Cake, "Fashion Nugget"
CJ leaves with the cup
CJ’s Pitch:
I never liked Devo as much as I probably should have. Or, more accurately, I never appreciated them properly. They were just too outside the lines for me at the time. Once I got beyond “Whip It” and their oddball cover of the Stones’ “Satisfaction”, I couldn’t wrap my head around their weirdness. A decade after Devo and their traffic cone hats, Cake gave me a second chance to embrace the unusual.
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Hailing from Sacramento, CA, a city whose surprisingly rich music scene produced alt metal icons Deftones, punk legends The Cramps and hard rock mainstays Tesla, Cake had plenty of styles to draw from right in their own backyard. Among their influences, they list country, rock, funk, hip hop and, brace yourselves, Iranian folk music. And when you listen to this week’s album, Fashion Nugget, you’ll hear all of them. (I can’t vouch for the Iranian folk music, but I’m sure it’s in there somewhere.)
Like many of you, I first became familiar with Cake through the hit single off this album, “The Distance”. I loved the song in 1996 and I still love it today because it had a hook and a chorus that never got old. Yet, I was reluctant to purchase the record (reluctantly crouched at the starting line?) because I still held my old Devo prejudices.
When I finally pulled the trigger, I was more than pleasantly surprised. I was pleasantly overjoyed. There is so much to like on Fashion Nugget that I’m not entirely sure where to begin. So, I’m going to do something I rarely do. I’m going to lead with the three cover songs on this album.
Here’s my personal guarantee to our readers. Cake does the best version of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” you will ever hear. They’ve slowed it down, heavied it up and laced it with more venom toward an ex-lover than even Gloria herself could muster. I want more alt disco covers and I want them now!
“Sad Songs and Waltzes” is an old Willie Nelson song and while I won’t risk the same claim I did with “I Will Survive” (diehard Willie Nelson fans scare me more than diehard Gloria Gaynor fans), I will say it’s a take that should please country fans and alternative fans alike.
The third cover, “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps”, was originally sung by Doris Day(!). Ms. Day’s version is a playful poke at a would-be companion. Cake turned it into a threat. I have nothing to add here.
The same dark humor and sarcasm that Cake injected into those covers is on full display in their own songs. “Friend is a Four Letter Word” is a great title and an evisceration of a once-trusted confidant. “Open Book” is a warning to a friend about a woman who isn’t what she seems. “Stickshifts and Safetybelts” has a rockabilly/Dick Dale vibe while “Race Car Ya-Yas” and “Italian Leather Sofa” read like Lenny Bruce comedy routines.
But perhaps my favorite track is the album’s nominal title cut “Nugget”, which contains the lyrics:
Heads of state, who ride and wrangle
Who look at your face from more than one angle
Can cut you from their bloated budgets
Like sharpened knives through Chicken McNuggets
Followed by a chorus that invites everyone to “shut the fuck up”.
***
I pre-sold this album to Mitch and Ken, who were unfamiliar with it, by telling them that it had something for all of us—country vibes for Mitch, a prominent brass instrument for Ken and crunchy guitars for me. I also told them that Cake is like the New England weather. If you don’t like it, wait a few minutes and it’ll change to something you do.
There are plenty of straight-ahead bands in the Newbury St. Collection. I’d like to think there’s room for the weirdos too. Let’s make Cake our first.
Ken’s Response:
I used to love the show All In The Family. It was goofy, it had a ton of cliche setups to sophomoric jokes, and there was even the occasional sight-gag. But it was also very intellectual - some might even say it was sophisticated - and way ahead of its time. While Archie and Mike (aka Meathead) became the stars of the show, my favorite character was always the loyal, dim-witted wife Edith. You could tell just by watching the character that the actor portraying her (Jean Stapleton) was a smart, sarcastic, funny, and kind person. That’s how good comedy goes: at its best, it makes you both laugh and think on a higher level. At its worst, you have standups like Gallagher and Carrot Top, and you get gimmicky tv shows like Perfect Strangers, that spoon-feed you bit after bit that ultimately fail to make you laugh or think.
In music, you have artists like Jackson Browne doing a song like “Rosie” which is a beautifully written love song...wait for it…about masturbation. It’s not laugh-out-loud funny, but it is brilliantly subtle and it’s also a musically mature composition. On the other side of that coin is Cake’s Fashion Nugget. It’s the Perfect Strangers of the rock world. I’m sure some people dig it, but it’s not for me.
While the song construction on many of the originals, especially “Friend is a Four Letter Word” and “Nugget” is more than competent, proving without a doubt that these guys have the ability to make good music, but they try way too hard to sound funny, or sarcastic, and the jokes all fall flat in the end, and they’re left to rely on their two-trick pony of amazing bass lines and dead-pan vocals.
