Cake (band)


CAKE is an American rock band from Sacramento, California, consisting of singer John McCrea, trumpeter Vince DiFiore, guitarist Xan McCurdy, bassist Daniel McCallum, and drummer Todd Roper. The band has been through many lineup changes but in all of them McCrea and DiFiore have been consistently in the band since the start. The band has also been noted for McCrea's droll sarcastic lyrics and deadpan vocals, and their wide-ranging musical influences, including norteño, country music, mariachi, disco, rock, funk, folk music, and hip hop.
CAKE was formed in August of 1991 by McCrea, DiFiore, Greg Brown, Frank French, and Shon Meckfessel who soon left and was replaced by Gabe Nelson. Following the self-release of its debut album, Motorcade of Generosity, the band was signed to Capricorn Records in 1995 and released its first single, "Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle", which hit number 35 on the Modern Rock Tracks music chart and was featured on MTV's 120 Minutes; French and Nelson then left the band, and were replaced by Todd Roper and Victor Damiani. Cake's second album, 1996's Fashion Nugget, went platinum on the strength of its lead single, "The Distance". Following a tour of Europe and the United States, both Brown and Damiani announced they were leaving Cake, which led to speculation about the band's future; McCrea eventually recruited Xan McCurdy to take over on guitar, and persuaded Nelson to return.
Prolonging the Magic, the band's third album, was released in 1998 and went platinum, having shipped over one million units featuring the single "Never There" which hit number 1 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart; this was followed three years later by Comfort Eagle, the band's first album on Columbia Records, featuring the single "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" which hit number 7 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. Following a series of tours, including several versions of the Unlimited Sunshine Tour, the band released Pressure Chief in 2004, its second and last album on Columbia. After creating its own label, Upbeat Records, the band released Showroom of Compassion in 2011, which became its first album to debut at the top of the Billboard charts, selling 44,000 copies in the first week after release. Their studio output has been minimal since 2011, although they have continued to tour and have occasionally hinted at an upcoming album.

History

Formation and ''Motorcade of Generosity'' (1991–1996)

Cake was formed in 1991 when John McCrea, a Sacramento, California native who had moved to Los Angeles with a band only to see it "quickly crumble around him", returned to Sacramento. He began looking for a new band to play with, having "grown tired of Sacramento's coffeehouse circuit", and quickly attracted trumpet player Vince DiFiore, guitarist Greg Brown, bassist Shon Meckfessel, and drummer Frank French. All were active in the music scene at the time; DiFiore notes that " came back and stole us from other bands". The band soon came up with the name "Cake"; rather than referring to the food, the name is meant to be "like when something insidiously becomes a part of your life... mean it more as something that cakes onto your shoe and is just sort of there until you get rid of it". Meckfessel soon left to attend college and was replaced by Gabe Nelson. After touring and becoming part of the club scene in San Francisco, the band independently recorded and released Motorcade of Generosity in 1994, selling copies from their van as a method of paying touring expenses.
Motorcade was named one of the best indie releases of 1994 by Pulse!, and after a concert at the Great American Music Hall, Bonnie Simmons agreed to manage the band, leading to them signing a deal with Capricorn Records, who re-released the album in 1995. The first single, "Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle", hit number 35 on the Modern Rock Tracks music chart and was featured on MTV's 120 Minutes. Critical reactions to the album were largely positive; Stephen Thompson in the Wisconsin State Journal described it as possessing "great lyrics, creative instrumentation and production that's about as simple as production gets", praised it for being "soulful and smooth, witty and gritty, this record makes the ghosts of Bob Wills, Buddy Holly and Lou Reed smile" in the Tulsa World, and Matt Weitz in the Dallas Observer noted its "gimlet eye and sardonic humor". The album was eventually nominated for a Bammy Award in the category of "Outstanding Debut Album".
Nevertheless, some critics were less appreciative; John Wirt, in The Advocate, praised the album's sense of humor and "delicious" irreverence but noted that " musicianship in Motorcade of Generosity suggests the Cake guys are mediocre players". Mindy LaBernz, in The Austin Chronicle, described the album as "cover-free, and, since we're on the subject, genre-free. A quartet made five by a trumpet player, Cake carry themselves with the snittiness of technically proficient, lyrically aware music lovers, who are almost anachronistically untrendy and brazenly proud of it". The signing to Capricorn and re-release of Motorcade led to both French and Nelson leaving the band, citing their dislike of "the prospect of extensive national touring"; they were replaced by Todd Roper and Victor Damiani, respectively.

