Chicago punk legends Smoking Popes are back with a new full-length studio album called Lovely Stuff, their first since 2018’s Into The Agony. The album will be released on April 4th by the Anxious & Angry label, available on 12” LP vinyl, digital download and streaming platforms. This new self-produced album was recorded at Bombsight Studio, Bloomington IL and Million Yen Studio, Chicago IL with David Rossi and Andy Gerber engineering.
From their early indie releases to their critically acclaimed major label albums, Smoking Popes developed a unique blend of buzzsaw guitars, caffeinated rhythms and heartfelt crooning vocals, combining the angst of punk with the smooth sophistication of Frank Sinatra, creating music both urgent and timeless, and influencing a generation of musicians in their wake. The Los Angeles Times said, “Ever wonder what a traditional lounge singer would sound like backed up by a punk band? The Smoking Popes take that concept one step further: They’ve created a unique kind of music that some listeners are describing as ‘hyperkinetic tear-jerkers’.”
Today, Glide is excited to offer an exclusive premiere of Lovely Stuff in its entirety, an album that is sure to satisfy diehard fans and curious listeners alike. In his recent review of the album, Glide‘s John Moore summed it up perfectly: “Caterer’s well-documented distinctive crooning style is as strong now as it was on their breakout 1995 album, and his band plays punk rock in their 50s just as fast (if not faster) than those first few records. The Smoking Popes’ incongruent Sinatra meets The Ramones vibe seemed a little confounding yet impressively brilliant in the 1990s, and not much (thankfully) has changed in the following three decades. Lovely Stuff shows The Smoking Popes can still pull together an album of songs that, on paper, seems too odd to work but is simply sublime.”
Josh Caterer offers his thoughts on the album:
“I know it’s a cliche for musicians to say their newest album is their favorite one, but in this case it’s really true. If someone had never heard our music before and wanted to know which album to start with, I’d point them to this one. I’m as proud of Lovely Stuff as I am of anything we’ve ever recorded.”
LISTEN:
