Greg Brown, the founding guitarist for Cake, has died. The band's social media account announced the news today, saying he passed "after a brief illness." Brown was 56.
Greg Brown co-founded the droll alt-rock band in 1991 with singer John McCrea, trumpeter Vince DiFiore, drummer Frank French, and bassist Shon Meckfessel. Brown co-wrote and played guitar and organ on Cake's first two LPs, 1994's Motorcade Of Generosity and 1996's Fashion Nugget. For the latter he was the sole writer of "The Distance," one of Cake's biggest hits.
“He took to it right away, and I didn’t really understand what he saw in it so much,” Brown told Billboard in 2021 about McCrea's reaction to the tune. “I liked the way it sounded and everything, but I thought ‘Frank Sinatra’ was a much stronger choice for the single. But the record label chose it and it worked out.”
Brown and bassist Victor Damiani departed the group in 1997 and they formed Deathray with Dana Gumbiner; their Cake bandmate Todd Roper joined on drums a few years later. Brown also collaborated with Weezer members Rivers Cuomo and Matt Sharp on a couple of non-Weezer projects, and he released the solo EP the end of something new in 2023. He reunited with Cake on the track "Bound Away" from their most recent LP, 2011's Showroom Of Compassion.
"It is with heavy hearts that we share the news of Greg Brown’s passing after a brief illness," Cake posted. "Greg was an integral part of Cake’s early sound and development. His creative contributions were immense, and his presence—both musical and personal—will be deeply missed. Godspeed, Greg."
Check out some of Greg Brown's work below.
On Sunday Sharp shared a eulogy for Brown, reading in part: "Our partnership, however brief, had lifetime’s worth of love, tenderness and heartbreak. We had a mutual understanding of each other’s imperfections and a mutual admiration for how we both tried to not let those imperfections get the best of us and stop us from moving forward." See the full post is below.
