Even today, Glen Phillips sounds a bit baffled that he?s a well-known rock musician.

Phillips teamed with three of his Santa Barbara, Calif., high school friends to form a band called Toad the Wet Sprocket. In 1988, they recorded their first album, “Bread and Circus,” in just eight days for $650. When the group was midway through recording their second album, “Pale” (16 days, $6,000), they received a contract with Columbia Records and soon signed with Sony.