Dishwalla: Whatever Happened To the Once Successful Band?

The early days of Dishwalla began when drummer George Pendergast met vocalist and guitarist JR Richards at a local music store in their hometown of Santa Barbara. They added bassist Scot Alexander, guitarist Rodney Browning Cravens and keyboardist Greg Kolanek. Despite each member of the band being influenced by different musical tastes, that did little to stop the musicians from starting a band.

The Band Plays the Santa Barbara College Circuit

They became regulars at the college bar circuit around Santa Barbara and played alongside bands like Ugly Kid Joe and Toad the Wet Sprocket.

Before becoming Dishwalla, the band underwent several name and style changes. First using the moniker Life Talking, and then Dish and finally Dishwalla.

“If we get signed, it will be because we play in LA.” – George Pendergast

According to the LA Times, the band entered a Battle of the Bands contest in LA and ended up taking a $1,000 prize. Pendergast told the paper, “We entered an LA contest and we won. We still play down there once or twice a month. It’s important to impress them in LA. If we get signed, it will be because we play in LA.”

The band would eventually land a deal with A&M records. Dishwalla’s manager gave the group’s demo tape to a lawyer, who then passed it onto the A&R people at A&M. By strange coincidence, the band happened to have a gig at Club Lingerie in LA that same week and a rep from A&M, was in attendance that night and signed them on the spot.

The Carpenters’ Tribute Album

In a strange twist of fate, the members of Dishwalla were fans of The Carpenters and shortly after they signed to A&M records, but before they began work on their debut record, they read an LA Times article about a tribute album being assembled. JR Richards loved The Carpenters and wanted to participate in the project.

The tribute album was finished, but Dishwalla didn’t know that and they recorded a cover of “Close To You” and sent it to Wallace. The Cranberries, who were also on the album, had already done a cover of the song but Wallace was so impressed with Dishwalla that he pushed back the release of the record so the band could be included on the compilation. They cut a cover of “It’s Gonna Take Some Time”.

“We were sort of surprised by the success of the album but we probably shouldn’t have been.” – JR Richards

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” was put out as the second single on the album.

Despite the tribute album’s success in marketing the band, Dishwalla’s debut record was delayed by 7 months. Rodney Browning Cravens was interviewed by Cryptic Rock where he looked back at this point of time, “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.”

“Counting Blue Cars”

Dishwalla’s debut album, Pet Your Friends was released in August of 1995 and while 5 singles were put out, it was the third one, “Counting Blue Cars” that finally caught on. The single was released nearly 6 months after the album came out.

“Counting Blue Cars” appeared in the movie Empire Records and it served as the band’s only hit song off the record and of their entire career. It took the group’s album 10 months to appear on the Billboard Heatseekers Charts and another 2 months to appear on the Billboard 200 Charts.

The success of the album can be attributed to the multi-format success of “Counting Blue Cars”. In addition to appearing on the rock charts, it also made appearances on the Pop and Adult Top 40 Charts. Billboard Magazine awarded the single ‘Rock Song of the Year’ for 1996.

Apart from the song’s chart success, the lyrics were notable because of the line “Tell me all your thoughts on God/’cause I’d really like to meet her.” The song would paint a picture of God as a woman and not a man.

“…That made me think about how ideas are spoon fed to you when you’re young.” – JR Richards

JR Richards told 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. “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 you’re young.”

As for the rest of the album, Richards told the LA Times, “I’m kind of a dark-romantic person,” with most of the songs discussing the corruption of impressionable and innocent children. “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.

The band spent nearly 3 years on the road, supporting their debut album, playing alongside Goo Goo Dolls, Sheryl Crow, Letters to Cleo and Gin Blossoms.

“We put a lot of pressure on ourselves and we’re feeling pressure from everywhere. – JR Richards

By 1998, Dishwalla returned with their sophomore record, And You Think You Know What Life Is About. JR Richards revealed to Billboard Magazine, “We put a lot of pressure on ourselves and we’re feeling pressure from everywhere. It’s hard to not feel you have to outdo yourselves. The song was the biggest of the year, so it’s hard to beat. The key is for us to try not to think too hard about it, to still be creative.”

The band’s second album proved to be a much more introspective album, being shaped by their time on the road for nearly 3 years.

“…No one really knows who they are.” – Mike Savage

While Dishwalla had a lot of success with their debut album, nobody knew who the guys in the band were or what they looked like. Billboard interviewed the Music Director for KYLL, Mike Savage, who told the magazine, “I think what they have to do is concentrate on 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.”

The group’s second album charted in the upper echelons of the Billboard charts but it was a disappointment, commercially. Following the release of their second album, the band’s business underwent some changes. JR Richards told 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 us about a year to negotiate a release.”

The band signed to Emergent Records. The band had written two albums worth of material. In 2002, the band released their third album and made history at the same time. It was the first musical release to come out on both CD and DVD formats.

Dishwalla Breaks Up

The album was followed up by their self-titled record 3 years later in 2005. It was their first album to not chart. The band finally took a break at this time.

In 2008, 3 years after their breakup, the band reunited without JR Richards. The band’s drummer and guitarist found their going to the same school and they attended Tuesday night school meetings. At these meetings they would reminisce about the old days of the band. This eventually led to them reforming the group without JR. Now fronting the band was vocalist Justin Fox, who worked on many other musical projects including being an Assistant Recording Engineer for Katy Perry.

According to Songfacts, JR Richards had moved to England. He had a son who suffered from autism and schizophrenia and he felt that there was better medical treatment in England.

The band released their latest album in 2017 with Juniper Road and they most recently played a live show in 2021.

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