Cake Artistfacts

1991-
John McCreaLead vocals, guitar, piano, vibraslap
Vince DiFioreTrumpet, keyboards, melodica, guiro, vocals
Greg BrownGuitar1991-1997
Gabe NelsonBass guitar, vocals1991, 1997-
Paulo BaldiDrums, cowbell, tambourine, vocals2004-
Xan McCurdyGuitar, vocals1997-
Pete McNealDrums2001-2004
Unknown to most of their fans, the band Cake is named after the verb, not the noun. Rather than referring to dessert, the band says the name refers to the point "when something insidiously becomes 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."
In 1996, Cake released a cover of Gloria Gaynor's song "I Will Survive." Although it was a hit among Cake fans and reached #38 on the US Modern Rock Tracks chart, Gaynor called it her "least favorite version" of the song. Gaynor didn't like how Cake changed some of the original lyrics to make it more profane.
An instrumental version of Cake's 1996 hit song "The Distance" appeared in an episode of The Simpsons in 2000. After numerous delays due to licensing issues, the original song replaced the instrumental version in later syndicated airings.
Cake's 2001 album Comfort Eagle was a huge success but the band was forced to cancel a number of live dates in light of the September 11 attacks. The band was planning on doing a second tour of Europe at the time but instead decided that it might not be a good idea to travel overseas. They played their planned US gigs and also streamed a show from the Yahoo! office in California online.
The late Rick James appears in the video for the Cake song "Love You Madly." In the clip, James is judging a cooking competition between band members along with comedian Phyllis Diller and TV personality Jeff Smith. Billboard called the video "fresh, witty, and downright fun."
Cake singer John McCrea is a big fan of the soft-rock '70s band Bread. "I think Bread was one of those bands that got overlooked at the time by people that were into music," he said. "But the songs are beautiful and you can't argue the geometry of the music."
Cake say the key to their unique sound is, ironically, cheap guitars. Guitarist Xan McCurdy elaborates: "McCrea's guitar is a s--tty old starter guitar from the '60s. They probably made a million of them off an assembly line. We never get the exact same tone twice."
Pete McNeal, who drummed for Cake from 2001 to 2004, was sentenced to 15 years to life in California state prison for child molestation on December 2, 2014. The incident occurred during a Thanksgiving party McNeal attended, where he allegedly molested a 3-year-old girl.
Cake kicked off their 1999 world tour in Deerfield Beach, Florida, by playing the Bar Mitzvah of Mitchell Schop, a big fan who sent them a letter with the request. To prove his dedication, he sang his favorite Cake song to them over the phone, and amazingly, the band agreed.

The intimate celebration included only about 60 guests; Mitchell later reflected, "This is my dream come true. I will never forget it."
John McCrea's lyrics often take some strange turns, resulting in lines like:

Beyond your latest ad campaigns
An old man sits collecting stamps
(from their song "Frank Sinatra")

"I just sort of take notes about things that I find interesting or disturbing or upsetting," he told SubMerge magazine. "Then eventually I sit down and put all these little pieces of paper into songs and that's my process."

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