The SpongeTones

[beatlefreak]

Since I had a few people tell me that they've never heard of the SpongeTones after I posted one of their Christmas songs in the Who Am I thread located in The Groove Yard section of this forum, here's some of their stuff.

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[beatlefreak]

The video for Here I Go Again.

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[beatlefreak]

Another early video - She Goes Out With Everybody.

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[beatlefreak]

And a tribute video from a couple of years ago celebrating the 25th anniversary of their first release, Beat Music.

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[Len]

Thanks for posting and reminding me of these guys. I think the Spongetones were the first band I saw when I moved to Athens in the early 80's. They were playing a frat party that my buddies and I went to for the free beer. I liked them, although they never received the press I thought they should have.

[CappuccinoKid]

If they had only got rid of the face fuzz they'd have been famous...

[Kekke]

Never heard of them, not bad!

[miltric]

"She Goes Out With Everybody" is one of my favorite songs; it is power pop at its best. The Spongetones recorded their first album at Reflection Studios in Charlotte, and R.E.M. were in the house at thye time (making Reckoning, I believe) and took a break to record handclaps on the Tones record.

[iamthebassman]

Got their first LP "BeatMusic", I think it was, back in the early 80s, been a fan ever since.

[beatlefreak]

These days, Beat Music is combined with their second effort, the four song EP Torn Apart, and is available on CD as Beat and Torn. Great stuff!

[longhouse]

'She Goes Out With Everybody' is in regular rotation here. Top band. Have to agree with Jeremy here, the facial hair may have been success-prohibitive.

Great harmonies, great tones, great guitars...

[danbind]

I purchased "(My Girl) Maryanne" after it popped up frequently on one of my Pandora stations (Pleasant Valley Sunday as the seed). I would have guessed this was circa 1965. Terrific song--sounds like I need some more...

[beatlefreak]

Pick up Beat and Torn - It's full of British Invasion influenced stuff like that.

[Low End Lover]

Check out "Children of Nuggets" boxset for lots of good stuff like The Spongtones.

[blue330]

I never asked, but maybe Steve (the bass player) was going for the late period/"farm in Scotland" McCartney look with his beard! He's clean-shaven these days. By the way, Jamie Hoover and Steve Stoeckel put out a record last year called English Afterthoughts which reminds me a bit of the "pastoral" side of XTC; everybody needs to buy this!