Category: Punk


Hopeful, Yearning Pop Punk Even From the Days Before Faith: Josh Caterer and the Smoking Popes at Turner Hall Ballroom, Milwaukee, WI, December 22, 2011

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December 28, 2011

Photo © Erik Ljung

In musical terms, Josh Caterer says that for his 6-year-old daughter, Elvis is first, her dad’s second. He’s teaching her well.

Caterer was in Milwaukee on December 22 to play Turner Hall Ballroom with his band, the Smoking Popes. Caterer is lead singer/guitarist, joined by his brothers Eli Caterer on guitar and Matt Caterer on bass. Neil Hennessey plays drums.

Warming up the crowd for the main event, Milwaukee’s Braid, the Smoking Popes arrived in punk fashion—late for their soundcheck, quickly plugged in and jammed out a few notes, and then headed backstage to relax. With a cup of tea. Josh Caterer and I found a place in the closed balcony to chat.

The 90’s pop punk band disbanded in 1998 following Caterer’s conversion to Christianity. Shelving the Smoking Popes, forming a Christian band, Duvall, and becoming involved in leading worship at a church, Caterer’s life changed directions.

Then in 2005, the Smoking Popes reunited, started playing and recording, and since then, they’ve been working their way back into the scene. Now, Caterer finds space both for leading worship (now at Village Church of Barrington in Chicagoland) and playing out with the Smoking Popes.

What’s the difference between life before the hiatus and now? Caterer says that he’s able to “enjoy life more, able to have a better perspective on life, and enjoy the band for what it is instead of a pseudo-spiritual transcendent thing.” Now he places the spiritual focus on Jesus, and the band becomes something he gets to do but doesn’t become an idol.

When the band takes the stage, they charge ahead right away with Destination Failure’s “Before I’m Gone”—a big punk sound played to a crowd that was mainly too old to mosh. At times during the set, I heard a Husker Du influence; sometimes I heard Jimmy Eat World parallels (“Wish We Were”). They would take a punk mellow meandering ballad (“Star Struck One”) and go right into a speeding bullet one.

“My Lucky Day” (Born to Quit) had a hint of twang, just a hint, like how the Replacements used to flirt with country. There’s also a glimmer of the Smithereens there. “Let’s Hear It For Love” shows a Ramones influence as they blasted through the hopeful, yearning song that pointed to Caterer’s search even before it began.

Towards the end of the set, Caterer set down his guitar and did a tad bit of Morrissey with the mic as he did a croon-over-the-punk vocal.

One of the touchpoints for me comes from knowing that Morrissey celebrated the Smoking Popes back in the 90’s, so much so that they were invited to tour with Moz. Caterer reflected on this now saying “it was surreal” to be near this “iconic figure” from whom Caterer had listened to while trying to learn how to sing. “I spent way too many hours listening to The Queen is Dead and Louder Than Bombs staring up at the Smiths poster on the ceiling.” I asked Caterer if he stayed in touch with Morrissey. “He’s not the kind of person that stays in touch.”

The Smiths/Morrissey connection’s not lost on the listener either as you sense Caterer passion in his songwriting. 2011’s This is Only a Test, written from a teenager’s perspective, recalls the struggles, joys, and passions of teen years very vividly. I asked Caterer how he captured those emotions so well that they made me relive what has long since passed. He credits “talking to some kids in [our church’s] high school ministry and being reminded of their perspective on life.” Yet, he also said that the album was inspired by the fact that he never really wrote from a teenager’s perspective. “I had never written from an explicitly teenage point of view even when I was a teen. I was listening to older people, trying to appear more sophisticated than I was.” Now 20 years later, Caterer has written an album that’s ripe for being used as a Bible study for a youth group.

Having the hopes and dreams of being in a band (“Punk Band”), wanting to shake off expectations of higher education (“College), and the lonely, lonely feeling of missing out on things when you’re sick and feeling as if the world’s leaving you behind (“I’ve Got Mono”) are captured in the Smoking Popes’ tight pop punk that rails against the pains even while singing along in hopeful ways.

