Cake is releasing first album in 6 years on its own label

o What: Cake, in concert.

o When: 8 p.m. Dec. 10.

o Where: McMenamins Crystal Ballroom, 1332 W. Burnside St., Portland.

o Cost: $50.35 through Ticketmaster, 800-745-3000 or http://ticketmaster.com.

o Information: 503-225-0047 or http://danceonair.com.

It’s been six years since Cake last released a studio album of new material. Singer/guitarist John McCrea realizes that long wait wasn’t ideal. But he and his band mates had to come to terms with a changing music industry before they could get creative with new music.

“A lot of that had to do with having, being forced really to restructure our business,” McCrea said of the six-year gap. “Musicians can’t, I guess, have the luxury of being spaced-out, drug-addled, throw-the-TV-set-out-of-the-hotel-room-window musicians like they were in the ’70s. The whole music business is imploding and we kind of had to re-evaluate.”

McCrea, in a recent phone interview, said it became clear after Cake released its 2004 album “Pressure Chief,” on major label Columbia Records, that this was no longer the right record company for the band.

“Especially given the overall climate in the music business, we’re not the best candidate for a major label deal,” McCrea said. Cake’s sparse rocking pop sound is more idiosyncratic than the usual major label act. “I think even if we have a huge hit with this record (the long-awaited “Showroom Of Compassion”), I don’t think our culture interfaces very well with the corporate culture of a major label.”

Fortunately for the band, Columbia agreed to let Cake out of its contract. But the band then had to decide how to proceed. Small independent labels were interested in producing Cake’s new album, but in the end McCrea and his band mates — trumpet player Vincent Di Fiore, guitarist Xan McCurdy, bassist Gabriel Nelson and drummer Paulo Baldi — chose to start their own label.

That new business, Upbeat Records, will release all new Cake CDs, including “Showroom Of Compassion” (in stores Jan. 11).

The band made the change with some reservations.

“I’ve certainly watched with some nervousness the careers of people, like Prince, who basically just disappeared when they went independent,” McCrea said. “That pretty much scared me.”

So in 2007, Cake decided to test the waters by releasing a collection of outtakes from previous albums, “B-Sides and Rarities.”

“What we learned from ‘B-Sides and Rarities’ was that we could do it,” McCrea said. “It’s actually a lot more work to have to run your own business. But in some ways, it was much more satisfying, and also a lot safer given the instability in the music business.”

Though the business is changing, fans will be happy to find a familiar Cake on “Showroom Of Compassion.”

As on the five previous albums the band has released since forming in 1991 in Sacramento, Calif., its sound is built primarily around angular (but catchy) guitar lines that are intertwined with horn or keyboard parts. This leaves plenty of space for McCrea to deliver melodic vocals in his distinctive deadpan style.

Like Bad Religion, the Ramones or AC/DC, Cake’s sound is so identifiable that it can seem like the group is making the same album over and over again. McCrea is well aware of his group’s singular sound, but feels no single Cake album has been like its predecessor. And he isn’t about to reshape the band’s sound just for the sake of change.

“Hopefully the melodies are really different,” he said. “I think that’s the core of the song, and I understand how people want you to re-invent the arrangement process from album to album. … Yes, we do have a challenge in keeping things fresh.

“All I can say is, hopefully the melodies and the subject matter of the songs have enough variation to them,” McCrea said. “I know there are themes that recur, but hopefully there’s enough variation to where it doesn’t matter so much.”

The band is pleased with “Showroom Of Compassion,” and in fact is already slotting three or four new songs into its current set.

“But that said, we don’t use a set list,” McCrea said. “We kind of just ask ourselves what song we feel like playing at the end of each song.”