Their irresistibly unique style and incredibly fun and rock solid live shows has very quietly made Cake one of the most prolific and popular bands of the last 15 years.  Their hits span volumes and include: The Distance, Short Skirt Long Jacket, I Will Survive, Never There, No Phone and more!!   The last time Cake played Milwaukee they tore up The Riverside with an amazing set to an electrifyingly ecstatic sold out audience!!  

In 1994, CAKE released its debut album, Motorcade of Generosity, on its own independent label, Stamen Music. When the band signed with the revived Capricorn Records label, Motorcade was re-released, and the song “How Do You Afford Your Rock’n’Roll Lifestyle?” became the band’s first college radio hit, followed by “Ruby Sees All” and “Jolene.” (Ironically, CAKE found success in England, along with Germany and France, before it made an impact Stateside.) The signing and subsequent tour precipitated another personnel change, as Nelson and French left, replaced by bassist Victor Damiani and drummer Todd Roper, both of whom had played with Brown in a power-pop trio called Saturday’s Child. 
 
In the spring of 1996, Capricorn switched from independent to major distribution, and CAKE’s second album, Fashion Nugget, was released. One of its songs, “The Distance,” helped propel the album to platinum. Another major hit, a cover of Gloria Gaynor’s disco-era hit “I Will Survive,” was misunderstood by some as an ironic swipe by McCrea. But a cursory listen to some of McCrea’s original songs, like “Take It All Away” on Pressure Chief, will reveal long, unraveling eurostyle melodies similar to Gaynor’s signature hit. Another cover from that album, Osvaldo Farres’ “Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps,” demonstrated McCrea’s affinity for Cuban and other Latin music forms. (CAKE continues its way with covers on this album with the aforementioned “Guitar Man”; this is a band that knows how to bring something new to its cover versions.)  
 
In early 2000, CAKE signed with Columbia Records, and in the summer of 2001, the band’s fourth album, Comfort Eagle, was released, after a single, “Short Skirt/Long Jacket,” had charted. At the time of its release, Rolling Stone described the band’s music as “modern pop that is both mechanized and organic”—a pretty apt summation. (Meanwhile, CAKE’s first three albums were reissued by Volcano Entertainment/Zomba/BMG, after that label acquired the Capricorn Records catalog.) The remarkable thing about Comfort Eagle was that it, like its predecessors, contained a couple of songs that CAKE had been performing way back in its early café shows. “It’s a testament to John’s catalog of great songwriting” is how guitarist McCurdy puts it. Pressure Chief contains two songs originally written for Prolonging the Magic—“She’ll Hang the Baskets” and “Tougher Than It Is”—but the rest are all new. 
 
So it can be said that CAKE’s first four albums are prologue. On Pressure Chief, the band takes their place as on of the most enduring and iconoclastic artists in post-alternative rock with their strongest collection of songs to date.