Cake

CAKE formed in Sacramento, California in 1991. The band quickly became a hot item in the downtown club and cafe scene, then went on to gain a steady following in San Francisco's Bay Area. Lead singer John McCrea's unwitting amalgam of Jonathan Richman, David Byrne, and Woody Guthrie, backed by CAKE's shambling countrified funk, took Northern California by storm. To date, CAKE has toured extensively throughout the world including North and South America, Europe, Australia, and Japan.

CAKE's most recent studio album (their fifth), Pressure Chief, was released in October 2004. This album marked the band's return to their earlier more self-reliant DIY aesthetic in which they recorded and engineered their music independently. Songwriter John McCrea, often controversial and iconoclastic, discussed this album with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air in February 2005. The band continues to make ground on their sixth studio album, which is tentatively scheduled for a first quarter 2008 release.

As the band continues work on their next studio album, they have announced that two new albums will be released during 2007 through Upbeat Records: Live at the Crystal Palace (autumn 2007); and b-sides and rarities (spring 2007), which features Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" and Barry White's "Never, Never Gonna Give You Up", plus other covers and CAKE originals. The limited edition "scratch and sniff" album art and appeal of the recordings to long-time-listeners adds to the "b-sides and rarities" album's uniqueness.