New Pop Sunday (found demos from Sponge album; 1999)

An image of the final album.

Status: Found

New Pop Sunday is an album that was released by the American band, Sponge, in 1999. It was the band's first album after being dropped from Columbia's label. However, in the years of 1998-1999, there were demos recorded of the album including different versions of the first two songs ("My Lackluster Love" and "Pollyanna") and different songs created ("Anyone Feeling Down" and "Today Tomorrow"). Various question still remained, however, about the demos in question and their availability before their eventually finding on August 31, 2023.

History

It started back in 1997, when Columbia was dissatisfied with the sales and dropped Sponge from their lineup. Sponge signed a new deal with Beyond Records and released their third album, New Pop Sunday, in 1999. The album was a departure from the grittier sound of their first two albums, featuring songs that were more pop rock in nature. The band also performed again at Edgefest and X-Fest that year. The new album attracted little commercial attention; however, "Live Here Without You" was nominated for the Outstanding National Single award by the Detroit Music Awards Foundation in 2000.

During that time period between the dropping and the next album, Sponge began recording various songs for use on the new album. Out of the known songs from the demos, two songs ("Pollyanna" and "My Lackluster Love") ended up making the cut. The rest of the songs were never heard of again. Those songs include "Today Tomorrow", "Anyone Feeling Down", and "Imaginary Marriage" (which was also dropped from the album before, Wac Ecstatic).

There are big differences in the songs demos than in the final release. The guitars on "Pollyanna" and "My Lackluster Love" has a semi-different riff than on the final version. In addition, the lead singer, Vinnie Dombrowski, songs more high-pitched than the final cut. "Imaginary Marriage" also sounds more poppy than the one on Wax Ecstatic.

The Search

All of the currently known songs, six of them have been uploaded to YouTube by a channel named Michael Provenano. However, where he got the album and where the album is now were unknown until March 6th, 2021.

Fellow user checkyourhead found the Facebook account for Michael Provenano. He messaged him asking about the demos, when it was revealed that he is still in possession of the CD, and even gave checkyourhead a few pictures. One with the album cover, with was a white block with "Sponge New Pop Sunday Original Demo Album typed on, and signed by then-guitarist Joey Mazzola and lead singer Vinnie Dombrowski. The back side showed the track listing, which revealed two new songs (Chameleon and Get Down And Assume The Position), while confirming that four songs from the final album were written after the demos released. The audio from the other seven songs, however, have not been released yet.

After a nearly two year dead end, where little to no progress was made, Provenano found the New Pop Sunday demos CD. After waiting nearly three months, Birk released the entirety of the demos, along with two other Sponge live shows, on August 31, 2023.

Track Listing

#	Title	Status
1	Planet Girls	Found
2	Get Down and Assume the Position	Found
3	My Lackluster Love	Found
4	Lullaby (Chameleon)	Found
5	Imaginary Marriage	Found
6	1000 Times	Found
7	Come in From the Rain	Found
8	Today Tomorrow	Found
9	Lucky	Found
10	Anybody Feeling Down	Found
11	Live Here Without You	Found
12	Pollyanna	Found
13	Disconnect	Found

Videos

"Come In From The Rain"

"Today Tomorrow"

"Anyone Feeling Down"

"My Lackluster Love"

"Imaginary Marriage"

"Pollyanna"

"The entirety of the New Pop Sunday demos"

External Link

• An article on from Wikipedia on the era between New Pop Sunday and their next album. Retrieved 19 Feb '21