| Pet Your Friends | 1995 |
| And You Think You Know What Life's About | 1998 |
Another one of the "one hit wonder" alternative bands from the 90s, but judging from their debut album Pet Your Friends, they aren't exactly a faceless one. Singer J.R. Richards has great vocal ability and strong lyrical creativity (kind of exaggerated words inspired by real life situations and even TV shows and movies), and the band also has fairly good musicianship, especially on bass, a nice sense of melody, which made their single "Counting Blue Cars" one of the most infectious hits from around that time, and even a unique sound at some points. And You Think You Know What Life's About, their second album, disappeared, but that one may not be too bad either, who knows?
--Nick Karn
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(reviewed by Nick Karn)
This was the band's debut album, but the general listening public hardly took notice of that. What they did notice was the great melodicism, weird lyrics, and nice atmosphere of the huge single "Counting Blue Cars", Dishwalla's only real hit. This band was also of course grouped in with the group of alternative bands that weren't taken seriously by listeners or by critics, and ultimately burned out. This is perhaps unfair in Dishwalla's case, though, as Pet Your Friends surely sounds like something more than just an inexperienced grunge band making their first record, as eerily melodic songs like "Haze" and great tributes to fictional television characters in "Charlie Brown's Parents" (featuring a great bassline, tongue in cheek lyrics, nice arrangement and a sing-along chorus) and "Miss Emma Peel" just a few of the many highlights here.
The opener "Pretty Babies" just may be enough evidence to get rid of any of those preconceived thoughts, as it musically soars thanks to its' dramatic intro and melody, not to mention a phenomenal production job, while the multi-part, atmospheric, hybrid of progressive rock, grunge, and electronica, "Moisture" is probably the most unpredictable, creative, and strongest track here, starting out with a mysterious drum beat but then suddenly without warning changing to a different, seemingly disconnected section of the song featuring a fast and furious riff and an addictive chorus, and "Explode" also lives up to its' name as a harsh and convincing number. Pet Your Friends does sink a little bit towards the end, with a couple of subpar filler-quality tracks, but for the most part it's a very good release that should have held its' own with any alternative band in the mid 90s.
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