Fashion Nugget won’t be making it to Newbury St. It just goes to show that you can’t have Cake and Edith too.
Pitch failed (but CJ will survive)
Mitch’s Response:
[Editor’s Note: this week’s response is a live blog reprinted with the author’s permission.]
We’re definitely overdue for a painful metal pick from CJ. I hope it’s something listenable. I’m not sure if I can handle Anthrax or Winger after a week of Billy Joel.
Cake? Fashion Nugget? WTF is that? They did “The Distance”? Cool tune but wasn’t that a video game theme song? Well, I guess alt-rock is better than metal anyway. Let’s go!
***
First impressions: "The Distance" is still good in a Fast & Furious kind of way. The covers are mixed: "I Will Survive” is truly great and “Sad Songs & Waltzes” is truly awful. And is that a trumpet? Is Cake ska-adjacent? Will there be suspenders?
There sure is a lot of cursing in “Nugget”. I don’t know why people think they have to work blue to be cool, but color this listener unimpressed.
***
Why does CJ think I would know the song “Frank Sinatra”? I’m insulted for me and my beloved Francis Albert. "Friend is a Four Letter Word” has a cool vibe (and more trumpet - yay?) but "Race Car Ya-Yas" is like all of their bad tendencies thrown into a blender.
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I like “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps” and CJ informs me that it’s a cover of a famous Cuban song. On an unrelated note, I’d rather like to cover myself in delicious Cuban sandwiches (the secret is the pickles!) and perhaps, perhaps, perhaps eat my way to freedom.
I’m a sucker for country weepers, and as predicted, I’m definitely digging “She’ll Come Back to Me”. Also, “Stickshifts & Safetybelts” and “Italian Leather Sofa” are kind of interesting/fun. Maybe this is the one! Maybe this is how CJ finally wins me over! Alt-rock buddies 4 eva!
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Here’s the real test - late night on Saturday, Sox game long over, Mario Kart time - fire up some Cake on shuffle and it’s “The Distance”…perfect Mario Kart music! But then we hit a ditch, and another ditch, and another ditch, and...eh, this album kind of sucks. 6 good songs and 8 bad songs is a tough ratio.
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AND LONG AGO SOMEONE LEFT WITH THE CUP! I’m feeling like a cultist in Waco, and the ATF is trying to get me to surrender by playing the same song over and over again, and it’s working, and can someone get my purple sneakers and my shroud? And if he’s riding a horse why is there an engine anyway?
***
Final assessment: Cake is a quasi-novelty band, but not in a funny way - more Kids than Kids in the Hall. "The Distance" is a good song unless you listen to it over a dozen times in one week. They have a unique sound between the bass, deadpan vocals, and trumpet, but it’s not necessarily a pleasant sound. The lyrics range from poor to mildly offensive. Sorry, Ceej, I really, really tried, but I’m out on CAKE.
Pitch failed (pie is better)
CJ’s pitch was not successful and CAKE’s Fashion Nugget has been exiled back to Sacramento.
Sheep go to heaven, but CAKE fans should go the distance and perhaps, perhaps, perhaps let us knows if Fashion Nugget will survive or be called a four-letter word.
Please join us next week as Mitch digs up a forgotten classic just in time for Halloween and pitches Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
The Exile on Newbury St. Spotify playlist features our favorite songs from all the albums we’ve discussed to date. Subscribe today and listen back on the fun we’ve had so far.
Exile on Newbury St. is a weekly newsletter competition between some old friends to see who has the best taste in music. Learn more about us and the rules of the game.
A long time ago I read an interview with the members of Cake. In it, one of them listed being able to live on something like 4500/mo. as his hidden talent. I don't know if he was joking or serious, but all these years later, if you mention Cake, it's the first thing I think of, not their music.
To be fair, they certainly created memorable music. I just don't know if it holds up that well. It seems like more of a novelty than anything else. And by that I mean in the "Perfect Strangers" sense- cool for the time when it came out, but not something I'd find myself putting on heavy rotation years later.
I dunno; maybe they're still big on Mypos, but for me, Cake just doesn't go the distance...
Great call CJ! Any time is the perfect time for a slice of Cake! I love this band on many levels, and I'm willing to look past a few duds on this debut -- like picking walnuts out of the frosting -- because its flavor is so much richer, deeper, and more distinctive than everything else on the dessert cart. They have an energy and authenticity the music scene hasn't seen in decades, with an original audio and visual signature. It might be an acquired taste, for me it's become a savory one I can't get enough of!