Cake (stylized CAKE) is an American alternative 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 noted for McCrea's sarcastic lyrics and monotone vocals, and their wide-ranging musical influences, including country music, Mariachi, rock, funk, Iranian folk music and hip hop. Cake was formed in 1991 by McCrea, DiFiore, Greg Brown (guitar), Frank French (drums) and Shon Meckfessel (bass), 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.
Comfort Eagle (2001-2004)
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 "[McCrea] came back and stole us from other bands". The band soon came up with the name "Cake"; rather than referring to the foodstuff, the name is meant to be "like when something insidiously becomes a part of your life...[we] 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", Thomas Conner 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 "[the] 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, Cake's second album, was released on September 17, 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 Nugget's 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 Vancouver, Washington, 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 (their departures, especially Brown's) was the most stupid thing in the world", and said that he had considered dissolving the band. 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.  For their fourth album, Comfort Eagle, the band signed a deal with Columbia Records. Comfort Eagle was both produced and arranged by the band, and was recorded at Paradise Studios in Sacramento and Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco. Following the recording, drummer Todd Roper left the band, citing the demands extended touring would put on his time, and the commitments his two children, Griffin and Bella, represented. He was replaced by Pete McNeal. The album's release was preceded by the release of its first single, "Short Skirt/Long Jacket", described as a parable about "the relationship between prosperity and the population boom ... There's nothing more procreational than economic prosperity". An accompanying video was directed by McCrea, and recorded using the DV system; it featured vox populi recordings of members of the public listening to the song and giving their opinion. "Short Skirt/Long Jacket" hit number 2 on the Bear Rock Top 10 in Canada and number 7 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks; the video became one of the 30 most requested tracks on MTV; Billboard writers later listed the video as the 5th best of 2001.  Comfort Eagle itself was released on July 24, 2001, to good reviews; Michael D. Clark of The Houston Chronicle described it as "Cake at its best", while a reviewer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution stated that the album's songs were "among the best of the band's career", praising McCrea for widening his vocal repertoire. James Montgomery, writing for UWIRE, noted a stylistic change, saying that "While the core sound of the band - honky tonk guitars, mariachi horns and salsa rhythms - remain intact, they have been stripped down to the core, replaced instead with ill Casio beats, rubbery funk and Stax-style horn bleats". The album sold 22,000 copies in its first week, the highest sales in the band's history, and eventually went gold. With the exception of a slot at the Atlanta On The Bricks Festival, playing for 90,000 people, the band chose to start the tour with small rather than large shows, such as in the Sacramento area, where they played for around 100 people. They launched their first full tour for the album in September, playing in the United States, Canada and across Europe.  A second single, "Love You Madly", was released in 2002, with an accompanying video again produced by McCrea. The video featured DiFiore and McNeal competing in a cooking competition, judged by Rick James, Phyllis Diller and Jeff Smith, and was noted by Billboard as "continuing the fresh, witty, and downright fun style seen in the "Short Skirt" video". Cake had planned a second tour of Europe, followed by a series of shows around the United States, but in view of the September 11 attacks chose not to travel overseas. Instead, the band streamed a performance internationally from the Yahoo! headquarters in California, playing emailed requests. The United States tour went ahead as planned, with Cake playing concerts in Birmingham, Alabama, St. Petersburg, Florida, Salt Lake City, and Las Vegas. This was followed by the Unlimited Sunshine Tour, a traveling festival headlined and planned by the band and featuring Modest Mouse, De La Soul and The Flaming Lips. A second Unlimited Sunshine Tour was undertaken in 2003, featuring Cake, Cheap Trick and The Hackensaw Boys.
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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
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