Eventually, “Good Intentions” found a home on 1995’s B-sides and rarities collection “In Light Syrup,” where it quietly became one of the band’s signature songs. It landed on the “Friends” soundtrack, earned heavy radio play, and has remained a setlist staple ever since.
Toad the Wet Sprocket accidentally wrote a pop hit when writing pop hits was considered uncool.
Now, 30 years later, the band is embracing it. The Good Intentions Tour — named after that once-shelved single — brings Toad the Wet Sprocket to the Rose Music Center on Aug. 5, alongside special guests The Jayhawks and Sixpence None the Richer.
In the ‘90s, many alt-rock bands wrestled with a perception problem: Could you still be considered cool — the era’s currency of respect — if you signed with a major label?
On “Fear” — Toad’s second release on Columbia — the track “Walk on the Ocean” was placed up front, while “All I Want” was buried as the tenth song on the album. But the charts had their own plans: “Walk on the Ocean” peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard Hot 100; “All I Want” climbed even higher, to No. 15.
Despite its best intentions, Toad got the attention it was trying to avoid.
“It was so important to not be seen as trying to be pop because of what pop was at that time,” said Dean Dinning, Toad’s bassist. “We were overly concerned with that, I think. And we should have just allowed things to be, rather than trying to hold the horse back out from the gate.”
Considering “All I Want” (an unmastered album mix) and “Good Intentions” (a demo relegated to a rarities album) still found their way into the pop mainstream, there was never any reining that horse in.
Regardless of its success, Toad the Wet Sprocket maintained a DIY ethos, as if it never fell prey to a major label.
The band had a mailing list that grew to have over 70,000 names. They’d sometimes receive cassingles in the mail, like a demo of “Walk on the Ocean.” Whether Toad was on a label, whether it had anything on the radio, a connection to the fans was more important to the band than being perceived as ‘90s cool.
After a 2022 tour with Barenaked Ladies, Toad came up with a bluegrass arrangement of “Good Intentions,” which the audience found worthy of a standing ovation. The current tour features a three act structure — with an acoustic section sandwiched between two electric sets.
In that spirit, Toad the Wet Sprocket is currently in the process of releasing a 16-track, completely acoustic greatest hits record, a reworking of songs from every album since 1989. But don’t call it stripped-down just because it skips electric instruments. With accordions, cellos, vibraphones, mandolins, and dobros, it features the entire acoustic spectrum, and plays with the possibilities of the form.
The album is set to be released later this year.
I asked Dinning what it was like reimagining some of the older songs, considering decades of life experience behind them now.
“Some songs that were up tempo have turned into introspective ballads,” he said. “A lot of the time, you’re dealing with material that had an entire life ahead of it. But it’s been nice to reexamine things and put new emotion into them.”
Dinning says there’s an immense sense of gratitude that Toad has managed to hold a place in fans’ lives for this long, that the music still resonates decades later.
The ‘90s band that once downplayed its pop instincts is now fully leaning in — not to chase relevance, but to celebrate connection. Thirty years later, good intentions aged pretty well.
Turns out, it’s cool to be uncool.
Brandon Berry covers the music and arts scene in Dayton and Southwest Ohio, spotlighting local musicians, underground and touring bands, cultural events, fringe phenomena and creative spaces. He buys duplicate copies of every Chuck Klosterman book, and sometimes makes music. Reach him at branberry100@gmail.com.
How to go
What: Toad The Wet Sprocket with The Jayhawks and Six Pence None The Richer
When: 7 p.m., Aug. 5
Where: Rose Music Center, 6800 Executive Blvd., Huber Heights
Cost: $38.50-$88.50
Tickets: rosemusiccenter.com
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