Big Stir Records is delighted to bring you a new single featuring the third of three new 2025 studio recording from power pop legends THE SPONGETONES: “Honest Work”. Following the band's recent indie hits “Help Me Janie” and “Lulu's In Love”, it will join them alongside new live versions of the band's classics on the new collection THE 40th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT... AND BEYOND, triumphantly completing the “Beyond” part of the track list. The new single is out August 8 on all digital platforms, just one week before the new album, and it's up for pre-order and pre-save now:

https://orcd.co/spongetones-honestwork

Well into their fifth decade as a band and card-carrying members of the Power Pop Hall Of Fame, THE SPONGETONES have always been remarkable for counting three world-class singer-songwriters as their core members, each having penned beloved, oft-anthologized classics with the band. Naturally, many were performed at the concert from which the new album takes its title; to name but a few, there's guitarist JAMIE HOOVER's “She Goes Out With Everybody”, bassist STEVE STOECKEL's “My Girl Maryanne”, and guitarist PAT WALTERS' “Have You Ever Been Torn Apart?” (recently covered, with Spongetones participation, by the band's fellow Hall Of Famers The Flashcubes). As the album version of the Anniversary Concert took shape and the band elected to round it out with a forward-looking handful of new studio tracks, it was decided that each of the longtime creative leads would take the spotlight on one of the trilogy of new singles.

It's WALTERS who delivers the lead vocal on “Honest Work” (Hoover, who co-wrote the song, having delivered the recent “Help Me Janie,” with Stoeckel kicking thing off back in May with “Lulu's In Love”, although all the fresh indie radio hits feature the full band including new drummer ERIC WILLHELM). It's another clear winner, too, a muscular shuffle with a touch of Merseybeat stirred in, and a wonderful dollop of the humor that's always set THE SPONGETONES apart. Homestate fans – many of whom were surely in attendance at the anniversary show – are certain to appreciate the callout to North Carolina on the Pet Sounds-like coda.

“The title says it all,” says Steve on Pat's behalf . “Just trying to do a good job whether digging a ditch or writing and recording music (which can sometimes be as hard mentally as the other is physically). The longer you write songs, the odds improve that you’ll find a few that seem easy, almost like taking dictation. Most, however, are hard work, and honest work only if they come out of your own head instead of a program.” That might be a surprising take, considering that Pat (and Jamie and Steve) were penning some of the timeless music they performed at THE 40th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT as far back as the late '70s, but soon fans will be able to hear THE SPONGETONES hard at work on the album drawn from that show... and they'll be able to hear the band moving BEYOND, too, on the trio of singles that “Honest Work” concludes on a very high note indeed.