Search 
CAKE
Best-known for their ubiquitous hit “The Distance,” Cake epitomized the postmodern, irony-drenched aesthetic of ’90s geek rock. Their sound freely mixed and matched pastiches of widely varying genres — white-boy funk, hip-hop, country, new wave pop, jazz, college rock, and guitar rock — with a particular delight in the clashes that resulted. Their songs are filled with lyrical non-sequiturs, pop-culture references, and smirky satire, all delivered with bone-dry detachment by the frontman, John McCrea, who sang and spoke. Cake’s music most frequently earned comparisons to Soul Coughing and King Missile, but lacked the downtown New York artiness of those two predecessors; instead, Cake cultivated an image of average guys with no illusions and pretensions about their role as entertainers. At the same time, critics lambasted what they saw as a smugly superior attitude behind the band’s habitual sarcasm. Perhaps there was something in Cake’s doggedly spare, low-key presentation that amplified their ironic detachment even when they didn’t intend it. Still, most reviewers pegged them as one-hit wonders after the success of “The Distance.” Nonetheless, Cake managed a few more alternative radio hits in the years that followed, while largely retaining the same approach.