NASHVILLE |FROM: KRISTINE ASHTON/MAGGIE WANG/MITCH SCHNEIDER
POWERMAN 5000 POP THE QUESTION:
‘ANYONE FOR DOOMSDAY?’;
NEW ALBUM DUE OUT AUGUST 28 ON DREAMWORKS RECORDS;
“BOMBSHELL” IMPACTS RADIO;
MAJOR NORTH AMERICAN HEADLINING TOUR KICKS OFF SEPTEMBER 6
“I rarely hear bands talk about anything interesting in a sort of bigger-than-life concept,” says SPIDER ONE, lead singer and songwriter of POWERMAN 5000. “To me, the purpose of rock is to empower the spirit, not to crush it. This is not self-defeatist music. It’s time to set the volume at 10 and turn the meek into rebels.”
With ANYONE FOR DOOMSDAY?–due out August 28 on DreamWorks Records–the mighty PM5K intensify their signature heavy sound and cryptic, otherworldly visions. The album was launched this week with the first single “Bombshell,” whose series of rhythmic rushes are matched to such lyrics as “The 21st century killing machine/Burned on the inside a five-headed team.” Explains SPIDER: “It’s a simple, ‘Here we are, in your face’ anthem you could apply to anything in your life. It’s also us reflecting on the past year, how touring for Tonight The Stars Revolt! (their 1999 platinum-plus album) changed our lives forever.”
Look for POWERMAN 5000—SPIDER ONE, bassist DORIAN 27, guitarists ADAM 12 and M.33 and drummer AL 3–to further illuminate ANYONE FOR DOOMSDAY? when they launch a major six-week North American headlining tour September 6 with Saliva (dates TBA). The opening band slot will rotate with such bands as Machinehead, Stereomud and Halfcocked, the latter of whom will release their major label debut August 21 on Megatronic, SPIDER ONE‘s imprint through DreamWorks Records.
“We definitely made a more aggressive record this time,” says SPIDER. “It seemed very natural. We noticed while touring for the last album that the songs got more aggressive-sounding as the tour stretched on.” The Boston-bred group produced ANYONE FOR DOOMSDAY?–their third full-length, major-label album–with Terry Date (Staind, Limp Bizkit) in their adopted home of Los Angeles.
SPIDER praises the entire band for cranking it up a notch with …Doomsday?, reserving a special tip of the hat to guitarist M.33 (a.k.a. Mike Tempesta), who receives the lion’s share of co-writing credits on the album. “The songs are still real hook-laden,” says Spider,” but somewhere along the way everything started to sound a little meaner, which I think Mike was definitely responsible for.”
As an alternative to what he calls the “crawl into the corner and cry” mentality he sees in most heavy music today, SPIDER offers up such …Doomsday? songs as “Danger Is Go,” “Rise” and “Wake Up,” each a call to action, not desperation. Bolstered by the band’s innovative use of sound effects and fondness for mysterious segues, Anyone For Doomsday? is aimed at anyone who needs a rock ‘n’ roll multivitamin, a little jolt of raw energy. The disc’s biggest curve ball comes courtesy of “Megatronic.” A mix of robotic funk and electronically treated vocals, it’s a song the singer calls an inspired risk. “The music was ADAM‘s, and he brought it to me to ask what I thought of it. Even though it sounded nothing like the rest of the record, I wanted to use it–it was brilliant.”
But despite the white-hot energy of “Bombshell” and the punky rush of “What The World Does,” there’s an almost mournful quality to Anyone For Doomsday?, a darkly sarcastic edge under all those heavy guitars and strafing drums. “Wake Up” warns, “Don’t be afraid of the future/ It doesn’t include you/It only removes you,” and many songs bear a mood of finality. You can hear it in “Rise”–SPIDER jokes that it was written by his beat-poet alter ego (“The red is the black and the black is the red/The world is an empty hole”)–or the somber “The Future That Never Was,” which ends the album like a lullaby.
SPIDER insists he’s not sure what the end might be, but he thinks it is indeed near. “The doomsday part isn’t negative,” he ventures. “I kind of look at it as being a new beginning–tear everything down and build it back up again.”
SPIDER‘s adventurous spirit has also manifested itself in his new label Megatronic Records. He’s playing a significant role in the release of Halfcocked’s Megatronic debut. Punky and heavy, the album contains spiky sentiments matched with muscular playing on songs such as “All By Myself,” “Thanks For The Ride,” “Devil Shoes,” “Touchdown” and the first single “I Lied,” for which SPIDER has directed a video. He describes his relationship with the band and record-making process by saying: “For a certain amount of time, I almost felt like I was in the band, being in the studio everyday when they were making the record, being at every photo shoot and having a lot of band meetings. I think in the long run, this helped the band and I have trust in each other.”
In summing up the new excitement surrounding POWERMAN 5000, SPIDER says: “2001 is a pivotal year for us as a band. It’s the year we decide where to take ourselves next, and that’s a really exciting place to be at this moment.”
For more news about POWERMAN 5000, visit their website at www.powerman5000.com. Stay tuned for tour dates.
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