Greg Brown, whose grungy guitar licks helped propel the band Cake, which he helped found, to the top of the alternative rock charts in the mid-1990s, and whose irony-laced lyrics for their hit song “The Distance” made it a mix tape must-have for a disaffected generation, died on Feb. 5. He was 56.
His daughter, Adri Brown, confirmed his death but did not provide a cause or location. A statement by Cake on social media cited a “short illness.” Mr. Brown had been living in Sacramento, where he was born and where he and his bandmates formed Cake in 1991.
The five-man band was built around Mr. Brown’s love for an eclectic mix of genres, including soul, big-band jazz and old-school country, passions he shared with Cake’s co-founder and lead singer John McCrea.
“It’s hard-edged, easy-listening music that’s fairly low volume but not folksy, economical in its arrangement but not boring, and really exciting and dynamic with good songwriting,” Mr. Brown told The Los Angeles Times in 1995.
After several years playing in bars around Sacramento and the Bay Area, Cake entered heavy rotation on college radio with its song “Rock ’n’ Roll Lifestyle,” off its 1994 debut album “Motorcade of Generosity.”
That song, like the band’s slew of hits to follow, featured the semidetached speak-singing of Mr. McCrea, along with the bright, Herb Alpert-style trumpeting of Vince DiFiore.
But it was Mr. Brown’s low-fi guitar, inflected by classic country and funk influences, that gave “Rock ’n’ Roll Lifestyle” a display of serious musical chops to offset the cool wit of Mr. McCrea’s deadpan delivery.
In 1996, the band returned with its first major-label record, “Fashion Nugget,” and its first big hit, Mr. Brown’s “The Distance.”
The song’s razor-sharp lyrics revolve around an unnamed man who refuses to give up, even after he has lost a road race that is, self-evidently, a metaphor for everything else in his life: love and friendship, success and happiness.
With its sly pop references and surprisingly empathetic moments, “The Distance” efficiently flips the all-American values of grit and determination on their heads, exposing their roots in fear and self-loathing:
Bowel-shaking earthquakes of doubt and remorse
Assail him, impale him with monster-truck force
In his mind, he’s still driving, still making the grade
She’s hoping in time that her memories will fade
The song reached No. 4 on Billboard’s alternative airplay chart, making it the band’s biggest hit, and it lived on as a defining statement for a generation schooled in ironic detachment and skepticism of material wealth and success.
Mr. Brown left the band after “Fashion Nugget,” partly over differences with Mr. McCrea.
“I might have told you one thing back when I was 27 years old, and I left hotheaded and mad about what I considered to be irreconcilable personality problems or whatever,” he told Billboard magazine in 2021. “I would just say there was a lot of turmoil at the time, and I felt like leaving Cake would be a decision that would be good for my health.”
He and Mr. DiFiore, who left around the same time, formed the band Deathray along with the singer and keyboardist Dana Gumbiner. Deathray released two studio albums and an EP before breaking up in 2007. Mr. Brown returned to Cake briefly in 2011, playing guitar on the song “Bound Away,” from the album “Showroom of Compassion.”
Gregory Paul Brown was born on Jan. 3, 1970, to Don Brown, who worked for the Sacramento County government, and Adrianne (Van Skike) Brown, who managed the home.
He attended California State University, Sacramento, while playing in local bands, and graduated in 1993 with a degree in English.
While still in college, Todd Roper, a friend of Mr. Brown’s from high school and a future Cake drummer, introduced him to Mr. McCrea. They bonded immediately and decided to form a band.
“We were definitely very conceptual about it, for some reason,” Mr. Brown told Billboard. “We were just like, ‘OK, we’re not going with our gut — we’re going to make something, and we’re going to be intentional about it.’”
Although Mr. McCrea’s singular vocal style defined the Cake sound for many fans, the members themselves considered Mr. Brown the band’s true architect.
He often played a 1965 Guild Starfire, a hollow-body electric guitar with a big, luscious sound that he used to wondrous effect, especially when he paired it with a distortion pedal to make the sound grinding and grimy.
Along with his daughter, his survivors include his wife, Courtney, and their sons, Jarvis and Syd.
After his time with Cake and Deathray, Mr. Brown largely retired from professional music. Still living in Sacramento, he went to work for the city government, though a few years ago he retired to refocus on music. In 2023, he released his first solo EP, “The End of Something New.”
Cake is still performing and, although Mr. Brown spent almost 30 years away from it, the band continues to bear his imprint.
“There’s still a kind of kernel of Greg Brownness that I bring, whether it’s intentional or not,” Xan McCurdy, the current guitarist, told Billboard in 2021. “He is a total authentic original and a hardcore talent, and really built that group.”
Clay Risen is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk.
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