Today is the birthday of Dean Dinning, bassist for Toad the Wet Sprocket. TTWS, as they're known to their fans, emerged in the early 1990s as a band skilled in combining harder-edged, frustrated rock with soft melodies and keen vocal harmonies. Taking their name from a gag skit in Monty Python's Contractual Obligation, the band began when Dinning, guitarists Todd Nichols and Glen Phillips and drummer Randy Guss met in their high school drama club. The guys rehearsed in their garages, finally making their first album, Bread & Circus, in 1988 for a total of $650. The album was rereleased a year later, unedited, when the band signed with Columbia.

Other albums followed, including Pale in 1990 and Fear in 1991, the latter of which included TTWS' biggest hit, "All I Want." The group's songs began appearing in several TV shows and movies, including "Little Heaven" for Buffy The Vampire Slayer, "Brother" for So I Married an Axe Murderer, "Good Intentions" for Friends and "Fall Down" for My So-Called Life.

In 1993 the band holed up Northern Carolina to record Dulcinea, which included singles like "Good Intentions" and made another reference to Monty Python comedian Eric Idle in its title. That same year they headlined the Rock For Choice benefit concert, and since then have been active in supporting victims of sexual abuse and rape crisis centers nationwide, sparked by the band's single "Hold Her Down," which Phillips wrote after a friend of his was raped. In Light Syrup was released the following year, with singles for "Walk On The Ocean" and "All In All." Their sixth album, Coil, hit stores last month.

Other birthdays: Courtney Love. -- Beth Winegarner