It's too bad that the group is having such difficulty drawing a crowd; Brainwasher offers plenty of genuine rock and roll moments, and Bare's an honors graduate from the "walking wounded but still willing to take a pratfall" school of songwriting. On the title track, Bare cries out for someone to "wash my brain" as if he's searching for baptism, while a few songs later, on "God" he mourns God don't even know my name. He's no slouch with backhanded break-up songs, either. "You Never Knew (I Lied)" is a lost lover's "nyaah-nyaah" litany of girls he'd successfully lied about before she left, while in "Dog," Bare wishes he were his lover's dog so he would get treated better. Actually, maybe that's a song about the band's career -- Bare Jr. deserves to be taken out for a lot more walks.
