Garbage - Vow

The year is 1995. This year is one of the best years for whoever calls themselves a fan of "indie rock" music. It was also a time when TV was a place where you could actually listen to good, non-mainstream music.

And this is what I was doing when, suddenly, a band I had never heard of appeared on my screen with this mesmerizing intro, followed by a song I still place in my top 10 or so of my favorite songs, 31 years later. The music video was as mesmerizing as the song itself, and so was the singer and her indescribable charisma. I was instantly wowed (bad pun intended).

But I had no idea who this band was, where they were coming from or anything else. And that name? Garbage! Who chooses such a name for their band?

There was one odd thing, though. The drummer looked vaguely familiar, but my first foray into the internet was still two years away. Wikipedia and YouTube weren't even projects yet. I couldn't look them up, so they remained this amazing but mysterious band for a few more weeks. There was no internet at the time, but there were music magazines. One that I used to read regularly soon had an issue with Garbage's singer on the cover. I instantly bought it. I learned that she was named Shirley Manson—a new name then, one of the most iconic rock singers of the 21st Century now—but more importantly, I finally understood where I knew the drummer from: It was Butch Vig! He wasn't famous for his drumming skills, but rather for being a record producer — not just any record producer, but a legendary one. In the late '80s and early '90s, he produced a series of masterpieces including Sonic Youth's Dirty, the Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream, and the album that truly created the '90s, musically and culturally speaking: Nirvana's Nevermind!

A few days later, I bought the album, called Garbage too, and it quickly became one of my favorite albums.

Garbage is still active to this day, and while I listened to them much less in the 2000s, I've loved what they did in more recent years. Their latest album was released in 2025 and is called Let All That We Imagine Be the Light.

Expect to see and hear Garbage again here.

Oh, I almost forgot.

Here is Wow, by Garbage! Enjoy: