And I can't touch the ground
I'm plowed into the sound!
Sponge is an American Alternative Rock band formed in 1992 by Vinnie Dombroski, Mike Cross, Tim Cross, Jimmy Paluzzi, and Joey Mazzola, from Detroit, Michigan. They are largely known for their 1994 hit "Plowed", but they have amassed a cult following since the 90s. Their sound is often gritty, grimy, and discusses emotions, people, and sometimes, death.
They first released their debut album, Rotting Piñata, in 1994. Before the release, they released the singles "Neenah Menasha" and "Plowed" as the singles at first, but "Plowed" quickly gained some fame for the band. It remains their biggest hit, and pretty much the thing they're most known for. The band saw this and tried to recapture the magic with "Molly (Sixteen Candles)", which worked to an extent. The last single "Rainin'" was nowhere near the popularity of "Plowed" and "Molly" though, but it saw moderate success. Rotting Piñata garnered mostly positive reviews, but was often compared to similar efforts like Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots. Two years later, they released their second album, Wax Ecstatic, in 1996. It netted the band another chart-topper; "Wax Ecstatic (To Sell Angelina)". "Have You Seen Mary" also got some fame, but it's not as well-remembered as the title track is now. Wax Ecstatic has a 70s hard rock sound and got mostly positive reviews.
After these two albums, the band started to nosedive in popularity, and by the time their next album New Pop Sunday released in 1999, they'd seem to have been forgotten about by the mainstream. New Pop Sunday is a much lighter album than the last two are, being more pop rock oriented compared to the previous Grunge and 70s rock efforts. There was little to no tour support and the album wound up attracting little attention from the mainstream: No hits. Two singles, they didn't hit, but "Live Here Without You" was nominated for the Outstanding National Single award by the Detroit Music Awards Foundation in 2000. The album also had mixed reviews.
In 2003, they released their fourth album, For All the Drugs in the World, and just like New Pop Sunday, it got no mainstream attention. By this point though, Sponge accumulated a cult following, and the band just became straightforward alternative rock. There's little to no information after the release of the album for the band, except that the rest of their albums exist, but they continue to push out music today, and Vinnie continues to cooperate with other musicians in Detroit and Michigan. For example, The Beer Sessions was the result of the band collaborating with several Michigan breweries during the production of the album.
Discography
- Rotting Piñata (1994)
- Wax Ecstatic (1996)
- New Pop Sunday (1999)
- For All the Drugs in the World (2003)
- The Man (2005)
- Galore Galore (2007)
- Stop The Bleeding (2013)
- The Beer Sessions (2016)
- Lavatorium (2021)
I'm plowed into the tropes!
- Alternate Music Video: There are two versions of the video for "Plowed": One has the band performing with a narrative kind of thing to it, and the other does away with the narrative to show the band just performing the song.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: "Pennywheels" talks about being crushed under giant pennywheels a lot.
- Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud: There is a tornado outside of the window the band are playing in in the music video for "Plowed". It even shifts multiple things in the house including the room the band is in, and an elderly man who sees the view out of the house’s door.
- Epic Rocking: "Candy Corn" is 7 minutes long, and 5:57 if you don’t include the one minute of silence before the song hits.
- Fade Out: "Giants" has a section at the end where it repeats the same guitar and drum riffs, and fades out on it's own.
- Free-Handed Performer: All Vinnie has is his voice.
- Genre Throwback: Wax Ecstatic is one to 70s hard rock.
- Greatest Hits Album: 2000's Molly was one that had songs from Rotting Piñata and Wax Ecstatic. They released another in 2011 named The Hits which only had "Plowed", "Molly (Sixteen Candles)", and "Wax Ecstatic (To Sell Angelina)".
- Hidden Track: "Candy Corn" from Rotting Piñata, heard after a minute of silence. Oddly enough, this minute of silence is still left on streaming versions of the song.
- I Have Many Names: Nobody can agree on the name for "Molly". It has many variants; "Molly", "Molly (Sixteen Candles)", "Molly (16 Candles)", "Molly (Sixteen Candles Down The Drain)", and so on.
- Lighter and Softer: New Pop Sunday has its lyrics be lighter, mostly talking about love and women, instead of the darker tracks about death and emotions on the previous albums Rotting Piñata and Wax Ecstatic. It also goes for a pop rock kind of sound instead of the previous attempts at grunge and 70s rock.
- Longest Song Goes Last: The longest songs on Rotting Piñata, For all the Drugs in the World, and The Man are also the album closers, being seven minutes long, five minutes long, and five minutes long respectively.
- Loudness War: This tends to happen often on Rotting Piñata due to the album’s poor sound quality, especially prominent on certain streaming services.
- New Sound Album: Rotting Piñata is grunge, Wax Ecstatic is 70s hard-rock, but the change is no more apparent than New Pop Sunday being more of a pop rock album.
- Repurposed Pop Song: "Plowed" would be added into the video games Tony Hawk: Shred and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock.
- Re-release the Song: In 2010 they re-recorded their hit "Plowed" for Tony Hawk: Shred and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and would later put it on Lavatorium.
- Self-Titled Album: Not an album, but they released two self titled singles. The first was from 1995 and had two live performances of "Molly" and the third track had "Candy Corn". The second was released in 2022 and had a 1994 recording of "Imaginary Marriage" and the rare 1994 song "Love and Sandwiches".
- Title Track: "Rotting Piñata", "Wax Ecstatic (To Sell Angelina)", "New Pop Sunday".. Plenty. Oddly enough, "For All the Drugs in the World" was on The Man instead of it's designated album.
