Having Their Cake And Eating It
Not to be confused with the obscure, short-lived, John Peel-endorsed all-female rock trio from the '60s, Cake is a Californian all-male alternative group, which has been defining the term 'geek rock' for the last decade and a half.
Whether it's the quirky and often sarcastic content of their songs, or the dry, rap-like monotone of lead vocalist and guitarist John McCrea, Cake possess many of the qualities the average slacker is looking for in an alternative to the, er, alternative.
This sort of fanbase has lead to comparisons with bands such as The Dead Milkmen, They Might Be Giants and Camper Van Beethoven.
Formed in 1992, Cake soon built up a healthy cult following on the Californian live circuit, frequently playing the intimate Blue Lamp venue in their hometown of Sacramento, a city that has produced a number of world famous bands including the Deftones,Blackalicious and Jimmy Smith, a jazz legend dubbed "King of the Hammond B-3 organ".
The city's live scene remains healthy today, and hotels in Sacramento are available for anyone wishing to witness it for themselves.
Cake released a self-financed, self-recorded and self-distributed album, Motorcade of Generosity, the following year before signing a deal with Capricorn Records, which lead to some airplay of the album's lead track "Rock 'N Roll Lifestyle" on the influential American college radio network.
Their second record, Fashion Nugget, arrived in 1996 and was home to what would become the band's biggest hit and best known track "The Distance".
The track was a massive alternative radio hit and even became the most unlikely of sporting-event anthems.
On the back of the success of "The Distance", a second single was lifted from the album, the band's cover of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive".
Mainly due to McCrea's uninterested deadpan vocal delivery, a lot of critics saw the track as a smarmy put-down, despite the band's protests that they genuinely adored it.
Soon after the release of Fashion Nugget, bassist Victor Damiani and guitarist Greg Brown left Cake to form a new-wave influenced band, Deathray.
This left McCrea and trumpeter and keyboardist Vince DiFiore as the only remaining original members of the group, as original drummer Frank French had left prior to the recording of Fashion Nugget.
For the band's third album, Prolonging The Magic, Cake employed a tag-team rota system of five new guitarists, with each track featuring a different coupling.
The band's fourth album Comfort Eagle spawned another massive radio and MTV hit, and the band's only number one single, "Short Skirt Long Jacket".
The video to the track featured humorous footage of randomly selected people in the street giving their reaction to the song.
Cake's latest album Pressure Chief was released in 2004 and was followed by a b-sides and rarities compilation this year, with a live album expected early next year.
Now having sold several million albums across the globe and continuing to tour exhaustingly (including a secret homecoming at the less-than-a-hundred-people capacity of the afore-mentioned Blue Lamp earlier this year), Cake seem to be having their cake and eating it, and enjoying it dearly.
Whether it's the quirky and often sarcastic content of their songs, or the dry, rap-like monotone of lead vocalist and guitarist John McCrea, Cake possess many of the qualities the average slacker is looking for in an alternative to the, er, alternative.
This sort of fanbase has lead to comparisons with bands such as The Dead Milkmen, They Might Be Giants and Camper Van Beethoven.
Formed in 1992, Cake soon built up a healthy cult following on the Californian live circuit, frequently playing the intimate Blue Lamp venue in their hometown of Sacramento, a city that has produced a number of world famous bands including the Deftones,Blackalicious and Jimmy Smith, a jazz legend dubbed "King of the Hammond B-3 organ".
The city's live scene remains healthy today, and hotels in Sacramento are available for anyone wishing to witness it for themselves.
Cake released a self-financed, self-recorded and self-distributed album, Motorcade of Generosity, the following year before signing a deal with Capricorn Records, which lead to some airplay of the album's lead track "Rock 'N Roll Lifestyle" on the influential American college radio network.
Their second record, Fashion Nugget, arrived in 1996 and was home to what would become the band's biggest hit and best known track "The Distance".
The track was a massive alternative radio hit and even became the most unlikely of sporting-event anthems.
On the back of the success of "The Distance", a second single was lifted from the album, the band's cover of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive".
Mainly due to McCrea's uninterested deadpan vocal delivery, a lot of critics saw the track as a smarmy put-down, despite the band's protests that they genuinely adored it.
Soon after the release of Fashion Nugget, bassist Victor Damiani and guitarist Greg Brown left Cake to form a new-wave influenced band, Deathray.
This left McCrea and trumpeter and keyboardist Vince DiFiore as the only remaining original members of the group, as original drummer Frank French had left prior to the recording of Fashion Nugget.
For the band's third album, Prolonging The Magic, Cake employed a tag-team rota system of five new guitarists, with each track featuring a different coupling.
The band's fourth album Comfort Eagle spawned another massive radio and MTV hit, and the band's only number one single, "Short Skirt Long Jacket".
The video to the track featured humorous footage of randomly selected people in the street giving their reaction to the song.
Cake's latest album Pressure Chief was released in 2004 and was followed by a b-sides and rarities compilation this year, with a live album expected early next year.
Now having sold several million albums across the globe and continuing to tour exhaustingly (including a secret homecoming at the less-than-a-hundred-people capacity of the afore-mentioned Blue Lamp earlier this year), Cake seem to be having their cake and eating it, and enjoying it dearly.
Source...