Shut Your Mouth

"Shut Your Mouth"
Single by Garbage
from the album Beautiful Garbage
B-side	"Sex Never Goes Out of Fashion" "April Tenth" "I'm Really Into Techno"
Released	June 24, 2002 (Germany) July 8, 2002 (Europe) September 8, 2002 (OZ) September 23, 2002 (UK)
Format	CD single, CD maxi
Recorded	April 2000 – May 2001, Smart Studios, Madison, Wisconsin, USA
Genre	Alternative, Electronica
Length	3:26
Label	Mushroom Records (UK) Festival Mushroom Records (Australia)
Writer(s)	Garbage
Producer	Garbage
Garbage singles chronology
"Breaking Up the Girl" (2002) "Shut Your Mouth" (2002) "Why Do You Love Me" (2005)

"Shut Your Mouth" is a song by Garbage, released as a single in 2002. The song was the fourth and final single lifted from their third album Beautiful Garbage, and the only song from the album to chart inside the Top 20.

While this makes "Shut Your Mouth" the most successful single from the album in that market, the single failed to chart highly in Australia. This reversed the trend set by the band's three previous singles, which all charted strongly.

In 2007, "Shut Your Mouth" was remastered and included on Garbage's greatest hits album Absolute Garbage.^[1]

Song profile

"Shut Your Mouth" was written and recorded at Smart Studios during the 2000 sessions for Beautiful Garbage. "Shut Your Mouth" was one of the first songs Garbage completed during these sessions.

Shirley Manson: "In a general sense, it's about keeping your own counsel. There are so many opinions out there and misinformation and everybody's got their own agenda. Take a split second to think before you leap. Which, of course, I never do. Ha ha!"

"Shut Your Mouth" was first performed live on 10 October 2001 in South Bend, Indiana when Garbage were supporting U2 on their Elevation Tour. It has remained a fan favourite and part of Garbage's set all the way throughout the 'beautifulgarbage' world tour. It was also intermittently played on the 'Bleed Like Me' tour.

Almost immediately after Beautiful Garbage was released, a year before "Shut Your Mouth" was officially released as a single, the Vancouver, BC radio station 99.3 The Fox began playing it instead of the then-current single, "Androgyny". It was one of the station's most requested songs for several weeks.

At one performance of the song in Japan, in February 2002, the band ad-libbed a guitar riff from AC/DC's "Back in Black" into the song.

At the August 2005 AmsterJam mash-up event at Randall's Island, NY Garbage 'duetted' with electro-rock artist Peaches with a number of songs. "Shut Your Mouth" was performed as a mash-up with Peaches' own "Shake Your Dix".

"Shut Your Mouth" has also been performed live on TV shows Re:covered, Top Of The Pops, Popworld, TV Total, Rove and on the radio show 'Evening Session'.

The band also performed "Shut Your Mouth" at the Kerrang! Awards 2002.

"Shut Your Mouth" was featured on the PlayStation racing game World Rally Championship released in early 2002.

Single release

The "Shut Your Mouth" CD singles and collector's wallet.

"Shut Your Mouth" was released as the final single from beautifulgarbage in Europe in July 2002, and in the UK and Australia in September 2002.

In the UK it was issued in a super limited three part CD set and charted at number 20, making it the most successful UK single from the album. Copies of the CD1 single included a slipcase in which all three parts of the single could be housed. In other territories it was released as an EP with generic packaging.

"Shut Your Mouth" became the first single in UK Chart history to enter the Top 20 and then not appear anywhere in the Top 75 the following week. This is due to the fact that the 15,000 copy limited edition single was deleted on the day of release.

Track listings

B-sides

For the initial European pressing, no new tracks were available for inclusion, so "Shut Your Mouth: was backed with "Happiness Pt.2", which had been released on UK pressings of "Breaking Up the Girl" a few months prior. The single was rounded off with live recordings of 1996 hit single "Only Happy When It Rains" and their cover version of Rolling Stones 1971 track "Wild Horses". Both tracks were recorded at a soundcheck on tour. The single track list remained the same for the Australian release of "Shut Your Mouth".

For the UK release the single was backed with three new and to date exclusive tracks. The first two, "Sex Never Goes out of Fashion" and "April Tenth", were written and recorded by Garbage in Montreux, Switzerland in July 2002, while the third track "I'm Really Into Techno", was written and recorded in August 2002 at Smart Studios. Not only the shortest Garbage song ever released, it also holds the other distinction of being the only original Garbage song not to feature Shirley Manson's vocals, instead using a recording of Butch Vig and a sample of a woman professing her taste for techno music. The UK release also included the band's cover of "Wild Horses".

Remixes

Music videos

Garbage in the animated "Shut Your Mouth" video.

Two music videos were completed for "Shut Your Mouth". The first was a crude 2D/3D animated clip, directed by Henry Moore Selder during May and June 2002. The video plot centered around Manson being interviewed on a talk show programme by an inept host. After a failed variety act, the talk show host drowns his sorrows with a bottle of whisky, while Manson drives away into the night with the male members of Garbage performing in the back of the van she is driving.

Four people, including Selder, from production company RealA worked on the video for a month. After the video was first broadcast online, the video was re-edited to suit the band. Marker, particularly, didn't like his animation. The second edit, where Marker was redesigned with a Terminator-style look, was broadcast across Europe. This video was included as a CD-ROM track on the UK release of "Shut Your Mouth".

Neither Garbage nor Mushroom Records were pleased with the animated video, and commissioned a second video for the singles UK release. With a small £10,000 budget for the video, it was decided a live video would be released, but the label offered a few up and coming directors the chance to remix some footage or give it a different spin. Existing live footage filmed by MTV in London and by WDR in Cologne filmed at two shows in April 2002 was used to create an initial live cut.

The concept behind the Bloomberg-style data screens was to use them as a platform to show the footage in an unusual format and to illustrate ideas within the songs lyrics with animation. The idea came from the production team seeing a large LCD display outside Waterloo station, the image shown became distorted when viewed up close. A number of shots were re-played through a 20 foot video wall in a Portsmouth warehouse and filmed on digibeta for the distorted effect. This footage was combined in the final edit of the video, which was completed in August 2002 and screened a few days after. The live version of the video was included as a CD-ROM track on the UK release of "Shut Your Mouth", and a remastered version was later included on Garbage's 2007 greatest hits DVD Absolute Garbage.^[1]

Comprehensive charts

References

External links

• Garbage official website
• "Shut Your Mouth" promo video
• "Shut Your Mouth" lyrics
• "Shut Your Mouth" release discography