As you probably know by now, The Analog Kid lives for b-sides and non-album cuts. In this continuing series, I will share some of my favorite EPs and 12″ singles from over the years in their entirety. And since it’s digital, you don’t have to worry about correctly setting the turntable speed to 33⅓ or 45!
I often like to joke that I lost all interest in popular music somewhere around 1995, but there is some actual truth to the statement. There are really only a few bands that have come along since the mid-’90s that I really love, and one of those bands is Garbage. I bought the band’s self-titled debut album almost immediately after its release in late 1995 based on two things:
a) a favorable article about the band that I had read in a local newspaper during a visit to their hometown of Madison, Wisconsin
b) the presence of Butch Vig on drums.
I loved Butch’s production work with Smashing Pumpkins and you-know-who, and I was dying to hear what his own music would sound like. Of course, Garbage wasn’t just about Butch. Duke Erikson had played with Vig in the bands Fire Town and Spooner, Steve Marker had engineered and produced records from L7 and the Heart Throbs, and Shirley Manson had released a great record the year before with her band Angelfish.
My decision to purchase Garbage without hearing a single song in advance was immediately rewarded– I loved the record from the very first listen. I liked it so much, in fact, that I started buying Garbage’s import singles just so that I could get my hands on all of the previously unreleased b-sides. Some of these b-sides were every bit as good as the songs on the album, and many were even better. The CD single for “Only Happy When It Rains” contained two fantastic new tracks in “Girl Don’t Come” and “Sleep,” and I was very pleasantly surprised to hear the band perform “Girl Don’t Come” live when I saw them live for the first time in Dallas in early 1996. Garbage also played “Trip My Wire” that night, a b-side from the “Queer” single and– in my opinion– the best song the band has ever released.
The show that I had attended in Dallas was in a small club with a capacity of well under 1,000 people. When I saw Garbage again later that year, they were opening for Smashing Pumpkins (at the height of their fame) in a 17,000 seat arena, and the Austin crowd cheered just as loudly for Garbage that night as they did for the Pumpkins. And whadda you know– they shocked me by playing “Trip My Wire” again even though their set lasted less than an hour. Butch and Shirley and Duke and Steve know what a good song sounds like, even when it’s only a b-side…
![Only Happy When It Rains [U.K. CD Single]](https://analogkidblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/only-happy-when-it-rains-u-k-cd-single.jpg)
Garbage: Only Happy When It Rains [U.K. CD Single]
Mushroom Records, 1995
1. “Only Happy When It Rain” (Garbage)
2. “Girl Don’t Come” (Garbage)
3. “Sleep” (Garbage)
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Bonus Tracks!
The first rule of The Analog Kid blog is that if you write about a song on the Analog Kid blog, you share the song on the Analog Kid blog.
![Queer [U.K. CD #1]](https://analogkidblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/queer-u-k-cd-1.png)
Garbage: “Trip My Wire” (Garbage)
From the U.K. CD single Queer
Mushroom Records, 1995
![The Good Life [320 kbps]](https://analogkidblog.files.wordpress.com/2014/11/the-good-life-320-kbps.png)
Fire Town: “She Reminds Me Of You” [Duke Erikson]
From the album The Good Life
Atlantic Records, 1989
Smashing Pumpkins: “I Am One” (Billy Corgan/James Iha)
From the album Gish
Caroline Records, 1991
L7: “Pretend We’re Dead” (Donita Sparks)
From the album Bricks Are Heavy
Slash Records, 1992
Angelfish: “Suffocate Me” (Angelfish)
From the album Angelfish
Radioactive/MCA Records, 1994
The Analog Kid 
Reblogged this on kylapaterson and commented:
L7 isn’t even mentioned in parts of history and its sickening.
So here is where we disagree. I have found music I love in every decade. I just have to find it in different ways every decade. Recently discovered the band Walk the Moon. Their first album reminded me of some of my favorite 80’s bands.
There’s actually plenty of 90s music that I like– I guess my cut-off for staying “current” was actually about ’95/’96. I still worship Radiohead and PJ Harvey and lately have been listening to a lot of Tori Amos, which is certainly not something I thought I would ever say! Thanks to the $1 CD section at my local Half Price Brooks, my ’90s collection is pretty damn amazing for someone who didn’t buy most of the stuff when it was released/ (That is the nice way of saying that I have way too many Bare Naked Ladies CDs)
I have almost the entirety of Tori Amos’ catalog. Lot’s of bands that started in the 90’s that continued to make great music in the 2000’s and of course, new bands of the last decade. One of my favorite bands of the 90’s and early 2000’s was dada. They were considered a one hit wonder for their song Diz-nee-land, but they put out so much other great music. Their self-titled album from 1998 http://www.amazon.com/dada/dp/B00000AFX5/ref=sr_1_5?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1461188656&sr=1-5&keywords=dada
was one of their best (in spite of a lousy rating on allmusic.com).
I LOVE Dada. I have everything they have even done. And I agree that the 1998 self-titled CD is fantastic. My wife has been making me watch the current season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race”– although I must admit, it’s pretty entertaining– and there’s a contestant on the show named “Bob The Drag Queen.” Every time they say his (her) name, my head goes, “Bob the Drummmmmahhhhhh—–ahhhh-ahhhhh.” In falsetto, of course…
Would love if you could do a post on their rare EP, “Friend of Pat Robertson,” and a high quality rip of the same. I was never able to buy the CD and only could get ahold of the low bitrate mp3’s.