11/14/2022 0 Comments Smoking popes destination failure rarIt became their only release to chart, reaching #37 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart, partly on the strength of the single " Need You Around" which reached #35 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. The Smoking Popes then signed to major label Capitol Records, who re-released Born to Quit in the summer of 1995. The band's second album, Born to Quit, was released in 1994 through Johann's Face. Josh and Matt's brother Eli Caterer then joined on second guitar and the band signed to local label Johann's Face Records, releasing their debut album Get Fired in 1993. Martens was then replaced by Mike Felumlee and the band released the EPs Break Up (1992) and 2 (1993) themselves. With drummer Dave Martens they released their debut EP Inoculator through local Chicago label Radius Records. The Smoking Popes were founded in 1991 by brothers Josh and Matt Caterer, with Josh on vocals and guitar and Matt on bass guitar. The discography of the Smoking Popes, a Chicago-based pop punk band, consists of six studio albums, two live albums, two compilation albums, six EPs, five singles, one video album, and four music videos. And with such undeniably delicious and catchy fare as "No More Smiles," it's as easy to root for these folks in the difficulties their words pose as it is to continuously play their records.Left to right: Eli Caterer, Neil Hennessy, Josh Caterer, and Matt Caterer in 2012 So much so that their bite has to sneak up on you. With a singer in Josh Caterer who can make the most melancholic, fretting passage seem like a whistling, carefree, Willie Wonka-kissed day (and who still sounds like a cross between XTC's Andy Partridge and Gilbert O'Sullivan) and a band who is gleeful, but not in a churlish-youthful way, Smoking Popes are one of the most deceptively pleasant-sounding bands going. And with earlier efforts, such as 1994's Born to Quit on the little Johan's Face label (here's a rare band that has greatly improved on a major), these likable pontiffs have an earnestness and wound-licking vulnerability to match Descendents' Auckerman, without Milo's more bawdy edges. As for this actually "smoking" Chicago quartet, they not only avoid such pitfalls, they humbly offer a singular style that is actually power pop in the early-'70s and early-'80s tradition - from the young Todd Rundgren to the Fabulous Poodles. We hold these truths to be self-evident, especially since Descendents re-formed to disrobe all the new, shabby pretenders, and to remind us of the melodious glory the genre used to radiate. The problem is the image such a description (or genre name) conjures: a mediocre group who plays a fifth as well as the bands who founded punk in the '70s, with lyrics that are dim-witted, simplistic, dull, or immature, and tunes that are stiff, forced, and/or plain. To call Smoking Popes merely pop-punk would be a grotesque disservice - they've been excelling at it for years.
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