Celebrating a birthday today is Toadies drummer Mark Reznicek. The Toadies are notable for their energetic live shows and such Texas-fried alt.rock tunes as "Possum Kingdom" and "Away." Birthday boy Reznicek is notable for stopping the Spinal Tap-esque revolving door for Toadies drummers. Todd Lewis (vocals and guitar), Charles Mooney (guitar) and Lisa Umbarger (bass) all met as employees of a Sound Warehouse in Fort Worth, Texas in early 1989. They played their first show in April of that year and had their first demo recorded soon after. The band then went through a dry period, weathering a few lineup changes and the closure of the club they usually played in. Mark Reznicek joined the band after answering an ad in The Dallas Observer in early 1991 and things began to take off for the band soon after. They received national television exposure as finalists in the Yamaha Battle of the Bands, placing second to a New Jersey reggae band called the Tribulations. They were also finalists in MTV's Battle of the Bands, an honor which earned them a free trip to play at Daytona Beach, Florida for spring break.

The Toadies used the funds from the Yamaha contest to buy studio time and record Velvet, a cassette only release, on their own. Grass Records signed them at the end of the year and released the CD EP Pleather as well as "Mr. Love/I Burn" on a yellow vinyl 7" in the spring of 1992. The band signed with Interscope Records in 1993 and released their breakthrough, Rubberneck, in August of 1994. They toured with Bush in early 1995 and slowly began to catch the interest of fans, radio and MTV. By the end of the year, "Possum Kingdom" was on MTV's high rotation list and Rubberneck was averaging sales of 15,000 to 20,000 per week. Rubberneck went gold in January 1996 and platinum by the end of the year, no doubt because of the exposure granted the band by opening for such acts as White Zombie and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The band is currently in the studio working on a record that is due to be released next spring.

Other birthdays: Barry McGuire, 62; Richard Carpenter (Carpenters), 51; Chris De Burgh, 50 and Tito Jackson (Jackson 5), 44.