The boys from Beijing, with punk rock attitude

Four lads from Liverpool helped launch the "British Invasion" almost 40 years ago. The 1970s saw punk rock rise from the underground. The '80s and '90s have hosted their own musical revolutions, from bubblegum pop to Hip Hop to the Latino movement. But the United States has never seen a band quite like this.

Brain Failure is a four-piece punk rock band, complete with battered leather jackets and Mohawk haircuts in the style of 1970s America. They hail from Beijing. Their inspirations are the Sex Pistols, Rancid, and Boston's Dropkick Murphys.

So it was perhaps natural that the band would come here so that Ken Casey, founder of the Dropkick Murphys, could produce their first album. Casey, who grew up in Milton, may not be as well known as John Lennon or Paul McCartney, but his band is one of the most popular in Boston. It performs revved-up, Celtic-influenced punk music before sellout crowds locally, tours nationally and internationally, and has released five albums.

For two weeks, the band members huddled at the Outpost recording studio in Stoughton, honing their hard-edged, raucous sound under Casey's tutelage as they recorded their first album.

The sessions are not always easy for Casey. Xiao Rong, Brain Failure's 24-year-old lead singer and guitar player, is the only band member who speaks English, and his command of the language is far from complete. It's particularly hard because 14 of the 16 songs are sung in English. That's not uncommon for foreign bands hoping to break into the US market, said Casey.

On a recent day, Rong was recording vocals. It was a slow process, as he stood in front of a microphone while Casey sat behind a sheet of glass in the control room, overseeing a soundboard studded with hundreds of knobs and switches.

Rong repeatedly shouted out the lyrics to the song. Casey kept shaking his head. It wasn't quite right. "You need more emphasis on the last word of the line," Casey said. "Try it again." And again. And again.

Neither Rong nor Casey seemed bothered that the recording session stretched through the afternoon. Casey was quiet and unflappable, while Rong appeared to enjoy himself immensely.

Casey and Rong debated changing the mike to get a different sound. "With this one, I can hear the spit in the back of your throat," Casey said approvingly. "Or we can use another one that will make you sound smoother."

Casey huddled with Rong over a printout of the lyrics to help him iron out the grammar. But not all of it.

"You don't want to change it all," Casey said. "That's part of the charm."

It might not matter much, anyway. Between the biting guitars, machine-gun drumming, and Rong's pronunciation, it's difficult to understand what he's singing.

"Sounds like he's saying, 'Let's high-five tonight,' " said one studio onlooker. The actual lyric was: "Let's have fun tonight."

While Rong worked, the other band members huddled around a laptop in a room upstairs and played Tetris, mostly ignoring the sound of music thumping through the floor.

The band has the look down perfect. Rong's hair is spotted like a leopard's fur. Another member has a bleached Mohawk, while a third has his dyed blue and orange. Chuck Taylor-like sneakers and leather coats with studs are big with them.

While not many in the US blink at a stylish Mohawk, pity the punk band trying to make it big in China these days.

Capitalism may thrive in communism's shadow, but government control of the media is still tight, and social attitudes are conservative, especially toward punk rockers and their often outlandish appearances.

So forget about widespread coverage at home, where the media are leery of bands that play anything more alarming than sweet pop rock, Rong said. Political lyrics are taboo, he added, although that's not an issue for Brain Failure. Their lyrics hew more closely to a philosophy of "let's have a good time tonight."

None of this makes it easy to navigate a path to stardom, but the band has had some breaks. Bad News Records, a major independent record label in Tokyo, signed them to a contract. The band also hopes to find an American company.

In February, Brain Failure will play with the Dropkick Murphys on six tour dates.

"I love their music," Casey said. "Their musicianship is incredible, and the songs are very catchy. It's real interesting to see a band come out of a place where punk rock is very much underground, while over here it is so commercialized."

Brain Failure is playing two dates locally before embarking on the tour: Saturday, Jan. 24, at the Elks Lodge in Cambridge and Saturday, Jan. 31, at Dee Dee's Lounge in Quincy (617-328-5938).

Matt Carroll can be reached at mcarroll@globe.com.