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Detroit has produced some of the most influential bands in history including the Stooges and MC5.
These are bands i’ve previously coerced on my channel. The link to all those videos are down
below in the description box. Detroit’s also produced some lesser known bands including
today’s topic 90’s alternative rockers Sponge. They had a big hit with the song Plowed and
molly in the mid 90’s but whatever happened to the band? Let’s explore in today’s video.
Detroit’s is a strange musical city. Unlike Seattle which had a huge sense
of community amongst the city’s musicians,
Detroit didn’t. Sponge Frontman Vinnie Dombroski would tell the LA Times in 1995
“You gotta understand one thing about Detroit,” People don’t embrace other bands. There’s not
this camaraderie thing going on, so right from the get-go you develop this sense of ‘Well,
I’m kinda out here on my own.’ You’re so used to being hated.
The origins of Sponge started in another band called Loudhouse an alternative band
that sounded similar to Jane’s Addiction and had some industrial influences. Loudhouse would sign
to Virgin Records putting out one album and the band even had a song on the soundtrack for the
1991 film point break, a cover of the deep purple song Smoke on the water. The lineup of Loudhouse
was made up of vinnie Dombroski on drums, guitarist Mike Cross and his brother bassist
Tim Cross & the group was fronted by Vocalist Kenny Mugwump who quit the band during the
recording of the group’s second album to pursue a career in acting. Following Mugwump's departure
from the band, the remaining members started a new band in 1992 called Electric Cattle Gods,
but after playing one gig the name didn’t fit on the sign so they changed their name to Sponge.
The group was now fronted by Dombrowski and they enlisted drummer Jimmy Paluzzi
and it was also around this time they brought on a second guitarist in oey Mazzola.
Their new Frontman Vinnie Dombroski started his first band at the age of 13 with his friend and
neighbour Lee playing in a band called the Cryptons. Dombroski would play drums while
Lee would play his guitar and they played together as a two-piece performing their
first gig at a church festival. It would be Bob Seger, David Bowie, Alice Cooper Iggy Pop,
as well as MC5 and the Sex Pistols were huge influences on Dombroski.
Starting out Sponge had a long road ahead of them to gain national exposure.
Bassist Tim Cross would tell the LA Times “Detroit isn’t a major entertainment town. A&R; people
aren’t flying there to see bands. You get in the studio and you record some stuff. You get it out
to these people and you make them want to see you. You kind of shell yourself off and just concern
yourself with yourself. You try and make like a missile to get out of this city" he would say.
Sponge's sound would see the band mix elements of their influences
including of classic rock, with power-pop as well as glam rock.
Unlike Loud House the band took a different approach with Sponge
focusing more on writing and recording music
rather than cutting their teeth playing live gigs. Dombroski would tell The Daily Tribune
'We were just writing and writing and writing,' 'There wasn't a lot of contrived concept or any
sense, 'We're gonna steer it this way to get a record deal,' or anything like that,' he says.
'We were just doing the most honest thing we could possibly do and not get in the way.' Mike Cross
meanwhile would say in the same interview 'We didn't spend a lot of time with Sponge
playing in the clubs,' he says. 'We spent more time crafting the songs, doing demos, and then
we would go to Chicago to play because we wanted an impartial view of what we were doing' he'd say.
The band soon set their sights on self funding and recording their first album
without any record label. They would have a friend in producer Tim Patalan who had
a studio called the Loft in Michigan who helped them record their songs for pretty
cheap. The version you hear of Plowed you hear on the album was recorded in that studio one
day after the song was written. We’ll talk more specifically about that song in a bit.
The demo that sponge had written and recorded would find its way to Sony Label Group chief
Don Ienner whose son played him their demo. Not too long after that Sony signed the
band on their imprint Chaos. And Sony featured Sponge at a company listening party with other
big names from their roster of upcoming releases including Mariah Carey. Sponge would be given a
lot of creative control over their debut album for Sony with Dombroski telling the LA Times
"They let us produce the record and the photos, artwork--all that stuff
is subject to approval by the band" he'd say. Released in August of 1994 the group’s debut
album Rotting Pinata hit some rough patches early on as their label chose the firstsingle that was
neither plowed or molly and it was not well received. Not too long after that Chaos folded
and the band switched hands to the sony owned Work Group. One of the first orders of business
was to release a second single in plowed and recut the video to show more live footage of the band.
Sponge by this point in time were making a name for themselves as a live act and the
label wanted the mtv audience to know that. By November of 1994 MTV added plowed to
their buzz bin program with matt pinfield of the network telling billboard magazine “It’s
a good clip. The song is strong and modern rock and album rock have sparked a real buzz here.”
Meanwhile a spokesperson for their record label would take a swipe at other popular
bands at the time telling billboard at why Sponge was connecting with a radio audience
saying and i quote “this isn’t about love or losing your girlfriend or heroin or anything
you’re hearing now. I’m not putting that down but he’s talking about life and human qualities and
he’s getting through to people" the spokesperson would say. it would be los angeles station KROQ
who first put plowed in heavy rotation ad other modern rock stations followed suit. The song
would prove to be the band's highest charting single of their career on the billboard hot 100
and second highest charting single on the modern rock charts peaking at number 5
Funny enough the band’s hometown of Detroit was one of the last radio markets to add the
single to their stations and it took some time for their hometown to even embrace the band..
