Sponge’s Debut Album Celebrates Its 30th Anniversary

A few weeks ago, I played Sponge's "Plowed" on my radio show, and I mentioned that the song is 30 years old. I recently looked up when the record was released and realized it was August 2nd, 1994.

I was curious to know more about the album and to shine a spotlight on it, so I texted singer, Vinnie Dombrowski to ask him about Rotting Pinata.

"I never would've thought we'd discuss a Sponge album 30 years later. For a band to get signed, that's one thing. But for a band to have the good fortune for the record they're working on to get released, and on top of that promoted, and worked at radio, and radio embraces it, that's a big deal, man!" Vinnie said that his previous band, Loudhouse, wasn't so lucky. "We got dropped after the first record. The record never really got worked at all. So I know what that's like from firsthand experience. So, for Sponge to have had a record released and promoted like it was and remembered 30 years later, that's a big deal."

Vinnie talked about making the album. "That record was pretty quick, man. We had already started recording on our own before the label was involved. I think we had the "Neenah Menasha" cut, the "Plowed" cut, and probably "Raining In My House," so we were well on our way." He quoted a popular phrase in the music business: "Some folks say you have your whole life to record your first record, but that record...nothing was written before, in the Loudhouse days or anything like that, everything on that record was brand new. We were bustin' ass writing and recoding pretty quick too."

Vinnie talked about the feeling as the album grew in popularity. He said it was somewhat unbelievable. "I mean, you're going to ask if this is happening?" He told Detroit Radio that he was a little late to the party. "Detroit radio was slightly slow to embrace it, and my gauge of success would've been, what's going on in Detroit? What kind of heat are we getting in Detroit? From what I recall, we were getting played in places like L.A. and Cleveland before Detroit radio embraced us." He said that even though they were getting love in other cities, he always had a feeling that if it wasn't going to pop in the D, it might not be successful anywhere. When it started to get played in his hometown, he knew it was starting to happen.

The record was made, and the radio was playing it. What was it like for the band then? " A lot of clubs. Ya know, we always thought we'd be out there doing gargantuan tours right out of the box, but one of the first tours I can recall doing was with a band called Failure, but it was all clubs. All the way up to the point that we got out there playing with bands like Live, Candlebox, and Our Lady Peace, so we finally made our way to some pretty big tours. But a ton of clubs initially...a ton of them."

Happy Birthday to Rottin Pinata!

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