It's been seven years since Cake baked up a new recording.
Of course, part of the mischievous pleasure for John McCrea and his hard-to-label Sacramento anti-rock band is checking out all the puns, rhymes, metaphors and cliches their name precipitates. You can't help it.
"Showroom of Compassion," title of the group's first album since 2004's "Pressure Chief," is bound to prompt even more wordplay.
Bottom line, though: It's Cake's dependable recipe (how can you resist that one?) of slightly off-kilter tunes full of subtle sonic delights, McCrea's deadpan vocals and wry observations and, Vincent DiFiore's playfully engaging horn tootings and the wiggly, squiggly keyboard injections of McCrea, DiFiore and Xan McCurdy.
As always, it's hard to determine exactly how serious, sarcastic or silly McCrea & Co. are trying to be.
No doubt, though. The opening "Federal Funding," taken at a slinky crawl, lobs some sarcastic salvos at lobbyists (they're big in Sacramento) and their insatiable special-interest selfishness and greed.
McCrea, 45, tends to tease (himself?) with lyrics like "It's been a long time since we rode your Pontiac/But I don't mind when I've got you close to me," from "Long Time."
The silliness of the seemingly playful "Italian Guy" is undercut by a sense of spite and DiFiore's wry, busker-style horn.
The instrumental "Teenage Pregnancy" captures some happy-sad angst while "The Winter," with its quasi-pretty melody, could become a regular, though slightly oddball, Christmas song. Really.
Dependably, Cake's sixth studio album since 1994 is an engaging curiosity piece in the mode of England's Robyn Hitchcock and Akron, Ohio's Devo - maybe a bit of early Weezer, too - that's full of imaginative detail, lyrical whimsy and what-was-that? sonic moments.
Environmentally aware activists, McCrea and Cake created the 11-song, 40:36 album using solar energy, recycled paper stock and vegetable dyes.
No puns are required or intended to recall that one of the group's early performing homes was Stockton's Blackwater Cafe - until the lines got too long for the coffee shop's limited capacity - and that Cake sold out Stockton's 2,000-capacity Bob Hope Theatre on Sept. 21, 2001.
On this reunion tour, the quartet settles in for four nights at The Fillmore in San Francisco, Feb. 14-17. Go to cakemusic.com.
Chi Cheng, the bass player in Sacramento's Deftones who incurred a severe brain injury in a 2008 traffic accident, is in need of special care.
In a continuing effort to generate funds to pay for experimental treatments in New Jersey, two Wake Up Fest events have been scheduled for Saturday in Stockton, where Cheng - who still is being cared for at home - grew up.
There'll be a 6 p.m. performance by Built by Stereo, Braata, Art of Explosion, Heartless Nightlife, Tragic Culture, Princess Die, Trances and In Oceans at Burning Bush, 4799 Foppiano Lane, and a 9 p.m. show at Fat's Grill & Bar, 4555 N. Pershing Ave. Quick 50, Miles Divide, Sonic Shift, Self Destroyer, Mere Image, Unborn Sun and Gruesome Twosome will play.
The Tokay High School graduate's family has been trying to generate $500,000 to pay for care not covered by insurance.
For more information, go to wakeupfest.com or onelove forchi.com.
The Tracy-based singer-songwriter is planning to release her third album - the appropriately upbeat-sounding "Beautiful Day" - on Feb. 5.
The former motorcycle racer and Miss California USA contestant also has been recording some more interesting experiences - touring Japan, acting in San Francisco and founding Musicians for a Better Planet, a nonprofit group dedicated to environmental preservation.
Tinsley introduces the album during a Feb. 5 show at Tracy's Great Plate. Ryan Toth, Machuko and DJ Dave will join her. Go to taratinsley.com.
Megan Slankard reaches No. 3, too.
"A Token of Wreckage," her third album that she's been working on for three years, will be released March 8.
"The record almost wrote itself," says Slankard, who grew up in Tracy and now is based in the East Bay. "That doesn't mean it wasn't a ton of work. It was probably one of the most challenging projects I've had. It did feel like the record was dictating the direction. All I had to do was to listen and put my back into it."
Slankard co-produced the album with Jerry Becker and David Bryson of Counting Crows mixed the sound. A video of the title track, directed by Matthew Ward, has been released. Go to meganslankard.com.
Glenn Zaleski, once a member of the Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet at University of the Pacific, has released his first CD: "Duet Suite."
Zaleski, a pianist, is joined on the jazz recording by brother Mark, who plays alto saxophone, soprano saxophone and clarinet.
The Zaleskis, from Boylston, Mass., studied under two-year fellowships at the Brubeck Institute between 2003 and 2007. Mark released his "Mark Zaleski Band" CD, on which Glenn played, in 2009.
"Duet Suite" is available on CDBaby, Amazon.com, and iTunes. Go to glennzaleski.com.