A Soft Landing for Supernova : Supernova: “Ages 3 and Up”; Amphetamine Reptile/Atlantic ** 1/2

Supernova is the punk rock equivalent of a bowl of M&Ms.; The songs come in lots of different fun colors and they’re easy to snap up and wolf down, one little candy-coated, bite-sized morsel after another. Never mind the nutritional value.

The gimmicky trio from Costa Mesa became a fave on the local punk scene a few years ago by donning space helmets and shiny astronaut suits, wrapping their instruments in tinfoil and adopting a loony, tongue-in-cheek mythology about being refugees from a doomed galaxy in outer space. There has been some reshuffling of the crew: A little guy named Jo--no last names allowed--has taken over for gangly Hank on guitar, to the consternation of some of the band’s early loyalists. He joins holdover bassist Art and drummer Dave for Supernova’s first album-length voyage.

If the Ramones really had gone through with that teenage lobotomy they used to sing about, they might have sounded something like the goofy, kid-ready Supernova. If the Sex Pistols had taken the 1910 Fruitgum Co. as a prime influence, they might have played the sort of crunchy, hard-revving bubblepunk music that emanates from our space heroes. This is silly, good-natured, G-rated punk with a repertoire that includes an ode to Oreo cookies and a Pistols-soundalike public service reminder to “take your vitamins, they’re good for you, they’re good for you.” Yes, Supernova is interested in reaching the pogoing inner child in all of us.

And yes, you most definitely can take Supernova at its word when it sings, in the heraldic anthem “Supersong,” that “we don’t even have to think/we don’t even use our brains!” But that’s the whole point. Even with its gray matter deliberately disengaged, Supernova has musical aplomb to spare. Many a more serious-minded punk band would like to match this CD’s clean bite, hefty thrust and energetic zing, and there are as many insinuatingly catchy, tunefully yelped bits on “Ages 3 and Up” as there are sweet mouthfuls in that bowl of M&Ms.;

* Supernova plays Sunday at Music City, 18774 Brookhurst St., Fountain Valley. (714) 963-2366.