CAKE cooks up solar-powered album

The alternative rock band CAKE, based in Sacramento, California, has a new recipe for its sixth and latest album, due for release sometime this summer: solar power.

The band’s Website features photos and videos of its studio being converted to solar energy with a rooftop array that frees it from the city grid. The group promises all the tracks on its next album “will be recorded using 100% solar energy.”

If alternative rock doesn’t strike you as the greenest vocation to pursue, CAKE has done pretty well to keep skeptics quiet. In addition to its latest solar venture, the band provides an online car-pooling connection for fans planning to attend concerts, markets reusable shopping bags and even recycles used guitar straps by giving them away to monthly raffle winners. They’re also fans of things like Michael Pollan and Cradle-to-Cradle design.

Not exactly the legendary stuff of “sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll” … but I like it.