I’ve had a lot of people request the band Dishwala who were best
known for the song counting blue cars, but whatever happened to the
group after their big hit. That’s what were going to discuss in today’s video.
The early years of Dishwala began when drummer George Pendergast met vocalist
and guitarist JR Richards a local music store in Santa Barbara during their teenage years.
They would add bassist Scot Alexander, guitarist Rodney Browning and keyboardist Greg Kolanek.
Despite being influenced by different music tastes that did little to stop the quartet
from joining a band. . Pendergast was born and bred on bands like led zeppelin and motley crue
while Richards was into Queen and New Order while alexander was into funk and browning
loved britpop and classic rock. They would become regulars at the college bar circuit that was also
played by the likes of ugly kid joe and toad teh wet sprocket, both of which i’ve done videos on.
Before becoming Dishwala the band underwent several name and style changes. First using
the moniker Life Talking, Dish and now Dishwalla. When they went by the name Life Talking they were
a synth-pop band with drummer George Pendergast admitting to the LA Times “That was completely
different than what we do now,” “We don’t use the synthesizers as much now, plus we have a real bass
player. Also, we write songs as a band now and not on the keyboards.” The band would eventually
change their name to Dish and would eventually morph into a rock band combining hip-hop, funk,
and early 90’s sounding guitars. Then the band got a rude awakening. They would receive a cease and
desist letter from a band who already had dibs on the name Dish from North Carolina. They would move
onto their third name. Dishwalla. Keyboardist Greg Kolanek would tell the LA Times how the
band got their name telling the LA Times “I was reading this magazine called Wired,
and there was a reference to these guys in India called dish wallahs,” s. “They
are entrepreneurs who sell cable television programs to culturally deprived areas in India.
Apparently, India only has one channel, but now ‘Santa Barbara’ is one of the most popular shows.
So we dropped the ‘h’ and became dish walla.” According to the LA Times the band would enter
a yamaha sppnosored battle of the bands contest in LA and eup taking the 1,000
prize in LA. Pendergast would tell the LA Times “We entered an L. A. contest and we won,””We
still play down there once or twice a month. It’s important to impress them in L. A.
If we get signed, it will be because we play in L. A. Yet, packing up all the stuff,
then driving home from the Troubador in the middle of the night can be tough.
I think we’ve all driven off the road before.” THe band would eventually sign a deal with A&M
records thanks to their manager. It would be the group’s manager who gave a demo tape to a lawyer
who gave it to the A&R people at A&M who liked the tape. By strange coincidence the
band had a gig at club lingerie in LA that same week and a rep from A&M who saw the
band and that night and signed them on the spot. It would be the band the Carpenters and a twenty
old song of theirs that got Dishwala on the radar of a lot of people. The members of Dishwala were
fans of the Carpenters and shortly after being signed to A&M records, but before they began
work on their debut album they read in the LA Times about a tribute album being assembled.
Richards according to westword wanted to participate in the project for two reasons:
his love of the carpenters and producer matt wallace who was also involved who
worked with the replacements and paul westerberg. The tribute album was already finished, but
dishwala didnt know that and they recorded a cover of close to you and sent it to wallace. However,
the cranberries who were on the album already did a cover of the song but wallace was so impressed
with Dishwala that he pushed back the release of the record so dishwalla could be included on the
compilation. They would cut a cover of "It's Gonna Take Some Time.” Dishwala hadn’t even
released an album yet and were in good company on the tribute album appearing alongside sonic youth,
babes in toyland and Cracker. Richards would tell westword . "We were sort of surprised
by the success of the album," "but we probably shouldn't have been. Everyone has rediscovered
the Carpenters. It's kind of like a big fad." DIshwala’s cover of it’s gonna take some time
would be put out as the second single on the album with Richards telling westword "We had
begun recording Pet Your Friends when the song was getting a lot of airplay, and we'd be driving
back and forth to the studio and hear ourselves on the radio, like, four or five times a day."
Despite the tribute album’s success in marketing the band, DIshwala debut record would be delayed.
Ahead of the album’s release the band was on the road with better than ezra when they
were notified that their label pushed their debut record pet your friends by seven months.
Rodney B Cravens would be interviewed by cryptic rock where he looked back at this saying “We were
crushed and thought our label was shelving us. They said, “No, we are just going to keep you on
the road, keep learning your craft, and pounding the pavement.” We were destroyed, but it ended up
being a great thing because we got our road chops. The group’s debut album would be released in
august of 1995 and while five singles would be put out it would be the third one counting
blue cars that finally caught on. The single would release in february of 1996 nearly 6 months after
the group’s 1st album came out. Counting Blue Cars also appeared in the movie Empire Records.
Another hit song on that film’s soundtrack would be gin blossoms till i hear it from you.
Side note guys i’ve done a whole video on gin blossoms career the link is down below.
Counting blue cars which served as the band’s only hit song off the record and of their entire career
would top the billboard rock charts. It would take the group’s album ten months to appear on
the billboard heatseekers charts and another two months to appear in the billboard 200 charts.
