I’ve had a lot of requests to do the band Toad the Wet Sprocket from my request form & in
a lot of waysthey shared some similarities with the other 90's alternative rockers Live
who I've done a whole video on. The link is down below. Today,
let’s explore the history of Toad the Wet Sprocket.
The LA Times perfectly summarized the band’s outlook on music
saying they are and i quote “more likely to chase ideals than the trappings of fame."
Hailing from Santa Barbara the band had a pretty drama free family life
unlike their contemporaries. They came from white collar backgrounds and the members attended Saint
Marco’s high school meeting in drama class before finally forming in 1986, Their lineup was made
of up singer/rhythm guitarist Glen Phillips, guitarist Todd Nichols bassist, Dean Dinning,
and drummer Randy Guss . Another alumni of their high school was model kathy ireland. I’ve actually
done a whole video on how punk rocker Henry Rollins was so irritated by kathy ireland
he got himself banned from the tonight show with jay leno. The Link to that video is down below.
The quartet’s name would be influenced by a Monty Python Skit. named "Rock Notes" from their
Contractual Obligation Album. The skit would see a newscaster reading news about fictional
band names. One of the band names was Toad the Wet Sprocket and by the band’s own admission
the name was supposed to be temporary and while the members didn’t seem too crazy about the name,
it endured during their entire career. Eric Idle, who performed the sketch,
reflected on the band’s name saying "I once wrote a sketch about rock musicians, and I was trying
to think of a name that would be so silly nobody would ever use it, or dream it could ever be used.
So I wrote the words 'Toad the Wet Sprocket.' And a few years later, I was driving along the freeway
in LA, and a song came on the radio, and the DJ said, 'that was by Toad the Wet Sprocket,' and I
nearly drove off the freeway." The band even made rolling stone magazine’s list of worst band names.
Toad the Wet Sprockets influences would include REM, U2 and the Waterboys.
They were sometimes labeled a thinking man’s band Toad the Wet Sprocket’s first gig would take
place in September of 1986 at an open mic talent contest at a local restaurant, which they lost.
But that loss would spur the band to improve and play more gigs.
By the time the band started gigging around Santa Barbara a lot of other bands would be paid in beer
but since quartet were below the legal drinking age, according to an interview they did with VH1
they were paid in free peanuts and sometimes an occasional frozen burrito was thrown in.
Much of Toad’s early success was due to friend Brad Nack,
Guitarist Todd Nichols would tell the LA Times “He used to be in a band called The Tan,
and he came to see us one night He liked us and introduced us to a friend of his, Chris Blake,
who was looking for a band to manage. They helped us record the demos that became our first release,
‘Bread & Circus.’ We did the whole thing for $650 at the end of last summer.” Their self
produced record was put out on their own label Abe’s Records, but it wasn’t until
they began work on their second album Pale that a bidding war ensued between
labels happened. MCA was so enthralled with the band that they offered them a 1 million advance,
but the band was pretty business savy. They knew that that advance would have to be paid back in
record sales & they didn't think they were that capable of selling that many records so early
in their career. So they decided to sign with somebody else and that would be Sony Records.
Columbia would re-release Bread and Circus at the band’s request to have no alterations or
remixing done on the record. The band in the meantime finished their second record Pale,
which was done on a shoe string budget of about $6,000. Pale would also result in the
band's first charting single Come Back Down which peaked at number 27 on the rock charts in america
and they also shot a music video for it which got some airplay on MTV’s show 120 minutes.
That minor success with the single wouldn’t result in a lot of album sales though.
The band seemed to be ignored by the mainstream press because lets face it they were boring
compared to other alternative rock bands and some considered them to be uncool. They
weren’t picking fights with other bands or ticketmaster or even having substance abuse
issues. That didn’t really matter to Toad the Wet Sprocket, because they built up a following
through a gruelling tour schedule. Bassist Dean Dinning would tell the Baltimore Sun in 1991
"We had started a mailing list on the first record, where people could sign up for free,
and we'd send out little cards saying where we'd be playing,
We had toured so much that we had a little following in a lot of the places we played.
So through touring, by Christmas time -- the record had come out in August -- we had broken the
100,000 mark in sales. Just by touring" he'd say. The band’s third album 1991’s Fear would afford
the band a bigger budget to experiment with in the studio and flush out their songs. Released
in the summer of 1991 Fear wouldn’t peak until September of 1992 on the billboard charts at
number 49. Ahead of releasing the band's big singles All I Want and Walk On The Ocean
the band opted to release the track hold her down as one of the album's first singles,
which sparked a bit of controversy. Hold her down would be the band’s commentary on violence against
women with some radio stations and listeners complained about the track with Frontman
Glen Phillips telling the LA Times in 1992 There was a lot of debate about it in the
band. Whether it would be exploitative to have it as a single, whether it would be useful. More than
anything I was scared of it not being understood. “It’s a weird song, because it’s visceral."
