Twelve years after administering their first dose of saccharin alternapop,Toad the Wet Sprocket have come down from their sugar high. The Santa Barbara,Calif., quartet, renowned for Top 40 hits like "All I Want," "Fall Down" and"Good Intentions," ended its six-album career after a failed attempt atwriting new material in their home town. In a prepared statement, bandfrontman Glen Phillips said, "In recent months it became harder to keepeveryone satisfied within the confines of the band. It felt like if we stayedtogether much longer, the tensions would hurt both the music and ourfriendships."

Band manager Chris Blake called Toad's last stand "the classic definition ofan amicable break-up based around musical differences ... they no longerreally can meet in something called Toad the Wet Sprocket." The split comesalmost exactly three months before the group was scheduled to play its fifthannual benefit concert for the Santa Barbara Rape Crisis Center. Blake saysthe gig has been cancelled and it "doesn't appear likely" there will be aPresidents of the United States of America-like farewell show.

Instead, the band's creative forces, frontman Glen Phillips andguitarist/vocalist Todd Nichols, will begin demoing new songs for their solodebuts. What the remaining members have on the docket is still unknown,although the statement says "look for projects from all four in the nearfuture."

According to Blake, the band has some-but not Prince-like-amounts ofunreleased material available, primarily from Coil (1997) sessions. Thegroup released most of its quality outtakes on the 1995 odds-and-sodscompilation In Light Syrup. Of course, a "best of" retrospective willfollow in the wake of Toad's demise, though it's not known if Columbia Recordswill attempt to rush the release before this year's fruitful holiday seasonrolls around.

BLAIR R. FISCHER