Formed in Santa Barbara in 1986, high school friends Glen Phillips, Todd Nichols, Dean Dinning, and Randy Guss, named their band after a fictional band briefly mentioned in the Monty Python sketch "Rock Notes". In 1988, the band cheaply recorded their debut album Bread and Circus, which caught the ear of Columbia Records, who signed the band and agreed to re-release the debut as-is. The band´s second album Pale was released in 1990, and found a home on college radio stations, as the band continued to tour and expand their fanbase all across the country.
The band´s commercial breakthrough occurred with their 1991 album Fear, and found huge success with the singles "All I Want" & "Walk on the Ocean". 1994´s follow-up Dulcinea, gave the band another Top 40 hit with "Fall Down". In 1995, the band released In Light Syrup, a collection of b-sides and previously unreleased material, including the single "Good Intentions" which was previously recorded for Fear, but got bumped off the album to include… ³