GARBAGE ALBUM IN SPRING 2004

Despite Drummer Butch Vig's famous studio in Wisconsin, being destoyed early in 2003 when a 15-ton truck crashed through a wall, Garbage are on track for completion of their fourth album, which final mixing now underway, with a view to a late spring release. No title has been confirmed yet, but it will contain titles such as "Burn Baby Burn" and the cheekily titled "Hanging With My Bitches". Inside sources say that it's a return to the style of the quartet's eponymous debut album, with a more "four-square, powerhouse" feel, and that "Shirley Manson's vocals have never sounded so good". It may have helped that Shirley's been brushing up her tonsils by dueting with her namesake, Marilyn Manson, with a track to be released later on in the year.
(source: Kerrang!)

GARBAGE WORK WITH NEW PRODUCER

Shirley Manson has posted on her online studio diaries that the band are working with the producer John King. 
John is one half of the dust brothers who has previously worked with the likes of Beck and the Rolling Stones. 
This is the first time that the band have ever used an outside producer to work on one of their albums. 
The album is currently in it's final mixing stanges and should be out in the spring, at a guess late March early April.
(source: Garbage Discography)

£50,000 SUITS CITY CHARITY

GARBAGE singer Shirley Manson has helped raise £50,000 for the Edinburgh Aids charity Waverley Care - with a little help from her friend Sir Elton John. 
Manson persuaded Sir Elton to donate a Versace suit for an auction at the charity’s grand Tartan and Tiaras Ball at Prestonfield House on Saturday. 
City-based interior designer Anne Hunter bought the suit for £2000. 
Manson, 37, said: "When I explained about the ball he [Sir Elton] told me: ‘You can have whatever you want’. So I went for one of his Versace suits." 
The suit was just one of the many items which went under the hammer during the £100-a-head ball, with more than 250 guests turning up. 
Manson’s commitment to Waverley Care stems from personal experience of Aids. A number of her friends have died of the disease and the singer had a personal scare when a former lover told her he was HIV positive and that she should get tested. 
Even after testing negative for the virus, she said it took time for her to believe it.
(source: Scotsman.com)

SHIRLEY MANSON NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

I’m hoping that 2004 in general is going to be a more positive experience than last year. There just seemed to be so much negativity, violence and hopelessness around the world in 2003 and I fear that were we to have another year like that, it would have catastrophic repercussions. Now is a time for preaching peace, respect and understanding. It’s corny and clichéd but never has such a philosophy been more urgently in need of being applied. 
I can’t honestly say that 2003 was a particularly good year, bearing in mind US foreign policy of late, which has left me with a particularly insidious form of anxiety about the future of the world! On a more personal note, I was unable to sing for the first six months of 2003 due to a cyst on my right vocal chord and it felt as though my lifeline had been cut. Mercifully, I underwent successful throat surgery in early June and now I’m back singing in the shower and feeling vaguely optimistic about the possibilities of 2004. It can only get better from here on in. 
I am desperately hoping to finish our next studio album that we’ve been busy recording in fits and starts over the past six months.We’re heading out to Los Angeles in late January to resume work out there and I’m praying the new environment will hasten the completion before we all kill one another. Now what was it I was saying about peace, respect and understanding? 
I tend to continue to make resolutions throughout the year ( to various degrees of success and failure, I hasten to add ), although I’m very much of the mind that if I need to make a change in my life then I must do it immediately. Why wait until the end of the year to do it? Do it now! That’s my life’s motto. Life is short and you want to max it out before the rug is pulled from under your feet and you sprout a pair of wings. 
(source: Scotsman.com)

OFFICIAL MESSAGE BOARD TEMPORARILY SHUT DOWN

Beginning on December 19th and until further notice, as we are in the process of updating the site and doing some upgrading to the message boards, the message boards will be shut down. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please check back often for news updates, relaunch of the site and new message boards. Shirley's studio diaries will continue to be published after the holidays. Garbage wishes everyone a safe, healthy and happy holiday season. 
(source: Garbage.com)

GARBAGE LATEST RECORD COMPANIES DEAL

The band are now signed to East/West Warner in the UK and Europe. This is due to the fact that Mushroom Records (UK) LTD. were brought out by EMI. 
East/West Warner will take over the duties of Play it again Sam (PIAS) in Europe as well. Garbage were under licence to PIAS from Mushroom UK for the whole of the 'beautifulgarbage album. 
My current thought on this is that it's bad for us collectors. I can't see money being thrown at the band for making the kind of promotional releases we have seen in the past for example, I also can't see there being special edition singles in the way we have all come to expect. 
the only kind of special release that I could see happening with the singles are limited edition dvd's as we have been seeing in the UK for a year or so now with a lot or artists.
(Source: Garbage Discography)