''Fashion Nugget'' (1996–1998)

Fashion Nugget, Cake's second album, was released on 17 September 1996. Like Motorcade, it was produced by the band and released on Capricorn Records. Cake considered the album more professionally produced than Motorcade, despite references to its "raw" sound, and the reception was again generally positive; critics noted the broadening of Cake's sound, with Joshua Green noting in the Westword that "Nugget spans a broader range of topics than did Motorcade, with similarly appealing results", and Matt Weitz in the Dallas Observer saying that "The gimlet eye and sardonic humor of 1994's Motorcade of Generosity is intact, but Fashion Nugget is aptly named; it updates Motorcade with beatboxy soul and hip-hop rhythms". The album's first single, "The Distance", written by Greg Brown, became the band's biggest hit to date and is considered their "ubiquitous" song; it hit number 5 on the RPM Alternative 30, and entered the Modern Rock Tracks top 5.
On the strength of "The Distance", Fashion Nugget was certified gold on December 9, 1996 and platinum on April 10, 1997. The second single from Fashion Nugget, a cover of the Freddie Perren and Dino Fekaris song "I Will Survive", hit number 38 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart. Although the band described it as a serious take on the original, one they'd been playing live for years, original performer Gloria Gaynor considers it her least favorite version of the song due to its use of profanity. Following Fashion Nuggets release, the band toured the United States, playing in cities including Tulsa, Chicago, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, San Antonio, and Dallas. They later toured overseas, visiting the United Kingdom as a support act for Counting Crows, playing their own shows alongside the tour at venues including Dingwalls in London. The band also toured Japan; a later tour of the US, starting in Minneapolis in June 1997, was cancelled due to illness when McCrea was diagnosed with "fatigue and extreme exhaustion". After McCrea recovered, the band continued touring, playing at the Big Stink festival in Estacada, Oregon, and the Jayhawk Music Festival in Lawrence, Kansas.
1997 also saw lineup changes; bassist Victor Damiani and guitarist Greg Brown both left, prompting speculation about the band's survival; McCrea noted that "Musically, there was a really great symbiosis and I really felt that it was the most stupid thing in the world", and said that he had considered dissolving the band. Damiani and McCrea have not been on good terms ever since his departure. Brown and Damiani formed the "new-wave influenced" Deathray; their places within Cake were taken by Xan McCurdy and Gabe Nelson, whom McCrea persuaded to rejoin the band.

''Prolonging the Magic'' (1998–2001)

With Brown and Damiani's departure, McCrea felt "free to experiment" with the next album, 1998's Prolonging the Magic; he wrote and produced every song. As a result of this experimentation, the album was noted as "loaded with spiced-up instrumentation, including a few new ingredients like the pedal steel guitar and musical saw thrown in for extra flavour". McCrea stated that he deliberately "approached writing this record without the guitar as the central assumption of all life in the universe". Music Week described it as an "inspired collection of leftfield rock", while Thor Christensen of The Dallas Morning News said that it "brims with the same dry humor the Sacramento band displayed in past hits such as 'The Distance' and 'Rock and Roll Lifestyle': The leadoff track, 'Satan Is My Motor', puts a devilish new spin on the rock 'n' roll car-song tradition, while 'When You Sleep' revolves around the question of what your fingers do while the rest of the body snoozes". Other reviewers were less complimentary, with Mike Pattenden in The Times writing that "Prolonging the Magic suggests that may well be destined to go down as one-hit wonders ... While a handful stand out – the country waltz 'Mexico', 'You Turn the Screws' and 'Hem of Your Garment' – 'Prolonging the Magic' shows McRea and company to be little more than an above average bar-room act. Cake are surviving on songwriting crumbs". The album peaked at number 33 on the Billboard 200, was listed in The Columbian as the second best album of 1998, and eventually went platinum after shipping over 1 million units.
The album's first single, "Never There", hit number 1 on Billboards Modern Rock Tracks chart, and was followed by "Let Me Go" in 1999, which hit number 30. Following Prolonging the Magics release, the band toured the United States, playing in cities including San Diego and Los Angeles. A tour of Europe was temporarily postponed in March after McCrea broke a bone in his hand while moving furniture, which also led to the delay of the European release of Prolonging the Magic. Both the album release and the tour happened in mid-April, with Cake playing at the London Astoria. Later show locations in North America included Chicago, St. Louis, Missouri, and Toronto. A third single, "Sheep Go to Heaven", was released in 2001.