"Destroying Angels" is a 2018 stand-alone single released by

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

band

Garbage Garbage, trash (American English), rubbish (British English), or refuse is waste material that is discarded by humans, usually due to a perceived lack of utility. The term generally does not encompass bodily waste products, purely liquid or ...

with

John Doe John Doe (male) and Jane Doe (female) are multiple-use placeholder names that are used in the British, Canadian, and American legal systems, when the true name of a person is unknown or is being intentionally concealed. In the context of law ...

and

Exene Cervenka Exene Cervenka (born Christene Lee Cervenka; February 1, 1956) is an American singer, artist, and poet. She is best known for her work as a singer in the California punk rock band X. Music career The 21-year-old Cervenka met 23-year-old m ...

of the American

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

band X. The song was written and recorded for 2018's Black Friday

Record Store Day Record Store Day is a semi-annual event established in 2008 to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". Held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November, the day brings together f ...

event in North America, with a digital release worldwide the following year. The

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

featured a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

's " Starman", which had originally been recorded for a

Sirius Radio Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio ( SDARS) service that operated in the United States and Canada. Sirius launched in 2002, and primarily competed with XM Satellite Radio, until the two services merged in 2008 to form Sirius XM. Like ...

tribute broadcast organised by

Howard Stern Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American broadcaster and media personality. He is best known for his radio show, ''The Howard Stern Show'', which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from 1 ...

and

Tony Visconti Anthony Edward Visconti (born April 24, 1944) is an American record producer, musician and singer. Since the late 1960s, he has worked with an array of performers. His first hit single was T. Rex's " Ride a White Swan" in 1970, the first of man ...

. "We opted for "Starman" because Bowie was the 'Starman' who blew our minds," the band said in a statement. In 2021, both "Destroying Angels" and "Starman" would be included on the deluxe edition bonus disc of Garbage's seventh album, '' No Gods No Masters''.

"Destroying Angels"

In 2017, John Doe and Exene Cervenka had performed as the opening act for Blondie and Garbage's Rage and Rapture tour of North America. In early 2018, Garbage drafted both into the recording studio to write and produce a new track.

Shirley Manson Shirley Ann Manson FRSA (born 26 August 1966) is a Scottish singer, songwriter, and musician who is the lead singer of the rock band Garbage. Known for her distinctive deep voice, forthright style, and rebellious attitude, her accolades include ...

later described "Destroying Angels" as a "

murder ballad Murder ballads are a subgenre of the traditional ballad form dealing with a crime or a gruesome death. Their lyrics form a narrative describing the events of a murder, often including the lead-up and/or aftermath. The term refers to the conten ...

". Doe performed

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

on the song.

Violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

and

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

was performed by

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the List of municipalities in Wisconsin by population, second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 269,840 at the 2020 Uni ...

-based session musician Chris Wagoner, while

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

parts were provided by Garbage member

Duke Erikson Douglas Elwin "Duke" Erikson (born January 15, 1951) is an American musician, songwriter, screenwriter, film producer and record producer, best known as a co-founder and guitarist of the alternative rock band Garbage. Garbage has sold more than 1 ...

. "Destroying Angels" was engineered and mixed by

Billy Bush William Hall Bush (born October 17, 1971) is an American radio and television host. He is a member of the Bush family, a nephew of former president George H. W. Bush and cousin of former president George W. Bush and former Florida governor Jeb B ...

at Red Razor Sounds in

Atwater Village Atwater Village is a neighborhood in the 13th district of Los Angeles, California. Much of Atwater Village lies in the fertile Los Angeles River flood plain. Located in the northeast region of the city, Atwater Village borders Griffith Park and ...

. The "Destroying Angels" single was pressed to magenta and white 7" vinyl and limited to 3,000 units. Due to label restrictions, this single was only distributed within North America. The single artwork incorporates an engraving by Henry Adlard, which was published in Eliza Cook's 1840 book ''Melaia; and Other Poems'' accompanying a piece titled "The Mourners". On January 4, 2019, the digital version of the single was released worldwide. On May 22, 2020, John Doe performed a folk arrangement of "Destroying Angels" acoustically as part of an hour long

live-stream Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming of video or audio in real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as ''streaming'', the real-time nature of livestreaming differentiates it from other non-live ...

to benefit the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians organisation. In 2022, Doe released a studio version of his arrangement of "Destroying Angels" on his album '' Fables in a Foreign Land''.

"Starman"

Long-time fans of

, Garbage had been sound-checking both "Starman" and " Wild Is the Wind" live on their Strange Little Birds tour. "We opted for "Starman" because Bowie was the ‘Starman’ who blew our minds," recalled the band later. "Starman" was recorded at Red Razor Sounds and GrungeIsDead, Butch Vig's home-studio overlooking Silverlake, near Atwater, Wisconsin. ''The Howard Stern Tribute to David Bowie'' broadcast on February 9, 2018. As one of the first musical artists that

had gotten into, he explained "

owie Injury is physiological damage to the living tissue of any organism, whether in humans, in other animals, or in plants. Injuries can be caused in many ways, including mechanically with penetration by sharp objects such as teeth or with b ...

was always evolving, he was always on top of things, he was just a great musician and a great songwriter and a great singer. I want to make sure that people remember David Bowie." Bowie producer and friend

added: "“David Bowie’s lasting influence on music, past, present, and future is absolutely phenomenal. He will be played a hundred years from now... I’m glad we can share these fantastic interpretations of his songs. The people who rose to the occasion for the Howard Stern tribute did an amazing job." As well as Garbage, twenty-four other artists submitted cover versions, including

Lisa Loeb Lisa Anne Loeb (; born March 11, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author and actress. She started her career with " Stay (I Missed You)" from the film '' Reality Bites'', the first number-one single on the ''Billboard'' Hot 10 ...

Biffy Clyro Biffy Clyro are a Scottish Rock music, rock band that formed in Kilmarnock, composed of Simon Neil (lead vocals, guitar) and twin brothers James Johnston (Scottish musician), James (bass, backing vocals) and Ben Johnston (Scottish musician), Be ...

and

Billy Corgan William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the co-founder, lead guitarist, primary songwriter, singer, and only constant member of alter ...

. On September 4, 2018, "Starman" was debuted live in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and was the set-closer for the first seven 20 Years Paranoid dates, before it was replaced by " No Horses" and "

Cherry Lips "Cherry Lips", also known as "Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)" is a song written, recorded and produced by alternative rock group Garbage for their third studio album, ''Beautiful Garbage''. It was released in early 2002 by Mushroom Records as second ...

" for the remainder of the tour.

Track listings

*US 7" single (Black Friday Record Store Day edition) # "Destroying Angels" – 5:01 # "Starman" – 4:08 *Digital single # "Destroying Angels" – 5:01 # "Starman" – 4:08

Release history

References

External links

* {{authority control Garbage (band) songs 2018 singles 2018 songs Songs written by Shirley Manson Songs written by Duke Erikson Songs written by Steve Marker Songs written by Butch Vig Murder ballads Song recordings produced by Butch Vig