MATT STRAKA PHOTO
Glen Phillips just finished a reunion tour with Toad the Wet Sprocket, who split up in 1998.
Going solo Meet Glen Phillips at his "day job" at Anna Bannana's Friday night. The former frontman of popular early '90s band Toad the Wet Sprocket will be delivering folk-pop songs of, according to his press release, "dysfunctional relationships, economic meltdown (and) biological warfare," but as with his cover of Randy Newman's "Political Science," leavened with humor and a bit of hope for the human race by sharing a laugh.
Former Toad the Wet Sprocket
frontman Glen Phillips continues
his talent for bright melodies
and dark sentimentsBy Gary C.W. Chun
gchun@starbulletin.comHis solo acoustic tours since the band's breakup back in 1998 have been all in the name of "paying my mortgage and keeping my family going," he said by phone from his Santa Barbara, Calif., home last week. That comment is punctuated with a small, reflective laugh repeated often throughout our interview.
Phillips has family here, so he's combining a vacation with his wife and three young children with a small gig here.
He's just completed a well-received reunion tour with his old band -- good money granted, but not something he wants to do on a regular basis. He's been quoted as saying that if the band continues as "a sad nostalgia act," the band members will carry on their separate ways.
Phillips' solo career got off on a good start with 2001's "Abulum" release. Live acoustic versions of most of the songs can be found on the just-released "Live at Largo," available on his Web site.
MATT STRAKA PHOTO
Former Toad the Wet Sprocket band member Glen Phillips, in Hawaii visiting family with his wife and three children, will perform 9 p.m. Friday at Anna Bannana's.
"It's a pretty amazing club on Fairfax Avenue in L.A.," he said. "It's a small place and everybody is there to listen to the music, and if nobody's playing any particular night, the guy who runs it keeps it closed -- and this is an Irish guy who didn't even open the place on St. Patrick's Day because no one was scheduled to play that night!"
IT WAS AT the Largo that members of the up-and-coming young bluegrass trio Nickel Creek sat in with Phillips, and thus was born the Mutual Admiration Society. Together, they recorded a small album that remains unreleased to this day.
Where: Anna Bannanas, 2440 S. Beretania St. Glen Phillips
When: 9 p.m. Friday
Tickets: $10 advance, $15 at the door. Available at the club, all Tower Records, Rainbow Books and the Mystery Cat.
Call: 375-8440
And Phillips continues to tinker in his garage recording studio; his demo for the poppy "A Lot to Be Thankful For" is, by his admittance, "a little overproduced, since I played everything on that track."
Until some additional finances appear, his next album is on hold. In the meantime, he's perfectly content to perform his solo shows.
"The audiences were amazing. The band originally broke up because there was no passion in it, and my father was dying at the time. I remember seeing Ani DiFranco yelling on stage 'I LOVE MY JOB!, I LOVE MY JOB!, I LOVE MY JOB!' -- and I hadn't felt that way about the band for years. But now I love the people I've been playing with, like Nickel Creek, and doing the solo tours. In fact, this is the most fun I've ever had as a performer.
"It's been a challenge -- the tours and life in general has been great -- but it's tough to not see my family for half-a-year's time in order to keep food on the table.
"I still like to play the Toad songs in my sets -- after all, I wrote all the lyrics, and half of them, I wrote the music as well."
He's built his reputation on bright melodies wrapped around improbably dark sentiments.
"I've noticed that I tend to play them a lot faster now and play the guitar more percussively, trying to fill in a lot more space.
"I like songs that are portable, songs that any instrument could be used and anyone can sing. Some musicians write brilliant songs, but when they're out of the recording studio milieu, without all that production and voice tracks, the melody just lays there."
Phillips prefers the ambience of a small listening room, "the kind of show where it feels like you're having friends over for dinner."
"At the beginning, I had to get over my fear of playing solo, because there was no one to back me up. You get used to a certain palette with a rock band, when people will cheer on command, and you know how to rile them up so they'll buy your merch and CDs.
"I was terrible at that, so I tried subtler stage movements and stories, but that didn't work well in a rock arena setting. Solo is a lot more my speed.
"One of the more incredible things about the Toad reunion tour was how the songs lasted for people. They're still valid, they're still not cool and they still affect people.
"It's like the music of James Taylor -- while the hype's been all about The Hives, The Vines and The Strokes, my friend gave me the statistic that the last JT album sold more copies than those three groups combined -- and that makes me really happy! So while it may not be 'cool' to like James Taylor, I'd rather be JT cool.
"Hmm," Phillips said. "I hope that doesn't make me sound cynical, old and bitter!"
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