That’s what I sense in Caterer’s approach now to his writing for the Smoking Popes: his faith isn’t forward but it does inform. He doesn’t speak about Jesus, but he does sing about hope—which begs the question: “Why are you hopeful?”

In “Letter to Emily,” Caterer sings: “I believe there’s a heart in everyone/Crying out for the love of someone/If that heart isn’t melt by anyone,/it can start to believe that it’s a no one.” That search and yearning for something bigger, brighter, and beyond comes through loud and clear.

That search and yearning is where pop punk meets faith, which is why I am so thankful that’s Caterer’s not just a worship leader. I’m glad he was on the stage of Turner Hall singing out, raising his fist, charging chords, leading the band, and pushing the envelope of what we expect Christians to be doing.

The Smoking Popes set ended with “I Know You Love Me,” another pre-conversion track from Destination Failure, and yet, a song so ready to be a devotion. Sure, it was probably written as a love song, but the words could certainly apply to God’s constant, consistent love for us. They closed the evening in a sure, hopeful fashion.

This world is freezing cold
I long for you to hold me in your arms
This world is burning and
I’m waiting for your hand to lead me home

I know that you love me
Oh, I know you love me
Oh, I know you love me.

Smoking Popes
Erik Ljung Photo

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Proto-Punk Jesus is From Cleveland: Rocket From The Tombs’ “I Sell Soul” from Barfly

Filed under: Garage Rock, Punk — Leave a comment
November 30, 2011

So 1974-1975’s Rocket From the Tombs released their first studio album in 2011. The proto-punk band that may have actually laid the foundation before the Ramones could be everyone’s influence burst onto a scene that saw them go up in flames before their power could be realized. It wasn’t all for naught; lead singer David Thomas went on to form Pere Ubu, art-avant-garde-punks influential in their own right, and others broke away to form the Dead Boys.

Back in 2004, Rocket From the Tombs (RFTT) had reformed with Richard Lloyd (Television) helping out on guitar for the deceased Peter Laughner. They recorded an album, Rocket Redux, straight out of a RFTT set list from the 70’s, putting the tracks down live, so as to keep that from being their first studio album.

So that meant we waited until 2011 for Barfly to showcase what RFTT could do in the studio. While the album cooks along like a precursor to punk, nevertheless it has been influenced by the intervening 35 years. Apparently RFTT shows in the 70’s were brash takes on the Stooges and Lou Reed, but now because of where punk exploded, shined, and sprawled out into rock ‘n’ roll history, Barfly feels more refined than rebellious. For instance, listen to the Detroit horns backing up the punk Motown of “Sister Love Train.” RFTT may have broken open conventions in 1974-1975, but for 2011, seeing them as proto-punk has to mean seeing the music as a precursor for the excessive, avant-garde, challenging music that we now know.

Barfly opens with “I Sell Soul.” David Thomas calls this a story reminiscent of the Byrds’ “So You Wanna Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star.” It’s a song with lightning guitar on a quick chord progression that points to the fact that rock musicians “sell soul”—or as Thomas says, “sells a bit of ‘life’.” I think of how AltCountry singer/songwriter James McMurtry says that he’s just a “glorified beer salesman.” Perhaps McMurtry’s right: musicians are just there to entertain so the bar can sell more beer. Yet, I’m inclined to think that Thomas and RFTT are more correct: musicians are there to sell soul, sell life, sell something that’s beyond ourselves.

In the latter case, then, musicians have much in common with the biblical prophets who were sent by God to say: “I sell soul.” The prophets spoke words to call people to attention and be persuaded to believe that there’s salvation for our souls. That’s what Jesus, the last and greatest prophet, also came to do: “I sell soul.”

Jesus may not have had His disciples join a short-lived punk band that blew all musical conventions with a fiery furor, but there’s definitely a comparison. Jesus and His disciples lasted just three years, burst apart religious conventions, and preached a message of fire and hope: “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is near!” What Jesus and His disciples did has impacted the world for the last 2000 years—a kind of proto-punk of His day from Cleveland, I mean, Nazareth.

