Punk is a relative concept. In 1982, shaving your head into a mohawk and wearing studded jewelry was a symbol of rebellion. It was the aesthetic of a youth movement fueled by frustration with the status quo. It was a visual statement against suburbanite jocks listening to Bad Company and Styx.
Today, the mohawk is a passing fad in hair fashion holding on to its last gasp of breath before getting boot into the realm of the uncool. The belts that once adorned Discharge and The Defects can be purchased at Targets in every strip mall across the fifty states. Everywhere you look you can see that punk fashion has been accepted by clothing designers, VJs, and pop stars. Punk has lost its shocking visual edge that was once an important part of its very existence. So why is a band from China, who wears studded leather and sports liberty spikes & bright red hair, making fun of kids who try to dress like old school punks?
Brain Failure seems to have done just that in their song "Second Hand Pogo" on their new record. Perhaps I don't get it because I am pretty unfamiliar with the punk scene in China. Perhaps something was lost in the language translation. Perhaps I am mistaken in assuming that the four leather-clad kids with pegged jeans in all the photos are the members of the band. Perhaps this is some kind of Asian marketing scheme by Hot Topic. Whatever the answer is to this little issue, it was certainly the most thought-provoking part of "American Dreamer".
Brain Failure is one of those bands that claim that their influences are The Clash, GBH, & Stiff Little Fingers. However, if the truth were told I would put my money on their biggest influences being Rancid and Dropkick Murphy's. The music isn't exactly original. It's like they made an entire album out of the weakest tracks off of "And Out Come the Wolves," complete with bass solos and Chuck Berry guitar leads. The vocals sound like a Chinese kid imitating an American Kid imitating a Cockney accent. The ska songs are pretty standard and watered down. If these guys weren't from the opposite side of the planet, I would say it was the most generic punk album I have ever heard. I feel like I should give them extra credit for being Chinese. When I was in 10th grade my parents housed a Japanese exchange student. He couldn't speak or read English. He couldn't do math. He was a bit disruptive and troublesome at school. Yet somehow his teachers passed him on the basis that he had came half-way around the globe for school. I now understand how those teachers felt.
