Photos: SPONGE to Release Final Studio Album Recuerda Tu Muerte

Detroit-based band Sponge has released its new single 'Self Inflicted Loss,' the first track off the band's forthcoming studio album titled Recuerda Tu Muerte, out October 2.

Photo Credit: Sal Rodriguez

'Self Inflicted Loss' is a characteristically unflinching confessional with a tripped-out, dark groove. 'It's a dark record, and I just go, 'Y'know, why not?,'' says lead vocalist Vinnie Dombroski.

For the song's official video, the band teamed up with Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, the production house behind Robot Chicken, Titan Maximum and Buddy Thunderstruck.

'The making of the music video for 'Self Inflicted Loss' was a groovy experience,' says Creative Producer Ciara Waggoner. 'As fans of vintage toys, we decided to use 1970s Fisher-Price Adventure People action figures, which were modified by artist Randy Kono to resemble the band.'

Inspired by Sponge's iconic album Rotting Pinata, Waggoner and the team behind the video created a story centered around a dingy candy corn factory. In the video, the band works at the factory until Vinnie accidentally falls into a vat of candy corn (a nod to the cover art for the band's gold-certified 1994 debut Rotting Pinata), launching him into a surreal candy corn trip. The animation took eleven days to shoot, with a target of animating eleven seconds of footage per day using a combination of stop-motion and downshooter clay animation. A fun Easter egg at the start: the character sitting in front of the security monitors is the Ponda Baba puppet originally featured in the Robot Chicken Star Wars Special.

The first thing most people heard from Sponge more than three decades ago was Vinnie asking, 'Will I wake up, some dream I made up?' – but rest assured there's nothing artificial about the dream-come-true that's been the story of the quintet during the past 32 years, for the band and its fans.

Over that time Dombroski and a shifting corps of Sponge musicians have released twelve studio albums and scored enduring alternative rock hits such as 'Plowed,' 'Molly (Sixteen Candles),' 'Wax Ecstatic' and 'Have You Seen Mary.' The music is at once of its time – as definitive an exemplar of mid-90s alternative rock as you can hope to hear – and timeless. Drop a needle anywhere in Sponge's robust and eclectic catalog and it sounds like right now, with a muscular, guitar-driven attack driving Dombroski's forceful vocals and evocative, heavyweight lyricism.

All of that still holds true on Recuerda Tu Muerte (Remember Your Death), Sponge's forthcoming and final album featuring on the cover a photograph of a creation by Detroit-area artist and visionary Jon Dunivant of Theater Bizarre called 'Abandon All Hope' taken by photographer Sal Rodriguez. Lucky number 13!

Recuerda Tu Muerte is a follow-up to a pair of 2024 releases -- the covers collection 1994 and Planet Girls, Sponge's shelved third album that was slated for release in 1999. Produced by Dombroski and guitarist Andy Patalan and recorded in Detroit, it's very much the frontman's take on what he sees around him -- still the 'world of human wreckage' that he sang about in 'Plowed,' but with the perspective of three-plus decades of both musical and life experience.

'People used to say, 'Well, you got your whole life to make your first record,' and I'm like, 'Nah, I've got my whole life to make my last one, too, right?'' Dombroski explains.

Recuerda Tu Muerte, Dombroski acknowledges, is a dark title. Darkness is something Sponge has always done well, of course. The group came from the ashes of the Detroit industrial band Loudhouse, with Dombroski on drums; it released one album, in 1991, and had a second recorded when its vocalist quit. The other members opted to continue, initially calling the group Electric Cattle Gods until a local venue owner told the band he didn't have room on his marquee for that moniker. After signing a major label deal, Dombroski was 'a little surprised but not too surprised' by Sponge's immediate breakthrough with Rotting Pinata (one of several Sponge albums produced by current bassist Tim Patalan) and 'Plowed' during 1994.

'I remember playing 'Plowed' the first time, before anything was going on, and we got a really good reaction and I thought, 'Right, this one's a keeper,'' Dombroski says.

'It wasn't, like, a typical radio song for the time. Back then AC/DC was still on the radio. (Led) Zeppelin. alt rock was brand new, and 'Plowed' seemed like it was a bit different for commercial radio. And I think people could hear it was coming from the right place. It was real. It was not a formula thing. The cool thing about this new record is there wasn't a lot of monkeying around,' Dombroski notes. 'There's no auto-tune, there's no beat detective, there's no bulls. Even the vocals on this thing are a couple of takes, maybe. It's more about feel than perfection.'

The angry, punk-styled 'Lead Gods' laments the plague of gun violence, and 'Lost Pilots' is an elegy specifically for the late Stone Temple Pilots' Scott Weiland. The psychedelic-tinged 'Clearing All the Vultures Away' is about purging poisons from one's life, while 'Stealing Shadows' mines some dense, orchestrated sludge. But lest you think it's all too heavy, there's songs such as 'Peckerwood' and 'Beef Relief' that offer some semi-adolescent levity to the mix.

