recipe for cake (as opposed to absolute monarchy)

Yeah, that’ already known to everyone. It’s so known it’s become a cliche. But… Yeah. Take some funk, some 1960s rock, even some prog rock, a little bit of Mexican folk influence and, sometimes, a bit of talking mixed with singing. Add a lot of humor and you get Cake.

It’s nothing new. I’m aware of that. Cake is so easy to recognize, you really have to have no idea on what the band is playing to mistake them with someone else. And, on one hand, someone may say that with my obsession on developing and progressing in one’s music, it may be weird that I liked this album. But, hell, fuck it. I liked it a lot ;-P

Everything that I like Cake for is in Showroom of Compassion. The really funny, wordplay lyrics of John McCrea, some nice rock tunes as well as folk influences from both, American folk music and Mexican folk. There is some, so typical of Cake, sound of the oldies and you may even feel like you’re in the surfing California of the turn of 1950s and 1960s (Bound Away). There is even a little taste of Frank Zappa, which I found amusing, at least in the little 1960s prog rock taste with an addition of a political cabaret (my fav, Federal Funding).

Is there anything wrong then, except the fact that I am not a devoted Cake fan, so, probably, I will listen to this album twice or three times and there’s little possibility I’ll come back to it (unless I have guests who want to drop in, chat a bit and are not used to some weird sounds)? Well, frankly, I don’t know. It’s an album as good as any other. Not outstanding though. It’s hard to expect Cake to be experimental. And maybe that is something I should stick to, when listening to such music. I find it cute that there still are some bands who are complacent with performing simple, amusing music that is not meant to demand your attention. And, after all, all of us need a break every once in a while. You can’t stay alert every single second.

Yes. And here goes the other thing. Cake was such a relief after listening to Omar Rodríguez-López‘ Un Escorpión Perfumado. Ok, the album, released in December 2010, is just gorgeous. Rodríguez-López is, as usual, a perfect musician whose imagination is beyond average. However, also usual for him, he’s an absolute monarch. His records demand your whole attention and you just can’t do anything while listening to it. I’m not even talking about something that needs effort, not even talking about reading or writing something. I’m talking about simple things. Omar doesn’t let you eat, drink, smoke, surf the web. You just can’t focus. And, perhaps this is why his records are just brilliant, in my opinion, but I can’t listen to them all the time cause I’m pretty wasted after spending one day with his music, LOL.

So, generally I had a great day. Un Escorpión Perfumado was like a big meal that takes meticulous preparation and leaves you stuffed. And Cake… well, Cake was a relief. The desert that I needed bad before my head would have exploded from the amount of sounds that Rodríguez-López filled it with.

Btw, I’m including my fav track of Rodríguez-López’ album (Mensaje imputente) and Sick of You by Cake. True, my fav (Federal Funding) also has a video but I think Sick of You is just better as a vid.