Since The Kabalas’ formation only a short year ago, the band has become extremely picky about their product quality. In fact, Kabalas’ frontman Scott Morschhauser guarantees that the Kabalas sell the best flashlights, aprons and pillows on the market.

“We have a coloring book coming out this month and it should be really cool,” Morschhauser said. “Yeah, we sell T-shirts to, but we like to do things a little different.”

Different is definitely the word to describe The Kabalas. The quartet features two accordions, a sax, and percussion. They have coined their music “Polkadelic Klezmer,” and describe it as a combination of traditional Jewish Klezmer, original weirdo polkas, and original swing.

“Our style and arrangements are so different,” Morschhauser said. “I know a lot of bands say this, but truly, there are no bands that even come close to having our sound.”

The Kabalas’ rare sound has a lot to do with the band’s success in climbing the college radio charts. The quartet was recently crowned Best Alternative Band of 1995 by Oil Magazine and have been swamped with great reviews by magazines around the country. “We’ve had success with the college crowds because they are the only radio station formats that our music style squeezes into,” he said. “Not having a guitar player, it’s also pretty difficult to get many clubs to accept us.”

Morschhauser and his crew have had no problems gaining respect from crowds. The band’s “lounge act from hell” has hit hard in neighboring cities, Cedar Falls and Des Moines.

“Our shows are very typical of the band, adding some improvisation and chaos,” Morschhauser added. “How we handle instrumentation live is very similar to our disc. It’s not too polished, but we wanted to leave in the details to create a real edge.

“When the producer wanted to take them out, we were like ‘No, that’s what it sounds like when you flip the switch on the accordion and that’s what you’re gonna get.’ “

The Kabalas’ formed when accordion players Morschhauser and Barry Wolf met at a company picnic. After talk of playing together, the two put out ads looking for musicians with your not-so-average instruments. Sax player Neal Smith responded quickly and soon brought along percussionist Joel Dick.

“When we started, we had no intentions of being so big,” he explained. “It was just like a ‘Pass me a beer, what should we play?’ type of thing. Barry was embarrassed to tell me what he played. When he did, I couldn’t believe it.

“I mean, what are the chances of there being two Jewish accordion players in the same city, especially in Iowa of all places? Now, it’s like something better and unexpected happens to us everyday.”

Morschhauser, a native or Eerie, Pennsylvania, began his music career in a classical orchestra and moved right into a punk band. The rest of the Kabalas call Illinois home.

“I have always listened to classical music and rock ‘n’ roll,” Morschhauser said. “I’ve really been getting into my dad’s old lounge records and of course we play a lot of old Jewish scales.

“Either we write our own music, or we totally rearrange traditional stuff. There is a fine line between comedy and what we do. We just do what is natural to us.”

A kabala is obviously a Jewish term, but surprisingly, a rebellious one. The term is slang for the common link of the study of scripture and Eastern gypsy fortune telling.

“I had a really cool board game with the same name,” Morschhauser said. “It was similar to a Ouiji board and everyone had at least one. Somehow, all of us managed to have ours disappear.

“We finally had an antique toy dealer find us one, and we plan on using it on the cover of our next disc.”

The Kabalas are currently working on eight to 10 new songs and will play the “South By Southwest” festival in search for a larger record contract next spring.

On Saturday, The Kabalas will play in Ames for the first time at the M-Shop for a 9 p.m. Halloween polkadelic extravaganza. Tickets for the event, which includes Oktoberfest brews and prizes, are $4, $3 for students.

After their Ames gig, The Kabalas will make another venture to Iowa when they play at Java Joe’s in Des Moines on November 18th, with an in-store show at Best Buy that day.