Cover Story

Garbage & Screaming Females cover Patti Smith

April 18, 2013 0 Comments

For their contribution to Record Store Day 2020 (coming up on Saturday), Garbage have covered Patti Smith’s “Because The Night,” with tourmates Screaming Females. The collaboration was a staple of the bands’ live dates together last year.

“We did it old-school style,” Butch Vig told Billboard. “They came out to Hollywood and we went into a big tracking room and recorded Phil Spector style — two drum its, two bass rights, Shirley and Marissa [Paternoster] singing vocals. We cut it live and did very few overdubs, did everything in a day and it came out pretty great. Marissa plays, I think, a 48-bar guitar solo at the end; that girl can shred like Eddie Van Halen, no kidding.”

Since Garbage reunited last year and released Not Your Kind Of People, I’ve been impatiently awaiting another collaboration with the band’s longtime music video director, Sophie Muller. Well, there was another attendee in the studio when Garbage and Screaming Females were recording “Because The Night.” Check out Muller’s black-and-white clip that captured their ferocious cover of Smith’s classic 1978 hit, co-penned with Bruce Springsteen:

“Because The Night” is being released on 10″ vinyl via Garbage’s STUNvolume label. I won’t be making it to Record Store Day this year, partly because I have a stack of items I haven’t listened to from last year’s haul (though I did give Garbage’s “Blood For Poppies” 7″ a few spins).

If you don’t make it out Saturday, and want to get your hands on “Because The Night,” sit tight, as Vig expects the cover will pop up for digital download at some point.