It's been over four years since Sponge's debut album, "Rotting Pinata," spawned the alt-rock hits "Plowed" and "Molly." The band's sophomore effort, 1996's "Wax Ecstatic," didn't take off.

Now the boys are back with their third record, "New Pop Sunday," a raucous rocker with psychedelic-pop overtones (see "Sponge Has A Date For 'New Pop Sunday'"). The first single is the twangy "Live Here Without You."

As frontman Vinnie Dombroski told the MTV Radio Network, the road back was a tough one for the band, which found itself in an artistic skirmish with its former label.

"We were in New York a year ago, you know, just kind of putting the finishing touches on the record when we were on Columbia," said Dombroski. "And when we delivered the record, we had the choice to continue recording -- and we thought we were done recording -- or take it to another label. So that's what we did. And we spent basically another year to re-cut, remix, cut new things. We went back to Detroit to the studio where we recorded the first two records and just did everything we needed to do to make the record what we wanted it to be." [RealVideo]

"New Pop Sunday" found a home with the BMG-distributed Beyond label, and it's in stores now.

You can catch Sponge supporting both the Cranberries and Blondie on tour this spring. If you're not willing to wait, the band will be appearing in Grand Rapids, Michigan on Thursday and Toledo, Ohio on Friday.