CAKE Biography Before CAKE, member Vincent di Fiore was in a jazz band called Bub Orchestra. John McCrea released a solo album entitled Rancho Seco after belonging to John McCrea and the Rough Housers and the Dali Lamas. Victor Damiani, Greg Brown, and Todd Roper were in a hard rock band called Saturday's Child. All of these bands populated the Sacramento local music scene. Having known of each other through the aforementioned scene, they formed CAKE in September of 1991.
Their first album, entitled "Motorcade of Generosity" (see discography) was financed by the band's members due to a lack of a record deal. To get the necessary money for the recording sessions, CAKE took day jobs. Greg and Todd were couriers, Victor and Greg had a lot of driving jobs, including cabs. John was a waiter. Vince made ends meet as "a preschool teacher or something..." After nine months of recording, Motorcade was released in 1994 on Stamen Records. After this, executives at Capricorn Records signed the band and provided much-needed exposure for Motorcade. CAKE made a video for "Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle," which became the band's first hit. "Jolene" received some radio airplay as well and got a video.
Having gained a moderate degree of success from "Motorcade" and the supporting touring, CAKE entered the studio again to record what would become their breakthrough album, "Fashion Nugget." Free to use Capricorn's money instead of their own, the boys released "Fashion Nugget" in 1997. The first single, "The Distance," became a monster hit and propelled record sales to an all-time high. Other singles from the album included "Friend is a Four-Letter Word," "Frank Sinatra," and "I Will Survive," a Gloria Gaynor cover. However, after the album's release, personal tensions sent bassist Victor Damiani packing. CAKE found a replacement in friend Gabriel Nelson, who'd worked with them before.
Though "Fashion Nugget" was quite successful, many critics predicted that the band would become a one-hit wonder, as no other song quite equaled "the Distance" in terms of sales or radio airplay. With a tough act to follow, CAKE returned to the studio after a lengthy world tour. However, before the recording of the follow-up album began, Greg Brown, guitarist and writer of "The Distance," left the band.
Without a guitarist, the band began to record. "Prolonging the Magic" marked the advent of decidedly country-laced sound. The first single, "Never There," met great success and ensured that CAKE would not fade into one-hit-wonderdom. The album sustained listeners' attention with "Sheep Go to Heaven" and "Let Me Go." The album featured a slew of guest guitarists, one of whom, Xan McCurdy, was chosen as Greg Brown's official replacement. In 1999, former CAKE members Victor Damiani and Greg Brown formed a band called Deathray released an album in May 2000.
After touring extensively in support of Prolonging the Magic, CAKE returned to Sacramento in February 2000. After recuperating from the rigors of world travel, the band got out of its contract with struggling Capricorn records and signed with Columbia records. They then set about writing and recording new material for a fourth album. In studios from June to December, Cake mixed through January and set about performing the formalities that record production entails.
With some eight months of exhaustive recording finished, Todd Roper quit the band in April 2001. His talents are still to be featured on the album set for release in July.
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