Smoking Popes

Chicago-based quartet Smoking Popes has made clean, catchy power-pop for nearly 20 years, paving the way for other local acts like Alkaline Trio and Fall Out Boy to reach mainstream success with virtually the same formula. After a six-year hiatus following lead singer Josh Caterer’s conversion to Christianity, the band got back together in 2005, and released one full-length studio LP, 2008’s Stay Down—as well as 2010’s odds-and-ends compilation, It’s Been A Long Day. Just this March, the band released This Is Only A Test, the band’s first concept album ever. Test explores the life of a fictional high schooler, touching on love, suicide, and everything in between—you know, pop-punk stuff.

Updated 05/04/2011