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Whatever Happened To CAKE?

Rock N' Roll True Stories | January 17, 2026



The full band history of the band Cake

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#cake #johnmccrea #thedistance

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THe quirky Sacramento alternative rock band Cake could best be described as square pegs in a round hole. It was made clear by frontman John McCrea vocal delivery and his cynical and sarcastic lyrics that went on to define the group’s music. So of course it was a surprise to a lot of people, including the band when they achieved mainstream popularity in the 90’s. Today let’s talk about the history of the band Cake.

Attending high school in Sacramento, California in the 70’s and 80’s, future Cake frontman John McCrea learned just enough guitar and bass to express his musical ideas, while coming up with verses he described as ‘inane.’ Mcrae’ commented on his parents influence on his musical sensibilities telling the montreal gazette “when my mom would sing american folk at night it would keep me up at night and i would feel a bit sad. My father would play russian gypsy accordion music. Both kinds of music going in the house did influence me al little bit – at least my music sensibilities.
Hank Williams Sr and big band musician Benny Goodman had the biggest influence on the then budding musician, citing country music as being profound to him remarking to billboard. Nobody that I take seriously as an artist can just discount country music,”“I really loved archetypal, moving melodies that sometimes aren’t all about originality, but about just communication of feeling — I just fall for that sort of raw emotion.” In fact, Cake in their career was described as an amalgamation of hank williams meets parliament meets meter.
Following school McCrea headed to Los Angeles to work as a songwriter, but he didn’t have the chops. He remarked to Billboard
“I realized my songs weren’t really one-size-fits-all enough,” says McCrea. “They were kind of weird and self-indulgent.” He soon returned to Sacaramento and continued to write songs while also waiting tables. This was the genesis of the songs that later became Cake tunes. Sacramento’s musical scene was pretty small, so much so that the future bandmates of Cake crossed paths with each other years before Cake formed.
Sacramento was a small enough city at that point that future original bandmates in Cake rossed paths years before the genesis of Cake. McCrea by this point had previously played in several groups including dalai lamas while his high school . Drummer Todd Roper was in a high school band with Cake bassist Victor Damiani and guitarist Greg Brown called saturday’s child.Roper’s drum teacher had introduced him to McCrea and they jammed together. The drummer was intrigued by McCrea’s songwriting and the two produced a demo tape that Roper brought to school. It caught the year of guitarist Greg Brown. By 1991 Cake was finally formed with Brown and McCrea being the creative nucleus of the group sharing their love of classic country and soul albums. Brown remarked to Billboard
“We were definitely very conceptual about it, for some reason,” Brown says. “We were just like, ‘Okay, we’re notgoing with our gut — we’re gonna make something, and we’re going to be intentional about it.’” adding “It was mostly great. Sometimes difficult.” Brown pauses. “But I’m not going to talk about that. Mostly just a wonderful, creative kind of explosion of ideas, like a fountain that just never stopped flowing.”
But the band was also notable because of pulling and pushing the listeners in different directions with brown admitting ot the state newspaper “cake has always been about pulling people in different directions. John for instance, doesn’t like rock, while I do. It’s not that we don’t get along musically or anything, but we do a lot of pushing and pulling trying to figure out who we are. ”

The band also remarked how in the sacramento music scene they saw a lot of bands acting like they were playing t

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Comments

This post currently has 37 comments.

  7. @backbackforward

    January 17, 2026 at 9:46 pm

    I heard the song short skirt long jacket when it came out and loved it and for probably 20 years could not remember the name of it. The beat was amazing. It took to writing on reddit to describe the video to finally get an answer to what the song was called. Swift turn wasnt one of the members sent to prison for cp?

  10. @cmaden78

    January 17, 2026 at 9:46 pm

    Love this band!!! didn't make it all the way down to south FL much. But I caught em a few times while away. So good. Sarcasm spoke to my little punk heart still does 🖤😎🥰

  12. @SteefPip

    January 17, 2026 at 9:46 pm

    I saw them play a benefit show for a small town fire department back in 2007 in a tiny show room but they brought it like they were playing in a massive stadium. I have a ton of respect for John McCrea and the rest of the band as musicians and as human beings. From what I understand playing shows like that was something they very much enjoyed doing and that's absolutely amazing.

  13. @shawnee0011

    January 17, 2026 at 9:46 pm

    I think Greg Brown might be one of the most unique guitar players of the 90’s. But it’s so hard to find anything about him. Especially with amazing folk singer from Iowa name Greg Brown, when you search for him you get the folk guy from Iowa

  31. @tysontitus3332

    January 17, 2026 at 9:46 pm

    I seen their show in ceder rapids iowa last year i was honestly dissapointed the sound wasnt that well set up it was short and they spent like 10 minutes giving away a tree I payed 100 bucks for my ticket was not impressed

  32. @jmcdaniel0809

    January 17, 2026 at 9:46 pm

    They came “tried” to play a fest it was a 90 min set they spent roughly 40-50 of it telling the crowd what pc of shit escapists we are in our lives to be coming to see them play lol 😂😂😂 I walked away never looked back fuck those dbags lol seems like he was projecting some of his insecurities lol

  37. @marioromano4039

    January 17, 2026 at 9:46 pm

    Oh i used to listen to all cake albums driving cross country back to back knowing every word and singing so loud noone could ever sleep…i love cake..its been years but I'm sitting at home and I'm gonna spend the next two days listening to the entire catalog

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