Garbage - Milk
Garbage, around the release of "Version 2.0" (could not be a more dated title unless it was called "NetGarbage"), in what must have been the result of some marketing executive's coke-blizzard brainstorm, offered a free email service through their website. The email (get ready for it) was called 'garbagemail.' This was when, I think, only Hotmail and AOL were big players in the email game. I saw this and signed up for an email address, not knowing really why I was doing it or what I would do with this new email service. Around the same time, Radiohead launched their new website, which featured their message board. This message board looked like nothing I had ever seen. The band sometimes popped in for a few minutes to answer questions from people on the board, and the frenzy of activity was indescribable. Imagine maybe a dozen stock tickers that spit out only super-earnest questions about the lyrics to songs, all-caps screams, impolite demands for advice, and pledges of undying love. Also the stock tickers are fighting amongst each other for attention. It was like that. I used my garbagemail account to correspond with other Radiohead fans from that message board, and though I lost touch with 99% of those people, I still wish I had access to those emails. Someone at A&M must have caught on to the fact that offering a free email service as a way of promoting a band was probably not the most sound business move, and they shut it down.[Buy Absolute Garbage]