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 1987. 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 was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. As of 2019, SpongeBob SquarePants is the only founding member still active along with Victoria Jackson.

Formation, Early years (1986-92)
SpongeBob was born in Scratby, Norfolk, England on May 3rd, 1972, SpongeBob moved to San Diego in 1985 and has kept an American-British accent throughout his career as a musician. He met Sandy Cheeks in high school along with drummer Steven Neville-Ramsey and purposed to start a band which was called Wince at the time.

Further information: History of Wince
SpongeBob wanted to start a band back in December 1986 and created multiple demos of songs later included on "The Infection" and "Traffic Jam." Unfortunately, it was delayed until March 1987 due to the fact that he was studying in high school getting a Master's degree in music and creative arts, so after getting a degree. He, Sandy Cheeks and Steven Neville-Ramsey decided to form a band called "Wnice", Ramsey was later fired around the 2nd of recording the first demo album. The band announced on November 17th, 1991 that they were going to be splitting and that they would be performing their last shows under their band name.

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.

Further information: History of The Vaccine Slaughterhouse Band
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 3 and a half months 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.

The purposed 5th studio album, 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.

On February 2nd, 2003. SpongeBob told MTV News reporters that they were working on a new studio album titled Disparate Realms II, In an statement.

"The next studio album is going to be a sequel to Disparate Realms, and we've written 10 songs for it." SpongeBob also said that the album was scheduled for a August 2003 release date and the band was going to be recording the album on February 4th, which was 2 days later. All of the 10 studio tracks were recorded and the songs were played at Rock Am Ring 2003.

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 (2007-08; 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.

Last Chance To Get Laid, Announcement of Buddy Dave (2017-2018)
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 be on a hiatus 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 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. 4 days later, The band announced that they will play some of the new songs from the Buddy Dave studio album on the 5th leg of the Say Hello to the New Role Models Tour and also announced the entire tracklist. On January 24th, Mike Richards said via Instagram that the Buddy Dave album was going to be a rock-opera concept album; he said that the album tells the story of Buddy Dave when he was raised in Manchester, United Kingdom and was a popular guy in high school because of his wrestling skills.

The next day around the early hours of January 26th, Randy Washington announced that Mike Richards was taking a sabbatical because during the soundcheck of the January 25th show in Vietnam; Richards began experiencing knee pain on both of his knees and decided to not return. More bad news for the band 5 hours later that Mike Richards was diagnosed with shin splints and that he would miss the rest of the tour; SpongeBob announced that Tre Cool from Green Day would be the drummer for the Say Hello to the New Role Models Tour. On January 27th, Randy Washington announced in an video press conference that Mike Richards will have to go surgery on both of his knees and that Richards informed him and the band that he will be resigning from the band and announced that the band was going to be looking for a new drummer. On January 29th, It was announced that Travis Barker was going to be replacing Mike Richards.

On February 2nd, a discovered lost demo album from Sandy Cheeks was leaked by an Anonymous source which contained 18 unreleased songs. The next day, SpongeBob wrote an Instagram post discussing about the lost demo album. "Well yesterday, Randy informed me that someone leaked an lost demo album of Sandy and we were both shocked. No guys, we'll not going to be suing the person who leaked this. I want it to be heard by our fans because in a few months from now it'll be the 1st anniversary of Sandy's death. #leaked #demos". 2 days later, The Infection announced their first film titled Infection: Days of Destruction and it's scheduled to be released on June 8th, 2018. Around the early hours of February 9th, Sean Yseult was fired from the band after an fight broke out when she used the n-word to SpongeBob SquarePants before the February 8th show began and Randy Washington wrote this in an statement.

"We do not accept racism towards any of our band members including SpongeBob, Yseult has been fired from the band and will begin to look for a new bassist before the February 11th show." The next day, Randy Washington announced that the new bassist was going to be Shirley Manson, who previously toured with the band during the last shows of the 2017 Vans Warped Tour. On the same day, Another unreleased demo album was released by the Anonymous source (was now identified as an 4chan user.), According to the user. He said that the band was making another studio album after Disparate Realms that was supposed to be the 4th studio album and that it was unrelated to Self-Titled, the user also said that the band named the album "Day Of Wine and Roses" and it was supposed to be released around Halloween 2000. SpongeBob wrote an post on Twitter that the user was sort-of right about the album and pointed out that the album was actually related to the Self-Titled album. On February 13th, The band released the upcoming setlist for their New Settlement release party show and also SpongeBob asked a guy's question regarding Wince. The person asked what they used to record the 1st demo album and SpongeBob said

"The first 2 songs were recorded on an TASCAM TSR-8-8 and the rest were recorded on an Teac X10R." Before the New Settlement release party show on February 15th, The band announced the 1st leg of the Buddy Dave Tour which is scheduled to begin on January 8th, 2020. They announced the 2nd leg on February 17th. On February 22nd, SpongeBob SquarePants announced via Twitter that the band will be restarted once they end the Say Hello to the New Role Models Tour.

