Smoking Popes

The Smoking Popes' take on punk-pop was centered around lead singer <a href="spotify:artist:12lyCe0QldQ5lyLS5j2Zb4">Josh Caterer</a>, whose obsessions with big-band records and black-and-white movies on the American Movie Classics channel led him to develop a vocal style that was unique in the punk world. The Popes sounded like a loud, guitar-based band fronted by a lounge singer, mixing uptempo rock with laid-back vocals and lyrics with an old-time romantic feel. The rest of the band, which formed in the Chicago area around 1991, consisted of <a href="spotify:artist:12lyCe0QldQ5lyLS5j2Zb4">Josh</a>'s brothers Matt and Eli on bass and guitar, respectively, and drummer <a href="spotify:artist:5IDGF7ymtWQgNffaB9EM5F">Mike Felumlee</a>. While <a href="spotify:artist:12lyCe0QldQ5lyLS5j2Zb4">Caterer</a> didn't think of the band's music as punk, the Smoking Popes gained a number of supporters who would have happily argued otherwise, including the respected punk indie label <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Johann%27s+Face%22">Johann's Face</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7oPftvlwr6VrsViSDV7fJY">Green Day</a>'s Billie Joe, <a href="spotify:artist:1aEYCT7t18aM3VvM6y8oVR">Alkaline Trio</a>, and the members of another Chicago-based band, <a href="spotify:artist:4UXqAaa6dQYAk18Lv7PEgX">Fall Out Boy</a>.

<a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Johann%27s+Face%22">Johann's Face</a> released the Popes' debut album, Get Fired, in 1993. Two years later, the band returned with Born to Quit, a major-label effort that featured <a href="spotify:artist:3iTsJGG39nMg9YiolUgLMQ">Morrissey</a>-influenced vocals and a more refined sound. The latter record also spawned the heavily rotated single "Need You Around," and subsequent tours with <a href="spotify:artist:3Ayl7mCk0nScecqOzvNp6s">Jimmy Eat World</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:7oPftvlwr6VrsViSDV7fJY">Green Day</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:2sil8z5kiy4r76CRTXxBCA">Goo Goo Dolls</a> brought the band's music to an ever-expanding audience. Destination Failure followed in 1997.

To the heartbreak of many, the Popes called it quits in December 1998. Their final effort, Party's Over, was a covers album that had been recorded earlier that year, but <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Capitol%22">Capitol</a> rejected the record and it didn't appear until 2001, when it was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Double+Zero%22">Double Zero</a>. The latter label also released two compilation albums -- Smoking Popes 1991-1998, a collection of songs that were previously hard to find, and the 2000 concert album Live -- while the former bandmates pursued different projects.

In November 2005, however, the brothers <a href="spotify:artist:12lyCe0QldQ5lyLS5j2Zb4">Caterer</a> reunited with new drummer Rob Kellenberger for the Flower 15 Festival in Chicago. This performance was captured on tape and released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Victory%22">Victory</a> in February 2006 as a CD/DVD package, At Metro. A two-month North American headlining tour with <a href="spotify:artist:51J0q8S7W3kIEYHQi3EPqk">Bayside</a> followed, as did the release of a new album entitled Stay Down. The compilation of early-'90s material titled It's Been a Long Day appeared in 2010 followed by the studio effort This Is Only a Test in 2011. ~ Steve Huey, Rovi