Rocket From The Tombs
Fire Records
Smog Veil (vinyl)

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Twang and Folk for Your Punk-Minded World: Looking Back at 2011′s Lollipop from the Meat Puppets

Filed under: AltCountry, Punk — Leave a comment
November 16, 2011

I had ordered a Scratch Acid record from SST Records after scanning their catalog that came with a Negativland cassette. This around the time of being a freshman in high school, and for whatever reason, I kept the SST catalog and the Scratch Acid record under my bed. It was a flat, safe place for vinyl. OK, and I suppose it was also a place to keep the dangerous seeming Scratch Acid record out of sight from my parents. I lived teenage years far from rebellion, and as such, I reserved my rebellion for vinyl and cassettes. SST opened a whole next step in musical rebellion.

SST introduced me to plenty of artists, and only my limited funds kept me from purchasing more. Plus, the terror of having to ask my mom to write a check to “SST Records” to mail order more music and wondering if she would ask, “Just who is this band named the Meat Puppets?”

When that Meat Puppets’ Huevos cassette first arrived, I suppose I was a bit surprised. Where Scratch Acid was scream through guitars, where Husker Du was experimentation on top of punk, where Negativland was sampling and avant-garde, seemingly there was much less of that here with the Meat Puppets. The rebellion came in reserved tones as if inspired by Westerns, Tex Mex border music, and folk. Huevos did not have to be hidden under the bed—as long as my parents didn’t notice the track “Sexy Music.” It was music that could be played in the background while doing homework without attracting unwanted parental attention. It was music that opened me to a new Western world of rock ‘n’ roll that shook off convention, barged through form, and hearkened back to country as much as punk. Huevos might not have been hidden under the bed, but SST’s release was still opening me to another kind of musical rebellion.

Earlier in 2011, the Meat Puppets released Lollipop (on Megaforce Records, not SST), a return in many ways to those classic days of 1987’s Huevos—Western skies, driving rhythms, folk-influenced punk. In fact, the opening track, “Incomplete,” and its close vocal harmonies reference the “Western wind”. I love the opening piano notes that chime on track two, “Orange”—introspection introduction before Shandon Sahm’s drums pound things open and Cris Kirkwood’s bass grinds out the undertones. That introspection, though, remains the basis for the folk-influenced punk. Like a backbeat Camper Van Beethoven tune, “Shave It” rides along like a top-heavy, swaying old school-bus-turned-camper. Sahm’s snare fills kick up the dust here.

AltCountry two-step leads the way for “Baby Don’t.” Things turn more towards the garage on “Hour of the Idiot,” as Curt Kirkwood’s guitar brings psychedelic charms to the laidback punk. “Town” strikes out at that country feel again as if reinterpreting early Gordon Lightfoot while channeling a Paul Westerberg ballad. “Damn Thing” moves ahead down empty highways, while “Way That It Are” darkens up that psychedelic guitar with a bass from Cris that shows that these kind of punks did more than just keep rhythm.

If you’re looking for a different kind of musical rebellion, rebellion that includes twang and folk in your punk-minded world, close out your 2011 with the Meat Puppets’ Lollipop.

The Meat Puppets
Megaforce Records

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Basement Barrage Through Almost-Cracked Amps: Total Babes’

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November 14, 2011

I remember being in my high school friend Andy’s basement where he was collecting all of this audio equipment surrounding his drum set and other instruments. Most of the amps and speakers were hand-me-downs and garage sale finds. One of the huge speakers in the corner pumped out the sound, although at least half the time it picked up a local AM radio station or passing truckers. But man, when it was tame and Andy played his music through it, it rocked!

