Dishwalla: Whatever Happened To the Band Behind 'Counting Blue Cars?'

Dishwalla: Whatever happened to the band behind 'Counting Blue Cars?'
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I cite my sources and they may differ than other people's accounts, so I don't guarantee the actual accuracy of my videos.
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 o