Fresno Famous

Quirky is a thing that people do now. I think it has something to do with Zoey Deschanel being so damn cute or something. Or Michael Cera. Point is, there is such a thing as acceptably weird, and I often wonder if that gets on the nerves of people who are, you know, actually weird. 

I bring this up as a way to talk about Amber Fargano's "one-grl-band-thing" Fatty Cakes. Fargano sings and plays an old chord organ, while plinking away on a toy glockenspiel and banging on a snare drum. It's all very ... cute. But the songs are weird little romances about ghost queens and mermaids and cartoons, and the whole thing comes off with a sexualized campiness that I think John Waters would love. 

Which means I sort of love it too. 

It's quirky. And weird, an actual weird, that manages to not be schtick. It doesn't hurt that Fargano (who is also in the band Strawberry Jam)  knows how to sing and can put together worthwhile melodies.

I can't tell if Fatty Cakes is meant to be a purely muscial endeavor, or some kind of performance art and I'm not sure Fargano know either. I'm also not sure it matters.