Toad does one for the fans.

Byline: Serena Markstrom The Register-Guard

CONCERT PREVIEW Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Toad the Wet Sprocket with a few solo songs by singer Glen Phillips What: Mellow rock When: 6 p.m. today Where: Secret House Vineyard, 88324 Vineyard Lane Tickets: $30

Normally musicians are indie first, then maybe strike a lucrative record deal after years as a starving artist. In the case of Glen Phillips, he and his band Toad the Wet Sprocket made it big when he was still a teen. Since the band broke up in 1998 he's been trying to make it as an independent.

Now the songwriter behind Toad's hits such as "Walk on the Ocean" and "All I Want" performs intimate - code word for "small"- shows alone with his guitar.

The Toad reunion tour, which comes through Secret House today with co-headliner Big Head Todd and the Monsters, is giving the band's still-active fan base a chance to see Phillips' solo work. He will perform a few songs from his new album, "Mr. Lemons," play Toad's big hits and a few of the band's personal favorites.

"We realize this is for the fans," he said when reached by telephone at his home in California. "There are people who really loved our music. We're pretty much playing what they want to hear."

The band had another reunion tour in 2003 and Phillips said the "business people" were getting all sorts of ideas for future projects. But this tour does not mean Toad will be writing or recording any new music or getting back together.

Phillips likened the break-up and subsequent reunion shows to a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. There are those times right after the break-up where you see each other and stomachs flip and you get excited. He said the stomach flip is gone, the past is the past.

"It's not about being a current band anymore, it's about a pleasant memory," he said. "That's fine, that's reasonable. We're enjoying it though."

It's been interesting then, for Phillips to be in this netherworld between the past and the present and his own future as a musician.

"It's amazing as an indie artist to get anyone to actually know you exist," he said. "I never stopped working really hard, I just stopped having any (record company) backing."

Surely, the suits weren't happy when Phillips decided to break up a money-maker like Toad.

"My expectations are based on a really lucky and improbable experience as a young person," he said of his frustration with labels since breaking up Toad. "I feel I've improved as a writer. (But) my solo records as albums have not been as compelling as (Toad records). My records have been made trying to get a record deal."

He still wouldn't mind a record deal. His new album (named "Mr. Lemons" after the studio he recorded it in, which was named after the owner's cat) is a pleasant batch of songs with sparse instrumentation and lyrics that often contain downer messages on top of a hopeful sound. The CD is 10 originals and one cover: he gives new life to a song popularized by Huey Lewis and the News, "I Want a New Drug."

"The original version was so peppy," he said. "I wanted it to sound like someone had tried a few drugs other than cocaine. A neurotransmitter depleted version.

"I have a talent for finding the dark side," he said. "I'm not good at being a rosy. That's how Toad was too. The sad depressive band that sounded like pop music.

"When I was with Toad, I really wrote for Toad. As a solo artist I have had to write songs I know I can pull off with a single guitar, where there won't be a sound of something missing," he continued. "Simple, elegant. I didn't want it to be too clever lyrically or melodically. These songs, on purpose, they are not that tricky. Even lyrically it's not very funny. I haven't been writing funny songs lately."

Phillips does see a silver lining. Bands like Death Cab for Cutie, represent a sign of the times; the record labels are going to have to stop putting out predictable music if they want to sell records.

He doesn't know if a band like Toad would have made it in today's market.

"We caught a lot of flak for not being louder," he said. "We came about at a time when radio was very open."

But pioneers since Toad have opened the doors wider for an act like Death Cab. He mentioned Iron and Wine, Feist and especially Elliot Smith as folks from the fringes who have made diverse, interesting music and interested mainstream ears.

As for pairing with Big Head Todd and the Monsters for a co-headlining tour, he said the two bands are friendly with each other and there is just enough overlap that fans of one will like the other but it will still be two distinct sets.

The Big Head Todd bio described the sound as a "special blend" of rock 'n' roll, folk, blues, country, rhythm and blues, soul, contemporary, indie, alternative and everything in between. The band has been together since the mid-'80s. You might know the song "Bittersweet" from the band's platinum-selling "Sister Sweetly." The band's latest releases are a DVD and accompanying CD "Live at the Fillmore" filmed during two sold-out nights at the historic San Francisco venue.