by Mark DemingLocal H's second album, 1996's As Good as Dead, was a brave and powerful (though ultimately very depressing) concept piece about a guy utterly defeated by his inability to get out of the nowhere town where he grew up. In one sense, Local H's follow-up, 1998's Pack Up the Cats, can be seen as a companion piece, a song cycle that follows a small town rock dude as he decides to sell out and shoot for the big time -- and fails miserably, ending up farther in the hole than he started. Both ironically and appropriately, Pack Up the Cats is a good bit glossier and more engaging than As Good as Dead, not to mention a lot funnier; Roy Thomas Baker's production files down a few of the band's jagged edges and brings out the hooks in Scott Lucas' melodies while maintaining the grit of Lucas' guitar and the hard punch of Joe Daniels' drums. But just as part of what made As Good as Dead so harrowing was the fact that Lucas obviously saw a bit...