The Poison Control Center / Lake Holiday

Little N Marie U and Her Sunshine Factory 7"

Bi-Fi Records

Genres: sixties pop, indie pop

Bi-Fi Records
PO Box 1327
Ames, IA 50014

Mar 3 - 9 2003

What we have here is a beautiful red translucent split 7" from two hip new acts, The Poison Control Center from Ames, Iowa and Lake Holiday from Toronto, Ontario.

Side A houses four short tracks by The Poison Control Center, who have a very psychedelic sixties sound.  "Little N Marie U" starts things off as a pop tune filled with those typical warbly, dreamy vocals that dominated the psych era - heck, they've even got the British accents to really give it that British Invasion sound.  Then comes "The Sunshine Factory", an organ-based tune with even more modified vocals, warbly to the point of being incomprehensible to most listeners.  "The Moon Softly Recedes, Turning Spinning Flowers Back Into Seeds" then comes in with your typical sixties riff (kind of like "Louie Louie," although I'm sure there's better comparisons I'm not thinking of right now) and a bit more power and energy - this is a nice contrast with the other tracks, and one that is further carried on in "Good Morning," another powerful number that blends garage with nice sixties beat pop.

Side B boasts two tracks from Toronto's Lake Holiday.  I obviously have a soft spot for them since they're from my hometown, but take my word for it, they've got a really nice sound.  "All My Enemies," their first piece, is a calm, quiet pop number with a nice melody.  But everything works best on "If This is a War", which blows the first track totally out of the water with a gust of reverbed vocals and energetic, fun guitars.  The chorus is irresistibly catchy and carefree, with a certain britpop influence and a definite penchant for sixties-styled guitar.

Altogether, this is a very enjoyable release from a couple of really interesting bands.  Both boast a sound influenced by the past - The Poison Control Center go for straight up revivalism, whereas Lake Holiday take a more modern approach.  Both do what they do well, though, and that's what makes this such a successful record.

83%

Fun Fact: So what is Ames, Iowa like?

Matt Shimmer

[Vitals: 6 songs, distributed by Happy Happy Birthday To Me, released 2002]