"I'm announcing that once our tour has ended, We are going to be restarted meaning that we are going to be changing our band lineup." After the show, People from the February 22nd show noticed that SpongeBob was a bit depressed during the show and SpongeBob said after the show.

"Reason why I was depressed was that I miss Sandy a lot; she was my wife, my best friend and I very much miss her, I even have a picture of her topless during the Self-Titled sessions many years ago." The picture was published on Instagram. "Around the time we were recording the 4th album, I took this snapshot of Sandy Cheeks half-naked with her underwear, reason was that our producer said that she decided not to wear any clothing. #selftitled #2001". Around the early hours of February 23rd, The band announced the 3rd leg of the Buddy Dave Worldwide Tour and SpongeBob revealed that the Wince album An Old Friend was going to be re-released with some unreleased studio tracks for the 30th anniversary in 2019.

On March 1st, The band announced vinyls for the four studio albums which are scheduled to be released on April 6th, 2018. Around the late hours of March 5th, 2018; It was announced that Randy Washington was going to retire after the Say Hello To The New Role Models Tour and SpongeBob wrote a statement

"We are sadly announcing that our band manager and best friend, Randy Washington is going to be retiring after 24 years together with the band. We wish him the best in his retirement." The band also made a shocking announcement on the same day that they are going to be heading back to San Diego due to the fact that eviction notices were given out by the London Ministry of Service. They are scheduled to return to San Diego on May 25th, 2018. They announced few days after the announcement that they will be recording the album at Capricorn Studios in San Diego and announced the final leg setlist for Say Hello To The New Role Models Tour.

On March 13th, Mike Richards told MTV that his shin splints were caused from when he was in an episode of SQP Redtown and SquarePants Wrestling confirmed it. He is expected to get surgery on April 23rd. The next day, it was first reported by TMZ that Patrick Star is expected to return to the band and also to be with them during the Buddy Dave recording sessions. On March 17th, It was announced that Steve Albini was going to be the co-producer for Buddy Dave. On March 22nd, The band announced the 4th leg of the Buddy Dave Worldwide Tour. On March 30th, The band agreed with Viacom Media Networks to have the April 16th show at the Capital Complex be performed live nationwide.

On April 6th, The band announced that they were going to be signing a new record deal with Red Rabel Records to help them make the upcoming studio album Buddy Dave and 4 future studio albums. On April 9th, SpongeBob announced that the band was going to be performing in several San Diego shows in Winter 2018 and that he was going to appear on the Joe Rogan Experience. On April 22nd, SpongeBob posted a link of the band performing at Point Loma High School in 1988; According to SpongeBob he said that the show took place several months before they begun the Wince independent touring. The next day, new band manager Liam Gallagher told Sky News and MTV that Tiki Taera was going to be resigning from the band due to health issues starting April 28th and also told them about the incident regarding the April 21st show where SpongeBob broke his leg and said that he tore his left ACL and will go under surgery on May 1st. SpongeBob wrote an Instagram telling his fans that he's doing great and that he will be sitting on a throne for the next few Canadian shows.

On May 2nd, The band announced the 5th leg for the Buddy Dave Worldwide Tour which will take place in Canada. On May 5th, SpongeBob announced that they were going to be performing in several San Diego bars under "Wince" in Mid-June, The next day. It was reported that Yolandi Visser was going to be starting a side-project band titled "The Yolandi Visser Project" and that she written several new songs for the debut album.

Little Scar & Twenty-Five (2018-present)
On the 23rd of May, Red Label Records announced they were dropping out of the band's upcoming studio album due to controversy that was surrounding them since the Say Hello to the New Role Models Tour. Touch & Go wrote a statement several hours later stating that they were going to be producing the band's upcoming studio album. On June 6th, The band announced that they were going to make a new studio album under Wince with 11 tracks titled "Helpless Souls".

On July 6th, 2018. The band announced the official 35-song setlist for the Buddy Dave Worldwide Tour. Several days later on July 14th, SpongeBob officially announced the Disparate Realms 17th Anniversary Tour starting on October 7th, 2018 and displayed the setlist on his Instagram profile. On July 21st, the band were at San Diego Comic Con to discuss Buddy Dave and future studio albums, they announced the 2nd album of the Buddy Dave trilogy titled "Little Scar". On August 17th, SpongeBob announced his record company "Infected Sponge" which will release Little Scar, Buddy Dave and future studio albums. On November 14th, just a few months past after not hearing anything from the band. They announced that the tickets for the Winter Is Coming Tour are now available. Few days later, they announced that Victoria Jackson was returning to the band for the first time in 19 years replacing Shirley Manson and on the same day, they announced that Buddy Dave was going to be re-titled to Twenty-Five and it is set for a New Year's Day 2020 release, but announced later on the tours were cancelled due to SpongeBob's depression.

Months later, on March 15th, 2019. The band announced they were participating in the 2019 Vans Warped Tour on June 8th and announced the first Spring Tour, the first one since 2018. And on March 20th, it was announced Yolandi was to departure the band after 17 years and focus on other things, along with Patrick Star. According to SpongeBob, he wanted to have new management in the band and that he wanted some old hipster/emo rockstars.

