Cake

Cake's second album propelled them into festival-headlining superstardom with the Caucasian, cul-de-sac funk of "The Distance." And their ironic cover of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" sealed the deal on this album's platinum status. The rest leans hard on the kind of post-adolescent wit and wordplay that resonated with '90s college kids in much the same way that bands like King Missile and They Might Be Giants did. Songs like "Friend Is a Four Letter Word" and "Frank Sinatra" attempt to outsmart music itself, but knowing that Cake formed while at U.C. Davis, you can't really blame them.