Pressure Chief is the only Cake
I have on vinyl, a recent purchase,
one of only a couple of Cake titles
I don’t have on CD, one of only
a couple of Cake titles I didn’t
purchase close to their release.
One of the greatest anti-90’s bands
of the 90’s, even though they
straddled two decades or three,
Cake was steadily doing their
unlikely thing, those funny lyrics
in that deadpan delivery, those
horns, that funky bass playing,
minimalist and groovy guitar,
nearly a folk band at times,
unlikely cover song choices,
“The Guitar Man” on this album,
(a revisitation from Bread!)
and that dry production, hardly
a reverb or a delay or a chorus
to be found on any track.
These guys are easy as Cake
and consistent almost to a fault.
None of my favorite Cake
is on this album, probably just
because it is the album I listened
to the least, it is the least
familiar to me, but it is
nevertheless just as fun and
tuneful and groovy as their
other records. If it had ever
entered heavy rotation, who
knows, it could have been
my favorite, but it’s hard to
compete against “I am an
opera singer,” and “you’ll
be an Austrian nobleman,
commissioning a symphony
in C,” or “I want a girl in a
short skirt and a long jacket.”
Not a single tune over 4
minutes, this record nevertheless
just cooks right along.
Oh yeah. Aw no. All right.
Notes on the vinyl edition: Pressure Chief, Columbia Records, 2004, 2024 twentieth anniversary reissue, black vinyl.
If you are just joining me for the first time, I am attempting to listen to all of my records in alphabetical order and then writing a poem-like-thing for each artist represented there.
michael jarmer 