B-Side
January / February 1996

There s so much to like about Chicago s Smoking Popes

that anyone who tails to respond to them had better tell his

analyst. First, there’s the name — a casually provocative

monicker in a scene overrun with deliberately gross ones.

Second. there s the restraint — in a scene overrun with 60-

to-70-minule CDS, the under-30-minute length of Born to

Quit. the quartet s second album and first for Capitol comes

sweet relief,

And. third there s the music. catchy garage pop that. like the band’s name, doesn’t so much push the envelope as delight in licking the stamp. Which stamp? Elvis of course. And which Elivis?

I would say that my all-time favorite musician is Elvis Costello,” explains Josh Caterer, Smoking Popes lead singer. “His singing moves me more than any other singer’s. I like all his stuff, although I’m apparently one of the few people who do;

Josh isn’t kidding. He even likes Kojak Variety. But the

real significance of his Costello worship lies in what it puts

the lie to — namely. that Josh’s tender tenor singing most

betoken a Morrissey Jones. It doesn’t. It betokens a crooner

ones — sort of.

I do have a great affection for that kind of music and that kind of singing.” he confesses, but it’s not any deeper than my affection for other kinds of music. Nevertheless, between his and his father’s record collections. he has access to more crooner pop than the average up-and-coming 20- something rocker. And since his signing to a major. his access has improved,

“I have a ton of Frank Sinatra because we’re on Capitol. and we. um, get all that stuff for free. My favorite one is At the Sands with Count Basie. I also really enjoy Sinatra and the Sextette Live in Pans and In the Wee Small Hours:
No crooner dilettante, Josh can also talk up Mel Torme. Johnny Mathis. Nat “King” Cole “although he’s a little different from those other guys). and Judy Garland, “I really like Judy Garland. but sometimes singing is so heavy that I can’t listen to it because it affects me too profoundly. especially later Judy Garland, when she really started to belt. You can’t really use Garland as background music. You just have to turn the lights down and get into it,’
Speaking of turning the lights down and getting into it. Smoking Popes tans spent the summer of ‘95 doing lust that as the band traveled the club circuit with Goo Goo Dolls and Australia s You Am 1. But despite Josh’s ready praise for botn You Am I “They re a great band) and the Goo Goo Dolls “Everybody went crazy for those guys”), at least one reporter thought Smoking Paces stole the show. “Capitol’s the Smoking Popes won the crowd over.” wrote Reuter’s Troy Augusto of the night the tour played Hollywood. ‘Josh Caterer sang his charming love songs with a graceful nonchalance, and his brothers Eli and Matt. guitarist and bassist.respectively, added gritty muscle.,..’

“Well.’ observes Josh, ‘you can never trust a review of a show because it depends too me on on the mood of the reviewer and where he’s sitting or standing:

So much for Hubris. Actually. Josh’s refusal to admit that his band might’ve. well. “smoked that night is characteristic of, his soft-spoken humility in general. And since humility’s a liberating thing. it enables him, his brothers, and their drummer, Mike Felumlee. to play their energetic. three-minute songs for both more and less than mere attitude.

For example. not since tin-eared baby boomers thought John Lennon was singing “The girt with colitis goes by” on Sgt. Pepper has a band made disease sound as embrace- able as Smoking Popes do on Rubella.’ Less an evocation of swelling glands than a love song for a girt with art embarrassing name, the song summarizes what the Caterers-Plus- One do best: support hummable melodies as crooned by Josh with humnmable and slightly distorted power chords as strummed by Eli.

Perhaps the only thing the Popes do better is. in fact, smoke, “Let me see. reminisces Josh. ‘I’ve smoked for eight years now, since I was 15. We all smoke, although that would never been a requirement to get into the band.’

According to Josh. however, the irony of cigarettes becoming less and less legal at a time when the demand for marijuana legitimization has never been so bipartisan. Doesn’t interest him. “I try not to have opinions about social moods, in general.’ Josh explains. -and 1 think I’m a happier person for it.

And as the upbeat nature of Born to Quits 10 songs suggest, Smoking Popes take their happiness seriously. Even though, as with their other unique qualities. Josh downplays its significance. -l lust happened to be interested in writing non-pessimistic. romantic songs at the time we were acing that record They seemed alright. so we thought wed run. with it as a kind of theme for the record. But we actually have enough songs to record another album. and most of them have a little bit more of a somber feel to them.”

Yet ‘somber by Smoking Popes standards will probably still come oh fairly chipper. Could the roots of the Caterer’s contentment lie in the tact that their band is a family affair?

-That could explain it.’ muses Josh. ‘Obviously, I get along very well with my brothers. and we get along very well with our parents. We’ve had a relatively stable home life, and, you know. I’m sure that’s helped.’

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