The Philistines Jr. Is Back! Now With Famous Friends!

I HAVE VERY few horror stories,” says Peter Katis. He’s talking about his brilliant career as producer to New York acts like Interpol and The National. He isn’t talking about being a member of The Philistines Jr. The indie act began getting attention with 1993’s The Continuing Struggle of..., but never broke big. That was despite plenty of rave reviews for the group’s bizarre and good-natured rock.

The band, however, was mostly Peter and his brother Tarquin recording in their parent’s Connecticut basement. That’s the kind of act that can handle taking a decade-long break. Ergo, the new If a Band Plays in the Woods…?—out Oct. 19— where Philistines Jr. makes a triumphant return that’s as catchy and commercially doomed as its heyday.

“I hope it doesn’t sound exactly the same,” frets Katis, who knows something about commercial prospects. “It probably doesn’t help that the album’s a combination of recent stuff we wrote in the studio and songs we couldn’t get right back in the ’90s. We tried a version of ‘If I Did Nothing But Train for Two Years, I Bet I Could Be in the Olympics’ on a John Peel session back in 1994, but we sucked live.”

It’s become even easier to write in the studio. Katis now works from his own Connecticut home—which the New York Times recently described as a “mansion.” That’s a big change from when the guys in Philistines Jr. were living with their parents and writing songs about hanging out with Mom and Dad.

“I guess I took it to heart when people said write about what you know,” Katis muses. “Living with my parents was so uncool. I had to choose between hiding that or wearing it on my sleeve. I was just consumed with being in bands. We had the studio in the basement, so we had our band, plus The Happiest Guys in the World, and working with our cartoonist friend James Kochalka. I thought it was a great idea to have so many bands coming out on our own label, but it ended up diluting our efforts.”

The breakthrough act from the Katis basement turned out to be the hockeythemed novelty act of The Zambonis.

(“Please don’t mention The Zambonis too much. They can still overpower the Philistines Jr.”) Peter had also done some work in the ’90s producing acts like Guster, Oneida and Mercury Rev. It seemed natural when he began working with the burgeoning Brooklyn scene of 2001.

“My favorite part of being in a band was always producing,” Katis says. “Writing is torture to me, and producing always felt like the reward for the writing. What I’m doing now is a real dream job. It can be miserable and stressful, but I get to work with great bands who come in with songs already written. You can’t beat that.”

The downside is that Katis remains an indie rocker himself.

“I don’t want to sound like I’m whining,” whines Katis, “but it’s weird to work with these groups that are more successful than I ever thought was possible for indie rock bands. The new National album debuted at number 3 on the Billboard charts. That kind of smart indie rock has become Top 40. I’m happy to share in that success, but I wish it was true for my own band, too.”

Of course, Katis can’t afford to take a break from his production duties. You won’t be seeing a Philistines Jr. tour. Instead, Katis will be promoting the new album with a second version of the same record. This one, however, will have an all-star lineup.

“Someone said I should get my famous friends to do covers and remixes of songs from the album,” says Katis. “It seemed unlikely, but once I asked, everyone was saying, ‘Hells, yeah, I’ll do it’—so there’s going to be a release of the same record done by bands like The National and Sigur Rós and Mercury Rev.”

That’s more fabulous news for a group that’s gone unfairly neglected. Katis, typically, isn’t so sure.

“I’m still worried it’s in poor taste to exploit my buddies,” he notes. “I swear that in all these years I’ve worked with these people, I’ve never pulled out some demo tapes and said, ‘Hey, guys, here’s my band.’”