It's not about finality, however; listening to Recuerda Tu Muerte's 10 tracks, it's clear Sponge has plenty left in the tank. 'It almost feels like we've got another shot, in a way,' Dombroski says. 'It's the willingness of the guys in the band to get in the van and do this. Everybody gets along real well; they're talented guys and decent people and willing to get into the vehicle. A lot of bands don't do it like that anymore, but we still are able and willing to do it.'

Recuerda Tu Muerte Tracklist

1. Beef Relief

2. Loose Screw

3. Self Inflicted Loss

4. Monster

5. In Closing

6. Stealing Shadows

7. Lead Gods

8. Clearing All The Vultures Away

9. Lost Pilot

10. Peckerwood

Recuerda Tu Muerte Credits

Produced by Vin Dombroski and Andy Patalan

Recorded at ATP Studios and House Of Tone Studios

Engineered by Andy Patalan and James Simonson

Mixed by Andy Patalan

Mastered by Andy Patalan

Sponge Tour Dates with Candlebox

SEP 22 - Belly Up Aspen - Aspen, CO

SEP 23 - The Depot - Salt Lake City, UT

SEP 25 - Paramount Theatre - Seattle, WA

SEP 27 - Elsinore Theatre - Salem, OR

SEP 29 - The Guild Theatre - Menlo Park, CA

SEP 30 - Troubadour - West Hollywood, CA

OCT 2 - The Observatory North Park - San Diego, CA

OCT 3 - Bel-Aire Backyard - Spring Valley, NV*

OCT 4 - Marquee Theatre Phoenix, AZ

OCT 6 - Gothic Theatre - Englewood, CO

OCT 8 - White Oak Music Hall - Houston, TX

OCT 10 - Iron City - Birmingham, AL

OCT 11 - Brooklyn Bowl - Nashville, TN

OCT 13 - FIVE - Jacksonville, FL

OCT 14 - The Plaza Live - Orlando, FL

OCT 20 - The Fillmore Silver Spring - Silver Spring, MD

OCT 21 - Electric City Buffalo, NY

OCT 22 - Roxian Theatre Presented by Citizens - Mckees Rocks, PA

OCT 24 - House of Blues - Cleveland, OH

OCT 25 - Penn's Peak - Jim Thorpe, PA

OCT 26 - Bowery Ballroom - New York, NY

OCT 28 - Citizens House of Blues - Boston, MA

OCT 29 - The Paramount - Huntington, NY

OCT 30 - Starland Ballroom - Sayreville, NJ

*w/ Lit (no Candlebox)

For more tour info visit spongetheband.com/tour.

About Sponge

Sponge is an American alternative rock band formed in Detroit, Michigan in 1992 by vocalist Vinnie Dombroski, guitarists Mike Cross and Joey Mazzola, bassist Tim Cross, and drummer Jimmy Paluzzi.

After shopping demos as the newly formed quintet, the song 'Neenah Menasha' caught the ears of A&R person Pablo Mathiason and the band signed with The Work Group (a Columbia Records subsidiary) in the fall of 1993. The following year, Sponge released the now iconic, Platinum-selling debut album, 'Rotting Piñata,' to global, critical and commercial success. After two top 10 hit singles, several tours and live television performances, including the Jon Stewart Show and Late Night with David Letterman, Sponge followed up their debut with 1996's 'Wax Ecstatic.' This sophomore effort garnered a 'Song Of The Year' nod from Rolling Stone Magazine for title track 'Wax Ecstatic.' The album also yielded two additional top 10 hit singles and featured a guest vocal appearance from Richard Butler of the Psychedelic Furs on the song 'I Am Anastasia.' Since then, Sponge continues to release new music and keeps a near-constant tour schedule to the pleasure of their legion of loyal followers.

Though continually led by Vinnie Dombroski, Sponge's lead singer and chief songwriter, the band has seen a few line-up changes over the course of its 30+ year career. Sponge currently features: Andy Patalan (guitar, vocals) and his brother Tim Patalan (bass). The Patalan brothers were a natural addition to the band, having previously engineered and produced the first three Sponge records at their studio, The Loft, in Saline, Michigan. The Brothers Patalan are joined by Kyle Neely (guitar) and recent addition, former Taproot drummer Dave Coughlin.

Sponge's discography includes seven charting singles; 4 of which have made Billboard Magazine's top 10. They are best known for their prominent 1994 hit single 'Plowed' (#5 on Billboard Alt Rock) as well as the 1995 hit 'Molly (16 Candles)' (#3 on Billboard Alt Rock), the 1996 hit 'Wax Ecstatic' (#10 on Billboard Mainstream Rock) and 1997's hit 'Have You Seen Mary' (#7 on Billboard Mainstream Rock) respectively.

Proudly representing the city of Detroit, Sponge takes their well earned place as a part of Rock-N-Roll's lengthy musical history.

Sponge is: Vinnie Dombroski (vocals), Andy Patalan (guitar), Kyle Neely (guitar), Tim Patalan (bass), Dave Coughlin (drums)

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