Stridently from California's fertile Central Valley, this Sacramento band has attracted the kind of ecstatic response most newcomers only dream of and seasoned veterans justifiably envy. Based almost entirely on the strength of their live performances and on word of mouth, CAKE has built up a sizable following that is fast billowing out of the northern California region in a sort of reckless eastward expansion.
With the release of their new CD, MOTORCADE OF GENEROSITY, there is emerging a sound of non-negotiable high quality (not necessarily high fidelity); a juggernaut of true musical enjoyment, virtually unfettered by the uptight and unyieldingly narrow confines of genre and fad which make most music so disposable and landfills so plentiful. Yet this does not make CAKE quirky or eclectic--the band is dead-serious and is likely to inflict grave personal injury upon those who must lazily define anything not huge and lumberingly monolithic as such. CAKE is bored with alternative rock and prefers a sound more decorous and economical. CAKE doesn't ask you to suck its angst, writes Donnel Alexander of the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
Since CAKE views genre as essentially wasteful and divisive, the group has shared the bill with a wide variety of well-known entertainers including the Disposable Heroes Of Hiphopricy, Jonathan Richman, the Monks of Doom, the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, and Vomit Launch. CAKE is all-purpose and can bring stern exuberance if not serious enjoyment to even the most discriminating and/or self-conscious audience.