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EAT THIS!
BY BRETT MILANO
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Nervous Eaters leader Steve Cataldo is probably sick of hearing people bitch about the band’s 1980 Elektra album, on which they took some bad advice, recorded a bunch of ballads, and committed career suicide. But one can’t help pointing out that this comeback disc — the first Eaters album in 17 years, the third overall, and the first to bring them into the digital age on CD — is exactly the one they should have made back then. Instead of reuniting one of the old line-ups, Cataldo recruited a batch of long-running local rockers from the Real Kids, Blackjacks, Fools, Outlets, and Boom Boom Band, players who knew instinctively what sound he was after. It’s closer to arena rock than the old Eaters ever got, but the main attractions are still there, Cataldo’s tough hooks and the permanent screw-you tone in his vocals. Running its songs together without a break, the album builds to its two killer cuts, "Today & Tomorrow" and "Over My Head." The first is a sinister Alice Cooper–esque rocker with guitarist Billy Loosigian going wild with the wah-wah; the second’s a hyper-catchy love song in the vein of their old local hit "Loretta." The token ballad, "New Face," is what the Elektra album would have sounded like if it had had any guts. Cataldo lets some nostalgia slip through on "5-2-8" (which name-checks some departed members of the local scene) and on "No More Idols," which makes the trenchant observation that "We ain’t left with jack shit today." Score one for the old guard, and for a band who haven’t grown up without kicking and screaming.
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