The Infection (band)

For the entire album list; see The Infection discography.

The Infection is an American-British rock band, Formed in San Diego, California in 1988. It was founded by SpongeBob SquarePants & Sandy Cheeks. The band became popular for their weird hair-dos and prior to the release of the debut album A Number of My Lifes, the band went through many drummer changes as Patrick Star went off & on again with the band & Fred Durst joining the band in 2000 and was fired after rude comments offending Sandy Cheeks in 2002. Over the course of the band's career, three of its albums have won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album and as of 2017, the Infection sold 14 million copies worldwide. The band is expected to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

Early years (1988-91)
SpongeBob was born in Scratby, Norfolk, England on May 3rd, 1972, SpongeBob moved to San Diego in 1987 and has kept an American-British accent throughout his career as a musician.

SpongeBob wanted to start a band back in December 1987 and created multiple demos of songs later included on "The Infection" and "Traffic Jam." Unfortunately, it was delayed until March 1988 due to the fact that he was studying in college getting a Master's degree in music and creative arts, so after getting a degree. He and Sandy Cheeks decided to form a band called "The Vaccine Slaughterhouse Band", and 6 weeks after forming the band. They found a drummer named Mike Richards and performed their first show together on June 23rd, 1988. They created 2 demo albums under the name Wince. An Old Friend (released on January 15th, 1989) and the last demo album under the "Wince" name Self-Titled (released on November 14th, 1991; 9 days after they disbanded.)

Vaccine Slaughterhouse & A Number Of My Lifes (1993-96)
On January 21st, 1994, the band announced that Mike Richards died of a cocaine overdose, however, on October 2nd, 2017, he was found alive and well, living in Nicaragua, he is set to return on the band's next EP as a secondary drummer and occasional lead vocalist. So the band found another drummer Patrick Star and continued their tour until October 2nd, 1994 when they announced that they are going to start working on their debut album called Vaccine Slaughterhouse, the demos were recorded on October 10th - 12th, 1994, but the demos were never released due to poor quality of the track recorders. In December, SpongeBob SquarePants announced that the band renamed the band name to The Infection.

Work for the band's debut album began on October 12th, 1994 after they finished the demos for their unreleased album Vaccine Slaughterhouse'. 'The band began writing new songs for their new album several weeks later after announcing that they were going to start the first album from scratch, they wrote "Size (Give Me Your Coke Size", "Drumstick", "Come On Tom, Really?", "Why Did This Happen" and "Don't Touch The Radiation", The original album title was called "Love, Pain & Money" but was changed in March. The bandmates later completed the album in April 1995 and were remixed one month later, in May. The debut album was released on August 21, 1995, and Several days later after the album was released, the RIAA certified the album Gold and announced that they were going to be supporting the debut studio album by going on their first tour under the Infection name.

Months after the debut album was released, The band announced that Reprise Records won't be producing the next studio album and that they would be signing a contract by Sony Music to produce their next studio album, Patrick Star left the band in February 1996 because he was being evicted and that he would have to spend the next few weeks trying to find a new house in San Diego.

Traffic Jam (1996-98)
Traffic Jam was recorded in the span of a few hours by SpongeBob and Sandy Cheeks, due to Patrick Star being absent from the recording. Many of the songs relied on minimalist instrumentals, because of the limitations of only having two members. The songs were recorded and the album was pushed back for a year because they were struggling to find a record label. They tried to strike a deal with "J-OLD" but it fell through, because of the music not really being suited to the label. They later settled on self-releasing and producing the album.

The Traffic Jam tour was a success and finalized in a year, after being cut short because of Sandy destroying her bass and falling off of stage, losing a kneecap, breaking a leg and multiple teeth.

The album had lo-fi production and a heavier sound than usual.

Disparate Realms (1998-00)
Most of the songs for the next studio album were written around May 24th - May 27th, 1998 and the writting process was completed in August, Disparate Realms was recorded in the basement of Sandy Cheeks around June 1999 and went through multiple rewrites and tracklist changes. Patrick recorded some drum tracks for the album and Sandy threw them off of the record and re-recorded them. Patrick Star was offended and left the band.

Self-Titled (2000-02)
In a frantic scramble, Sandy hired Fred Durst around July 2000 after Patrick left the band for the 2nd time in the band's history and to replace him for the rest of the Disparate Realms Tour, and was shortly the permanent replacement.

