Garbadge Man
Encyclopedia
"Garbadge Man" is a song by American
alternative rock
band Hole
, written collectively by the band's original line-up. The song was featured as the third track on the band's debut studio album Pretty on the Inside
, released on August 23, 1991 by Caroline Records. The name of the song, which features a seemingly-misplaced "d," is intentionally misspelled. A Melody Maker
review on Hole's live performance at Club Lingerie in Hollywood, California on May 23, 1991, written by Everett True
, a friend of co-writers Courtney Love
and Eric Erlandson
, clearly stated the grammatical error and the original register at BMI for copyright collect also features the "d" in "Garbadge". Dealing with religious and personal issues, "Garbadge Man" is most notable as being Hole's first music video
.
in Hollywood on July 26, 1990 as part of an eight-song set. Diary entries from 1990, featured in Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love (2006), also reveal that the song was originally known as simply "Garbadge".
The first and only known studio recording of the song was recorded in March 1991 at Music Box Studios in Los Angeles
, as part of the sessions for Pretty on the Inside
(1991). The song was produced and engineered by Kim Gordon
of Sonic Youth
and Don Fleming
of Gumball
and mixed by regular Hole engineer Brian Foxworthy. It was eventually featured as the third track on the album, which saw worldwide release in August 1991.
, bassist Jill Emery
and drummer Caroline Rue with additions by Love, who focused primarily on lyrics. The musical content is heavily influenced by no wave
and punk rock
and resembles noise rock
similar to Sonic Youth, with whom the album's sound was largely compared to, due to the overuse of feedback
and distorted guitars. Unlike other songs on the album, "Garbadge Man" was written in standard tuning. The verses are composed of four barre chords (D5-E5-C5-G5) and one major chord
(E) and use two distinctive guitar techinques: sliding and string muting. The song's chorus is repetative, rearranging three of the five verse chords, and focusing largely on sliding.
The lyrics, written solely by Love, narrate themes common in Hole songs from this period and also uses vast amounts of religious imagery, similar to that featured in "Turpentine
." The first verse explores religious decay and the chorus questions the conventional religious ideas as well as lashing out at an unnamed person in narrator's life. The end of the song references Love's feelings toward those around her, saying that every one of them "looks the same" and "feels the same". This theme of conformity was found in several songs on the band's second album, Live Through This
(1994).
, and the only video recorded for Pretty on the Inside, even though it was not released as a domestic single. Directed by an unknown filmmaker, the video is extremely abstract, with no definitive visual characteristics other than major usage of contrast and light. Some fans have interpreted this concept as a reflection of Hole's no wave influence at the time. Shots of Love and Rue asleep and drawing artwork in a trembling car are interspersed with shots of the band playing on a stage outside the car window. The video was broadcast three times on MTV
; in 1992 during an interview with Love and Gordon, again in 1994, and in 1995 as part of 120 Minutes
however it was never popular as their later videos for Live Through This and Celebrity Skin
(1998).
For the music video, an alternate studio mix of song was used. This mix, reputedly done solely by Gordon, diverged significantly from the final version featured on Pretty on the Inside. In order to be broadcast, the mix censored the profanity in the song, down tuned the song one half step, and shortened the song by removing most of the feedback-laden outro. There were also several minor changes in phrasing, especially evident in the last verse.
Technical personnel
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
band Hole
Hole (band)
Hole is an American alternative rock band that originally formed in Los Angeles in 1989. The band is fronted by vocalist/songwriter and rhythm guitarist Courtney Love, who co-founded Hole with former songwriter/lead guitarist Eric Erlandson...
, written collectively by the band's original line-up. The song was featured as the third track on the band's debut studio album Pretty on the Inside
Pretty on the Inside
Pretty on the Inside is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Hole. Released August 23, 1991 on Caroline Records, it was Hole's first major label release after their formation in 1989 by vocalist/rhythm guitarist Courtney Love and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson...
