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Any music fan who grew up in the ‘90s, before the rise of streaming platforms, will tell you that when a record store clerk made a music recommendation, you took it seriously. Often, well-studied music nerds, these unsung tastemakers had their finger on the pulse of lesser-known, excellent bands. So it speaks volumes that many of Toad the Wet Sprocket’s earliest champions were record store clerks who put the Santa Barbara quartet’s early albums into unsuspecting listeners’ hands, convincing them to overlook their unusual band name and give them a shot, perhaps comparing them to R.E.M.

And that’s all it took. Lead singer Glen Phillips’ heartfelt, introspective lyrics expressed in his deep, buttery croon backed by the earnest instrumentation, catchy melodies and vocal harmonies of guitarist Todd Nichols, bassist Dean Dinning and drummer Randy Guss had fans hooked from the outset.

Toad’s debut album, Bread & Circus, recorded DIY-style in a tract home for a meager $600 and released independently in 1988, was raw and unvarnished but clearly captured Toad’s magic as a band. The record caught the attention of major label Columbia Records, which re-released it unchanged the following year. Columbia also put out Toad’s acclaimed sophomore album, Pale, which the band recorded in Los Angeles while they were shopping for record labels, in 1990 — also in its original form at the band’s insistence. READ MORE