Dombroski would tell the daily tribune 'To me it didn't sound like anything that was on the radio
at the time,'. 'It didn't really fit. But we got good reaction from it live, and that carried
over when radio started playing it' he'd say. Dombroski would end up writing Plowed in just
10 minutes coming up with the song while shoveling snow in Detroit. He would end up running back into
his house and started coming up with the guitar chords to the song and soon called his friend,
producer and studio owner Tim Patalan and the next day they recorded the song
.Dombroski admitted to billboard that the song almost never got recorded because the group’s
bass player couldn’t make the sessions but they proceeded anyways and used it for their demo.
Dombroski would tell Aimee Spencer Tiemann “Mike Cross wrote and played the iconic guitar riff
and the song was done. It’s basically the same version on the Rotting Pinata album,
however, we recorded the track prior to having our record deal with Sony" he'd say.
With dark lyrics and sound the song actually strikes an optimistic tone with
Dombroski would tell billboard “The tune talks about coming across these kind of adversities
and you just kind of tear through the shit and don’t let the adversities get the best of you.
The group’s follow up single Molly would outperform Plowed on the modern rock charts
peaking at number 3. By the end of the day Rotting Pinata would sell more than 500,000
copies going gold and becoming the band’s best selling record. As the band first became popular
they were lumped in with other alternative groups including Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots
and Candlebox but Sponge would chose to focus on more important things like the music.
The band followed up their debut album with their second record Wax Ecstatic
which came out in 1996. Guitarist Joey Mazzola would tell the Tampa Bay Tribune that originally
their follow up was going to be a concept album that told the story of the death of a drag queen,
but that idea would be mostly scrapped. The early signs of the record seemed promising.
Critics praised the band’s sophomore effort which showed more of a 70’s influences.
The band also headlined the second stage of the traveling lollapalooza tour in addition to the
fact that they opened for Kiss in Detroit as part of their reunion tour along with Alice in chains
But the problem was no one was buying their second album. The Tampa Bay Tribune perfectly summarized
it by saying & i quote Sponge guitarist Joey Mazzola, it's a mystery that ranks
up there with Jimmy Hoffa's "vacation" and Kathie Lee Gifford's popularity."
Sponge guitarist Joey Mazzola would tell the Tampa Bay Tribune why he thought
maybe wh ythe album wasn't moving saying "Some people say it's the sophomore jinx,
but Pearl Jam isn't really knocking them out of the park right now, either,". "There's a lot
of bands out there, and I see a tightening of playlists at radio stations everywhere.
Things are just in a downturn right now" he'd say. The album would end up selling about
a quarter of a million copies well below that of their debut record.
By 1998 the band’s fortunes had changed. They had lost their manger, Chris Cornell’s wife at the
time Susan Silver who decided to retire from the business and they lost their recording contract
with Sony after they were unhappy with the material the band recorded for their third album.
Dombrowski would tell Ink19 We were given the option — the record company wasn’t satisfied with
the record we delivered. Don Ienner said to us, “You can go and continue recording and possibly
use some outside writers. Or you can take your masters and go to another label.”
We talked it over and we felt we delivered the best record we could under the circumstances.
And we were ready to move on. So it was kind of a mutual parting" he would say.
The band would return in 1999 with new pop sunday on new label Beyond and release the album New Pop
Sunday. The album failed to chart and the band underwent some more turbulent times as around 2000
the Cross brothers exited the band after growing tired of being on the road. in 2001 that Dombroski
hooked up with seattle musicians including alice in chains drummer Sean Kinney and bassist
Mike Inez in addition to Queensrcyhe guitarist Chris DeGarmo as part of a super group called
Spys4Darwin. They would put out a lone six song EP in 2001 called Microfish & soon enough revised
lineup of Sponge reconvened with Dombroski and guitarist Joey Mazolla being hte only
remaining members. in 2003 and put out the album All the Drugs in the World on label Indie Records.
By the middle of the 2005 Mazolla left the band leaving Dombroski as the sole remaining member
and the band would put out several subsequent records on a variety of labels including labels
including The Man, Galore, Galore Stop the Bleeding and 2016’s the Beer Sessions. The Beer
Sessions according to allmusic would pay tribute to michigan’s independent music scene and beer.
In the last few years radio host howard stern has mentioned the track Plowed over and over again.
In 2017, the radio host revealed the song actually inspired his painting of his late cat,
Apple. Stern mentioned the song so much that publication Variety reached out to the band
with Dombroski saying "I know it’s affected the way that promoters are coming in regards
to booking the band,” says Dombrowski. “There just seems to be a buzz, and a reigniting of love
for the band. And on top of that it’s the 25th anniversary of the release of our first record.
So the timing is insanely cool.” In fact, Stern’s mention of the band seemed to have increased
streams of the song Plowed with more than 4 million streams accumulating in just a few months.
In 2018 the classic lineup of sponge reunited with drummer Jimmy Paluzzi, guitarists Joey
Mazzola and Mike Cross, as well as bassist Tim Cross and front man Vinnie Dombroski playing the
detroit music awards to celebrate the band’s induction. Since 2018 the and has been pretty
active on the touring circuit and they've got a number of shows scheduled for this year.
That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching be sure to hit the like button
and subscribe and we'll see you again on rock n' roll true stories. Take care.