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Catalog » Browse by Title: T » This Is the Noise That Keeps Me Awake

This Is the Noise That Keeps Me Awake

By: and

International best-selling rock band Garbage presents its own autobiography, a gorgeous, full-color coffee-table book with text and images galore.   Note: This page is for the regular edition of This Is the Noise That Keeps Me Awake. For the limited edition preorder with an exclusive 12" vinyl, please follow this link.

$45.95 $34.46

What people are saying…

“This title is an honest and in-depth account of the story of an uncompromising, experimental, never boring band . . . Through a first-person narrative, an abundance of photos, and solid data (including an extensive discography and list of tour dates) these musicians have produced the template for rock (auto) biography. This is unmitigated Garbage. Refuse to settle for anything less.”
Library Journal, starred review

“In the book, [Shirley] Manson is seen with a bob cut and smudged black eyeliner, power posing for magazines and shredding guitar solos onstage. You’ll also find candid interviews, cocktail recipes (one reads “fill your glass with garbage”), and hundreds of archival photos from the road.”
The Cut/New York Magazine

“It’s not far into its pink-tinged pages that you realize this is one of those all-too-rare, no-holds-barred rock bios that willingly offers up a full, honest and unadulterated backstage pass into the life of a band. Through its 200+ glorious, full-color pages, readers are privy to the highs and lows, and the good, the bad and the ugly. Peppered with handwritten lyrics and notes, backstage photos, rock ‘n’ roll cocktail recipes, letters, flyers, posters, artwork and insights into how some of their biggest hits came to be, it offers a wonderful inside view into a band that’s seen it all and lived to tell the tale, yet clearly has so much more to give . . . This Is the Noise that Keeps Me Awake is an essential read for any music fan but, of course, Garbage faithful will find it infinitely rewarding.”
Women in Pop (Australia)

“Garbage will release a coffee-table book full of artifacts, photos, and anecdotes that capture their long history: pages of lyrics with penciled-in edits, cocktail recipes—like one for ‘Vodka With Anything’—and snapshots from a forgotten era where Manson wore her hair boy-short and platinum blonde.”
The Cut/New York Magazine, from a feature on Shirley Manson

“Look at the band’s just released funny, engaging and defiant coffee table book, This Is The Noise That Keeps Me Awake. Written with journalist Jason Cohen, the tableau tells the story of the band’s rise to success to the tune of more than 17 million albums sold and the ups and downs that came with that, mixed in with the group’s custom cocktail recipes, sidebars on the worst foodborne illnesses they have had, Manson’s love for the San Antonio Spurs and the rest of the band’s affinity for the Green Bay Packers and celebrity encounters like Bono and Bill Clinton.”
Forbes

“Fans of Garbage (the band, of course) are going to be happy (and not only when it rains, as the song says) with the coffee-table book This is the Noise that Keeps Me Awake written by Garbage with Jason Cohen, and crammed full of color and black & white photos, band interviews and much more.”
Baltimore Out Loud

“With input from all four of the band’s members, the book looks at Garbage’s musical process and how they’ve coexisted as a band for over two decades.”
Dazed

This Is the Noise That Keeps Me Awake is ultimately a tale of survival. The band fought constantly against record companies, illnesses, trends, and a million other headaches to become an international success . . . Against the odds, Garbage has remained one of the only survivors of the post-grunge era, one that continues to push their own boundaries and explore what they’re capable of.”
Noisey (Vice)

“The book itself is gorgeous and filled with amazing behind the scenes photos . . . Any fan of the band will enjoy not only the biography, but the aesthetic pleasures of the book’s art and layout. This beautifully designed book is quite the hodgepodge, which seems to be a fitting tribute to a band that also came together in an unusual fashion: a trio of Midwestern studio players, a fish out of water singer from Scotland, and one of the great science experiments of the alt-rock era.”
PopMatters

“This sumptuous new coffee table book is a dream come true for fans of the rock band Garbage. It’s all here — the wild adventure that is Garbage . . . Garbage collectors will be bowing down in gratitude to Akashic Books for this frank, in-depth, treasure-filled volume.”
Pop Culture Classics

“While chronicling the band’s meteoric rise to fame, This Is the Noise That Keeps Me Awake also includes cocktail recipes, favorite songs, surprising personal anecdotes, and every gig Garbage ever played. An examination of the drastic changes within the music industry over the past two decades is unexpectedly engaging and offers a nuanced insider’s perspective on the turn to digital music consumption.”
Fine Books & Collections

