Dishwalla has had a few years to contemplate all its "thoughts on God," and now the Santa Barbara band is resurfacing with a new label and plans to record a third album.

The group enjoyed a major hit with its 1995 debut, "Pet Your Friends," an album propelled by the chart-topping single "Counting Blue Cars" (source of the then-inescapable "thoughts on God" lyric) which won the 1996 "Billboard" Award for Rock Track Of The Year. The band's second effort, 1998's "And You Think You Know What Life's About," fell victim to the slow demise of its label, A&M Records.

"We were folded into Interscope," Dishwalla singer J.R. Richards told MTV News, "but it just didn't work out. When our AA&R rep left, we figured we'd better go too." It took about a year to negotiate a release, Richards said.

Eight months ago, the group set its sights on Immergent Records, which had hired the man responsible for signing them to A&M in the first place. The label, which

officially launched on September 26, made Dishwalla its first signing.

The band is currently deciding on a producer and plans to enter the studio in November.

"We've got at least two albums' worth of material," Richards offered. "We just kept writing. We were ready to record, but Interscope kept saying they weren't ready for us yet and to just sit tight and keep writing, so we did.

"It's a change from the first two records, where we went in with maybe a third of a record written and finished it in the studio."

Dishwalla hit the stage on Wednesday night in a tiny venue in its hometown of Santa Barbara to perform at a birthday party for a local disc jockey and longtime band supporter. The group is scheduled to play a benefit for a cultural center in Tempe, Arizona, on October 21.