Cake are in the middle of recording their sixth studio album. That's a cool tidbit of welcome news for Cake fans, right? But this time around, the news is even bigger than that - the iconic band, who were recently honored as one of Billboard's Top Ten Greenest Bands, teamed up with a company called Borrego Solar to convert their California recording studio to solar power, to insure that the latest Cake album will be recorded off the grid, with their sessions powered completely by the sun.

Cake's John McCrea said that it seemed like a waste to be living in California and not taking advantage of all the free electricity; bandmate Vince DiFiore agrees. "With the current scientific knowledge (out there), the logical step was to better the situation," DiFiore explains, "without halting our operation altogether, we did something that might help a little."

Cake's studio, in Sacramento, was the subject of a pro solar-power installation, and the band even recorded the proceedings; fans can watch how it all was done at www.cakemusic.com/solar.html.

"Sacramento, like many places in California, has a gigantic supply of sunlight," DiFiore says, "and because Sacramento is lucky enough to have a public utility, we actually get checks in the mail every month for our excess electricity."

DiFiore also emphasizes that he hopes bands and musicians both big and small scale will start taking steps towards converting their work equipment to sustainable energy as time goes on.

"Hopefully very soon, more and more solar panels and converters will be available for many applications and many different situations," he says.

In addition to their solar innovations, the band is also taking on a unique approach to promoting their music; they'll be sharing the results of their solar sessions as the recording of the album is taking place. A set of free cell phone ring tones - each based on a song from the upcoming album - are being released via the band's mailing list (to sign up, visit http://cakemusic.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi) as a sort of early alternative to the preview single. Although McCrea has his doubts about albums as a whole ("we weren't sure if people were still even listening to albums - so we thought we might just release ring tones instead"), DiFiore still has confidence in the traditional album form.

"Albums are a great idea," DiFiore confirms, "they will be around for a while. But ringtones are here to stay too."

The ring tones will serve as mini-previews for the songs on the album, effectively amping up interest in the new music long before it's ready for release in spring 2010, although the exact date remains to be seen.

"We're working hard on the album at the present," DiFiore says, "but the release date has not yet been set, although we do hope to play the new music live for people next year."