''Rotting Piñata'' is the debut studio album by American
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Sponge
Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate throug ...
, released on August 2, 1994 through
Work Group
The Work Group (stylized as The WORK Group) was an American record label.
History
In July 1999, founders Jeff Ayeroff and Jordan Harris left the label.
Catalog
Artists
*Tatyana Ali (MJJ Music/Work)
*Fiona Apple (Clean Slate/Work)
* E ...
. Hit singles from this album, such as "
Plowed" and
"
Molly (16 Candles Down the Drain)
"Molly (16 Candles Down the Drain)" is a song by American Rock music, rock band Sponge (band), Sponge. The vocals of the original album version of the song, "Molly", were re-recorded for the single release, and retitled "Molly (16 Candles Down th ...
", helped launch the band's career and the album was certified gold by the
RIAA in July 1995.
Release
''Rotting Piñata'' is Sponge's best selling album, having sold more than 500,000 copies. Although released in August 1994, the album did not enter the
''Billboard'' 200 until February 1995, following the success of its second single
"Plowed". ''Rotting Piñata'' peaked at number 58 and remained on the chart for 40 weeks.
Critical reception
''Rotting Piñata'' received mostly positive reviews. However,
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...
staff writer
Stephen Thomas Erlewine said that the album was derivative of
Pearl Jam or
Stone Temple Pilots
Stone Temple Pilots (also known by the initialism STP) is an American rock band from San Diego, California, that originally consisted of Scott Weiland (lead vocals), brothers Dean (guitar) and Robert DeLeo (bass, backing vocals), and Eric Kr ...
, with a few good songs but otherwise featuring "half-finished ideas".
''
Trouser Press
''Trouser Press'' was a rock and roll magazine started in New York in 1974 as a mimeographed fanzine by editor/publisher Ira Robbins, fellow fan of the Who Dave Schulps and Karen Rose under the name "Trans-Oceanic Trouser Press" (a reference ...
'' was more positive about the album, noting "
Plowed" and
"Molly" as having "catchy hooks and hummable choruses" while also being "colored by murky sonic structures that layer a bit of lead around their listener-friendly cores." They also wrote "Elsewhere on ''Rotting Piñata'', Sponge shows an affinity for density and drone— particularly in 'Pennywheels' and the metallic chug of 'Neenah Menasha'— while 'Giants' explores tense instrumental dynamics."
Track listing
All songs written by
Sponge
Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate throug ...
(
Vinnie Dombroski,
Joey Mazzola
Joe "Joey" Mazzola (born April 13, 1961) is a guitarist, songwriter, music educator and visual artist and is probably best known as a founding member of the American rock band, Sponge. Joe was the original Sponge guitarist and played with ...
, Mike Cross, Tim Cross, Jimmy Paluzzi) and produced by Tim Patalan and Sponge.
A special edition included a bonus CD featuring Sponge live at
Rock am Ring Nürburgring on June 2, 1995.
All songs written by Sponge except where noted.
Personnel
Sponge
*
Vinnie Dombroski - vocals
* Mike Cross - guitar, backing vocals
* Tim Cross - bass
*
Joey Mazzola
Joe "Joey" Mazzola (born April 13, 1961) is a guitarist, songwriter, music educator and visual artist and is probably best known as a founding member of the American rock band, Sponge. Joe was the original Sponge guitarist and played with ...
- guitar, backing vocals
* Jimmy Paluzzi - drums, backing vocals
Additional personnel
*
Andy Patalan - production assistant
*
Tim Palmer
Timothy J. Palmer (born 4 October 1962, in North Shields) is an English record producer, audio engineer, guitarist and songwriter of rock and alternative music. He mixed Pearl Jam's debut album '' Ten'' (1991) and tracks on U2's album ''All T ...
-
mixing
* Mark O'Donoughue & Brandon Harris - mixing assistants
* Tim Patalan - mixing on "Rotting Piñata", "Neenah Menasha", "Miles" and "
Molly"
* Stuart Griffen -
Talent agent
A talent agent, or booking agent, is a person who finds jobs for actors, authors, broadcast journalists, film directors, musicians, models, professional athletes, screenwriters, writers, and other professionals in various entertainment or sp ...
* Pablo Mathiason -
A&R
*
Howie Weinberg
Howie Weinberg is an American audio mastering engineer with over 2,257 mastering credits, three TEC Awards, 21 Grammy Awards, two Juno Awards, and one Mercury Prize.
Career
Weinberg mastered Herbie Hancock's 1983 album '' Future Shock''. Other ...
-
mastering
* David Coleman - art direction
* Michael Halsband - photography
Charts
Weekly charts
Year-end charts
Singles
Certifications
Trivia
* The title of the album (and song of the same name) came from a conversation the band had regarding controversial
punk rock singer
GG Allin
Kevin Michael "GG" Allin (born Jesus Christ Allin; August 29, 1956 – June 28, 1993) was an American punk rock musician who performed and recorded with many groups during his career. Allin was best known for his controversial live performances ...
. Allin promised for several years that he would die by
suicide on stage during one of his concerts, but instead died from an accidental
drug overdose. The band wondered if Allin would want a posthumous tour instead, where his corpse would be present at the shows and fans would be able to hit or take a whack at it. The band's soundman Chris remarked that if that happened, the corpse would be like a rotting
piñata
A piñata (, ) is a container, often made of papier-mâché, pottery, or cloth, that is decorated, filled with candy, and then broken as part of a celebration. Piñatas are commonly associated with Mexico. The idea of breaking a container fille ...
.
*
Neenah
Neenah () is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, in the north central United States. It is situated on the banks of Lake Winnebago, Little Lake Butte des Morts, and the Fox River, approximately forty miles (60 km) southwest of Green ...
and
Menasha are two cities in
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
.
* Track number five, "Miles", includes the last two lines of
Robert Frost's poem "
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" is a poem by Robert Frost, written in 1922, and published in 1923 in his ''New Hampshire'' volume. Imagery, personification, and repetition are prominent in the work. In a letter to Louis Untermeyer, Fros ...
" ("And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.").
* Lead vocalist
Vinnie Dombroski came up with the lyrics for "
Plowed" while shoveling snow in his hometown of
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
.
* The vocals for
"Molly" were re-recorded for the single release, retitled "
Molly (16 Candles Down the Drain)
"Molly (16 Candles Down the Drain)" is a song by American Rock music, rock band Sponge (band), Sponge. The vocals of the original album version of the song, "Molly", were re-recorded for the single release, and retitled "Molly (16 Candles Down th ...
". The song was partly inspired by a story the band had heard about a 16-year-old girl who fell in love with one of her teachers and attempted suicide after he rejected her advances.
See also
1994 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1994.
Specific locations
*1994 in British music
*1994 in Norwegian music
Specific genres
*1994 in country music
*1994 in heavy metal music
*1994 in hip hop music
*1994 ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rotting Pinata
1994 debut albums
Sponge (band) albums