Toad the Wet Sprocket

Toad the Wet Sprocket
Toad the Wet Sprocket in 2014
Background information
Origin	Santa Barbara, California, US
Genres	Alternative rock
Years active	1986–1998, 2002, 2006–present
Labels	Columbia Records, Abe's Records
Website	toadthewetsprocket.com
Members	Glen Phillips Todd Nichols Dean Dinning Randy Guss
Past members	Steve Brown

Toad the Wet Sprocket is an American alternative rock band formed in 1986. The band consists of vocalist and guitarist Glen Phillips, guitarist Todd Nichols, bassist Dean Dinning, and drummer Randy Guss. They had chart success in the 1990s with singles which 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, but in 2006 began touring the United States as a band in small venue, short run tours each summer. In December 2010, the band announced their official reunion as a full time working band and started writing songs for their first studio album of new material since their 1997 Columbia Records release Coil. Their most recent full length album, New Constellation, was released on October 15, 2013.

Toad the Wet Sprocket took 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 upon hearing of the accident. Plans are now afoot for a major tour of Iceland.

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.