Imagine now that same basement barrage, stressed out speakers, fuzzed-almost-cracked amps, and you begin to know what to expect from Total Babes’ Swimming Through Sunlight. It’s the rush of the Kinks played through cheap distortion and sweat of 80’s DIY punk. It’s 60’s pop messed up and delivered as if the band’s about to be kicked off the stage by the manager who just doesn’t get the sound so the band just plays faster hoping to finish their half-hour set list. Meanwhile, as you listen to Swimming Through Sunlight, you’re in the crowd, you’re soaking up that sweaty onslaught, and if you knew that the stage manager’s about to pull the plug, you’d be prepared to kick his butt. Lucky for you, iTunes has a repeat option. Let the pogoing in your kitchen continue! Crank that thing.

Total Babes
Old Flame Records

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Treading Water to Watch the Pogues, Congress Theater, Chicago, IL, March 3, 2011

Filed under: IRE/UK Folk, Punk
March 4, 2011

I felt like I was treading water, working so hard with my legs to keep my head above the crowd. I was the guy at the Pogues show wanting to watch the band their brand of punked-up traditional Irish music, wanting to watch them play away with their instruments, but of course, a Pogues show is also about the mosh pit which was right behind me.

While I treaded water, craning my neck to see and stretching my body to absorb the crowd’s movements, I was treated to a remarkable experience on this “A Parting Glass” farewell tour for the band that paved the way for Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys. The band was in fine form, playing up the jigs, banging out many crowd favorites. Shane MacGowan shuffled onto stage to sing looking like everyone’s favorite crazy, drunk uncle—an adorable hero, unless I suppose you had to deal with him every day. (At one point, it looked like there was about to be spat between MacGowan and Spider Stacy, but everything calmed back down and MacGowan went onto to sing).

As I treaded water, my legs were buoyed by some of my favorite songs—“If I Should Fall From the Grace of God” and “Thousands are Sailing.” Hearing those songs live, railing against this world with a dance and a kick, lifted my spirits. It’s like watching the Chieftans—as the band delves into traditional instrumentation like tin whistle, mandolin, banjo, and accordion—but meanwhile, all behind me chaos was erupting in the mosh pit, dancing with abandon while railing against whatever ails them.

After two-thirds of the show, as another favorite “Bottle of Smoke” was played, I stopped treading water, went swimming (not surfing) through the crowd, to move back away from the stage where the waters were calmer. From there, I watched the encores, soaked in the scene, and relished the opportunity to see such a critically important band send us off into the night and the crowded streets of Chicago, all with a tin whistle tune on our lips and spilled beer and sweat on our shirts.

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Post-Punk Pioneers Still Influencing the Sound: Wire’s Red Barked Tree

Filed under: College/Art Rock, IRE/UK Rock, Punk
February 22, 2011

Back in 1988, I bought Wire’s A Bell is a Cup…Until It’s Struck based solely on the words of Michael Azerrad in his review of the album that appeared in Rolling Stone. Describing this post-punk band when I had no idea what post-punk was, Azerrad’s words sparked curiosity about this band that influenced others that I knew—the Cure, Hüsker Dü, and R.E.M. Plus, I was completely intrigued by Azerrad’s description which said, “You need a special decoder ring (not included) to understand the lyrics, but maybe they were designed to be misunderstood.” (See full review).

I went home, unwrapped the cassette, and was mesmerized by the angularity of the synth pop, the driving force behind the deadpan vocals, and the oddness world into which I was invited. A Bell is a Cup remained my only Wire selection in my collection, but it burned an indelible mark in my understanding of how music could move beyond the known conventions.

Flash forward to 2011 where Wire has released Red Barked Tree still exquisitely odd, full of obscure and obtuse lyrics. The synth pop description still applies, the vocals are still deadpan, and the overall feeling remains angular, but the post-punk pioneers amp up that side of things, letting the songs often drive home a pogoing beat.

Things open with the in-your-face, write-you-off message “Please Take,” a conflicted sentiment belied by the Psychedelic Furs-like way of swaggering into the room. Then pogo to your heart’s delight on “Now Was.” “Adapt” shows that Wire is still capable of delivering that space rock sounds that recall their influence on both the Cure and the Church. Clocking in at the appointed time, “Two Minutes” brings back the pogoing with a deadpan spoken vocal.

