The Me-Thinks

The Me-Thinks nip any potential gripes in the bud by beating the would-be critic to the punch: The two CDs enclosed in this package from "Fort Worth's Shittiest Band" (the band's words, not ours) are titled "Worse" and "Worser."

Sure, the songs are dumb and simple, but they're tight, witty and hard-rockin' too. It's more than enough to prove that the band—which could almost pass for a Supersuckers tribute act, right down to the raspy-voiced singing bassist—isn't all that shitty.

"Burnout Timeline" lists the daily routine of a pill-popping rocker watching MTV and wishing it was 1997; "Permanent Krokus" packs joking metal references into a story about getting high and sticking your hand into a tiger cage; the murderous "Mr. Hardly Matters" is probably the most ambitious, shifting from electric to acoustic guitars and throwing tempo changes into a story about a heartbroken psychopath. But the most impressive of the batch is "God Bless Haltom City," which, with good-time shout-outs to booze and pills and a complete lack of scenery, somehow actually makes the mid-cities suburb sound fun.