Performer Notes

Sponge: Jimmy Paluzzi (vocals, drums); Vinnie (vocals); Mike Cross, Joey Mazzola (guitar); Tim Cross (bass).
Recorded at The Loft, Saline, Michigan.
Personnel: Jimmy Paluzzi (vocals, drums); Vinnie Balzano (vocals); Mike Cross, Joey Mazzola (guitar).
Audio Mixer: Tim Patalan.
Recording information: The Loft, Saline, MI.
Photographer: Michael Halsband.
ROTTING PINATA, Sponge's debut album, exemplifies the changes that the Seattle/alternative revolution of the early '90s has brought to mainstream rock 'n' roll. If not for the hard-won victories of Alice In Chains, Soundgarden and Live, ROTTING PINATA's gloom-tinged hard rock would be destined to obscurity; but the redefinition of the genre as a medium for honest exploration of the dark and bitter sides of youth has opened the door for bands like Sponge to be exposed to a much larger audience. So, while this Detroit quintet may not be trailblazers, they do have their stance down pat.
That is not to say that ROTTING PINATA is all doom and gloom. Even with a lyric about ambivalent sexual attraction, "Molly" is still heady, sunnier-than-thou pop, full of jangling guitars and runaway rhythms. The title track, too, is wickedly exuberant, resembling an update of Tom Petty's "American Girl," but with a grim sentiment ("help me rot") attributable to a bitter youthful existence. Far more indicative are epics like "Neenah Menasha," which begins with washes of feedback before rushing headfirst towards grungeland on the strength of a thudding bass-line, tribal drums and lead singer Vinnie's Layne Satyley-like vocal; or "Pennywheels," which begins with gentle acoustic guitar strums and running water samples, then descends into a power chord dirge about alienation.

Professional Reviews

Alternative Press (9/94, p.85) - "...Trying hard to please the ampitheater crowd as well as the college set, Sponge soaks up the influences on both "big rock" dynamics and alternative music emotions..."

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