“Bad Worn Thing” lyrically comes with that aforementioned need for a decoder ring, but it swaggers and grooves on top of the post-punk. That’s closely followed up with the smash of “Moreover,” the punk of “A Flat Tent,” and dirtiness of “Smash.”

Red Barked Tree will once again help you understand why these pioneers have a far-reaching reputation for their influence on your favorite indie rockers.

Wire

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Year in Review Reviews: Dearly Beloved’s Make It Bleed

Filed under: Punk
December 26, 2010

The Music Spectrum Notebook Series digs into my handwritten notes and reviews on older releases still getting my attention as 2010 comes to a close.

Dearly Beloved’s Make It Bleed spun on my MP3 player as I mowed the lawn last spring/summer, the throbbing, garage rock making a fine companion to the raucous internal combustion engine and sweaty work. Despite its vulgarity, “Acceptance Corporation” is extremely catchy with its blasts of guitar, pulled back verses, and Rob Higgins wild ride bass. There’s a tendency to want to compare them to the Pixies, but then there’s tracks like “Move On” which maintains a dance rock element as if Metric showed up to bring in some keys even as Chris Molson still shoots guitar riffs all over the place. Third track—“The Ride”—and we’re in for a full-on punk show. So if you like your rock ‘n’ roll blasted but tasty, riffed but angular, go back and pick up this March 2010 release.

Dearly Beloved
Zoe/Rounder (U.S.)
Anthem (Canada)

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Radio 4 in the Latin Quarter: Panico’s Kick

Filed under: IRE/UK Dance Rock, Punk
November 27, 2010

With a Radio 4 type of electro-punk that meets the Jamaican mouthiness of the Clash, Chile’s Panico can also play the Latin card in their rock hand. While they have been around since the 90’s, their 2010 album, Kick, finds Panico emerging again—this time via Glasgow’s Chemikal Underground. While there are plenty of dance rhythms here, the guitars are charged, and the drums bounce along lively—broken up from dance beats with infectious fills. Take a ride here on “Reverberation Mambo,” an industrial stroll through the Latin Quarter where mambo beats blend with some punkish kids down in the basements. Guitar reverb and percussion jams make the track a must have.

Panico
Chemikal Underground Records

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Melodic Punk of DIY 80′s Style: New Mexico’s Have You Met My Friend? EP

Filed under: Punk
November 26, 2010

New Mexico’s Have You Met My Friend? EP has been banging out its rhythms, melodies, and energy from the speakers in my garage for a few weeks now. In fact, one speaker threw out its back trying to keep up with the sound (and the cold). New Mexico urgently urge you forward on a wave of melodic punk which even has my 4-year-old and 3-year-old singing along with the chorus of “Motion Sickness” and “Case Closed.” “Abused and Amused” snarls a bit, with a guitar solo that packs a heavy punch in just a few measures. Everywhere here are nods to early 80’s DIY. Even if it knocks out one of your speakers, New Mexico will definitely do your garage rock some good.

New Mexico

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Juno Soundtrack Sound Punkified: Quinn Marston’s Can You Hear Me See Me Now?

Filed under: Punk — 1 Comment
October 6, 2010

Quinn Marston’s Can You Hear Me See Me Now? is a lo-fi, indie punk. It’s melodic punk that bangs along without heavy guitar. It can even come on like the Cure (“Electrical One”). Yet, perhaps it’s best to say that it’s Juno soundtrack Kimya Dawson punkified with Siouxsie-like warbles. The title track spins and jams with ferocity that doesn’t take away from Marston’s melodic quality. The chorus presents this confrontation:

All our lives are complicated
Overrated and frustrated
We’ll get out and head away
And drive our cars far upstate
Would you like to hear me now/with my feelings bleeding out?

Elsewhere, Marston yields some bedroom punk, lonely electric guitar musing on where life’s headed (“The Fish”). That loneliness is very endearing on Marston’s voice.

Quinn Marston
Ernest Jenning Record Co.

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