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Cake Serve ‘B-sides and Rarities’

Deadpan geek rock rabble rousers Cake have announced the release of B-sides and Rarities, the band’s first release since 2004’s studio album Pressure Chief, out Aug. 14 via the band’s Upbeat imprint and arriving replete with, you guessed it, B-sides and rare tracks culled from Cake’s 15 year-long tenure. The album, an 11-track affair, includes covers from crooners such as Frank Sinatra and Barry White and country legends Buck Owens, George Jones, and Kenny Rogers as well as a rendition of Cake’s hit “Short Skirt, Long Jacket” and a live cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” with Flaming Lips drummer Steven Drozd.

“We were all quite surprised how cohesively these songs fit together into one album, they seemed to just belong together,” Cake frontman John McCrea said in a statement. “Aesthetically, many of the songs hadn’t quite worked on previous albums and for years they lacked proper homes. Now they all have a home. It is good to have a home.” Cake trumpeter Vince DiFiore adds, “These songs were recorded at times when we wanted to extend our idea of what the band could do stylistically. It was good to see that the recordings worked as a collection, and I’m glad we can offer it to listeners.”

To please your other senses, B-sides and Rarities arrives in a collectible scratch and sniff packaging available in a smorgasbord of colors and smells including red/fresh cut roses, yellow/banana, brown/leather, green/fresh cut grass, and purple/grape. Fans anxiously waiting to stuff their noses in some scented Cake, can head over to the band’s website cakemusic.com and pre-order the CD now.

But wait, there’s more to feast on, don’t fall into a sugar coma just yet. The band also plan to release a live album titled Live at the Crystal Palace this autumn and are currently holed up in the studio laying the icing on their sixth studio record, tentatively out early next year.

B-sides and Rarities tracklisting:

1. “War Pigs”
2. “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” (Kenny Rogers)
3. “Mahna Mahna”
4. “Excuse Me, I think I’ve Got a Heartache” (Buck Owens)
5. “Conroy”
6. “Strangers in the Night” (Frank Sinatra)
7. “Subtract One Love (Multiply the Heartaches)” (George Jones)
8. “Never Never Gonna Give You Up” (Barry White)
9. “Thrills”
10. “Short Skirt, Long Jacket”
11. “It’s Coming Down”

On the Web:
cakemusic.com

Talk: Will you feast on a slice of Cake’s rarities this summer?