DISHWALLA *****

Dishwalla was an American alternative rock band. The band's name comes from a Hindi term for a person providing cable television to a neighborhood. In a Vox interview, Rodney claimed the band took the name out of a Wired magazine article.

 

History

In 1994, the band recorded "Take Some Time" on the tribute album If I Were A Carpenter featuring cover versions of songs by The Carpenters.

In 1996, the single "Counting Blue Cars" from the album Pet Your Friends climbed the charts and was frequently played on the airwaves, bringing the band a short round of mainstream-scale success. The track earned them a Billboard Award for "Best Rock Song" for 1996 as well as two ASCAP Awards for "Rock Track Of The Year" in both 1996 and 1997. Their 1998 follow-up album, And You Think You Know What Life's About, failed to sustain the level of popularity achieved by "Counting Blue Cars".

Dishwalla have since made a handful of other ventures into the limelight. In 1995 the song "Counting Blue Cars" was featured in the movie "Empire Records". "Pretty Babies" is on the Blast From The Past soundtrack. In 1998 landed the song "Truth Serum" in The Avengers; in 1999, the song "Stay Awake" was featured in the movie Stir of Echoes' and the song "Find Your Way Back Home" was featured in the movie American Pie. In 2002 the song "Home" was in the movie The Banger Sisters and the The WB series Charmed spotlighted Dishwalla as musical guests in one episode. Other TV shows that have used their songs include Smallville, The OC, and NCIS. The band has gone on to release two more studio albums, Opaline and the self-titled Dishwalla, as well as a live album, Live... Greetings From The Flow State.

Five singles charted on Billboard. In 1996, "Counting Blue Cars" peaked at #15 on the Hot 100 but climbed to #5 on both the Adult Top 40 and Hot 100 Airplay charts, #4 on the Top 40 Mainstream charts, #2 on the Mainstream Rock charts, and #1 on the Modern Rock charts. "Charlie Brown's Parents" hit #24 on the Mainstream Rock charts. The following year, "Give" was a #26 Adult Top 40 single. In 1998, "Once in a While" reached #17 on the Mainstream Rock charts and #20 on the Modern Rock charts. Finally, "Somewhere in the Middle" hit #25 on the Adult Top 40 charts in 2002.

In 2006, the band decided to take a break from recording, and returned to touring in 2008 with a modified lineup of Scot Alexander, Rodney Cravens, Jim Wood and original drummer George Pendergast. The lineup featured long time friend, Justin Fox, singer of the Santa Barbara band Tripdavon, as a "Special Guest Vocalist". Lead Singer J.R. Richards recorded a debut solo album titled "A Beautiful End" that was released on May 12, 2009.

On March 15, 2009, Dishwalla was asked to play a benefit concert for "Tea Fire" victims, Lance and Carla Hoffman who were badly burned in fires which hit Santa Barbara in November 2008. The hugely successful event was put on by coordinated efforts with Santa Barbara City Fire, Santa Barbara County Fire, Montecito Fire, Carpentaria/Summerland Fire departments.