The success of the album can be attributed to the multi-format
success of the single counting blue cars. Which appeared on the rock,
pop and adult top 40 charts. Billboard magazine awarded the single rock song of he year for 1996
Apart from the song’s chart success the lyrics in the song were also notable
because of the line “Tell me all your thoughts on G-d/’cause I’d really like to meet her.” The
song would paint of a picture of God as a woman not a man. The band’s drummer would
reveal how the song was written revealing JR Richards would tell billboard magazine the
inspiration behind the band’s hit song revealing how he was sitting with a kid who lived next
door to him who had two mothers. He would tell the magazine “we were counting the number of blue cars
passing by. It was a little kid thing to do like skipping cracks in the sidewalk and David started
asking me questions about God, but he referred to God as she. So that made me think about how
ideas are spoon fed to you when to you when you’re young. You’re so impressionable when you’re a kid
you just soak things up like a sponge. Often you don’t have time to come around to your own ideas
abot things. David is beyond his years in a way because he sensed that we give concepts like god a
male gender when it’s probably not the case either way ” The song was originally titled tell me all
your thoughts and jr would admit to songfacts that green is his favourite colour and not blue,
but blue fit the song better. As for the rest of the album
Richards would tell the LA Times “I’m kind of a dark-romantic person,” with most of
the band’s songs discussing the corruption of impresionable children. The fan favourite “Charlie
Brown’s Parents” represents a communication breakdown and his criticism of religion
while . “Miss Emma Peel” explored Richards’ teenage crush on the tv show the avengers.
As for the album’s cover it would come from an issue of Life Magazine from 1948.
That issue of the magazine told a story of a seventeen year old girl who befriended a deer
who she met while swimming one day. JR would tell the LA Times “”“You could never get away
with that magazine photo now. The animal rights groups would probably go out of their minds.
The band spent nearly three years on the road supporting their debut album
playing alongsid goo goo dolls, sheryl crow, letters to cleo and gin blossoms.
In 1998 Dishwala would return with their sophomore record and you think you know what life is about.
Billboard magazine perfectly sumamrized what the band was going througha t the time
saying “with young acts there’s a fair bit of anxiety surrounding the sophomore album.
However in dishwala’s case the anxiety is ten fold considering the santa barbara rock
band has the added pressure of following up one of the most popular tunes of 1996
counting blue cars. Frontman JR Richards would ell billboard we put a lot of pressure on our selves
and we’re feeling pressure from everywhere. It’s hard to not feel that you have to outdo yourseles.
The song was he biggest of the year, so it’s hard to beat. They key is for us to try not to
think too hard about it, so still be creative. Dishwalla added keyboardist Jim Wood for 1998's
And You Think You Know What Life's About, replacing the groups previous keyboardist.
The band’s second album would prove to be much more introspective being shaped by being on the
road for nearly three years promoting their first album.. While the band’s label had a big hit with
Dishwala’s debut album the group still had one big problem. No one knew what teh guys
in the band looked like. While rock and pop radio would be a big part of the marketing plan behind
their sophomore effort Larry Weintraub the VP of A&R at A&M would tell billboard where they fell
short previously syaing“a conscious effort in imaging the band. That was a bit of problem on
the last album. A lot of people still don’t know what the band looks like so imaging with photos
and video are key” It wasn’t just the label who knew that the band was faceless to many people
as some at rock radio felt the same. Billboard would interview the music director for KYLL Mike
Savage would tell billboard “i think what they have to concentrate on is making the singer more
of a star, more of a frontman. There’s a lack of stars right now even with bands like matchbox 20
or fastball. No one really knows who they are.” he’d say. Side note guys i’ve done a whole video
on the fastball song the way and the fascinating story that inspired the track link is down below.
The group’s second album charted in the upper echelon’s if the billboard charts
but commercially it was disappointing. Following the disappointing release of their second album
the band’s business side underwent some changes. JR Richards would tell MTV News
in 2000 "We were folded into Interscope," "but it just didn't work out. When our A&R rep left,
we figured we'd better go too." It took about a year to negotiate a release, Richards would state
The band would soon sign to Immergent Records, which had hired the man responsible for signing
them to A&M in the first place. It was now the early 2000’s and the band already had two albums
worth of material, which mostly originated during their final year with interscope.
In 2002 the band would release their third album Opaline and make history at the same time
making it the first music release that has come out on both cd and dvd formats according
to rolling stone. The album would be followed by their self titled record four years later in 2005
their first album to not chart. IT was the same year that the band would take a break.
JR would tell songfacts what made them decide to call it quits for the time being “Well,
when I did my first solo record I hadn't left Dishwalla. We were kind of on hiatus
because at that point three guys had quit the band and our label had folded.
There was only three out of five of us, so we just never seemed very motivated
In 2008 three years after their breakup the band would reunite minus JR. rodney and geoge soon
found themselves having their kids going to the same school and attending tuesday night school
meetings according to survivingthegoldenage and would reminsece about the old days of the band.
This eventually led to the band reforming albeit without their frontman JR with new frontman justin
fox who also worked on many other musical projects including being an assistant recording engineer
for katy perry.. JR for his part had now moved to england as he had a son who suffered from autism
and schitzophrenia and felt there was better treatment in England according to songfacts.
Despite the band’s lineup changes those problems of knowing who was in the band crept up again,
but maybe not in a bad way.drummer George Pendergast would tell insidehook “By some
coincidence of bad branding and a video where you couldn’t recognize us and a song that was called
something other than what it should’ve been, everybody knows the song and can sing along to it,
and when we can play it to 10,000 people, nobody knows it isn’t J.R. [singing],”
The band would release their latest album in 2017 with Juniper Road. The band’s most recently
played a live show last year. That does it for today’s video guys thanks for watching. Be sure
to hit the like button and subscribe and we’ll see you again on rock n’ roll true stories. Take care.