire an outside producer for the sessions – surprising considering Vig is a seasoned producer who was at the helm for the recording of Nirvana’s landmark “Nevermind.”
“We needed to get in a room with someone who might be able to be a referee and just kind of inspire us in ways to make us try things differently, so we weren’t stuck in a rut,” Vig said.
The choice became John King of the Dust Brothers. That session, while not totally smooth, spawned “Bad Boyfriend,” a tune that also features a guest appearance on drums from Dave Grohl.
Energized by the track, the band decided to move forward without King and returned to Vig’s Smart Studios in Madison, Wis., where a weeklong jam session broke open the creative floodgates.
“Bleed Like Me” offers some contrasts to the band’s earlier work. Most notably, Garbage has stripped away much of the machine-made instrumentation that had been a sonic signature of earlier CDs in favor of a brash guitar-based sound that more closely resembles the way the band sounds live.
Song for song, it’s arguably Garbage’s best effort yet.
“The vibe is good again,” Vig said. “It’s like brothers and sisters fighting over stupid things sometimes. We seem to have put that aside. I think getting the record done was like a huge burden was lifted. Everybody seems to be much more chilled out. … We’re aving fun.”
Garbage performs tonight in Seattle.
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