The next year, Yolandi Visser approached the band, clearly desperate to join as a multi-instrumentalist. Yolandi joined the band when she was 17 years old in March 2001 and has been the main creative force for them ever since.

Self-Titled was recorded through the months of June 27 - November 9, 2001, and released on April 23, 2002, to almost no sales around Canada and most of USA. It went out of print and was reissued in 2005 with the bonus tracks.

Move to South Africa Tour (2002-04)
Fred Durst was promptly fired after writing a blog post on the Infection's website back around July 2002, shaming bassist Sandy Cheeks, calling her a "fucking degenerate" and a "slut" after refusing to put a song he wrote on the album which was titled "Footprint".

"The song was written in three minutes and had some of the most lackluster lyrics I had ever seen, and we greenlit a song called "Fuck This Shit" for Neptune's sake, it's that bad!" - Sandy Cheeks, in a 2005 interview from a source that wishes to remain anonymous.

Patrick Star rejoined around the same time, because he had made up with the band. Sandy reissued Disparate Realms with Patrick Star's drum tracks in June of 2007.

Reunion years (2011-12; 2015-16)
Before a reunion happened, The Infection played a couple of secret shows around 2011 & 2012 at various locations in California, in some shows. The Infection were playing under the Vaccine Slaughterhouse Band name.

In 2015, the band reunited for the 2nd time for an EP release and a tour titled Pain in the Neck. Sandy's idea for the EP was something about the illuminati. The point is, the drugs and other stuff made her go completely insane. War Against the Russians was released soon after the announcement, with 10 tracks. Sandy still talked about it as an EP.

The Reunion tour happened right after and SpongeBob opened for the group, with some acoustic stuff, despite the fact that he was playing with the group at the time.

In late 2015 (October 8th, 2015), SpongeBob was diagnosed with an illness. He had to leave the group to get treatment. The illness was later revealed to be Stage I colon cancer, although, in the coming days, that progressed to stage II

Piece of the Action trilogy (2016-17)
On May 28th, 2017. The band announced that their going to be performing at the 2017 Vans Warped Tour and will also perform in San Diego and on June 28th, On July 1st, Sandy Cheeks released a statement saying that the band will be signing with Touch & Go Records. Few days later, On July 16th. The band was informed that Sandy Cheeks had passed away and that her body was found in her Johannesburg home; Autopsy reports that Cheeks died of cocaine toxicity at 8:34 am; Infection's band manager Randy Washington said this in a statement.

"We are deeply in shock that our longtime bass player Sandy Cheeks passed away this morning at 9:46 am. She will be heavenly missed by our band members." Just a few days after Sandy's death, SpongeBob SquarePants announced his return to the Infection after having an unknown illness that he was having and on July 18th, it was announced that SpongeBob has colon cancer and that the band manager Randy Washington said that SpongeBob would still perform but won't be able to do recording sessions with the band for a while and the next day, the band announced they are cancelling the rest of the 2017 Vans Warped Tour shows due to SpongeBob's battle with Colon cancer as his playing time is limited. Many members have been touring solo during the process of this album.

The New Settlement, Arrival of Sean Yseult & Tiki Taera and return of Mike Richards (2017)
On 6th September 2017, the band released some new material without any advertising or notice from the press. As clarified from a SoundCloud podcast, the new material is completely separate from Piece Of The Action and has no information about the future of the band, according to Yolandi Visser on Twitter, she said that this was new material for an upcoming studio album near the future, release date has not been announced yet but Visser said that the band will announce the release date after releasing the last volume of The Piece Of The Action trilogy. Four of the songs have been released on the Missing Link EP, On September 8th. The band released an new single titled Yellow Man and announced the name of the new studio album titled "The New Settlement" and fans expect that the album would be released by Early 2018, however. Randy Washington said that the release date rumors are false. The next day, The band announced that there will be a new single under the same name A New Settlement will be released in October and also announcing that new material will be recorded at Touch & Go Records. On 11th September. The band released a rarities disc, mainly for scrapped demos and joke songs, sometimes mixed. On September 25th, The Infection announced that Sean Yseult was hired to be the permanent bass guitarist by Randy Washington and will be in the last shows of the Secret Realm Tour & the New Settlement Tour.

