from the Capitol Press Kit for Born To Quit 1995

Smoking Popes

BORN TO QUIT

Eli Caterer - lead guitar

Josh Caterer - vocals, lead guitar

Matt Caterer - bass

Mike Felumlee – drums

Smart, fast, funny, and bursting with emotion, the Smoking Popes are a group of young musicians poised to reunite the new world of punk rock circa 1995 with its timeless pop roots. Taking a classic approach to songwriting and injecting their powerful, guitar-driven tunes with undeniable hooks, the Smoking Popes are returning the garage universe to its long-lost past. The results, available now for all to hear on their Capitol Records debut Born To Quit, are quintessential great songs.

“The songs mostly are just love songs,” explains Josh Caterer, 23, whose distinctive vocal style and songwriting prowess has garnered the band its well-deserved attention. “Just like all the greatest songs that have been written throughout history.” With brothers Josh, Matt Caterer, 24, on bass, and Eli Caterer, 20, sharing lead guitar honors, along with friend and neighbor Mike Felumlee, 20, playing drums, the Smoking Popes are philosophically aligned with the lo-fi, do-it-yourself approach to music, yet their crisp, tight sound rings loud and clear. The songs on Born To Quit, like “I Gotta Know Right Now,” “Rubella,” and the album’s first single, “Need You Around,” are distinctive, instantly recognizable, and stand apart from the quickly accepted cannon of today’s alternative standard-bearers. “We’re trying to base our songwriting, the structure of our songs and melodies, on the really great classic tunes that are standards because their melodies are so solid,” says Josh. “But then, we have songs which are that good and play them in a really contemporary, tough way. In the way that the Ramones play.”

The Smoking Popes are appealing because they defy expectations. Josh’s strong, lilting, and melodic vocal style stands in sharp relief to the powerful, surprisingly complex guitar parts and in-your-face rhythms. This stylistic contradiction brings the lyrical content into focus, giving well-deserved attention to the tales of loves lost and found. The music and the lyrics give insight into a group of young men who are not bored, angry, or full of spite -- like their music, the Smoking Popes defy punk rock stereotypes. They are just a bunch of regular young guys aggressively looking for love and understanding.

The Smoking Popes cite a wide range of artistic influences, everything from Elvis Costello to AC/DC, Willie Nelson to the Buzzcocks, Frank Sinatra to Thin Lizzy. Formed four years ago as part of a flourishing underground punk rock scene in Chicago’s far western suburbs, the Smoking Popes have slowly built an impressive local following. They played their first gigs wherever they could -- in friends’ basements and garages, in back-room all-ages clubs, and at venues like Elmhurst’s VFW hall. Their first show was performed as a three piece -- the Caterers wouldn’t yet let Eli, who was then a freshman in high school, join the group. They self-released several singles before recording their first album, Get Fired, released in 1993 on Chicago’s Johann’s Face Records. With final four-piece line-up in place, the Smoking Popes began playing shows at Metro, an 1100-seat venue on the city’s North Side-- and the gigs filled to capacity.

Continuous touring and practice, combined with a verve for active investigation of the ingredients to classic pop music -- whatever the genre -- has helped form the musical vision of the Smoking Popes. As is apparent from any listening of Born To Quit, music is their joy and passion. “The best mood I’m in,” says Eli, “is when I’m playing music, whether it be live or in the studio.”