Though it’s been seven years since the last Cake studio LP, you can understand why it took the eclectic Sacramento, Calif., rockers so long to finish album number six. Like its predecessors, Showroom Of Compassion was self-produced, but for the new LP, the band members engineered it themselves in their solar-powered studio and released it on their self-run Upbeat label. And aside from gigging relentlessly, the group also organized the multi-genre Unlimited Sunshine Tours (which have featured bands as diverse as the Flaming Lips, De La Soul and Cheap Trick) and is currently in the planning stages for a 2011 UST. Cake—vocalist/pianist John McCrea, multi-instrumentalists Vincent DiFiore, Xan McCurdy and Gabriel Nelson and drummer Paulo Baldi—is taking to the road this week in support of Showroom Of Compassion, playing multiple nights in numerous cities. The band will also be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new Q&A with DiFiore.
John McCrea: Roberto Matta was a Chilean painter whose surrealist and abstract expressionist paintings have made me actually dizzy when standing in front of them. Matta created three-dimensional space and tweaked it around into something similar to what you’re used to, but not exactly. This causes all kinds of cognitive dissonance. His paintings have such intricate detail that you are often lured into the false comfort of assuming recognizable figurative narrative, but usually he just leaves you hanging, unsure of what it is you’re actually seeing. This is great because you have to just accept not knowing for sure. Sort of like real-life sometimes.
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zLoP3zDrBI
