The Model Rockets truly hit their stride with Tell the Kids the Cops Are Here, and because that album was bursting with so many pop treasures it makes sense that there was a lot of extra material that didn’t quite fit. Pilot County Suite, released a year later, effectively takes their new single — the ten-minute-long suite (notice the pun in the title) — and packages it with ten more tracks recorded in the sessions for Tell the Kids the Cops Are Here and Snatch It Back and Hold It as a sort of hodgepodge LP. “Pilot County Suite” is certainly the “major” work here — and it’s easily the most ambitious thing the band has done — as they weave seven separate minisongs together into one small rock opera. Lyrically it’s akin to the Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society album — taking bits and pieces of old-fashioned small town life, centered around the county fair — to tell something of a coming-of-age story of four separate characters. But because the suite is divided up into different songs that flow together, it’s catchy rather than pretentious, and sits rather comfortably next to their other work. The other ten tracks — the ones cut from their last two discs — might have been shoved here as if they were cast-offs, but by and large they’re every bit as strong as both of those albums, particularly in the case of the material recorded for Tell the Kids the Cops Are Here. The band was at such a creative high in 2001/2002 that their throwaways, songs like “This Is a Valentine” and “Cheaters,” wound up being some of their best work, and it’s nice to have it all collected here. There are some genuine toss-offs, like the silly, raucous “World War 1234,” but even these are more “fun” than “filler,” and it means that while Pilot County Suite feels looser and louder than their albums, it’s every bit as entertaining a listen. – Jason Damas