, released on August 23, 1991 by Caroline Records. The name of the song, which features a seemingly-misplaced "d," is intentionally misspelled. A Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
review on Hole's live performance at Club Lingerie in Hollywood, California on May 23, 1991, written by Everett True
Everett True
For the cartoon character, see The Outbursts of Everett True.Everett True is a British music journalist, who grew up in Chelmsford, Essex...
, a friend of co-writers Courtney Love
Courtney Love
Courtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...
and Eric Erlandson
Eric Erlandson
Eric Erlandson is an American musician known as the co-founder, former songwriter and lead guitarist of alternative rock band Hole.-Early life and career:...
, clearly stated the grammatical error and the original register at BMI for copyright collect also features the "d" in "Garbadge". Dealing with religious and personal issues, "Garbadge Man" is most notable as being Hole's first music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
.
Origin and recording
"Garbadge Man" is known to have been written prior to July 1990, as Hole performed an embyronic version of the song at a live performance at Raji'sRaji's
Raji's was a rock and roll nightclub in central Hollywood, open in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was located in the Hastings Hotel building. The space had previously been a Greek restaurant called The King's Palace....
in Hollywood on July 26, 1990 as part of an eight-song set. Diary entries from 1990, featured in Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love (2006), also reveal that the song was originally known as simply "Garbadge".
The first and only known studio recording of the song was recorded in March 1991 at Music Box Studios in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, as part of the sessions for Pretty on the Inside
Pretty on the Inside
Pretty on the Inside is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band Hole. Released August 23, 1991 on Caroline Records, it was Hole's first major label release after their formation in 1989 by vocalist/rhythm guitarist Courtney Love and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson...
(1991). The song was produced and engineered by Kim Gordon
Kim Gordon
Kim Althea Gordon is an American musician, vocalist, artist, record producer, video director and actress. She has sung and played bass and guitar in the alternative rock band Sonic Youth, and in Free Kitten with Julia Cafritz...
of Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
and Don Fleming
Don Fleming (musician)
Don Fleming is an American musician, best known for being the frontman of Velvet Monkeys, B.A.L.L., and Gumball.-Biography:...
of Gumball
Gumball (band)
Gumball was an American rock band formed in New York City in 1990. The original lineup consisted of Don Fleming , Eric Vermillion , and Jay Spiegel . In 1992, a fourth member was added, Malcolm Riviera who had previously played with Fleming and Spiegel in the Velvet Monkeys.-History:After Fleming...
and mixed by regular Hole engineer Brian Foxworthy. It was eventually featured as the third track on the album, which saw worldwide release in August 1991.
Composition and lyrics
The song is one of the more structured compositions on Pretty on the Inside, with both its lyrics and music following a more standard formula. The music was composed by lead guitarist Eric ErlandsonEric Erlandson
Eric Erlandson is an American musician known as the co-founder, former songwriter and lead guitarist of alternative rock band Hole.-Early life and career:...
, bassist Jill Emery
Jill Emery
Jill Emery is an American artist and former musician based in Los Angeles, California. Best known as the bassist for the alternative rock band Hole from 1990 until 1992, Emery left the band after the subsequent tour for the band's debut album, Pretty on the Inside and was replaced by Kristen Pfaff...
and drummer Caroline Rue with additions by Love, who focused primarily on lyrics. The musical content is heavily influenced by no wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
and punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and resembles noise rock
Noise rock
Noise rock describes a style of post-punk rock music that became prominent in the 1980s. Noise rock makes use of the traditional instrumentation and iconography of rock, but incorporates atonality and especially dissonance, and also frequently discards usual songwriting conventions.-Style:Noise...
similar to Sonic Youth, with whom the album's sound was largely compared to, due to the overuse of feedback
Audio feedback
Audio feedback is a special kind of positive feedback which occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input and an audio output...
and distorted guitars. Unlike other songs on the album, "Garbadge Man" was written in standard tuning. The verses are composed of four barre chords (D5-E5-C5-G5) and one major chord
Major chord
In music theory, a major chord is a chord having a root, a major third, and a perfect fifth. When a chord has these three notes alone, it is called a major triad...
