If I had my own radio station - Cake

I’m not too thrilled with the kind of rock music that's been made in the last couple of decades. My biggest complaint would be that a lot of the more popular bands sound too much alike – I grew up (1970’s) amongst a very diverse music scene.

There are exceptions however and I feel the band Cake is worth mentioning. Let's start with the album Motorcade of Generosity, with two standouts, Rock’nRoll Lifestyle, which pokes fun at the very fans they would hope to attract, and Jolene. John McCrea’s deadpan talk-singing delivery isn’t original, but I feel it’s done well. This is minimalist rock that isn’t boring. How many rock bands do you know with a trumpet player?

Cake finally became well known through their next album, Fashion Nugget with the single The Distance. But I actually prefer their cover of Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive. Critics attacked Cake for dissing this song – I don’t see it that way at all - it rocks. I’ll admit the finale guitar solo is a bit cheesy, but I like it anyway.

The next album, Prolonging the Magic, produced another favourite of mine, Never There. The rhythm of this song is quite contagious and at less than three minutes in length, it left me wanting more. Oh my God – is John actually trying to sing on this tune?

Comfort Eagle produced yet another great hit in Short Skirt / Long Jacket – which finally cracked the music video channels and gave them more exposure than the college crowd that had been following them to this point.

Their latest album, Pressure Chief, John McCrea tries another cover – this time Bread’s The Guitar Man. He does that singing thing again too. This album doesn’t have as many stand-outs as on previous albums, but there is one - Tougher Than It Is. It's kind of a tribute to the phrase ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’.