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

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band Garbage with

John Doe John Doe (male) and Jane Doe (female) are multiple-use placeholder names that are used when the true name of a person is unknown or is being intentionally concealed. In the context of law enforcement in the United States, such names are often ...

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 ...

of the American punk rock band X. The song was written and recorded for 2018's Black Friday

Record Store Day Record Store Day is an annual event inaugurated in 2007 and held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". The day brings together fa ...

event in North America, with a digital release worldwide the following year. The b-side 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 professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

's "

Starman ''StarMan'' is a 1996 fantasy novel by Australian writer Sara Douglass. It follows the second book in the series, '' Enchanter'', with Axis marching north with his army to confront a formidable enemy. Background ''StarMan'' was first published ...

", which had originally been recorded for a

Sirius Radio Sirius Satellite Radio was a satellite radio ( SDARS) and online radio service operating in North America, owned by Sirius XM Holdings. Headquartered in New York City, with smaller studios in Los Angeles and Memphis, Sirius was officially la ...

tribute broadcast organised by

Howard Stern Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American radio and television personality, comedian, and author. He is best known for his radio show, '' The Howard Stern Show'', which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terr ...

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 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 content ...

". Doe performed

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

on the song.

Violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

and accordion was performed by

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

-based session musician Chris Wagoner, while

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

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 17 ...

. "Destroying Angels" was engineered and mixed by

Billy Bush William Hall Bush (born October 13, 1971) is an American radio and television host. He is a member of the Bush family, a nephew of President George H. W. Bush and cousin of President George W. Bush and Florida governor Jeb Bush. After appearin ...

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 borders Griffith Park and Silver L ...

. 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 Eliza Cook (24 December 181823 September 1889) was an English author and poet associated with the Chartist movement. She was a proponent of political freedom for women, and believed in the ideology of self-improvement through education, some ...

'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 is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but ...

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 ''Wild is the Wind'' is a 1957 film directed by George Cukor and starring Anna Magnani, Anthony Quinn, and Anthony Franciosa. It tells the story of an American rancher who, after his wife dies, goes to Italy to marry her sister, but finds that s ...

" 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 An injury is any physiological damage to living tissue caused by immediate physical stress. An injury can occur intentionally or unintentionally and may be caused by blunt trauma, penetrating trauma, burning, toxic exposure, asphyxiation, ...

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 Loeb (; born March 11, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author and actress. She started her career with the number 1 hit song "Stay (I Missed You)" from the film '' Reality Bites,'' the first number 1 single for an artist ...

Biffy Clyro Biffy Clyro are a Scottish rock band that formed in Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, composed of Simon Neil (guitar, lead vocals), James Johnston (bass, vocals), and Ben Johnston (drums, vocals). Currently signed to 14th Floor Records, they have r ...

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

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian on the southern shore of t ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

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 2001 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 se ...

" 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