{"id":1767126,"date":"2026-02-09T17:13:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1767126"},"modified":"2026-02-09T17:13:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T14:13:25","slug":"greg-brown-cake-co-founder-and-guitarist-dies-at-56","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1767126","title":{"rendered":"Greg Brown, Cake Co-Founder and Guitarist, Dies at 56"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/media.pitchfork.com\/photos\/698a2101d2cdb6bd35572e4c\/16:9\/w_1280,c_limit\/greg-brown-cake.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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News<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Greg Brown, Cake Co-Founder and Guitarist, Dies at 55<\/h1>\n
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The sole writer of \u201cThe Distance,\u201d Brown also performed in Deathray and collaborated with Rivers Cuomo<\/div>\n
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By <\/span>Nina Corcoran<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Courtesy of the Greg Brown Family<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Greg Brown, the original guitarist and co-founding member of \u201990s alt-rock eccentrics Cake, has died. In a statement on the band\u2019s social media, Cake shared that Brown died \u201cafter a brief illness.\u201d He was 55.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreg was an integral part of CAKE\u2019s early sound and development,\u201d the band\u2019s statement continues. \u201cHis creative contributions were immense, and his presence\u2014both musical and personal\u2014will be deeply missed. Godspeed, Greg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown co-founded Cake in 1991 with singer John McCrea, trumpeter Vince DiFiore, drummer Frank French, and bassist Shon Meckfessel. During those early years, Brown co-wrote the band\u2019s first two albums\u20141994\u2019s Motorcade of Generosity<\/em> and 1996\u2019s Fashion Nugget<\/em>\u2014and played guitar and organ with a sharp, jagged approach steeped in blues-rock intuition and country swagger.<\/p>\n

Cake\u2019s biggest hit, \u201cThe Distance,\u201d was written solely by Brown and features his most pronounced guitar work; the single rocketed up numerous Billboard<\/em> charts, reaching No. 4 on Alternative Airplay and No. 35 for Radio Songs overall. His bandmates, especially McCrea, immediately recognized the track for the standout single it was destined to be. \u201cHe took to it right away, and I didn\u2019t really understand what he saw in it so much,\u201d Brown said of McCrea\u2019s reaction in a 2021 Billboard<\/em> interview. \u201cI liked the way it sounded and everything, but I thought \u2018Frank Sinatra\u2019 was a much stronger choice for the single. But the record label chose it and it worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown and bassist Victor Damiani both quit Cake before recording began on the band\u2019s 1998 album Prolonging the Magic<\/em>. \u201cI would just say there was a lot of turmoil at the time,\u201d he told Billboard<\/em> in 2021. With Damiani, Brown formed the band Deathray. He also worked on projects with two different members of Weezer: Rivers Cuomo\u2019s short-lived Homie and Matt Sharp\u2019s Puckett\u2019s Versus the Country Boy<\/em> EP. Brown reunited with Cake on 2011\u2019s Showroom of Compassion<\/em>, contributing guitar to the track \u201cBound Away.\u201d In 2023, he put out the EP The End of Something New<\/em>\u2014his first and only release under his own name.<\/p>\n

Correction: A previous version of this story showed an incorrect member from Cake. It has since been updated with the correct photo.<\/em><\/p>\n

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[analyse_source url=”http:\/\/pitchfork.com\/news\/greg-brown-cake-co-founder-and-guitarist-dies-at-56\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/media.pitchfork.com\/photos\/698a2101d2cdb6bd35572e4c\/16:9\/w_1280,c_limit\/greg-brown-cake.jpg”] News Greg Brown, Cake Co-Founder and Guitarist, Dies at 55 The sole writer of \u201cThe Distance,\u201d Brown also performed in Deathray and collaborated with Rivers Cuomo By Nina Corcoran February 9, 2026 Courtesy of the Greg Brown Family Greg Brown, the original guitarist and co-founding member of \u201990s alt-rock eccentrics Cake, has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,54],"class_list":["post-1767126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-pitchfork-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1767126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1767126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1767126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1767126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1767126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}