What Year Will You Have the World?
Peachcake
Mainstream Records

In my world, a Peachcake is a great summer treat: a homemade peach kuchen that I make from deliciously juicy local fruit and drizzle with a ginger green tea glaze. Yeah, I'm something of a frustrated chef deep down inside and I usually refer to my little dessert as a peachcake. So imagine my surprise when a CD by a band named Peachcake shows up and begs for a review. OK, ya got me. With a summery cover, hopelessly puzzling song titles and the promise of performance art spirit and electronic beats, I was glad to cut into the duo's What Year Will You Have the World? effort. And Stefan Pruett and John O' Keefe don't disappoint; you'll definitely need a fork for this one, because it's just desserts (natch) offer the absurdity we all need in the "Summer of Shaq" and in surviving the "24-Hour 'Michael Jackson Is Dead' Newscycle."

At last year's Ingenuity Festival of Art & Technology, Peachcake used electronic beats to great effect, drilling down lighthearted humor underpinned with synthesizer craziness. It's just the kind of pairing that synth-pop needs; too much of what's come down the pike since the early 1980s has been pretty cold-feeling (one more reason to thank Flight of the Conchords?). "Welcome to the Party to Save the World!" is an incredibly funny track, as is the danceable "Souls Have No Drum Machine" and the interstitial "Flight of the Space Owl..." which is a compact-and-caffeinated little jam session. It's sweet, upbeat and undeniably catchy, even if you don’t exactly know what they're getting at the whole time. Peachcake's recipe is another summer keeper and this reviewer is certainly interested in hearing their next sugary creation, We Never Pretended To Know Anything, Why Would We Now?

Check out Peachcake at this weekend's Ingenuity Festival; details at http://www.IngenuityCleveland.com. Visit Peachcake online and hear samples of their work at http://www.Peachcake.net.

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com

Wanna get reviewed? Send your band's CD (less than 1 year old) to: Cool Cleveland, 14837 Detroit Avenue, #105, Lakewood, OH 44107

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