This song, more than any other, began my fascination with Cake. When I posted it during my lunch hour (as usual) in April of last year, well, who the hell knows. Maybe I had a really good catered lunch. Maybe I was busy playing some intense Scrabble games. (Scrabble? Intense? Oh, you bet) Maybe I was - gasp! - doing job-related things. In any event, that post was pretty much worthless. I like this song way too much for that.
This group has always been a bit of an enigma for me because way more often than not I reject these types of indie-darling bands. I usually find them incredibly dull, mostly because there is so little going on musically. They're so concerned with the "songwriting" (ugh, you know, I'm looking upon that word in a negative context more and more as time passes) aspect, concentrating so heavily on the "catchy tunes" and "hummable melodies" and locking themselves into such formulaic templates that band arrangements suffer almost to the point of non-existence.
Famous "indie" band: "Be-ver-ly Hills (plod plod plod plod) Thaaat's where I wa-nna be (plod plod plod plod)"
Me: (zzzzzzzzzz)
Look, I don't mean to come down on people who like that stuff. I can only speak for myself. I just don't deal in "catchy." I don't think that's necessarily a good thing. Sure, making a song that burrows into people's brains like the Ceti Eels in Star Trek is an enviable skill to have. It can make you wealthy. But ultimately I still have to actually like what's being "caught." And getting a song you hate stuck in your head just sucks. "Life is a Highway" is incredibly "catchy." And I can't stand that piece of crap.
Cake is infectious as all get out. There's a tangible, visceral quality to what they do. They can move. They can groove. They can breathe. There's no "hey look at me I'm so INDIE" thing going on.
And I would never call them "catchy."
Whaddya know, the fanvid for "Sheep Go to Heaven" is still on YouTube. God be praised!
This is part of a week-long series on songs I am revisiting.
