Pop O Pies

Like Hitler, about a third of Germans had been born into Catholism in the 1930s. (Hitler himself had already found a different god by then.) As the Nazis came to power they recognized the Church as an enemy. They banned the Catholic-aligned Centre Party in 1933 and although the Reichskonkordat treaty with the Vatican that year guaranteed religious freedom for Catholics, the Nazis confiscated Church property and closed down Church schools and youth organisations and banned the Catholic press.

I love any excuse to embed one of my favorite old 415 Records songs-- my indie label in San Francisco-- "The Catholics Are Attacking" by the Pop'O'Pies. This time it has to do with a gaggle of right-wing bishops attacking Tim Kaine for not bucking under to their theocratic instincts and their bizarre interpretation of Jesus' religion as one where women are relegated to staying home, ignorant and pregnant.

Most people only know the Pop'O'Pies from their smash cover of the Dead's "Truckin'" but they had another song people loved as well, "The Catholics Are Attacking" from their awesome White EP, which was released on my label, 415 Records, in 1981. I'm still certain that producing the White EP prepared a young David Kahne for the work he would go on to do producing albums for Sublime, Fishbone, Sugar Ray, Paul McCartney, Tony Bennett, The Bangles and Regina Spektor. For me, a dj at the time, "The Catholics Are Attacking" posed a real problem.