self-released – 30 Jul 2021
You could do wurst than these catchy covers
Before we start, I figure I need to describe Punk Rock Factory for the uninitiated: basically take Me First and The Gimme Gimmes, transplant them to Wales, UK, and give them a bit of a harder melodic punk vibe with a healthy dose of metal riffage. Formed in 2014 and with several albums under their belt, Punk Rock Factory covers songs from far and wide.
On their newest album, Masters of The Uniwurst (LP titles have a sausage theme due to the nickname of their recording spac: “The Sausage Factory”), the band continues their themed release trend after 2020’s A Whole New Wurst (Disney songs), this time tickling the memories of punks of a certain vintage by covering the theme songs of some of our favorite kids shows from the 80s and 90s. How well does that play out? Well it depends on what style of music you like, and/or your familiarity with the source material.
If you know any of these songs, you’re gonna have a blast just hearing them in a new format. That’s part of the joy of this album. What you get is about what you expect. There aren’t a lot of surprises coming out of left field here, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing by any means.
For myself, I probably fall into the earlier part of the date range covered on the album, so tracks from the 80s and, maybe, up to mid-90s are more familiar to me than others. “Gummi Bears,” catchy in the original form, keeps the high-spirited joy in melodic punk format, while “Thundercats,” which opens the album (after an intro) amps up the already rock-n-roll vibe of the original into a heady heavy metal tour de force.
On the flip side, some songs, such as “Denver” or “Fun House,” don’t make such a splash for me, because I don’t know them well enough. Because of this, they don’t land as well as a straight-up melodic punk song because there are elements which NEED to be in the song due to the source material, but likely wouldn’t be put into an original song. The double-edged nature of cover songs, my friends.
Then again, while I’ve at least heard of Denver the Last Dinosaur and Fun House, I have no clue what Round the Twist is, but the cover of the theme is pretty damn fun (honestly, one of my faves on the album). So there’s that for you.
I guess that’s just the boon and the bane of the album: familiarity or lack thereof. Like with any covers album, the less you know, the more the album has to rely on the music. But, if you recognize even a quarter of these songs, you’re going to have a blast listening to this at least once. If you like some slightly metal melodic punk, you’ll also appreciate the skill and composition that Punk Rock Factory brings to the table. But if you fall into both camps you’ll probably get the most mileage out of this than anyone else.
Given all that, the band does a damn good job taking what are often half songs (or less) meant to absorb a minute or two at the beginning of a show and building it into something new. Is this the best set of cover songs ever, themed or otherwise? Probably not. But is it fun as hell and worth your time? I’d say so.
Now excuse me, I need to get mom to cook me up some Totino’s Pizza Rolls while I jam out to some stellar 80s kids’ show cover songs.
You can check out the teaser promo for the album below, and pre-order/pre-saves are available here.
the white drew carey (aka – Jeff Sorley) is the founder and head editor of TGEFM. He’s lived (outside of) Chicago, Madison WI, (ugh) Penn State, Lyon FR, Oxford UK, central New Jersey, and now within earshot of SFO in the Bay Area. When not scouring the web for more great bands and labels to post about, he also spends time drawing (mostly) silly sci-fi and anime stuff under the name Asplenia Studios.
