Spongebath Records

Spongebath Records was an independent record label based in Murfreesboro, Tennessee during the mid-nineties. During its heyday, Spongebath was often viewed as the vibrant epicenter of Murfreesboro/Nashville's (and the Southeast's) music scene with a robust artist roster of critically-acclaimed bands, singers, and songwriters. Bands/artists on Spongebath at one time or another included: Self, Fluid Ounces, the Katies, The Features, Count Bass D, Fleshpaint, The C60's, The New System, The Roaries, Gumption, Call Florence Pow, Ruby Amanfu, and Knodel.

History

The label began as the brainchild of three people: Self frontman Matt Mahaffey (who had just dropped out of MTSU), singer/songwriter Seth Timbs (of Fluid Ounces), and Mahaffey's manager Rick Williams. Timbs, in fact, was the one who came up with the name "Spongebath."

In the mid-to-late '90s, there was a resurgence of interest in the Middle Tennessee rock scene, when Spongebath Records began to turn heads for signing promising, talented local bands like Self, Fluid Ounces, and The Features. Once located at 101 N. Maple in downtown Murfreesboro (making it impossible to miss, their offices were painted in bright purple, yellow, and red colors amidst a sleepy, historic courthourse downtown square) Spongebath attracted national press and media attention for garnering co-label deals with DreamWorks Records (for Self's 1999 album Breakfast With Girls) and with Elektra Records (for the Katies self-titled 1999 album.) The label even got the attention of Billboard, which ran a cover story in August of 1997 chronicling Murfreesboro's rise as "an emerging music mecca," while other writers half-jokingly began to refer to the scene as "little Seattle."

Regionally, at least, the Spongebath brand itself became fairly synonymous with top quality music, ranging from the melodic indie rock of the Features, the Katies' brand of power pop, or the genre-blurring hip-hop of Count Bass-D. All the Spongebath releases--largely recorded on minimal, scattershot budgets--tended to receive wonderful critical acclaim. Even the packaging for Spongebath releases was unique: Brian Bottcher's artwork for albums like Self's "Breakfast with Girls", Fluid Ounces' "In the New Old-Fashioned Way", or Count Bass-D's "Art for Sale" all had an umistakable, distinct, and sophisticated visual flair.

Self was the most successful of the label's artists, the band having modest success with "Subliminal Plastic Motives" and getting spins for "So Low" and "Cannon" on MTV.

At one point or another, Spongebath employees included: Rory Daigle (manager of the Features), Bingham Barnes (bassist for indie rock darlings Glossary), Andy McLenon (who went on to work at Sire Records), Andy Kotowicz (who went on to become the Vice President of Sales and Director of Marketing for Sub Pop), Matt Meeks (eventually co-managing The Features with Daigle), Justin Meyer (who went on to play drums for Fluid Ounces), Michael Eades (who created the company's website and online presence), Chris Crawford, Harrison Rogers, Christian Rocco, Joli Hummel, and several others. Because of Spongebath's prime location (on the Square and only a few doors down from Sebastian's--at that time, one of the most frequented clubs in all of Murfreesboro) and casual, fun atmosphere, one would often find various labelmates/band members at the Spongebath offices answering phones, sending mail, making posters, folding t-shirts, or just hanging out. Spongebath encouraged fans of the label and of the bands to come by the office, and many did, begging Williams to listen to their demo tape or simply asking how or where they could meet Matt Mahaffey. Mac Burrus (of Self) once lived in the basement below Spongebath's offices, and many of the Spongebath bands were rumored to have jammed and recorded in the Spongebath basement.

While Williams envisioned Spongebath as a breeding ground that feeds hip new bands to major labels, many artists on the label became increasingly frustrated by Spongebath's "glorified artist management" role. Mismanagement, poor marketing, artist-label conflicts, and various internal issues brought upon the label's ultimate demise. The label was essentially gone by 2001/2002.

Known Spongebath Releases

Big Notebook for Easy Piano-Fluid Ounces
In the New Old-Fashioned Way-Fluid Ounces
Vegetable Kingdom EP-Fluid Ounces
Subliminal Plastic Motives (co-release with Zoo)-Self
The Half-Baked Serenade-Self
Breakfast with Girls (co-release with DreamWorks)-Self
Brunch (EP)-Self
Gizmodgery-Self
ThursdayThursday/Rabbit March (12")-The Features
Violatin/Just Rhymin with Tock (12")-Count Bass-D
Art for Sale-Count Bass-D
These Are the Plans-Call Florence Pow
The Katies (co-release with Elektra Records)-The Katies
The C60's-The C60's
Soaking in the Center of the Universe, Vol I and II-Various Artists
The White Hole-Knodel

REFERENCES:

[http://http://www.colleges.com/Umagazine/articles.taf?category=arts&article=F1_self/ U Magazine Spongebath article]
[http://http://www.weeklywire.com/ww/07-12-99/nash_music-local_view.html/ Nashville Scene Article from 1999]
[http://www.mtsusidelines.com/news/2004/12/02/Flash/A.Study.On.Self-819163.shtml/ MTSU Sidelines Self article]
[http://weeklywire.com/ww/06-28-99/nash_music-lede.html/ Another 1999 Nashville Scene Article]
[http://www.houstonpress.com/1999-09-30/music/murfreesboro-rocks/ Article on Murfreesboro and the Katies]