But that song was a little different from most of their tracks
Toad the Wet Sprocket would write songs on a more personal level, but also struggled
with identifying how they should could use their platform to spread awareness about issues close
to them The band would support women’s pro choice movements in addition to rock the vote and amnesty
international. Following the disappointing performance of hold her down, the label
opted to release two more singles one in All I Want and Down and the other walk by the Ocean
and both of which had crossover appeal becoming top 20 hits on the billboard hot 100 charts.
One thing that may surprise you guys is that All I Want almost never made the record. According
to the band’s collections songbook guitarist Todd Nichols would reveal "It almost didn't make it on
the record. We really didn't like it very much, and it was hard to get in tune. It wasn't until
it was finally mixed down that it took on a shape that worked, but up until that point,
we didn't know where it was going to go. It was very surprising that it turned out to be a hit."
According to the fan site Frightanic the band’s label almost never released
all i want. After the recording of Fear the label only wanted 14 tracks properly mixed
and then wanted to narrow it down to 12 from there. On the chopping block was All I Want.
The label thought maybe they’d release it down the road. on a separate album.
Glen Phillips would tell Stereogum "As we got closer to releasing “All
I Want,” they wanted a big name to remix it, and the videos were expensive. The videos were costing
more than the album cost. When we finally put that out it was kind of a surprise how it took off.
And once again, even then the radio formats were really different. There wasn’t Alternative Radio
at that point. There wasn’t even a word for it. They were calling it post-modern, post-pop,
college music. They didn’t have a term for it. So the formats were really shifting quickly, and
yeah, a lot changed really fast. And we benefited from that change." He would go on to reveal how
the band thought of themselves as an indie act and how they had one thing in common with bands
like Pearl Jam or Nirvana who tried to distance themselves from their big hit songs as some
people back then thought that being on a major label ad having your songs on soundtracks meant
that bands had credibility problems. Philips would tell Stereogum There was a period when,
I think it was Tower Records’ Pulse! magazine, we were the punch line in every column for everything
that was wrong with major labels taking over college music and pulling all the soul out of it.
It also probably didn’t help that the band’s music was heavily licensed in tv shows and
movies. Appearing on the friends soundtrack and the show doogie houser to name a few.
To support the album, the band would embark on a blistering 283 date tour.
As Toad the Wet Sprocket turned their attention to their fourth record they seemed to have a good
relationship with their label revealing to the Balitomore Sun how the label didn’t even
hear the demos for their fourth record and just let them go straight into the studio.
"Inspired by Don Quixote the band’s fourth album named Dulcinea would be named after Quixote’s
unseen muse. Phillips, would explain to the LA Times the main inspiration and meaning behind
the album’s title saying, “Is like an allegory for faith. I see [the Quixote allusion] as symbolizing
believing in something and trying to move toward it. Movement is better than sitting around wishing
there was something to be excited about" he'd say. The band wanted the record to be more
representative of the group’s live sound so they focused less on overdubs, fewer layers
and window dressing. Dulcinea would serve as the band’s second album to go platinum producing two
hit singles with Something’s always wrong and fall down. The video for something’s always
wrong took a swipe at fame featuring something similar to the home shopping network with the
band playing the song. Maybe mtv saw the videos message because Phillips would tell Sterogum
that it didnt receive a ton of airplay on the network. He would also slam MTV telling the
LA TImes “I don’t think the sale of art is an evil thing,” d. “People have always bought art.
The weird thing MTV does is they’re not selling songs; they’re selling personality and celebrity,
which has no value at all. I think celebrity is fairly evil hed remark.
The following year the band would release a collection of b-sides and rarities on the album
with light syrup. It would be a success going gold. The band would release their final record
of the 90’s with 1997;s Coil producing one hit single with Come Down. The album would prove to
be the band’s highest charting album of their career peaking at number 19th on the billboard
200 charts. The band would even package free concert tickets in select cities and those fans
who bought coil would get free admission to these concerts at least according to mtv.
By 1998 the band was done calling it quits. Their inability to finish work on their sixth album in
their hometown resulted in the town Breaking up. Philips told Rolling Stone amid the band’s
breakup, “In recent months it became harder to keep everyone satisfied within the confines of the
band. It felt like if we'd d Stayed together much longer, the tensions would hurt both the music.
Phillips would tell Stereogum almost two decades after their breakup that at that time
he realized the band members outside of music didn’t have a lot in common.
The band however though, would reunite on and off in the subsequent years until their permanent
reunion in 2009 and the band would put out their latest record 2013’s constellation. Up until 2020
they were still a touring act. That does it for today's video guys thanks for watching. Be sure
to hit the like button and subscribe. We'll see you again on rock n' roll true stories. Take care.