Jim Shearer is probably known best as the host of Subterranean, a show we worked on together for three years. I recently asked him to interview John McCrea, the frontman of the veteran, genre-blending, indie-minded rockers Cake. We haven’t heard new, original material from the band since 2004’s Pressure Chief, and they’re not scheduled to release any until next year. In the meantime, though, they’re tapping into their back catalogue with live stuff, rarities and b-sides. For a taste of what will be available soon, you can download or stream their cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” (“War Pigs” MP3). And for more news on Cake and the highlights of Jim and John’s conversation, read on.

HAVING YOUR CAKE & EATING IT TOO

Cake has returned—back with a new label (Upbeat Records) and a B-sides and Rarities collection that’s almost ready for mass consumption. Later this year, Cake will also release a live album, followed by a new studio full-length expected to be completed in early 2008. Fresh off dental surgery, Cake frontman John McCrea, loosens up his sore jaw (which was just inserted with a titanium screw) to talk with New Music Nation:

Jim Shearer: How’s your mouth?
John McCrea: It’s a little sore, but I’m amazed by the technology and the professionalism of the dental industry.

Jim: I haven’t been to the dentist in six years.
John: Well, you better go. Everybody berates the Bush Administration for being in denial about climate change—you’re doing the same thing with your mouth.

Jim: Cake is putting out a B-sides and rarities album, how long have all of these songs been sitting around for?
John: Some of the songs we just finished recently, some of them are from five years ago—some up to ten years ago. When you make an album—not that it matters anymore, because albums are dead—you try to create a collection of music that sounds good together. Sometimes though, you have to put aside a good recording. So we ended up taking all these songs that didn’t quite fit on other albums and put them all together on this album. The surprise was, it actually sounded like an album.

Jim: Do you think there’s a Cake fan out there who already has all of these B-sides and rarities in his possession?
John: Maybe. I’m sure that he exists—I don’t think he has a scratch-n-sniff album cover though.

Jim: Aren’t there five covers all with a different aroma?
John: Yep. On the outside, it’s going to be roses. The second one is leather, and then there’s fresh cut grass, banana, and grape. There’s also going to be a secret scent on the inside when you crack open the jewel case. I don’t think that Cake-fan/collector-guy will have the scratch-n-sniff power this album will contain.

Illustration: Jim Shearer
Jim: Cake got out of their major label deal, and you’ve started Upbeat Records, how’s that going?
John: Well we’re pretty upbeat about it. We’re happy to be in our own culture again. The major label culture was not one that was easy for us to feel comfortable in. There’s a lot of autonomy within the band, a weird self-determination-spirit that we were unable to express adequately. We feel happy to have some freedom and not have to run things by a million people.

For instance, somebody mentioned that they like the “Short Skirt/Long Jacket” video that we did, which is just a bunch of people on the street being accosted and asked to listen to some headphones. That was an idea we had as an effort to get out of making a music video. We thought it was a good idea—we liked it. We submitted it to the record label, and they were like, ‘Okay, great, nice, we can use that for ads, now make a real video.’ I was just devastated, ‘cause I spent a hundred hours on that [video]. The editing process was just grueling. Anyway, I had this thing that I thought was good, gave it to them, and they were like, ‘This is serious, this is the real world, this is a business, and you just can’t release this kind of stuff.’ Luckily there was someone at the label who kind of got it and squirreled their way around the power structure and gave it to somebody at MTV, and they started playing it. And suddenly it was a changed video—it was ‘much better.’

This happens to bands all the time. I think the public can tell when things have been fucked with. It’s like you’re jumping off the high dive and people are messing around with your feet just as you’re jumping. There’s a geometry to that structure that’s antithetical to real cultural expression. Also, people can smell shit. So anyway, we’re just trying to be who we are. We’re happy that we have the freedom to make a scratch-n-sniff album.

Jim: In an ongoing argument I’ve had with various people, I believe rock acts that came of age in the 90’s were far more creative than anything that’s going on today. Do you think that’s the case, or am I just romanticizing things?
John: Well, I think that rock acts today are more solid than the rock acts that were happening in 2000—that whole veins bulging from the neck kind of thing. Luckily that went away and was replaced by what we have now. What was happening in 2000, 2001, that was a little too much for me. There’s good things and crap in every era. I can’t completely back you up on this one.