Sprocket, Yeah

M.J. Fine does it again

by M.J. Fine

I've never left the planet, but from what I've seen in movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Magnificent Desolation, outer space seems deathly dull. Don't see how it could be, between the lack of atmosphere and expanse of emptiness, but the great unknown has gotta get better PR. The biggest problem, as I see it, is with your average space traveler. Forget scientists; space won't come to life for most of us until artists have a firsthand look.

Toad the Wet Sprocket Dulcinea (Columbia, 1994)

Glen Phillips Secrets of the New Explorers (Umami, 2008)

Glen Phillips doesn't do much to dispel space's dusty image. His recent six-song EP, Secrets of the New Explorers, looks to the heavens and finds a cultural void. "They'll Find Me" and "The Spirit of Shackleton" mistake trippy effects for ambience, while "Space Elevator" boogies a bit without leaving the launch pad. The acoustic "Solar Flare" is pretty and bland enough to play for a newborn; it's the aural equivalent of Goodnight Moon — the book, not the sultry Shivaree song. In space, as on Earth, no one can hear you shrug.

For the most part, that's been the reaction to Phillips' career since Toad the Wet Sprocket disbanded 10 years ago. In the early '90s, when the line between alternative rock and the mainstream just about disappeared, Toad cornered the market on pretty and bland. Phillips and Todd Nichols clearly listened to enough R.E.M. to master the basics of jangle and crunch, but they were usually too apprehensive to cut loose. Phillips' lyrics — vaguely spiritual and eternally unsatisfied — made indecision and resignation sound like virtues.

Their fourth album, Dulcinea, was nothing if not a quest for deeper meaning, from the folk-rock faith of "Fly from Heaven" and the yearning "Woodburning" to the curiously lifeless primal scream of "Reincarnation Song." They finally hit the sweet spot with two of their biggest singles. "Something's Always Wrong" is a study in understated regret, while the pent-up "Fall Down" goes beyond brooding to bang at the bars in a singular act of resistance. Toad spent years searching for something nameless but powerful. For those few minutes, they found it within themselves.

(m_fine@citypaper.net)

You can celebrate the 285th anniversary of the birth of German astronomer Johann Georg Palitzsch on June 11 by seeing Toad the Wet Sprocket at the Trocadero.