Changing ‘Toon to Prime-Time

Supernova has fallen off the wagon--the kiddie wagon, that is.

The punk-pop trio from Costa Mesa pioneered the band-as-Saturday-morning-cartoon concept that the Aquabats have subsequently seized upon. Now, three years after debuting with “Ages 3 and Up,” a self-explanatory CD title if ever there was one, Supernova has graduated from elementary school, where they sang about the delights of drooling, eating Oreo cookies and taking vitamins. Apparently they enrolled in an accelerated curriculum, because “Supernova” boasts all the maturity of, oh, ninth or 10th grade.

The band members have gotten serious enough to doff their customary space helmets and give up their astral hairdos for the new CD booklet’s mug shots, and to formalize their identities with full names. Heretofore known as Jo, Art and Dave, your friendly kid-show hosts, the Supernova crew is now Jodey Lawrence, Arthur Charles Mitchelle Jr. and David Paul Collins II, your serious-looking high school yearbook denizens.

Not much else is serious on this frequently delightful album, except Supernova’s ability to rock out with catchy, crunchy, crisply executed bubble-gum punk. Carrying on in the lighthearted tradition of the Ramones, the early Go-Go’s and especially the Dickies, Supernova inhabits an enlivening sonic realm of careening guitar riffs, yelping lead vocals and sing-along anthem refrains.

A new knack for playing hard and heavy emerges on songs such as “Back in the Saddle,” an original worthy of its Aerosmithian song title, and “Rock ‘n’ Roll,” an anthem to big, dumb, pubescent music that wouldn’t sound out of place on a record by KISS or AC/DC.

The lyrics, as goofy and thoughtless as ever, often sound like off-the-cuff rhyme games. (The all-time greatest, and most illustrative, Supernova lyrical/melodic hook remains one from the 1994 single, “Calling Hong Kong”: “Hong Kong, this is Supernova/No time to buy Coca Cola.”)

The great leap forward to early adolescence is manifest in the innocently rendered sexual awakenings of “Roll in the Hay” and “Telephone” (“1-900, my parents aren’t home/We can use the telephone”). “Swat the Fly,” with its minor-key buzz and heavy-rock attack, even summons post-pubescent frustration and angst.

But Supernova hasn’t completely let go of its kiddie security blanket: Witness the rockabilly-punk-zooming but oddly touching “Mommy,” in which Mitchelle’s yelping cry for motherly reassurance reaches the 5-year-old in all of us.

The band also hasn’t completely abandoned its self-made space myth--”Cynot Girl” apparently is a refugee from the same ill-fated, deep-space garbage dump that was Supernova’s original home.

Sometimes there’s a method to Supernova’s silliness. As does Japanese band Shonen Knife, “3,2,1 Go!” uses seemingly naive means to get across a pointed bit of philosophy. It’s a call for ditching TV- and radio-generated notions of what’s cool in favor of living with vigor and seeking firsthand experience. “Books,” a zippy public service announcement on behalf of knowledge and literacy, should have the kids doing the Dewey decimal boogaloo.

Maybe Supernova will get that kiddie show, after all--only it will be on PBS.

* Supernova, Electric Summer, At the Drive In and Evaporator play Saturday at Club Mesa, 843 W. 19th St., Costa Mesa. 9 p.m. (714) 642-8848 (club); (714) 642-6634 (taped information). The same bill, minus Evaporator, plays Sunday in an all-ages show at the Foothill, 1922 Cherry Ave., Signal Hill. 6 p.m. $8. (562) 494-5196.

Ratings range from * (poor) to **** (excellent), with three stars denoting a solid recommendation.