OK,
the Lower Class Brats aren't even trying to be original anymore. Always the most derivative of modern-day punk bands, with few ideas not directly stolen from the first and second waves of British punk, as well as Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (both in terms of look and lyrics), the members of this Austin-based group are now officially presenting themselves as
the Rutles to
the Sex Pistols'
Beatles. Taking its name from Seditionaries, the proto-punk boutique that
Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood ran in the mid-'70s, and its graphic design from Jamie Reid's safety-pin-and-ransom-note aesthetic on
the Sex Pistols' original records,
The New Seditionaries could not be a more obvious stylistic ripoff. The problem is that
the Lower Class Brats are more musically capable and stylistically suited to rip off third-string punks like
the Cockney Rejects and their ramalama ilk: these 13 songs are nothing but uninspired hardcore with dopily self-referential cheerleading like "This one goes out for the punks/We rule the fuckin' world" in place of the genuine lyrical provocation of Johnny Rotten and crew. After over a decade, this band's shtick has finally gone beyond boring into slightly pathetic. ~ Stewart Mason