Episode
Musical Musings: Five of the Best - Toad the Wet Sprocket
- Podcast
- New Zealand Net Radio
- Published
- Aug 5, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 3671
- Processing state
not_requested- Canonical source
- https://www.nznetradio.net.nz/podcast/#ep-82
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Summary
For this edition, Ken Cheshire champions a band whose ridiculous name (lifted from a Monty Python sketch Eric Idle designed to be “so silly nobody would ever use it”) has always undersold the quiet brilliance underneath. High-school friends from Santa Barbara — Glen Phillips, Todd Nichols, Dean Dinning and Randy Guss — they made warm, jangly, thoughtful alt-rock that could land a knockout blow by playing softly, with two platinum albums in Fear and Dulcinea. What makes Ken’s five so satisfying is that they quietly tell the band’s whole story: the gorgeous hit “Walk on the Ocean,” the platinum peak of “Crowing,” a genuine rarity in “Are We Afraid,” the pre-hiatus “Whatever I Fear,” and the fan-funded 2013 comeback “Is There Anyone Out There.” Breakthrough, peak, rarity, farewell and return — a fan’s love letter in five songs. Broadcast 5 August 2026