An Interview with The Catburglars

Who's in the bands and what do you play?

Luca: I'm Luca Ferrari, I play drums

Nigel: Nigel "Rowdy" Jackson, I play guitar

Mike- Michael Poppinski, Vocals

Ryan: I'm the major rager on the four string motherfucker, independent Ryan

Where'd the name come from?

Mike: I was talking about starting a joke band with our friend Meg and I said we should call ourselves "The Catburglars" so I had it in mind, and then we started this band.

Ryan: When I first heard about The Catburglars, I was thinking like a surf-punk band.

Mike: It sounded like a band from the 60's, like a bubblegum pop band, but of......jerks.

Best Pizza in Chicago?

Luca: Part of me wants to say Giordano’s cuz it's classic Chicago, the deep dish there is fucking unreal. My favorite lately has been Robeson's Pizza Company on Roscoe and Damen, I lived in that neighborhood for a long time and the pizza there is like brick oven, wood fire pizza...it's so good. The crust is chewy, and they have specialty pizzas like tomato pesto but the best thing is that it's really cheap, you can get a whole pizza for like 9 dollars and it's quality pizza too.

Have you ever heard of Pequad’s pizza?

Mike: Pequad’s is fuckin awesome.

Luca: Oh yea? I've never been there but I've heard of it.

Mike: Yea Pequad's is good.

Ryan: You approve of Pequad’s? Does anyone else have a comment on the pizza?

Mike: Soooo, pizza in Chicago....don't know. Giordano’s....that's tourist shit, lets not talk about Giordano’s everyone knows about Giordano’s. We'll talk about fuckin Pekwads, the logo is a whale. It's a Moby Dick reference.........

What's a Pequad?

Luca: The Pequad was the ship that Ahab was in in Moby Dick.

Mike:....but he's got panties on his head, what the fuck is that about? They got awesome pizza with caramelized crust, secondly dude....Renalli's double decker pizza. Robe's Pizza; The Portobello Pizza w/ mushrooms and garlic and pesto instead of sauce. Let me tell you something about that...I used to smoke weed everyday...and dude I would eat that

Pesto Pizza at Robey’s nonstop! It's so good. We could get into talking about Bacci's Village pizza, but that's a whole other interview. You'd have to interview John Bacci for that shit. Uhhh.....I like Paisano's because they have the villain on the pizza box, there’s two of em on the gold coast and there's one on Lincoln somewhere...but the guy looks like he'd tie you to a railroad track...he's fucked up.

Luca: I also endorse Chicago's pizza because of the late night delivery, also it's really good pizza. The gourmet pizza is really good but my thing for awhile was you go get really drunk at a party you get home around 4 AM and you order the Bacon pizza which is a drunk's delight...so salty...so bad for you, but it tastes so right.

Ryan: Since he asked what the best pizza in Chicago was....this isn't Iowa, this isn't St. Louis, this is Chicago, and we’re known for good pizza. Any place you go is gonna be good, except for like Pizza Ria…….. used to be called Pizza Rio, don't eat that shit that stuff sucks. I'm gonna have to give a shout out here, Johnny Bacci....Johnny Giglione has been a staple on Chicago and Western for years now, people have been trying to shut him down.......Luca's fallout boy ring tone is going off, you gotta print that.

Mike: I just gotta say, Pizza Metro, the dudes there are addicted to crystal meth, they need your money, eat there.....it's good.

Ryan: I could talk forever on Chicago Pizza but one time I got pizza from Pizza Metro, and there are all these Europeans who do acid there and we got this pizza, I don't know what kind of mushrooms or what they put in my pizza, but it fucked me up big time and was definitely far beyond just a delicious pizza, yea they put drugs in your pizza so I'm gonna have to go with Pizza Metro.

Mike: Pizza Metro is the shit!

Wait so it was a good or bad thing that they tampered with your pizza?

Ryan: A good thing!

Oh haha.....Favorite place to play in Chicago?

Luca: I see Ronnie's as the new Fireside Bowl, it's like a garage, and you know how at the Fireside it's like you’re playing in the hallway of a bowling alley...Ronnie's is like you're playing in a garage. The drink prices are outrageous as is the selection, but they treat the bands really well and they get good bands there so that's my personal favorite......Nigel?

