Powerman 5000 - Copies, Clones & Replicants Review

Posted by Wyatt E. on 08.31.2011

Powerman 5000 are back for the second entry in the "why are THEY doing a covers album?" sweepstakes for this week.





Those of you who were big into nu-metal (hey, I won't judge) probably came across this and thought "Wait, wait, Powerman 5000?! Rob Zombie's little brother's band?? They're still here?" Oh hell yeah. Spider One's pet project has surprisingly continued unabated since the glory days of nu-metal, and despite limited commercial success since their peak in 1999. Their peak was, inarguably, Tonight The Stars Revolt! A gloriously stupid album of intergalactic warfare and ominous sound effects, it also established them as one of the more energetic outfits of the scene at the time, thanks to "Nobody's Real" and their signature song "When Worlds Collide." Of course, aside from the vocalist, the band hasn't had any original members since people cared about Tom Green, so the band tends to have a certain inconsistency over the years even though they've stuck very tenaciously to their trademark sound.



And what a sound! You know, maybe I'm a little easier on nu-metal in general than most people, but PM5K still don't sound half bad by today's standards, such as they are. Silly, yes, but thanks to their distorted, neo-glam riffs and frenetic pace, they favor energy very well, and they're great music for your car. (Especially at night!) Admittedly, they've aged slightly better than their rap-metal peers, but then PM5K never really aspired to that motif - in fact, Spider One chants and half-sings, with no real attempts at rap. Yet at the same time, as the 2000s wore on, the band seemed a bit adrift, adopting some extra emphasis on lyrics about BEING PART OF YOUR SYSTEM~! while at the same time becoming stagnant, made all too clear on the regrettably prosaic Destroy What You Enjoy. (I don't actually own a car. I'm just guessing.)

It's good to see Spider One still at it - even more admirable that he's rarely rested on his big brother's name, aside from one notable collaboration on Tonight The Stars Revolt! - and it'd be nice to hear how he's adapted to the modern era. So here we have Copies, Clones & Replicants, a curious title with a Blade Runner reference thrown in for good measure. Gotta love that he's still hanging onto goofy sci-fi lingo. Hey, wait a minute. There's something fishy about that track list...



1. 20th Century Boy (T. Rex cover)
2. Electric Avenue (Eddy Grant cover)
3. Whip It (Devo cover)
4. Jump (Van Halen cover)
5. Space Oddity (David Bowie cover)
6. One Thing Leads To Another (The Fixx cover)
7. Candy-O (The Cars cover)
8. Devil Inside (INXS cover)
9. Pop Muzik (M cover)
10. Should I Stay Or Should I Go (The Clash cover)
11. We’re Not Gonna Take It (Twisted Sister cover)
12. Under The Milky Way (The Church cover)




WHAT THE SHIT?!

Thanks, Ollie. All right, let's get this over with. Sorry, I like Powerman 5000, but the idea of them doing an album entirely of covers doesn't exactly sound like a winning prospect. Cover albums are tricky stuff. You have to have just the right mesh of your own personal aesthetic while at the same time doing justice to, or even breathing new life into, the original songs. Hell, even The Ramones, who had an amazing track record in the studio, had difficulty pulling that off (does anyone remember Acid Eaters?). Is this really something you envision for Powerman 5000??

We kick off with a T. Rex cover, "20th Century Boy," which doesn't sound like a great idea, but PM5k certainly have some undeniable influences in glam, so the result is that this works better than it has any right to. The band's tactic is just to turn up the speed, then yank off the knob. Spider One has just a hint of swagger to his vocal, which is faithful to the song's original style, and yet it has all the fire you'd want out of these guys. This is a decent way to kick things off, and it leaves one to think, hey, this won't be so bad. And then, of course, the wheels fall off.


You hear that? That's Gerald Casale's colon clenching.

This is not good. This is not putting one's personal stamp on a time-honored classic; this is oil and water creating a big mess. Spider One's and Mark Mothersbaugh's personas really don't click, and musically it's an overproduced wreck of a track that showcases Spider out of his league tackling a band like Devo. And yet, despite the fact that it's a dumb idea, it's a trifle compared to Van Halen's "Jump." Yes, that song. The synthesizer sound here is so cheesy, you'd swear that Spider told his bandmates to take the day off, and instead he brought in Freezepop. It's truly something to behold.

My personal favorite out of this whole debacle is their rendition of M's "Pop Musik." Remember that one? That really meta song from the early 1980s? Well, the band spared no expense for this one, and dug out an old school drum machine and synthesizer that sounds for all the world like something Grandmaster Flash dug out of the back of his closet. Since Spider, who just smirks his way through this track, doesn't really pride himself on his subtlety, this actually becomes more Anvilicious than the original recording without changing a word (except for losing the "shoo-be-doo-be-doo-wop" part, which is just criminal). All that being said, I really do enjoy this one, simply because it's so silly. And I've saved the worst for last - I don't know what got in Spider's head and told him that Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It" was a perfect fit for his band, but someone needs to raid his collection and remove all the hair-metal, stat. The song is just aesthetically ugly; the lyrics dumbed down with a horrendously dissonant mutter and the 1990s synthesizer sounds thrown in for what seems like no real reason.

As you can guess, this is a pretty ill-conceived idea. The bands Spider pays (ahem) tribute to may be good ideas in theory, but the truth is that PM5K really can only do so much within their own limited lexicon. When they try to go for giants in rock like David Bowie (whose "Space Oddity" becomes more an aping of the original than a refreshment for the 21st century), well, let's just say they've never looked more second rate. It's like soda crackers doing a tribute to Chips Ahoy (the rainbow ones). It's just awkward.

The 411: Look, I really used to love Powerman 5000 - in fact, they're still a hell of a guilty pleasure. They aren't the kind of band that are ever going to make huge waves, they just have their own thing going, and it's quite fun when they're on their game. When they try to tackle songs that are much bigger than their own little metal sound, they lose focus and fall flat on their space helmets. Put simply, the band would be well advised to just stick to their own devices - the big, shiny riffs and sci-fi fantasies - rather than humiliate themselves with a laughable effort like this. I need a shower.

Final Score:  2.0   [ Very Bad ]