CAKE

The program features an eclectic variety of performers.
By JOHN BENSON
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
CLEVELAND -- When you have your own music festival that travels under the Unlimited Sunshine moniker, the notion of hitting the road for a 12-date minitour that plows through the Northern states in the dead of winter connotes a tour of frozen, wind-chilled optimism.
"Yeah, it's unbridled, almost mentally retarded, optimism," quipped Cake visionary John McCrea, calling from his California home.
Touring Cake's latest studio disc, 2004's "Pressure Chief," McCrea has enlisted a diverse list of talent -- pop duo Tegan and Sara, punk-based Gogol Bordello and comedian Eugene Mirman -- that mirrors his band's own eclectic sound. The third incarnation of the Unlimited Sunshine outing, which pulls into Cleveland for a show Sunday at the House of Blues, is one of the more attractive bills in early 2006. Past endeavors have included opening acts such as Modest Mouse, Cheap Trick, Charlie Louvin, De La Soul and The Flaming Lips.
"It's probably a show that wouldn't happen unless a band put it together," McCrea said. "The idea of Unlimited Sunshine was to sort of have a nontribal, nongenre reliant festival but not a million stages. Sort of almost like a variety show where you have a little bit of this and just as you're starting to get bored with that sound, [there's] a little bit of something else mixing it up. In my experience of festivals, it's been sort of boring when every band playing has the same beat and wears the same style of leather jacket."
Keeping it real
That's the truth, which also explains why the offbeat, left-left-left of center Cake, 10 years removed from its initial success, has remained one of the more authentic, if not just plain interesting, alt rock survivors. Emerging onto the rock scene just as grunge music moved into its post phase was Cake, the laidback, brass ensemble outfit that appeared to swing with irreverence. While the band's breakthrough disc was 1996's "Fashion Nugget," which included hits "The Distance" and a cover of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive," the term breakthrough is somewhat relative.
In fact, Cake's lack of breakthrough success is the reason McCrea believes the band still exists today.
"It's been a strange experience," McCrea said. "I don't know, it seems like there is something about our culture that wants to use and discard really quickly. It's an interesting thing. I think it's really only because the songs ("The Distance" and "I Will Survive,") never got so huge [that] we've never been the big thing. We've always been sort of on the sidelines of whatever was going on. Actually, I'm surprised we've been able to exist in our small way."
Existing as a convincing recording act with a loyal cult following is what Cake has become, with five albums to its credit. McCrea said he's already begun work on the next disc, which he hopes to have out by the end of this year.
While many bands seek to grow musically in hopes of continually challenging its fans, McCrea -- in typical Cake fashion -- views recording in a predictable yet highly entertaining manner, slightly different from his peers.