The Garbage-Men

Did You Know?

• The band donates 100% of the proceeds from the sale of their CD to Heifer International and other charities.
• They have volunteered for organizations including The New York Hall of Science, Mote Marine Laboratory, and The Museum of Science and Industry.
• The band is referenced in the paperback edition of Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash by Edward Humes.

Instruments

The band builds every instrument from discarded household items. The lead instrument is a one-string electric guitar with a cereal box body, a yardstick neck, a bottle cap pickup, a lipstick bottle bridge, toothpick frets, and a shoelace strap; it plays melodies. The electric bass guitar is also one-string and fretless, using a cereal box body, yardstick neck, a comb bridge, a soda can thumb rest, and a duct tape strap; for a jazzier feel, an upright bass made from a wooden box and PVC pipe replaces it.

The electric violin is a one-string chordophone played with a shoehorn bow, built from a cereal box body, paint stick neck, clothespin bridge, and cassette tape tailpiece, handling harmonies and leads. The trombone uses repurposed PVC pipe, an oil funnel bell, a PVC slide, and a bottle mouthpiece. The E-flat contrabass bugle is made from PVC pipe and a traffic cone bell, limited to the harmonic series because pitch is controlled by the player’s embouchure.

The flute is a short PVC section with drilled holes for an E-flat pentatonic scale and has no keys. The alto saxophone is a keyless aerophone with holes for the same scale, featuring a Corn popper toy body, a balloon reed, a medicine bottle ligature, and a recent microphone made from an earbud. The contra-alto clarinet plays chromatically in E-flat, with a PVC pipe body, bottle cap keys, and a balloon reed. The drum kit includes a paint bucket snare, water jug toms, a compost bin bass drum, metal trash can lid cymbals, a tin can cowbell, and a porcelain bowl gong; it keeps time and fills empty measures. The chromatic percussion is a glass bottle idiophone played with toothbrush mallets, capable of chords and melodies.