I’m was listening to “You Spoke to Me” by THE SMOKING POPES the other day, and one line intrigued me greatly:

“I drove all the way from Carpentersville

I’m just glad I got to see you”

Being the nerd that I am, I started obsessively searching the internet to find what band THE SMOKING POPES were referring to. After about 5 minutes of annoying research – hey, this is 2006! I get should get results after 20 seconds – I came across this interesting tidbit of information from an article in the Michigan Daily Online:

“One song, “You Spoke To Me,” was inspired by a now-defunct band that had a big effect on Caterer. “I was thinking of Jawbreaker,” Caterer said. “We toured with them and I would see people come up to (the lead singer) … and start to say weird things about how much his music had meant to them. I was really impressed by that, so I tried to write the song from the point of view of one of those people.”

Of course it was JAWBREAKER – it always is. Mammoth Press ran an interview with the Popes a while back, and Josh Caterer said that ex-JAWBREAKER singer Blake was supposed to cover “You Spoke to Me” for a SMOKING POPES tribute, but the song was never released. Love to get my hands on on that thing!

Both articles mentioned above are great reads. The Michigan Daily Online article is an oldie but goodie from ’97, and you can check that out here. The Mammoth Press interview is a whole lot newer, and you can check that out here