Attention all trend watchers: There is a new musical phenomenon on its way to examine, dissect and label.

Thrill as it’s dragged through the mud only to be called “alternative.” Chill as millions of people groove to the sound of klezmer music only because its the next sure “alternative” thing.

Well, maybe not, but The Kabalas certainly hope it will be. Then the group would be considered the forefathers of klezmer-pop.

The band would be nominated for Best Album of the Year and Best Accordionist and each member would be allowed to press their handprints into wet cement on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

“We’re not riding any wave of popularity,” vocalist Scott Morschhauser assured. “There is no klezmer-pop wave, we’re all alone out here. Which is good because we’ve always considered ourselves to be outcasts.”

But the group just might not be outcasts any longer.

The Kabalas, which consists of Morschhauser (who also plays the accordion, bongos, acoustic guitar and percussion), Neal Smith (saxophone), Joel Dick (percussion) and Barry Wolf (accordion), has been embraced by a lot of different sections of the music industry lately.

Since the band’s formation three years ago, college and commercial radio stations have started broadcasting its music.

A trip to the annual South by Southwest music convention in 1996 got the band signed with an independent music label (Dionysus Records).

The Kabalas’ music is also being heard as far away as Hollywood, Calif., and its back catalog (including 1995’s “Martinis and Bagels” and ’96’s “Challahday Picture Disc”) has consistently seen rises in sales.

“I moved to the Quad Cities three years ago,” Morschhauser said, “and decided to put a band together because I was bored. I am sick of traditional bands and how they all stick to drums, guitars, bass and occasional keyboards. I wanted something different.”

He put up fliers advertising that he was looking for an assortment of musicians to be in a band. Wolf, Dick and Smith were the only people who answered.

Fortunately for Morschhauser, they all played instruments that are slightly left of the norm.

“Our music is really just a blending of upbeat sounds,” Morschhauser explained. “People like our music because, at the end of the day, they want to hear something happy. After all, life is pretty gloomy most the time.

“So, it is a combination of the instrumentation,” he added, “and a lot of people wanting a change from the doom-and-gloom rock that’s been dominating pop stations for awhile that made us popular.”

But popularity hasn’t been affecting Morschhauser in a dire fashion. He realizes that his group’s success has been a long shot.

Take the type of music the group plays for example.

Klezmer is a hip term that indicates the music is really derived from traditional Jewish folk songs (or “traditional freilach dance tunes, wack-o original polkas and cocktail lounge surf-noir jazz” to quote Morschhauser).

The band’s name alludes to Jewish mysticism and its newest release, “The Eye of Zohar” further indicates the Judaic tie. The heart of Jewish mysticism is found in the five book collection of Zohar.

Another huge inspiration to the band’s name is a phosphorescent ’60s board game based loosely on Judaic mysticism called “Ka-balah” (coincidentally, the board game had a giant eye in the middle of the board).

Throw in the fact that the group’s main instruments are accordions and it is easy to understand why success should have eluded the group.

But in an odd twist of fate, The Kabalas has found success.

“We always end up being pulled back to klezmer,” Morschhauser explained. “It’s a magnet that pulls us back, it’s the focal point of what we are doing. We’ve got the tonal and scale structures in our blood.

“I still consider success the same,” he added. “It’s a combination of skill and luck. It’s out of your hands to a certain extent, so it’s good to take a wait-and-see approach. We are doing exactly what we want to do and if that makes us successful — so be it.”

But the members of The Kabalas are not the only ones who have found themselves infected by klezmer music. The CD release for “The Eye of Zohar” included fifteen shows in three days last September in the Quad Cities.

The shows were announced on a local radio station a few hours before they began and most of them managed to sell out.

Morschhauser believes it’s the group’s performance that draws a crowd.

“The bar has been lowered and lowered from generation to generation,” he said. “The audience no longer demands good entertainment, they take what they get. That’s why the bar continues to go down. But we’re here to bring that bar back up again.

“We feel that the audience deserves to be entertained,” he added. “We take that very seriously. It’s our goal with the audience. A lot of bands just stand up on stage and play. We go back to the days of total performance, where we play and talk and do things to entertain. Our audiences like it this way. It’s kind of vaudevillian.”

A typical Kabalas performance involves flaming drum sticks, lots of dancing and a ton of freebies.

The group has been giving out eyeball merchandise to promote its newest release, including bubble gum, yo-yos, glow-in-dark super balls, key chains, rings and erasers.

The Kabalas will be gracing the M-Shop with an all-ages performance Friday night at 9 p.m. Tickets are $3.