The band knew something was missing and one night, while watching a band named Angelfish on MTV, they knew who that missing person was; the flame-haired femme fatale singing--Scotland's Shirley Manson. Manson grew up in Edinburgh, and at an early age joined Goodbye Mr. MacKenzie, for whom she played keyboards and sang backup vocals. She left the band to form Angelfish, where she was discovered by the trio.

Garbage recorded their first album in late 1994 and early 1995. The self-titled album was released that fall and began to receive radio and MTV airplay. By the time that the summer of 1996 rolled around, the album had gone gold. It soon went four-times platinum on the strength of two singles, "Only Happy When It Rains," and "Stupid Girl," both of which became huge radio hits. The band toured extensively and opened for the Smashing Pumpkins, among others.

They followed that success with another album, Version 2.0, which was released in May 1998. The single "Push It" was also a radio hit and the album fared well, eluding the sophomore jinx that befalls so many bands.

The band has been entangled in some legal cases over the past few years. Earlier this year, they filed suit for declaratory relief against the Universal Music Group in Los Angeles Superior Court, accusing the record label conglomerate of using "wrongful, monopolistic, and strong-arm tactics" in its dealing with the band. The band had a clause in its initial contract that allow the band an out if Almo Sounds' chairman, Jerry Moss, were ever to leave the label. (The band's first two albums were released by Almo Sounds.) Universal and Almo denied that Moss had left the label, and UMG claimed that it can force Garbage to record for one of its own contracted labels. They also attempted enforced a seven-year-old contract in which Garbage singer Shirley Manson was under at Radioactive Records for her work with Angelfish.