Another EP was released on September 29th 2017, with SpongeBob SquarePants saying that "there will be multiple EP releases leading up to The New Settlement, The EP is called "The Blue EP".

SpongeBob announced at 5:41 am on October 2nd, that Patrick Star left the band once again and told him he would be coming back for a while and also announced that he still has colon cancer and might leave the band as well, he has canceled The New Settlement Tour and the upcoming Metro show on October 3rd due to his colon cancer and also announced that Mike Richards faked his death and was hiding near the Caribbean Seas, this sparked mixed reaction. Also later that day, it was announced that the band was going to be inducted into the 2018 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

SpongeBob later stated that if anything were to happen to him, Mike would become the sole vocalist and drummer. Sadly that wish would come true at 1:05 pm when SpongeBob was found unconscious in his Johannesburg home, he was taken to a hospital and was put on life support, at 1:24 pm.

Spongebob's health has risen dramatically over the past day and a tumor removal and colon transplant was done on October 13th and is expected to be out of the hopsital in October 16th. Randy Washington announced that the remaining band members (including Mike Richards) were going to remake the demo album Vaccine Slaughterhouse (which would be re-titled to Last Chance To Get Laid) and is expected to released around 2018.

On September 26th 2017. An unknown drummer of Maori ancestry, Tiki Taera joined The Infection, after a failed audition for Patrick's band "Shitburglars." He says that he is ready to play with the greats, despite only being 17 years old.

The band released their 4th EP Degausser on October 4th, 2017, receiving mixed reception from fans and critics alike and also announced that they will be at the 2018 Lollapalooza Festival. There been rumors that the band was going to move out of Johannesburg and move to London, United Kingdom. Yolandi Visser said that they are actually going to be moving to London after SpongeBob is out of the hospital and also announced the Say Hello to the New Role Models Tour starting on October 18th, and the band is expected to move to London, United Kingdom on October 24th, 2017.

On October 11th, the band announced their new reality series titled Behind The Infection and it's scheduled to be premiered on October 15th. SpongeBob did a live stream on Facebook saying that the tumor removal and colon transplant were both successful and can't wait to be out of the hospital Monday, he also said that he was starting his own wrestling promotion titled SquarePants Wrestling along with Yolandi Visser and stated that he won't be leaving the band. Eventually at around 4:30 am (GMT+2), SpongeBob was released early from the hospital and did another live stream on Facebook telling his fans that he got out early by the doctors with medication and told everyone that they are going to be moving to London on October 15th.

SpongeBob was confirmed to be cured of cancer on October 23rd, all the cancer cells had been eradicated and all the new ones are being removed normally from his body, several days later. SpongeBob announced that the band was going to be performing once again at the Rock Am Ring on June 2nd and will also be performing at Lollapalooza (which would be later canceled due to the band's announcement of taking a 2nd hiatus in 2018.)

Last Chance To Get Laid, SpongeBob's announcement of the 8th studio album (2017-present)
On November 3rd, 2017. The band announced in a short statement on their social media pages that after releasing the remake album of Vaccine Slaughterhouse (Last Chance To Get Laid), they are going to break up and also announced they will be inducted into the 2018 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. A Few days later, on November 10th. The band began recording the final studio album and finished it on December 7th.

After weeks of no news; SpongeBob announced on January 6th, 2018 that the band will return for an 8th studio album titled Buddy Dave and scheduled for release on May 4th, 2020; SpongeBob did not provide the details for the Buddy Dave album but Randy Washington said to NPR News that after the 1st leg of the New Settlement Tour the band wrote 14 songs and that the album is related to the band's first demo albums An Old Friend & Self-Titled. On January 13th, The band posted the rest of the tour legs for the Say Hello to the New Role Models Tour on Instagram, Twitter & Facebook and they said that the tour will end in Canada on May 24th, 2018. 3 days later, SpongeBob announced that he recorded a Mixtape of samples and that it would release on the day Buddy Dave is released. On January 17th, The band announced that Erik Francis Schrody (Everlast) would be producing the Buddy Dave album and SpongeBob said that the album is going to feature some Rap rock songs.

