Cake : Motorcade of Generosity
(Re-Issue Spring 2009)
This (re-issue) debut offering from Cake is self-assured to the point of being preachy but the off-beat humour that runs through each track dilutes this didacticism enough to make it more than palatable.
The first track, 'Comanche', sets an eclectic tone, introducing a sound which marries Mariachi-esque shimmering guitar and Vince DiFiore’s trumpets that wouldn’t be out of place in The Three Amigos with the droll singing/speaking voice of John McCrea. The song parodies a dialogue between White settlers and the Native American Comanche, opening with the line: “You need to straighten your posture and suck in your gut”, leading into “if you want to have cities you’ve got to build roads”. This comment on the convoluted relationship between settlers and natives is far from throwaway, but the catchy melody ensures that entering into this political discourse is at the listener’s discretion.
'Pentagram' represents a far more country style driven by a walking bass-line and interspersed with a sinister guitar riff echoing Johnny Cash’s ‘Folsom Prison Blues’. Lyrics such as “Your feet are dry with the ashes from dead babies” encapsulate the band’s deadpan delivery which enables them to tackle the political polemic throughout the album, without appearing dogmatic.
Harmonies are occasionally butchered, as in ‘You Part the Waters’ where the irritation of the line “you don’t even play piano” builds to such a terrible climax that you long for a comedy piano to be dropped on the band from a great height.
Likewise, while listening to ‘Is This Love?’ You do feel like you’re being tortured for information that you wish you had, ironic as the band would definitely have a lot to say about torture. The discordant fuzzy bass-line combined with clean guitar sounds and McCrea’s imploring vocals batter you into submission with the line: “Is this love, or should I, should I, should I, should I close the door?” It could be argued that the form of the song perfectly matches the content in that you feel a palpable sense of frustration and pain, but that is definitely not a good thing here.
‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Lifestyle’ is a totally different story however and represents all the positive elements of the band unifying to glorious effect, both musically and lyrically. The song employs a Socratic process of continually posing the question, “how do you afford your Rock and Roll lifestyle” to highlight the pointlessness of immature apolitical rebellion.
The staccato guitar and syncopated phrasing gives the song a toe-tapping feel s and the slightly distorted noodling breaks deliberately conjure up ironic images of leather jackets and smoky bars. It does sometimes feel like a lecture from your parents, but the message that “Excess Ain’t Rebellion” represents a refreshing antithesis to Oasis’s Definitely Maybe (released in the same year) with it’s emphasis on “cigarettes and alcohol” and the teenage apathy associated with mainstream grunge.
‘Rock ‘N Roll Lifestyle’ moves beyond blind reverence of a Rock and Roll icon for smashing up his guitar, asking: “how long will the workers keep building him new ones/As long as their soda cans are red, white and blue ones,” posing an amusing but valid point about the glossed over blue-collar worker.
Similarly, ‘I Bombed Korea’, moves from one man’s contemplation of his actions to a more probing questioning of the moral condition of any authority who would sanction these bombings, as the protagonist explains: “We didn’t know if it was wrong or right’ and later on: ‘I’ve got my stories to tell/But they won’t tell you what it’s like in hell”.
The whole album is clearly a call to challenge our preconceptions and at the very least, not just remain passive. The eclecticism of Spanish-sounding trumpets, McCrea’s punctuated shouts of “Oh Yeah” and “uh” and funky bass-lines make it a difficult record to pigeon hole. Cake are obviously a band that want to push boundaries and incite questions. Although this is not always successful, Motorcade of Generosity is a thought-provoking and technically accomplished debut.
Words: Alex Steingold
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