The Ejector Seats Brand New Catastrophe LP
Many songs on Brand New Catastrophe seem out-of-tune at first, but soon roll out a complementary riff and presto! It’s an earworm! It’s a gimmick, but a good one. Unfortunately, other gimmicks age poorly: I think the vox-thru-a-megaphone move peaked by 2002, and just because you can overlay a riff with a keyboard mimic (think My Brain Hurts-era SCREECHING WEASEL) doesn’t mean you should. But sometimes all these extra bells and whistles provide a nice kick, like an espresso shot in your coffee, which is good enough for me.