“Using a trove of archival photos – many of which have never been seen – and loaded with great anecdotes, this book is a perfect compliment and introduction to one of the most beloved bands of the last 20 years.”
Interrobang

“Die-hard fans and alt-rock aficionados, prepare for 208 pages of archived photographs, studio memories, cocktail recipes, and candid tour moments from their 22-year history together, as well as their individually careers, all leading up to the creation of their own label, STUNVOLUME, and the release of their sixth studio album, 2016’s Strange Little Birds. Accompanying the members’ trips down memory lane are helpful tidbits supplied by music journalist Jason Cohen, making for an especially informative super-long chill studio session.”
Nerdist

“This heavy-duty, 208-page collection of arresting professional photos, candid shots and oral histories featuring all four members proves Garbage is indeed worthy. In fact, the boldly designed pink-and-black book is almost as much fun to read as it is to look at.”
Isthmus Magazine

“All I know is, if you call yourself Garbage, you’re going to start hanging out with garbage, and the next thing you know, you will be garbage.”
—Carrie Elizabeth Erickson (1920-2012) to her son Douglas “Duke” Erikson, 1995


Description

Garbage are known around the world for songs that mix pop sweetness with the dour thunder of industrial music and the rhythmic punch of hip-hop. Now, for the first time, the four band members tell the story of that music in their own words. Packed with rare photos and personal snapshots, this book examines how Garbage make their music, and how they’ve kept it together (or not) for more than twenty years.

The beautifully designed, large-format coffee-table book is bound with an embossed cloth hardcover and finished with a dust jacket. The edges of the text pages, printed on luxurious matte art paper in six colors, are finished with a stunning pink spot color. This Is the Noise That Keeps Me Awake is a must-have (and perfect gift) for Garbage’s fans.

Excerpt (In the words of Butch Vig, drummer):

“It was 1995, we were finishing our debut album, and I was stressed. A lot of music business people had told me it was a mistake to give up full-time music production to start a band. So I ignored them all and took a leap of faith. The simplest reason was that I just wanted to be in a band with my friends. I’d been playing with Duke and Steve for several years, and now we had a new beginning with an X factor: a Scottish singer named Shirley. She seemed like a good fit for our little club of misfits. So we all took that leap.”

Read a feature interview with Shirley Manson, NME Icon, at NME.

Read Rolling Stone‘s preview here.

Read Shirley Manson’s interviews with the Seattle TimesMXDWN, i-D (Vice), the Daily Record (UK), Fox411 and Variety.

Watch Shirley Manson and Butch Vig’s video interview with Yahoo / Backspin.

Read W Magazine‘s feature on Shirley Manson here.

Find out “How to Drink Like Garbage’s Shirley Manson” on the Daily Beast.

Read Shirley Manson’s interview with Debbie Harry for Entertainment Weekly.

Read Atlanta Journal-Constitution Music Scene‘s feature on Garbage’s book signing.

Listen to Garbage’s interview on Oake and Riley in the Morning.

Listen to Shirley Manson’s interview on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

Read Philly Voice‘s interview with Butch Vig.

Read Glide Magazine‘s interview with Butch Vig.

Read a concert recap for Garbage’s tour with Blondie here.


Book Details

  • Hardcover: 208 pages
  • Published: 7/4/17
  • IBSN: 9781617755507

Authors

Described by Pitchfork as “the alternative to everything,” GARBAGE pioneered their wildly inventive fusion of pop, heavy guitars, and hip-hop and industrial textures more than two decades ago. Their 1994 debut album—recorded in Madison, Wisconsin, by Shirley Manson, Duke Erikson, Steve Marker, and Butch Vig—made them one of the most acclaimed, adventurous, and best-selling bands of the nineties, and an international phenomenon: double platinum in the UK, US, and Australia, headlining festivals around the globe. Their seven studio albums have collectively sold over fifteen million copies worldwide. In 2012, Garbage declared their independence by founding their own label, STUNVOLUME, allowing the band to chart their own course on their own terms. After a new album, Strange Little Birds, and an extensive tour in 2016, the band continues to define a future celebrating differences. Their seventh studio album, No Gods No Masters, was released in 2021. This Is the Noise That Keeps Me Awake is their first book.

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JASON COHEN first wrote about Garbage for Rolling Stone in 1995, and subsequently for the now-defunct magazines Unlimited and Request. His other books include Generation Ecch!, Zamboni Rodeo and SXSW Scrapbook. He is a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly and a regular contributor to Portland Monthly, Cincinnati Magazine, Eater, and Street Roots.

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