Album Review: Dishwalla - Pet Your Friends (1995)

In picking an album to kick off the weekly album reviews on this blog, I couldn’t choose a more fitting candidate than this album by Dishwalla, one of the first bands, if not the first band that I remember listening to in my lifetime. Formed in Santa Barbara, California around 1994, Dishwalla was just one out of a plethora of alternative rock bands to come out of SoCal in the mid 1990s. They found a way to stand out though, with deep lyrical compositions and an excellent blend of heavy guitar-driven rock and well-crafted synth effects that accent, but never overpower the main instruments. Their 1995 debut album entitled Pet Your Friends, most famous for containing their biggest hit, “Counting Blue Cars”, is well-worth delving into further, as this band has a somewhat undeserved status as just another alt-rock one hit wonder.

1. Pretty Babies
This song doesn’t go all in with the synths, but they’re present enough to give a taste of what’s to come on later tracks. The intro contains a very neat bassline, and the verses are minimalist with drums and vocals taking precedence. The lyrics are pretty straightforward, outlining parental fears surrounding teenage sexuality, a phenomenon just as prevalent today as it was twenty years ago. Interestingly, there seems to be some intentional vagueness as to whose point of view the lyrics are coming from, and which side of the issue is being promoted.




2. Haze

As the video from my introductory article would suggest, the heavily synthy intro to this song has been ingrained in my head since I was in diapers. Thankfully the lyrical content, which deals with a woman going through a seemingly endless cycle of substance abuse, went right over my two-year-old head. The song has a great soft buildup that eventually gives way to great heavy bridge, and is certainly one of the most well-composed songs on the album in regard to the balance of synths and instruments.

 

3. Counting Blue Cars

The song that gave this band it’s unfair one hit wonder label, you may know it from extensive radio play in the mid-90s, or even from it’s more recent exposure in 2012 during a Season Eight episode of the television sitcom How I Met Your Mother, in which the main character reveals Dishwalla to be one of his favorite bands. The song’s lyrical content is of the existential variety, and can be interpreted as a call to re-examine one’s beliefs from the perspective of a child. A one hit wonder song? Maybe, but it’s one with quite a bit of depth, and is another track that showcases great subtle use of synths in the overall composition.

4. Explode

Another song with existential lyrical themes, though it is heavier and less synthy than the preceding track. Overall this is a solid song that contains a great rock scream towards the end.

5. Charlie Brown's Parents

This song’s another longtime favorite of mine, and is the second song that appears in the previously mentioned video of two-year-old me. The song’s lyrics critique organized religion and modern false prophets, and the instrumental portion is notable for having the least discernible synths of any track on the album. It’s style ranges from verses that have a vaguely 70s disco/techno vibe to them, to some very heavy guitar riffs during the bridge. I’ve never gotten tired of hearing this song, and I consider it a clear frontrunner for best track of the album.

6. Give

This song’s a pretty standard troubled relationship song, with the only noteworthy features being a cool synthy guitar solo and outro.

7. Miss Emma Peel

From the title and lyrical content, this song is unmistakably a tribute to Diana Rigg’s character from the 1960s British spy series The Avengers. It’s another very catchy track, with a neat little guitar chord progression after each chorus that resembles the James Bond theme.

8. Moisture

This song initially seems to start off very similar to “Haze”, but has an even longer intro full of spacey synths and distorted guitar licks. This eventually and abruptly transitions into a much faster segment, then the song returns to the slower synth/guitar mix, and ultimately closes out with another fast-paced segment. Just like “Give”, this song’s lyrics seem to reference a bad relationship, but the level of craft behind the mix of synths and guitar, combined with the lightning-fast style transitions, actually elevate the song to the point of becoming one of the most interesting and unique selections from this album.

9. The Feeder

This is another song that is clearly critical of organized religion and modern false prophets. Although it stays at a more relaxed and steady pace than “Charlie Brown’s Parents”, it is still a pretty solid track.

10. All She Can See

This is a dark and bitter track, with lyrics that suggest a tale of sexual abuse, accompanied by somber violin synths. A powerful track, but a black sheep as far as tone is concerned compared to the rest of the album.

11. Only For So Long

This is yet another song about a trouble relationship, not quite as interesting as “Moisture”, but more solid and catchy than “Give”.

12. Interview with St. Étienne

Originally meant to be a hidden track at the end of “Only For So Long”, this track is made up of a Middle Eastern-sounding synth instrumental over spoken word dialogue of a British woman, who seems to be offering some kind of social commentary on gender stereotypes. The track is very odd considering the light and catchy tone of the rest of the album, but is a neat closer and very well put together, almost sounding like tracks that bands like Tool and A Perfect Circle would record nearly a decade later.

Dishwalla remains one of my favorite alternative rock bands from the 1990s, and this album is a major reason why. Going beyond the paint by numbers power-pop song compositions that infested many of their contemporaries discographies, Dishwalla infused this album with an engaging variety of musical influences and did their best to reestablish the idea that synths in rock music could still be used as an interesting and worthwhile feature.

Top Three Tracks:

1. Charlie Brown’s Parents

2. Haze

3. Moisture