(E) and use two distinctive guitar techinques: sliding and string muting. The song's chorus is repetative, rearranging three of the five verse chords, and focusing largely on sliding.
The lyrics, written solely by Love, narrate themes common in Hole songs from this period and also uses vast amounts of religious imagery, similar to that featured in "Turpentine
Turpentine (Hole song)
"Turpentine" is a song by American alternative rock band Hole, written collectively by frontman/rhythm guitarist Courtney Love and lead guitarist Eric Erlandson. The song, one of the band's first compositions, remained unreleased for seven years before being released on the band's second EP, The...
." The first verse explores religious decay and the chorus questions the conventional religious ideas as well as lashing out at an unnamed person in narrator's life. The end of the song references Love's feelings toward those around her, saying that every one of them "looks the same" and "feels the same". This theme of conformity was found in several songs on the band's second album, Live Through This
Live Through This
Live Through This is the second studio album by American alternative rock band Hole. It was released by Geffen Records on April 12, 1994, just four days after frontwoman Courtney Love's husband, Kurt Cobain, was found dead in their home....
(1994).
Music video
"Garbadge Man" is perhaps most notable for being Hole's first song to receive music videoMusic video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
, and the only video recorded for Pretty on the Inside, even though it was not released as a domestic single. Directed by an unknown filmmaker, the video is extremely abstract, with no definitive visual characteristics other than major usage of contrast and light. Some fans have interpreted this concept as a reflection of Hole's no wave influence at the time. Shots of Love and Rue asleep and drawing artwork in a trembling car are interspersed with shots of the band playing on a stage outside the car window. The video was broadcast three times on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
; in 1992 during an interview with Love and Gordon, again in 1994, and in 1995 as part of 120 Minutes
120 Minutes
120 Minutes is a television show in the United States dedicated to alternative music, originally airing on MTV from 1986 to 2000, and then on MTV's sister channel MTV2 from 2001 to 2003....
however it was never popular as their later videos for Live Through This and Celebrity Skin
Celebrity Skin
Celebrity Skin is the third studio album by American alternative rock band Hole, released worldwide by Geffen Records on September 7, 1998 and one day later in the United States...
(1998).
For the music video, an alternate studio mix of song was used. This mix, reputedly done solely by Gordon, diverged significantly from the final version featured on Pretty on the Inside. In order to be broadcast, the mix censored the profanity in the song, down tuned the song one half step, and shortened the song by removing most of the feedback-laden outro. There were also several minor changes in phrasing, especially evident in the last verse.
Personnel
Musicians- Courtney LoveCourtney LoveCourtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...
- vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together... - Eric ErlandsonEric ErlandsonEric Erlandson is an American musician known as the co-founder, former songwriter and lead guitarist of alternative rock band Hole.-Early life and career:...
- lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure... - Jill EmeryJill EmeryJill Emery is an American artist and former musician based in Los Angeles, California. Best known as the bassist for the alternative rock band Hole from 1990 until 1992, Emery left the band after the subsequent tour for the band's debut album, Pretty on the Inside and was replaced by Kristen Pfaff...
- bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Caroline Rue - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, percussion
Technical personnel
- Kim GordonKim GordonKim Althea Gordon is an American musician, vocalist, artist, record producer, video director and actress. She has sung and played bass and guitar in the alternative rock band Sonic Youth, and in Free Kitten with Julia Cafritz...
- producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, engineerAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including... - Don FlemingDon FlemingDonald Denver "Don" Fleming was an American college and professional football player who was a defensive back in the National Football League for three seasons in the early 1960s. Fleming played college football for the University of Florida, and thereafter, he played professionally for the...
- producer, engineer - Brian Foxworthy - engineer, mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...