In the 'pressure' cooker
Cake has survived 12 years in the rock biz by letting its songs carry the load
By Chris Nixon
August 5, 2004
San Diego Union-Tribune
As popular music in America goes, nobody listens to lyrics anymore. A song's music serves as the lightning rod for screaming fans, radio play and subsequent critical and financial success. The hook counts for everything: a catchy melody, a fleeting infectious chorus, a gorgeous harmony, a bumpin' beat.
Enter Sacramento quintet Cake, brimming with clever lyrics and carefully constructed mini pop symphonies.
Led by songwriter John McCrea and crafty trumpeter Vince DiFiore, Cake continues to carve its own niche. After 12 years of existence and a major-label recording career over the past decade, the group lures new fans with each release.
Often described as sarcastic, ironic, satirical, sardonic and even caustic, McCrea's lyrics cleverly use metaphors and a sly tongue-in-cheek attitude to create his image of the perfect woman, tell stories of lost love and comment on the benefits of bench seats versus bucket seats in automobiles.
"I've heard other people describe it as 'droll.' I've heard 'self-imposed alienation,' and 'deadpan,' " says DiFiore from Sacramento. "It's really in the tradition of American songwriting, but after going through the phase shifter of the influence of the psychedelia movement. But I think John wanted to write a song that everybody would understand, with a format that seemed like there was a lot of sobriety involved."
McCrea knows how to turn a clever phrase. Consider this from "Open Book" on the 1996 album "Fashion Nugget": You may think she's an open book / But you don't know which page to turn to, do you?
And he uses the most American of metaphors – the automobile – to describe his calm exterior and his chaotic inner workings: I've got wheels of polished steel / I've got tires that grab the road / I've got seats that selflessly hold my friends / And a trunk that can carry the heaviest of loads – but under my hood is internal combustion / Satan is my motor, from "Satan Is My Motor" on 1998's "Prolonging the Magic."
Even though lyrics play a central role in Cake's initial appeal, the band's airtight compositions featuring interlocking pieces give the songs a longer shelf life in the ears of listeners.
"We realized that we didn't want to waste the listener's time," says DiFiore, who has been with the band since its inception in 1992. "If there's a good song, you make a tight arrangement for it and then you let it be. You don't try to add a bunch of excess that is going to take away from a simple statement."
Along with guitarist Xan McCurdy, bassist Gabe Nelson and drummer Paulo Baldi, DiFiore and the band fashion tunes drawing from sad pedal steel country, groove funk bluegrass and muscle car rock. DiFiores' trumpet playing adds another melodic line to Cake's songs, separating the band's sound from the pack of current pop bands with unique instrumentation.
"In the '70s, there were a lot of bands playing horn-band funk: Sly and the Family Stone, who we often reference as an influence, War, Carlos Santana," says DiFiore. "But there are also a lot of Spanish-language radio stations around here playing Mexican norte×os and ranchera music. I think it came from those two aspects.
"(McCrea) wanted to shy away from the saxophone, because the saxophone is too much of a fun, good-time party instrument and the trumpet is a little sadder. So that's why John recruited a trumpet player to play with him."
CAKE
Hometown:
Formed in Sacramento in 1992
Discography:
"Pressure Chief" (due for release Oct. 5)
"Comfort Eagle" (2001)
"Prolonging the Magic" (1998)
"Fashion Nugget" (1996)
"Motorcade of Generosity" (1994)
Touring Lineup:
John McCrea – vocals, guitar
Xan McCurdy – guitar
Gabe Nelson – bass
Paulo Baldi – drums
Vince DiFiore – trumpet
– CHRIS NIXON
With the new album "Pressure Chief" due in October, Cake seems to be hitting its stride in terms of its music and its success. The band's Saturday's performance at the Del Mar Racetrack (which coincides with the annual Microbrew Festival) marks the start of a new touring cycle, so expect a fresh set of tunes at the show.
Life on the road is tough for DiFiore. But as long as Cake deals with the glare of the spotlight, the stormy nature of touring and internal strife, the band will keep at it: "Being a touring rock band is part traveling salesman and part fisherman. Sometimes I think I'm in 'Death of a Salesman,' I think of the dudes who were out in the boat in 'The Perfect Storm' and I think of being an adolescent. So we'll keep at it as long as we can deal with the tug of those dark themes."
Chris Nixon is a San Diego writer.
