Toad the Wet Sprocket is an American alternative rock band formed in Santa Barbara, California, in 1986. The band at the time consisted of vocalist/guitarist Glen Phillips, guitarist Todd Nichols, bassist Dean Dinning, and drummer Randy Guss, who stopped touring in 2017 and left the band in 2020. They had chart success in the 1990s with singles that included "Walk on the Ocean", "All I Want", "Something's Always Wrong", "Fall Down", and "Good Intentions".
The band broke up in 1998 to pursue other projects; however, they began touring the United States again in 2006 for short-run tours each summer in small venues. In December 2010, the band announced their official reunion as a full-time working band; they also started writing songs for their first studio album of new material since their 1997 Columbia Records release, Coil. Their most recent full-length album, Starting Now, was released on August 27, 2021, and the compilation All You Want was re-released in 2023. An acoustic album of previous hits, Rings: The Acoustic Sessions, was released in 2026.
Toad the Wet Sprocket takes its name from a Monty Python comedy sketch called "Rock Notes", in which a journalist delivers a nonsensical music news report: Rex Stardust, lead electric triangle with Toad the Wet Sprocket, has had to have an elbow removed following their recent successful worldwide tour of Finland. Flamboyant ambidextrous Rex apparently fell off the back of a motorcycle. "Fell off the back of a motorcyclist, most likely," quipped ace drummer Jumbo McClooney on hearing of the accident. Plans are already afoot for a major tour of Iceland.
There was also an extended skit about the fictional Toad the Wet Sprocket on one of Idle's later shows, Rutland Weekend Television (Season 1, Episode 4, "Rutland Weekend Whistle Test"). RWT musician and regular cast member Neil Innes, ex-Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and "The Seventh Python", played keyboards with the fictional band.
As their first gig approached, the band still had not chosen a name. The members facetiously adopted "Toad the Wet Sprocket" because they thought it would be "hilarious". Vocalist Glen Phillips later called it "a joke that went on too long" and, according to their website, "it was probably meant to be temporary at the time." The name had been used once before, by a short-lived British blues band of the late 1970s that had appeared on the 1980 Metal for Muthas compilation, although the earlier band had long since split up when Phillips and company formed their band.
Eric Idle, the sketch's original performer, reflected on the band's name in a 1999 performance: 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.
Toad the Wet Sprocket was formed in 1986, with the members having known one another from San Marcos High School just outside Santa Barbara, California. Singer/songwriter and guitarist Glen Phillips was only 15, while guitarist Todd Nichols, bassist Dean Dinning, and drummer Randy Guss were 19. Phillips was a 9th grader at San Marcos High and the others were all 12th graders. The band's first public appearance was at an open-mic talent contest in September 1986. The band did not win.
Toad the Wet Sprocket's first album was released in 1989. Bread & Circus was self-financed through their label, Abe's Records. The album spawned the singles "Way Away" and "One Little Girl", which made the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart but received little attention.
The follow-up to Bread & Circus, Pale, was released in 1990, and saw Toad the Wet Sprocket's sound mature. During the recording of the album, the band signed to Columbia Records while declining the opportunity to re-record Pale but negotiating to have Columbia Records reissue Bread & Circus. Featuring the singles "Jam" and the modern-rock chart hit "Come Back Down", the album was still not a success, but the singles received heavy airplay on college radio stations. The band's first music video (for "One Little Girl") was directed by Mark Miremont and aired on MTV's 120 Minutes.
Commercial breakthrough (1991–1998)
Toad the Wet Sprocket finally achieved fame with their third album, 1991's fear. The album's singles "All I Want" and "Walk on the Ocean" reached the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. The album became the band's first RIAA-certified platinum album.
In 1993, the Mike Myers feature film So I Married an Axe Murderer included the song "Brother" on its soundtrack. "Brother" later appeared on the In Light Syrup compilation album, as well as the CD Extra compilation album included with IBM Aptiva PCs in 1996. The song was later included on the 2004 release of the live album Welcome Home: Live at the Arlington Theatre, Santa Barbara 1992.
In 1994, after years of heavy touring, Toad the Wet Sprocket released Dulcinea, their follow-up to fear. This album spawned the hit singles "Fall Down", which reached No. 1 on the U.S. Modern Rock charts, as well as No. 5 on the Mainstream Rock chart, and "Something's Always Wrong", which also charted. Like fear, this album was certified platinum by the RIAA. The video for Fall Down was based on the movie "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" The video for "Something's Always Wrong" was not played extensively on MTV because Phillips claims that MTV thought it too closely resembled the Home Shopping Network.
A 1995 compilation album of b-sides and rarities, In Light Syrup, included the singles "Good Intentions", which was featured on the soundtrack for the television show Friends, as well as the aforementioned "Brother". The compilation was certified as a gold album in 2001.
The release of 1997's Coil acted as the proper follow-up to 1994's Dulcinea. Featuring a more electric, rock sound, it featured the modern-rock and mainstream rock hit "Come Down", as well as the singles "Crazy Life" (a previous recording of the song was featured on the soundtrack for the film Empire Records) and "Whatever I Fear", which did not chart. The album, despite the success of "Come Down" as a single, failed to reach any sales benchmarks. This failure is often attributed to the label doing a poor job of promoting the album.
Toad the Wet Sprocket formally broke up in July 1998, citing creative differences.
Post-breakup and reunions (1998–2008)
Toad the Wet Sprocket, though officially broken up since 1998, worked together off and on over the years. They performed on several occasions in 1999, although only short sets. Also in 1999, Phillips, Dinning, and Guss recorded two studio tracks for a compilation release, P.S. (A Toad Retrospective), including one of the first songs the band wrote together, "P.S." Nichols declined to participate in these sessions and was replaced by Lapdog guitarist Rob Taylor.