Scene and Heard

Cake plays Forecastle 2010

Cake - Forecastle 2010

CAKE is back on top! The band’s new album, Showroom Of Compassion, has debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 today, marking their first number one album in their nearly two decades of existence. Showroom Of Compassion, CAKE’s first record of new material since the release of Pressure Chief seven years ago, comes via the band’s own label, Upbeat Records. Not only is this a first for CAKE, who have always made it a point to stay true to their independent roots, but also the first Number One release for Warner’s Independent Label Group.

CAKE – John McCrea, Vincent DiFiore, Xan McCurdy and Gabriel Nelson – has been hard at work promoting Showroom. Last week, they performed their hit single, “Sick Of You,” on The Late Show With Jimmy Fallon. They also performed the song on Conan back in December. “Sick Of You” remains a Top 5 hit at both Alternative and Triple A radio, and the videocontinues in heavy rotation at both MTV2 and MTVu. Rolling Stone did a Q&A with lead singer John McCrea and premiered the video for the Showroom opener “Federal Funding,” with NPR recently featured “Teenage Pregnancy” as their “Song Of The Day.” CAKE also stopped by Fuel TV’s show “The Daily Habit” for a performance of “Sick Of You,” which can beseen here.

Showroom Of Compassion has been met by enthusiasm from both fans and critics alike, with Billboard saying the album  “finds the group at its most musically accomplished and quirkily ambitious, covering more ground on one album than most band do in an entire career,” the Los Angeles Times raving that Showroom shows CAKE is“in toned condition, turning out polished compositions that could fit in with its classic catalog.“ and Entertainment Weekly awarding the album a rock-solid B+, declaring Showroom as “remarkably fresh.” CAKE is booked to perform on Jimmy Kimmel Live Tuesday, February 22^nd and on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on March 1^st.

The buzz continues with “Long Time” set to be the second single off Showroom, featuring an animated music video created by French production company Callicore Films. Look for the video to debut next week.

New CAKE tour dates for 2011 include four nights at The Fillmore in San Francisco, four nights at the Troubadour in Los Angeles, three nights at the 930 Club in Washington DC and an evening with CAKE at Terminal 5 in NYC.
MORE CAKE IN THE MEDIA:
“We heard this hip little fuzzed-out tune on the radio, and we were, like, who’s this cool new band? Maybe something called Bear Antler? Then we realized it was CAKE.” – Rolling Stone

“Deadpan brilliance” – The New Yorker

“[‘Sick Of You’] is vintage CAKE, with frontman John McCrea’s jaded, semi-spoken vocals, crunchy guitar riffs, a skippy beat, and blasts of trumpet.” – Spin.com

“Fifteen years after they batted out their first left-field hit with “The Distance,” the band’s sound and words still have bite.” – New York Daily News

“‘Showroom of Compassion’ may well be one of the first great discs of 2011.” – New Jersey Record