After a few albums, most bands like to mix things up.
They'll write songs in a different setting or bring in a new producer to help find a fresh perspective.
Not so for Cake. After almost 20 years together, the alt-rock group behind such '90s hits as "The Distance," and "Never There" stubbornly refuses to change for change's sake.
John McCrea, Cake's founder and lead singer/songwriter, hates the idea of trying something different just to get new fans on board or make a media splash. He even has a fancy name for it: strident rejection of gratuitous innovation. He's pretty passionate about the subject.
"There's a lot of pressure on musicians to reinvent themselves every album because of the fickle, overfed whimsy of the American media culture," he said. "I think it's something wrong with the culture when you can't enjoy something that is subtly different - it has to be a complete reinvention. Trying to reinvent everything each time creates a lot of waste."
As a result, Cake's music sounds, well, largely the same as it did when the band released its breakthrough album Fashion Nugget in 1996: heavy guitar riffs, trumpet lines and McCrea's foreboding blend of half-singing, half speaking.
That's the sound the band will bring to Baltimore Saturday when it performs on Artscape's main stage. Cake is co-headlining the free arts festival, along with R&B legend Dionne Warwick, soul group Robert Randolph and the Family Band and pop crooner Robin Thicke.
Kathy Hornig, Artscape's director, is a huge Cake fan who saw the band the past few times it's come to town. Since organizers announced the lineup in early June, they've gotten a lot of buzz for bringing Cake, she said.
"We're expecting a huge crowd," Hornig said. "It seems like Cake fans haven't diminished since the Fashion Nugget years. We've gotten a lot of interest in Dionne Warwick and Robin Thicke and Robert Randolph, but Cake's probably in the lead."
Though Cake hasn't had a mainstream hit since 2001's "Short Skirt/Long Jacket," the group knows how to connect with its fans.
When they're on the road, they keep a detailed tour diary on their Web site, with historical facts about the cities they play and quirky asides.
For example, when they played Pier Six Pavilion in 2007, drummer Paulo Baldi got trapped in a backstage bathroom. The rest of the band went on stage to perform an encore, looked around, and noticed he was missing. Then they remembered the bathroom door handle was busted and had been giving them trouble all day. They ran backstage, freed Baldi, and finished the show.