Tours

 * Wince independent touring
 * June 23rd, 1988 - June 14th, 1991
 * The Vaccine Slaughterhouse independent touring
 * May 12th, 1993 - May 28th, 1994
 * Rock Am Ring 1994
 * May 21st, 1994 - May 23rd, 1994
 * Rock Am Ring 1995
 * June 3rd, 1995 - June 4th, 1995
 * A Number of My Lifes Tour
 * July 21st, 1995 - January 7th, 1996
 * Rock Am Ring 1996
 * May 24th, 1996 - May 26th, 1996
 * Rock Am Ring 1997
 * May 16th, 1997 - May 18th, 1997 
 * Traffic Jam Tour
 * August 28th, 1997 - May 23rd, 1998
 * Rock Am Ring 1998
 * May 29th, 1998 - May 31st, 1998
 * Rock Am Ring 1999
 * May 21st, 1999 - May 23rd, 1999
 * Disparate Realms Tour
 * November 5th, 1999 - October 12th, 2000
 * Rock Am Ring 2000
 * June 9th, 2000 - June 11th, 2000
 * Beale Street Music Festival 2001
 * May 4th, 2001 - May 6th, 2001
 * Rock Am Ring 2001
 * June 1st, 2001 - June 3rd, 2001 
 * The Infection 2002 Tour
 * April 26th, 2002 - July 6th, 2002
 * Rock Am Ring 2002
 * May 17th, 2002 - May 19th, 2002
 * Rock Am Ring 2003
 * June 6th, 2003 - June 8th, 2003
 * The Move To South Africa 2003-04 Tour
 * July 3rd, 2003 - February 19th, 2004
 * Return of the Infection


 * October 28th, 2011 - February 13th, 2012


 * Rock Am Ring 2015
 * June 5th, 2015 - June 7th, 2015
 * Pain in the Neck 2015 Tour (reunion tour)
 * August 23rd, 2015 - November 2nd, 2015
 * 2017 Vans Warped Tour
 * June 16th, 2017 - July 20th, 2017
 * The Secret Realm Tour
 * August 11th, 2017 - September 31st, 2017
 * Say Hello to the New Role Models Tour
 * October 18th, 2017 - present

Lawsuits

 * Interscope Records vs. The Infection, LLC.
 * Info: Around February 23rd, 2001. Interscope Records filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against the Infection because the song "Insert The CD" was similar to Limp Bizkit's "Take A Look Around", eventually The Infection won the case and it was decided on August 5th, 2001.

Band members

 * SpongeBob SquarePants - lead guitar, lead vocals (1988-1991; 1993-2004; 2011-2012; 2015-present) rhythm guitar (1994-2000)
 * Sean Yseult - bass guitar, backing vocals (2017-present)
 * Tiki Taera - keyboards, organ (2017-present)
 * Yolandi Visser - rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2001-2004; 2011-2012; 2015-present)
 * Mike Richards - drums, precession (1988-1991; 1993-1994; 2017-present)

Former members

 * Fred Durst - drums, precession (2000-2002)
 * Sandy Cheeks - bass guitar, backing vocals (1988-1991; 1993-2004; 2011-2012; 2015-2017) drums, precession (1996)
 * Patrick Star - drums, precession (1994-1996; 1999-2000; 2002-2004; 2011-2012; 2015-2017)

Touring members

 * Pat Smear - drums, precession (1997-1998)
 * Jimmy Chamberlin - drums, precession (1996)
 * Shirley Manson - bass guitar, backing vocals (2017)

Discography

 * Wince 1988 Demos (1988)
 * An Old Friend (1989)
 * Self-Titled (1991)
 * The Mike Richards Demos (1993)
 * Vaccine Slaughterhouse (1994)
 * Love, Pain &amp; Money 6-Track Demo CD (1995)
 * A Number of My Lifes (1995)
 * Traffic Jam (1997)
 * Disparate Realms Demos (1999)
 * Disparate Realms (2000)
 * MTV Unplugged - The Infection (2001)
 * Blink Of An Eye 8-Track Demo CD (2001)
 * Self-Titled (2002)
 * Disparate Realms II (2003)
 * Greatest Hits (2015)
 * War Against The Russians (2017)
 * Missing Link EP (2017)
 * The Blue EP (2017)
 * Degausser (2017)
 * Piece Of The Action (2017)
 * The New Settlement (2018)
 * Last Chance To Get Laid (2018)
 * Buddy Dave (2020)