CAKE: Not Just a Delicious Dessert

So, if you've never heard of CAKE, you really need to.

CAKE was one of the first independent bands to start getting noticed, mainly after their self-release of first single "Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle" (watch that video, too. It's equally great), which described the original hipster. They've stuck around with consistently great albums, with their newest, January's Showroom of Compassion, becoming their first-ever Number 1 album on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Their combo of twangy, country-like guitars, dancey bass and drums, trumpet, synths, John McCrea's almost monotonic voice, and a ton of vibraslap creates one of the most original and defining sounds in music right now, as well as over the past two decades.

Why am I posting about CAKE (it's supposed to be all caps, I swear I'm not just doing t

hat just to annoy you/yell at you)? Because I follow CAKE on twitter (@CAKEMUSIC).

But why does it matter if I follow them on twitter? Well, that's easy. CAKE is one of the only bands that I follow that doesn't use their twitter just to promote themselves- they use it to promote causes they like, as well as an outlet for the political opinions of the band members. Trumpeter/keyboard player/percussionist Vince Di Fiore is in charge of

posting, and he posts everything from articles like this one about the distribution of wealth in the

United States to a petition for cleaner air in Texas, all while dousing everything in the sarcasm that listeners have always been able to pick out of CAKE's

songs.

CAKE is also very environmentally friendly. For Showroom of Compassion, the band outfitted their home studio with solar panels and recorded using only solar energy. Keeping with the environmentally friendly theme, CAKE printed all of the packaging for Showroom on recycled paper products with vegetable dyes.

So, that's CAKE. I suggest acquiring their music if you don't already own it, and I promise you won't be disappointed.

Rock & Roll and the Government Shutdown

Well, crisis averted, I suppose. The government shutdown didn't happen due to some late-night proceedings (which still have yet to be released...) on Friday night, and now thousands of government workers will continue to get paid and the we're still in massive debt.

I was alerted to this video by Ben Swank's Twitter, @VietnamSummer, on Friday. Me being a self-professed White Stripes super-fan, I kind of freaked out. Here's the video:

I had never thought of "Effect & Cause" as being a protest song, more of just a song about a relationship with some problems. But Congresswoman Donna Edwards makes me realize that it can really be put into practically any context- "you can't take the effect & make it the cause."

The New Grammys

So, as well all know, the Grammys kind of suck nowadays.

Seriously, though. The show is far too long, there's way too many awards, and the awards have pretty much become a joke. Essentially, winning a Grammy nowadays doesn't really mean a whole lot- it just points out that, yes, your music was popular last year and yes, you made a lot of money off of it. That's why it was such a huge surprise that Arcade Fire won album of the year this year- they're on a small label (Merge), and although they were a pretty big act last year, headlining festivals and the like, they definitely didn't sell anywhere near as many records as Katy Perry or Lady Gaga, their big-name contenders for Album of the Year (some people still have no idea who Arcade Fire is). Most years, the "album of the year" Grammy goes to whoever sat on top of the charts for the longest amount of time that year.

So the Grammys are undergoing a "radical change" this year. They organizers are cutting 31 categories, cutting the awards from 109 to 78, with many categories being merged and several being cut completely. The main goal is for the ceremony to go "gender blind"- there will no longer be "Best Female Pop Vocal" and "Best Male Pop Vocal" awards, just "Best Pop Vocal." They are also starting with 40 contenders per award now instead of 25. Grammy President Neil Portnow says that these radical changes are a way to "up the game for what it means to win a Grammy."

Some people are up in arms about this. "Oh, that's not fair! There has to be different categories for male and female singers!" Well, not necessarily. A good singer is a good singer- it really doesn't matter what gender you are. Why not have just one award? It makes things easier and really does make it mean more when you win one of these awards. The Grammys used to be a really big deal- now they're almost laughed at.

Another big change is the dropping of several categories, like Best Zydeco and Best Hawaiian album are gone (they were actually the most recent additions, too), having been consolidated with a couple of other awards into "Best Regional Roots Album."

Is it wrong to consolidate all of these genres into one category? It depends on how you look at it, really, and I'm not really sure if I agree with all of this or not. The male/female thing is totally fine in my opinion- I've actually thought they should consolidate those awards for quite some time. But getting rid of entire genre categories is a different story.

Let me know what you think of all of this in the comments, I'd love to have a discussion about this.