Their last performance with Yolandi and Patrick Star was on May 25th on the SBFW Sketch Comedy Show Season One Finale as they were officialy replaced with new members Steve Krolikowski, Tommy Stewart and John LeCrompt who both joined the band doing the Twenty-Five recording sessions, however SpongeBob is considering bringing back the two for a reunion tour and denied the rumor that he was replacing them with new members as hes just doing it for the Twenty-Five album.

Tour

 * The High School Tour
 * August 13th, 1987 - October 21st, 1987
 * Wince independent touring
 * June 23rd, 1988 - June 14th, 1991
 * International Pop Underground Convention
 * August 20th, 1991 - August 25th, 1991 (band played on August 22nd, 1991)
 * Wince 1991 European Tour
 * September 13th, 1991 - November 14th, 1991 

Fall 2002 Tour 2007-08 Tour
 * Wince 1991-92 Returning to America Tour
 * November 17th, 1991 - April 8th, 1992 
 * The Vaccine Slaughterhouse independent touring
 * May 12th, 1993 - May 28th, 1994
 * Rock Am Ring 1994 
 * May 21st, 1994 - May 23rd, 1994
 * Lollapalooza 1994
 * July 29th, 1994 - July 31st, 1994 (band played on July 29th)
 * Love, Pain & Money independent touring
 * October 19th, 1994 - December 23rd, 1994 (band played under The Infection for first time throughout the tour.)
 * Hollywood Rock Festival 1995
 * January 27th, 1995 - February 3rd, 1995 (band played on January 28th, 30th and 2nd.)
 * 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 
 * Lollapalooza 1997 
 * June 15th, 1997 - August 16th, 1997
 * Traffic Jam Tour
 * August 28th, 1997 - May 23rd, 1998
 * Rock Am Ring 1998
 * May 29th, 1998 - May 31st, 1998
 * 1998 Vans Warped Tour
 * June 30th, 1998 - August 9th, 1998
 * 1999 Germany Tour
 * January 23rd, 1999 - May 4th, 1999
 * Rock Am Ring 1999
 * May 21st, 1999 - May 23rd, 1999
 * Ozzfest 1999
 * June 29th, 1999 
 * Woodstock 1999
 * July 22th, 1999 - July 25th, 1999 (band played on July 23rd)
 * 1999 USA Tour
 * July 3rd, 1999 - October 12th, 1999 
 * Disparate Realms Tour
 * November 5th, 1999 - October 12th, 2000
 * Rock Am Ring 2000
 * June 9th, 2000 - June 11th, 2000
 * Saint And The Sinner Tour
 * March 26th, 2001 - May 14th, 2001 
 * 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
 * September 23rd, 2002 - December 5th, 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
 * June 2nd, 2007 - September 26th, 2008
 * 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
 * 2016 Hangout Music Festival
 * May 20th, 2016 - May 22nd, 2016
 * 2016 Firefly Music Festival
 * June 16th, 2016 - June 19th, 2016
 * 2017 Vans Warped Tour
 * June 16th, 2017 - July 20th, 2017


 * The Secret Realm Tour


 * August 11th, 2017 - September 31st, 2017


 * Spring Tour
 * March 22nd, 2019 - present (First tour since 2018) 


 * 2019 Vans Warped Tour
 * June 8th, 2019 - TBD 
 * Woodstock 50
 * August 16th, 2019 

Criticism
The band was criticized over their style of nu metal & hard rock in some of their songs throughout the albums and also criticized of Music plagiarism, such as the Infections' "The Traffic Jam". The song sounded more like The Pixies "Here Comes Your Man".

Band members

 * SpongeBob SquarePants - lead guitar, lead vocals (1987-present)
 * Victoria Jackson - rhythm guitar (1987-1990; 1993-1994) bass guitar (2018-present)
 * John LeCompt - rhythm guitar (2019-present)
 * Steve Krolikowski - rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2019-present)
 * Tommy Stewart - drums, percussion (2019-present)
 * Anna Lake - keyboards (2019-present)

Former members

 * Fred Durst - drums (2000-2002)
 * Sandy Cheeks - bass guitar, backing vocals (1987-2017; died 2017) drums, percussion (1996)
 * Tiki Taera - keyboards, organ (2014-2015; official member 2017-2018)
 * Yolandi Visser - lead vocals, rhythm guitar (1999-2000; official member 2001-2019)
 * Patrick Star - drums (1994-1996; 1999-2000; 2002-2019)
 * Mike Richards - drums (official member 1989-1994; touring member 2017-2018)
 * Steven Neville-Ramsey - drums (1987-1989)

Touring members

 * Pat Smear - drums (1997-1998)
 * Jimmy Chamberlin - drums (1996)


 * Dave Witte - drums, percussion (2019)

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 (2000)
 * 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)
 * Helpless Souls (2019) 
 * Little Scar (2019) 
 * Twenty-Five (2020)