Don't Call it a Comeback vol. III: Toad the Wet Sprocket

It seems like once a week I am listening to my iTunes library and I hear a song that makes me go, this artist really needs a comeback. So I thought I would start a new feature here on the 9th Green highlighting an artist that really needs to reenter the public consciousness. The only criterion is that the artist hasn’t had a legitimate hit in over a decade.

Due for a Comeback: Toad the Wet Sprocket

Biggest Hit: All I Want



Last Hit: Good Intentions (1996)

Where Are They Now: The group broke up in 1998 but regroups occasionally for shows. Lead singer Glen Phillips released three albums last decade. Last year the band released its first new studio track in over a decade, the Sam Phillips holiday tune It Doesn’t Feel Like Christmas. Word has it they currently writing songs for a new album which would be their first since 1997’s Coil.

Why the World Needs a Toad the Wet Sprocket Comeback: Because modern rock has all but disappeared. Maybe it was my formative year, but I remember the mid nineties music very fondly with so called modern rock from Toad and similar bands like Hootie and the Blowfish, Counting Crows, Better than Ezra, and Blues Traveler. Only Dave Matthews Band seemed to transition well into the new millennium, but maybe a reunited group that started the trend (unless you consider R.E.M. part of the genre) can kick start the modern rock movement. Even if it isn’t very modern anymore.

Previewing Lizard Lick Towing

Every professions seems to be getting their own reality shows these days, truck drivers, tanning salons, pawn shows, and you can add towing to that list tonight when Lizard Lick Towing premieres tonight on TruTV at 10:00. Like any reality show it is less about the location than the personalities and Lizard Lick has a few of them.

Ron Shirley looks like Nasty Brian Nnobbs complete with pointy Mohawk but is pure redneck and is an ordained minister. Amy Shirley is quick with an insult to her husband when she isn’t worried about him taking high risk repo jobs. And there is Bobby Brantley who is listed at Ron’s best friends despite the two fighting most of the time.

Tonight focuses on a particularly tenuous repo of a car whose owner’s rap sheet is about as numerous as the number of tattoos on his body that leaves Bobby in a precarious situation that tests his friendship with Ron even further. Bobby also has a run in with someone who needs something out of his car, and the anger confrontation is only made more humorous when you find out what that is. And Amy drops a bombshell almost worthy of a daytime soap.

Lizard Lick Towing airs Mondays at 10:00 on TruTV.