Toad the Wet Sprocket

Celebrating 40 years as a band, Toad the Wet Sprocket is still making music and touring with the same spirit of unwavering independence that started it all four decades ago.

With the release of their timeless Rings: The Acoustic Sessions, and 2026 being the 40th Anniversary as a band, Toad will be on the road throughout 2026 and the album, that was shared with fans gradually over the last year and had a limited edition vinyl package that sold out in 10 minutes. With Rings: The Acoustic Sessions, Toad delivers more than an ‘unplugged’ greatest hits collection; more than a remastered retrospective glazed over with nostalgia. Rather, they’ve captured the concentrated power of their best hits and deep cuts as they exist in this moment, performed by the band as they are today.

Thank you for years of support and see you again soon.

Shonen Knife

Men At Work

Official Facebook page for Men At Work. Brazil Tour 2026! 🇧🇷

https://linkin.bio/menatwork/

Colin Hay

“I’m deeply grateful for the life I have,” says Colin Hay, “and I think my natural tendency has always been towards optimism and humor. Lately, though, I’ve had to be more intentional about it. I’ve had to actively seek out the positive, to let new rays of hope shine on some seemingly dark situations.”

That’s precisely what Hay does with his extraordinary new solo album, Now And The Evermore, facing down struggle, loss, and even his own mortality with grit and wit at every turn. Written and recorded in Hay’s adopted hometown of Los Angeles, the collection is a defiantly joyful celebration of life and love, one that insists on finding silver linings and reasons to smile. That’s not to say the record deludes itself about the realities of our modern world, but rather that it consistently chooses to respond to pain with beauty and doubt with wonder.

The music on Now And The Evermore (Lazy Eye/Compass Records) is vibrant and animated, brimming with fanciful melodies, lush orchestration, and even a guest appearance from Ringo Starr, who kicks the whole thing off with a signature drum fill. Hay’s performances are likewise buoyant and full of life, drawing on vintage pop charm, pub rock muscle, and folk sincerity to forge a sound that’s at once playful and profound, clever and compassionate, whimsical and earnest. At its most basic level, Now And The Evermore offers a deeply personal acknowledgement of the relentless march of time, but zoom out and you’ll see that Hay’s contemplations of identity and eternity are in fact broader reflections on our shared humanity, on letting go of dead weight and reaching for the light no matter how dark things may get.

“It’s a troubling and confounding and ever-inspiring world that we live in,” he muses. “I’m lucky to be able to wander downstairs and try to make some sense of it, at least to myself.”

Born in Scotland, Hay moved with his family as a teenager to Australia, where he first came to international fame with seminal ’80s hitmakers Men At Work. While the band would reach the heights of stardom—they took home a GRAMMY Award for Best New Artist and sold more than 30 million records worldwide on the strength of #1 singles like “Who Can It Be Now?” and “Down Under”—by 1985, they’d called it quits and gone their separate ways. Hay released his solo debut the following year and, over the course of the next three-and-a-half decades, went on to record twelve more critically acclaimed studio albums that would help establish him as one of his generation’s most hardworking and reliable craftsmen. Rolling Stone praised his “witty, hooky pop” tunes, while NPR’s World Café lauded his “distinctive voice,” and late night hosts from David Letterman and Craig Ferguson to Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel have all welcomed him for performances.

Glen Phillips

Glen Phillips has always been a courageous and inviting songwriter. During his years as lead singer of Toad the Wet Sprocket, the band’s elegant folk/pop sound and his honest, introspective lyrics helped them forge a close bond with their fans. Since starting his solo career, Phillips has pared his music down to its emotional core, concentrating on the simple truths of love and relationships, with a profound spiritual understanding.

Swallowed by the New takes on life’s difficult transitions and delivers some of the Phillips' most vulnerable songs. “I made this album during the dissolution of a 23 year marriage, Phillips says. “A major chapter of my life was coming to a close, and I discovered early on that I had to work hard to get through the transition with compassion and clarity. These songs were a big part of that process.”

The album was recorded in May of 2015 with producer/bass player Paul Bryan (Aimee Mann, Lucinda Williams), Jay Bellerose (drums), Chris Bruce (guitar), Jebin Bruni (keys) and Ruby Amanfu (vocals). The sparse arrangements are centered on Phillips’ vocals and acoustic guitar.

Shimmering electric guitar accents drift through a curtain of sighing strings on Go, a ballad that bids a poignant farewell to a lover at the end of a relationship.

“And though I want you close / This light can only glow / To

warn you far away from shore / Saying I love you, now go,”

Leaving Oldtown has the feel of a classic pop ballad, with a string section and piano supporting a poignant vocal, as Phillips describes a man, “hollow as a sparrow bone,” packing up his belongings as winter approaches.

The Easy Ones focuses on the importance of staying present when it’s not easy or simple, but necessary. Joined in harmony with his 13-year daughter, Phillips says: “You can’t just love the easy ones / You’ve got to let them in / When you’d rather just run.”

Amnesty is a gentle rocker, with twang-heavy guitars, a funky back beat and elegant string accents, it chronicles a

long journey of searching for understanding and safe harbor.

“I’m here to catch some kind of spark / In every face I see / And offer amnesty.”

Held Up suggests a gospel tune being chanted by a chain gang. The stomping drumbeat and jubilant handclaps support a vocal that faces the scales of judgment; in balance between self-recrimination and salvation. “Brother you ain’t so broken / Sister you ain’t so small / Everybody goes together / Or nobody goes at all.”

The folk hymn Grief and Praise was inspired by writer Martin Prechtel who maintains that “grief is praising those things we love and have lost, and praise is grieving those things we love and will lose”. It sums up the philosophy of the record in no uncertain terms: “For all that you love will be taken some day / By the angel of death or the servants of change / In a floodwater tide without rancor or rage / So sing loud while you're able / In grief and in praise”

Swallowed by the New is full of the inviting melodies that

have always marked Phillips’ work, while his singing reaches a new degree of intimacy and immediacy. The arrangements hint at country, soul, folk, rock and classic pop, without ever sounding derivative. The emotions may be raw, but they are guided by Phillips’ steady vocals towards healing and renewal.

Phillips started Toad the Wet Sprocket in 1986, when he was still in high school. He was as surprised as anyone when their low-key folk rock landed them on the pop charts. When the band members decided to go their separate ways, Phillips began a solo career with Abulum followed by Winter Pays for Summer, Mr. Lemons and Secrets of the New Explorers. Always open to new projects and unlikely collaborations, he’s toured and recorded with Works Progress Administration, a band that included members of Nickel Creek, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Elvis Costello’s Attractions; Mutual Admiration Society with Nickel Creek; Remote Tree Children, an experimental project with John Askew and Plover, with Neilson Hubbard and Garrison Starr.

His acoustic duo tour to support Swallowed by the New starts in October and will continue through the spring of 2017. “I enjoy the spontaneity of acoustic performance, where I can take the show wherever it needs to go and follow the lead of an audience instead of following a set list. There’s more talking, more stories, and more of a loose feel. The subject matter is on the serious side, but I feel like the perspective is ultimately positive. Life is about changes, no matter how we may try and pretend otherwise. This album is all about learning how to face change.”

Colin Hay

Flytjendur