HT: Ron H.
It takes a very brave band–or one with absolutely no notion of how the Internet works–to use a common noun as its name. It likely is the latter, since Cake has been around since 1991, according to Wikipedia. That is long before all this nonsense started, of course.
There is a lot of Talking Heads here, which is is not a bad thing at all. It’s clear that guitarist Xan McCurdy pays homage to Lou Reed’s “Rock and Roll Animal” album. Specifically, he samples “Sweet Jane” — and trumpet player Vince DiFiore joins in — at about the 30 second mark.
Here is Cake’s website and a funny video of people sampling “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” on a nice beach somewhere.
“Rock and Roll Animal,” by the way, is one of the greatest guitar albums ever. (Reed is pretty good, too.) I was researching who played lead on “Sweet Jane” and, in an unpleasant coincidence, found out that one of the two guitarists on the album — Dick Wagner — passed away this week. Steve Hunter was the other guitarist. I do not know who played the lead.
Note: My friend MC Antil has posted a very nice and informative appreciation of Wagner.
(Homepage image: Jay Adan)