Dishwalla
Dishwalla | |
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Dishwalla performing a benefit for Santa Barbara Tea Fire victims in 2009. | |
Background information | |
Origin | Santa Barbara, California, U.S. |
Genres | Alternative rock, post-grunge |
Years active | 1994–2006, 2008–present |
Labels | A&M, Interscope, Immergent, Orphanage |
Members |
Rodney Browning Cravens Scot Alexander Jim Wood George Pendergast Justin Fox |
Past members |
J. R. Richards Pete Maloney |
Dishwalla is an American alternative rock band from Santa Barbara, California. The band's name comes from a Hindi term for a person providing satellite TV to a neighborhood. In a Vox interview, lead guitarist Rodney Browning Cravens claimed the band took the name out of a Wired magazine article.[1][2] The band is best known for their 1996 hit song "Counting Blue Cars."
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 mainstream 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 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. They have also been mentioned several times in the show How I Met Your Mother. 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 No. 15 on the Hot 100 but climbed to No. 5 on both the Adult Top 40 and Hot 100 Airplay charts, No. 4 on the Top 40 Mainstream charts, No. 2 on the Mainstream Rock charts, and No. 1 on the Modern Rock charts. "Charlie Brown's Parents" hit No. 24 on the Mainstream Rock charts. The following year, "Give" was a No. 26 Adult Top 40 single. In 1998, "Once in a While" reached No. 17 on the Mainstream Rock charts and No. 20 on the Modern Rock charts. Finally, "Somewhere in the Middle" hit No. 25 on the Adult Top 40 charts in 2002.
In 2006, the band decided to take a break only to return 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". Dishwalla's original Lead Singer J.R. Richards recorded a debut solo album titled A Beautiful End that was released on May 12, 2009. And has since released 2 more solo albums, Honore et Amore in 2015 and an all acoustic album Stripped in 2016.
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, Carpinteria/Summerland Fire departments.
In September 2012, the band announced on their official Facebook page a benefit concert on October 13 to raise money for George Pendergast's "Rockshop Academy", his non-profit youth music program started in 2008. Along with this announcement, Dishwalla quietly let it be known from personal Facebook posts by the members what fans had long speculated: the permanent replacement of original front man J.R. Richards with long-time friend and "Special Guest Vocalist", Justin Fox, from the band Tripdavon.
Current
The reborn Dishwalla continues to tour heavily across the United States and the world.[3] The band has shared the stage with many other notable acts such as Eric Burdon, Collective Soul, Vertical Horizon, Tonic, Stroke 9, and Nine Days just in 2014 alone.[4] Any initial doubts [5] about Justin Fox's ability to take over as front man have been extinguished by the outpouring of support by fans worldwide.[6]
2015 will be the 20th anniversary of Dishwalla's chart topping Pet Your Friends album release which launched their careers. There is speculation as to when a new Dishwalla album will be released but the band has discussed working on new material and starting pre-production over the past year.[7]
Members
Current
- Rodney Browning Cravens - lead guitar (1993–present)
- Scot Alexander - bass (1993–2005, 2008–present)
- George Pendergast - drums (1993–1998, 2008–present)
- Jim Wood - keyboards (1996–present)
- Justin Fox - lead vocals (2008–present)
Justin Fox
Justin David Fox (born August 17, 1979)[8] is the lead singer for Dishwalla. He began his music career as the founding member and singer for the alternative rock band Tripdavon which was also from Santa Barbara, California before joining Dishwalla in 2008.[9]
Between the years active in Tripdavon and before heading back out to tour heavily with Dishwalla, Fox went back to school earning his Juris Doctorate and passing the California bar examination in June 2013 to practice as an entertainment attorney.[8]
In addition to the contributions and successes of his own musical acts as a singer and songwriter,[10][11][12] Fox also engages in many other projects as both a music producer and recording engineer. Most notably, he was credited as Assistant Recording Engineer to Katy Perry for the production of her platinum hit album Prism including the hit "Roar".[13] Perry described her experience recording in Fox's Montecito recording studio in the October 2013 issue of The New Yorker.[14]
Former
- Pete Maloney - drums (1998–2007)
- J. R. Richards - lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, programing (1993–2008)
Timeline
Discography
Studio albums
Year | Album | Billboard Top 200 | Top Independent Albums | Heatseekers | Certifications |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1995 | Pet Your Friends | 89 | - | 1 | RIAA: Gold |
1998 | And You Think You Know What Life's About | 164 | - | - | |
2002 | Opaline | 192 | 12 | - | |
2005 | Dishwalla | - | - | - | |
2016 | TBA | - | - | - |
EPs and live albums
- Gems (2001)
- Santa Claus Lane (2003)
- Live... Greetings from the Flow State (2003)
- Santa Claus Lane II (2004)
- Southeast Asia (2004)
Singles
Year | Single | Peak chart positions | Certifications (sales thresholds) |
Album | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US | US Rock |
US Main |
US Alt. |
US Adult | ||||
1994 | "It's Going to Take Some Time" | — | — | — | — | — | Pet Your Friends | |
1995 | "Haze" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
1996 | "Counting Blue Cars" | 15 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 5 | ||
"Charlie Brown's Parents" | — | 24 | — | — | — | |||
"Give" | — | — | — | — | 26 | |||
1998 | "Once In Awhile" | — | 17 | — | 20 | — | And You Think You Know What Life's About | |
2002 | "Somewhere in the Middle" | — | — | — | — | 25 | Opaline | |
"Angels or Devils" | — | — | — | — | — | |||
2005 | "Collide" | — | — | — | — | — | Dishwalla | |
Non-album songs
- "It's Going to Take Some Time" featured on If I Were a Carpenter (1994)
- "Policy of Truth" featured on For the Masses
- "Find Your Way Back Home" featured on the American Pie soundtrack
See also
References
- ↑ DISHWALLA - Origin of their Name
- ↑ Wired Archives - DISH-WALLAHS
- ↑ bandsintown.com, Dishwalla Tour Info
- ↑ bandsintown.com, Dishwalla Past Tour Info
- ↑ Scot Alexander Interview
- ↑ Scot Alexander Interview 2
- ↑ New Music
- 1 2 Linkedin.com
- ↑ Dishwalla Official Biography
- ↑ Allmusic.com, Tripdavon
- ↑ Allmusic.com, The Enlightened Operative
- ↑ Allmusic.com, Sketches From Silence
- ↑ Myspace.com, Katy Perry PRISM Album Credits
- ↑ The New Yorker. "THE DOCTOR IS IN. A technique for producing No. 1 songs." BY JOHN SEABROOK OCTOBER 14, 2013
15. https://www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=default-award&ar=DISHWALLA&ti=PET+YOUR+FRIENDS - RIAA Certification for Pet Your Friends
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dishwalla. |
- Official website
- Dishwalla Official Facebook at Facebook
- Dishwalla Official Twitter at Twitter
- Dishwalla Fan Site at MySpace
- Interview with JR Richards at Life Without Pants (4/13/2009)