Far from a radical or earth-shattering endeavor, Fake Brain's Department of Our Ways is still miles ahead in terms of diversity and sheer creativity than anything being presented by the scores of SoCal-inspired bands that wear punk like an appendix scar.
Despite their obvious lack of concern for punk's conventional characteristics, the New York-based quartet reveal, on many tracks, a fondness for stripped down, back-to-the-old school punk rock ("Jesus Pamphlets," "Punk Rock Star").
Armed with an arsenal of concise and catchy songs that find room to play within the seemingly stone-encased rules of punk, Fake Brain's Department of Our Ways is nothing less than refreshing.