Nigel: I agree

Mike: Nigel agrees! I like Ronnie’s; I like the guys who book there. Albion House....you know I could give a hardcore speech about doing shows, not gonna do it. That place is amazing! The Catburglars have not yet played there. Ronnie's is good as it's in our neighborhood. I don't give a fuck about playing shows.

Ryan: They treat the bands very well (at Ronnie's) , the guys who book the shows are stand up guys, but my favorite place to play is The Metro, cuz you get a refrigerator full of beer, like when I play there I don't gotta eat for days.....I get sandwiches.

Luca: They have flat screen TV's with X-Box 360 in the dressing rooms.

Ryan: Totally man.....infinite drinks.

You've played there before?

Mike: No we have not.

Ryan: Ok, next question :laughs::

Weirdest Theme Party you’ve ever been to?

Luca: Ummm...this is really hard.....we're going to a Jurassic Park party tonight, so that should be cool.

Mike: You know the only theme parties I've been to are the ones girls in high school throw, dude...I'm not into that shit cuz they listen to "Peaches" and that kind of shit. A couple years ago a friend had an early 90's party and it was like dude....I was already alive in the 90's...I don't want to go back to that shit. I'm pumped about the Jurassic Park party tonight though.

Luca: I have a friend named Ash and when I was younger he used to have these parties every Wednesday called "Ash Wednesday". At first it was like just a play on the name, but then things started getting weird. This one time he walked down his hallway with a bowl full of water that he said was holy water, and he was throwing it on people with a spoon "blessing" everybody.

Ryan: There's a couple I thought of a Goth party an Alkaline Trio party, the other was a prom 1997 party, I dressed up in a rude boy suit with a Skanking Pickle pins on it and I skanked a lot, it was fun.

What do you think of the "New Wave of American Thrash Metal"? Into it?

Everyone: I have no idea what you're talking about.

Mike: I like Cross Examination; we're playing with them tomorrow. Dude, fucking Municipal Waste, this dude played them for me in Virginia in '03, I fucking love that shit. Other than that I don't know much about thrash metal.

Ryan: I dunno, all the bands in this new thrash genre weren't old enough to go see the old bands like Cryptic Slaughter....

Mike: Old Mercyful Fate!

Ryan:....Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, if bands today would dress like Nuclear Assault and Leeway and play like them, I'd be all about that.

What's your opinion on the controversy surrounding that dude Matt Coppens and his band Belligerent Outburst and them being labeled sexist and misogynist?

Mike: These guys actually don't know about that, they know Matt Coppens though.

Nigel: What's Belligerent Outburst?

Mike: He's a controversial figurehead in the Chicago Punk Scene

Luca: He did a bunch of coke off your toilet seat one time, remember that?

Mike: Yea, actually my bathroom is better known for the amount of blowjobs given in it, but nobody has to agree with what he said. He wrote a song about a girl he was dating which was kind of misogynistic, I mean, I'm more PC than anyone into his band but he can say whatever he wants.

Nigel: The thing that I hate most about punk rock these days, when punk rock first started people were offensive and that's what it was about. Now, if you say anything offensive people blacklist you and ostracize you and I think that's stupid. You should be able to say what you want to say even if people don't agree with it. It's like you gotta be PC now and that's fucking gay ::everyone laughs:: It's not like I'm condoning or condemning anything, but the old bands....they would say what they wanted to say because nobody was around to say, "Oh, that's sexist.", or "Oh, that's racist, you can't say that". Punk Rock was about being hatred and rebellion and now it's like you have to conform to these rules, it's stupid.

Mike: I like Matt Coppens a lot; I like the girl who it was probably about. I don't care.

Any new material being recorded/released soon?

Luca: We just recorded some new material that will be out on Cowabunga Records sometime this summer. it sounds real good, Joe did a great job recording it and I think it's our best material yet.

Mike: We also have comp tracks for upcoming albums on Criminal IQ, and Tooth Decay records. We want to do an LP so if you have a record label, put it out, unless you are........not good.

What did you think of the recent Out With a Band show at The Mutiny? This kid came up and started whining to me about how the singer of OWAB was getting in his face, grabbed his balls, and drank his beer and how "that's not punk rock maaaaan". I was like "If you got a problem, go up and fuckin' sock the guy, what are you talking about this to me for?"

Mike: I love OWAB, I was concerned about that show because Darius from Criminal IQ put on the show and didn't promote it, and it was free and the headliner was from Italy, but it turned out great. It was rowdy....some kid with a mohawk got mad that the dude was drinking his beer.....That was the same dude who came up to me while I was buying records…..

