Part pop band, part noise experiment, Garbage has seen their popularity explode since the release of the eponymous 1995 debut album.

The seeds for Garbage (vocalist Shirley Manson, guitarists Steve Marker and Duke Erikson and drummer Butch Vig) were first sown when Vig moved to Madison, Wis., to study at the University of Wisconsin in the early '80s. After two years of school, he dropped out to play drums in the band Spooner. Raised in the dairy farm community of Viroqua, Wis., Vig found common ground with Spooner's vocalist/guitarist Duke Erikson, who was raised in rural Nebraska. Steve Marker, a University of Wisconsin film student raised in upstate New York, was a fan of Spooner and helped them record their songs on a four-track he had bought with money he earned mowing lawns. In 1984 Vig and Marker invested in an eight-track and a warehouse and Smart Studios was born.

After releasing three albums of garage rock, Spooner mutated into Firetown and continued to record at Smart. Vig and Marker made their living by recording local punk bands for $100 bucks a single. Soon Smart Studios became a popular breeding ground for indie rockers. Labels like Sub Pop, Touch and Go, Slash and Twin Tone all sent their top artists to record at the Madison facility. In the early '90s Vig made his mark producing some of the most groundbreaking albums of the grunge/alternative movement, including Nirvana's Nevermind, Sonic Youth's Dirty and the Smashing Pumpkins' Gish and Siamese Dream.