The Toadies

The Toadies are a Fort Worth-born alt-rock institution who helped put North Texas grit on the ’90s rock map. Formed in 1989, the band broke wide with 1994’s Rubberneck, a dark, hook-heavy record powered by “Possum Kingdom,” “Backslider” and “Away.”

Their sound has always lived somewhere between grunge, hard rock and Texas-sized weirdness—big guitars, crooked rhythms and lyrics that can get downright unsettling. “Possum Kingdom,” inspired in part by the North Texas lake of the same name, became their signature song and remains one of the defining alternative-rock tracks of the decade.

The band has weathered lineup changes, label headaches and a breakup, but the Toadies never really disappeared. They reunited in the mid-2000s and have continued recording and touring, with frontman Vaden Todd Lewis keeping that unmistakable snarling guitar sound at the center. Decades later, they still sound unmistakably Texan without ever playing by the usual Texas-rock rules.