Garbage!

It's been seven years since the alternative rock band Garbage, whose dark ballads topped the charts in the 90s, put out a record. Before their show at Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, NJ, we sat down with the group's frontwoman Shirley Manson and guitarist/keyboardist Steve Marker and found out they're back at it; writing and producing their own music, touring, and not putting up with anyone's (for lack of a better word) "garbage!"

The band's rebellious leading lady is no stranger to the music industry. The former member of Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie, and her own band Angelfish, was invited by Garbage to record vocals on a few of their songs before officially joining the group in 1994.

"My life exploded you know? Everything changed when I met the boys. My whole life just became this wonderful fairytale," says Manson.

And since then, Shirley, Duke Erikson, Steve Marker, and Butch Vig went on to sell over 17 million units, powered by hits like "Only Happy When It Rains" and "Stupid Girl."

They even recorded the theme song to the James Bond movie "The World is Not Enough."

After the band's two-year musical hiatus, it was confirmed on Manson's Facebook in early 2010, that she spent a week in the studio with bandmates.

"A couple years ago we started talking again about how much fun we had doing it in the first place and why we really loved doing it and we wanted to make some new music," says Marker.

The band dropped their fifth album, "Not Your Kind of People," on their independent label STUNVOLUME last May and have since been touring. The Spring North American tour has drawn old Garbage diehards as well as a whole new generation of fans.

"We may be the luckiest band in the world when you look out at our audience and see the spectrum of people out there. It's really amazing," says Marker.

What is their secret for longevity? The Scottish songstress reveals it's tenacity that gives Garbage staying power -- and fortunately for us they have a lot of it.

Manson says, "The more people tell us to shut up and sit down, the more we want to stand up and push back."

And if the fearless band's past success is any indication of their future, it doesn't seem like Garbage is going to be shutting up any time soon.

Check out http://garbage.com/tour for tour dates.