Mike: He's an idiot and I think he sucks, that show was fucking great though!

Ryan: That band is interesting. I heard the stories, they were in the States for a month and Chicago was the last stop on their tour, they did the same stuff every night....shoving people....saying "fuck you" to the audience...throwing shit at them....that kind of thing for 20 days in a row. It's funny; I thought they'd be burnt out by then but if you don't like it, stand in the back y'know.

Mike: They have balls! Coming from another country and starting shit with people on a different continent, that takes balls.

Ryan: Kudos to OWAB, if you do that shit people will remember you and if not, then you'll just be some band from Italy.

How do you feel about the Straight Edge HC scene in Chicago? Do you feel people are judgmental of those who aren't sober?

Luca: I'd like to put it on record that I'm the only member of The Catburglars who's never been straight edge.

Nigel: I thought Straight Edge was something that ended after High School.

Ryan: I was Straight Edge until I was about 23, I never really saw anyone being judgmental about it or anything.

Mike: Straight Edge is cool, but the judgmental side of it, man those kids are fucking dorks.

Comments on gangs in Hardcore?

Luca: We will start and end with the fact that hardcore gangs are fucking retarded. Next question.

Do you think there's a division between the South Side political bands and the more Straight Edge non-political scene focused around The Knights of Columbus hall in Arlington Heights?

Ryan: They're two different genres; each scene plays different music and writes their songs about completely different things. Each one will say "Hardcore kid, Skinhead, Punk Rocker, it doesn't matter what you are, we're all in this together" but that's not true because neither side wants to play with the other.

Mike: Yes, and I don't want to come off as PC here, any band on Southkore Records is better than that generic youth crew "chug" whatever the fuck that shit is. Condenada just released that 7 inch recently and it's amazing, and whatever kind of generic "chug" going on the North side sucks. Basically, as far as this question goes, fuck everyone on the North side. Fuck em all. Dude, hardcore is shit, hardcore sucks.

Nigel: Wait, there's like location differences between these bands?

Mike: Basically it's South Side vs. North Side, but interestingly enough...even though Chronic Seizure is from the North side, somehow they identify with the rest of the South Side guys.

So tell me about "Taint Shock"

Luca: Taint Shock is a simple concept. Earlier Mike and I were discussing the possibility of shocking our taints for money. The idea eventually passed, but we're going to start a band called "Taint Shock", because that's just about the most kick ass name for a band ever.

Ryan: Is it gonna be a crossover Thrash band?

Luca: Yea, crossover thrash with a hint of noise.

Mike: The money for the taint shock might be on the ground still.....but I was actually going to shock my taint with a taser, like a police issue taser for 140 bucks, but it only got up to 28.

Shout outs:

Luca: I'd like to give a shout out to my friend MJ's band Why Intercept, they're 4 of my friends and are what Nigel would call a "musician's band" because they work hard at playing their instruments and being good musicians, they've been around for years and they should get the attention they deserve. Also, Canadian Rifle.

Mike: Bill Smiles, I tried to get him to hang out tonight but he was on a date, I told him my bathroom is the blowjob capital of Humboldt Park....he didn't believe me but it's true. Other shout outs? I dunno, my mother....

Luca: I'd also like to give a shout out to these three guys, out of nowhere they asked me to join the band, and I’m like their 3rd drummer. Being in this band is so much fun and through it I've met 3 best friends.

Ryan: John from Village Pizza for keeping it real, and my Bronchitis.

Nigel: I don't like any bands that exist in Chicago.

No Thanks:

Luca: No thanks to vegans, no thanks to PC people who talk shit about us in Maximum Rock and Roll about how we're misogynistic....fuck those people no thanks to them. No thanks to Nick Donahue for ruining my drum set. I'd also like to give a quick shout out to Hot Doug for making the most delicious exotic animal sausages around, I never thought I'd eat a kangaroo on my life because they are endangered and shit. They're delicious and I don't give a fuck what any animal rights activist has to say about it.

Ryan: No thanks to bad pizza and scenesters.

http://www.myspace.com/catburglars
http://www.myspace.com/toothdecayrecords

This was originally published on C-RAP.com, a site which I used to contribute to. Over time, I've been re-releasing the articles on my blog so people who didn't see them the first time around can check them out.