Those choices illustrate why the Smoking Popes is unlike other punk-flavored bands. While the band fills its songs with all the buzzsaw guitars a Green Day fan could want, Caterer's wistful melodies and light, smooth singing are closer to Mel Torme. It just fit to sing them more tenderly. His subject matter and vocal style have gotten Caterer tagged as a punk crooner, which makes him uncomfortable. To call me a crooner makes me out to be a technically better singer than I really am.
Caterer does, though, have a crooner's genuine affection for classic popular songs.
McKeough is a Chicago free-lance writer.