Toad the Wet Sprocket

alternative rock · pop rock · folk rock

Toad the Wet Sprocket is an alternative rock band formed in Santa Barbara, California, in 1986 by four friends from San Marcos High School: singer and guitarist Glen Phillips, guitarist Todd Nichols, bassist Dean Dinning and drummer Randy Guss. The name comes from a Monty Python sketch written by Eric Idle, who has said he picked it as a joke band name he assumed nobody would ever actually use. The band released its debut, Bread & Circus, on its own Abe's Records in 1988; Columbia signed the group and reissued it, then put out Pale in 1990. Fear followed in 1991, peaked at number 49 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum behind Walk on the Ocean, which reached number 18 on the Billboard Hot 100, and All I Want, which reached number 15 in 1992. Dulcinea (1994) also went platinum and produced Fall Down, the band's first number one on the modern rock chart. After a fifth Columbia album, Coil, in 1997, the group split in 1998, with Phillips moving into a solo career. Occasional reunions through the 2000s led to a permanent reformation in 2010, and the band returned to Abe's Records for New Constellation in 2013 and Starting Now in 2021. Carl Thompson has played drums since 2023. For its fortieth anniversary in 2026 the band released Rings: The Acoustic Sessions, a set of reworked material. The group's songs are built on Phillips's plainspoken writing, ringing electric guitar and layered harmony vocals, and Fear and Dulcinea remain its best-known records.

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