CANDY ROCK

Erin Randolph

As 10 members of Poison Control Center crowd into a small room and huddle around a computer monitor at their label, Bi-Fi Records, it became obvious that this isn’t your typical band.

And they’re not always just 10 members – sometimes more, sometimes less. They always wear green at their live performances. When you ask one of them why, they say they invented colors, or mutter something about the Kaleidoscope Kids, a group of people they made up to explain the colors phenomenon. Someday that concept will be put out in the shape of a record.

“Someday when we come out with that album, hopefully it will come out in musical form and it will be an actual story,” says Patrick Fleming, guitarist and vocalist. “That’s what we’re trying to do – create stories.”

PCC’s members have just finished practicing for the Bi-Fi Showcase, where they will unveil their first musical story.

Bags of gummy worms are passed around as members line the walls of the studio while tossing Skittles into the air, attempting to catch them in their mouths. An acoustic guitar rests on a stand in one corner of the room, while a large clear tube filled with multi-colored bubble gum leans in another.

As Fleming prepares to play PCC’s debut album loud enough to hear the stereophonic element, the flavorful candy and bubble gum in the corner begins to seem all too appropriate.

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For the next 27 minutes, the air tastes of gum drop pop melodies also known as the “Go-Go Music Show.”

And just as the single, “Bed Time for the Little Kids,” was more like a mini album, the full-length follow-up is more than your normal record. Envision a half-hour radio program (pre-television) inundated with an announcer who coordinates the “show” in a British accent, with commercial breaks, a special news bulletin and insatiable melodies all on one refreshingly eccentric platter.

Highlights on the album include PCC’s single “Bed Time for the Little Kids” as well as other quirky tunes filled with handclaps, a plea to join in on the newest dance craze, the “Shabami,” and a commercial for a gum called “Freshmint.”

“They said my kiss was hopeless/ Then I found Freshmint.”

“Dog Days” is a song that will make you forget it’s almost winter. Brimming with a summer feel, this song takes you back to the days of “Pet Sounds” by the Beach Boys. And the “Lolly-Pop-Shop” is so delicious it leaves you craving more.

“If we could make the songs taste like how candy does – ” Fleming begins.

“He’s been planning that line for days,” explains Natalie Uhl, backup vocalist, as she shakes her head.

“Ambitious and delicious is what we’re going for,” Fleming continues, ignoring Uhl.

“He planned that one, too,” Uhl says with a smile.

“If this band could taste as good as Reeses Pieces,” interrupts Joe Terry, trumpet and bass player, and all around go-to guy as he holds up his bag of sweets, “I would stop eating these things.”

Conversation is overflowing with this sort of light-hearted banter, which seems to sum up part of PCC’s appeal. Maybe the appeal is in the members’ what-you-see-is-what-you-get attitude. Or maybe it’s a combination of these, but the band seems to think its appeal is the live show.

“Have you ever seen Pat [Fleming] on stage?” asks Joe Williams, saw player, who is shuffling his fuzzy brown bear slippers.

Fleming is known for leaping off stage and dashing through the crowd passing around a tambourine. But he isn’t the only perk of the PCC exhibit.

“I think a lot of the appeal is the spectacle of the live show with so many people on stage,” Jeremy Grace, keyboardist, says.

“There’s a lot of appeal,” Fleming agrees. “You don’t always get to see a guy play a saw.”

Fleming wishes he could see his own band play live. He recalls a moment at one of their two performances at last year’s Veishea, where they took the gold at the Battle of the Bands. He was sprawled on his back playing guitar next to Devin Frank, PCC’s other leading man.

“I looked up and saw Joe Terry playing two trumpets at the same time, and I thought, `My God, that’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life,'” Fleming says.

But the world of PCC isn’t all handclaps and Skittles. Rounding up all the members to practice is a difficult task, and not always an efficient one. In just two hours of practice, they got in only five songs.

“Everyone fights and stuff,” Fleming explains.

“Hey, nobody fights!” Leah Reeves, backup vocalist, shoots back.

“Everyone just starts talking and playing their instruments randomly,” Uhl interrupts.

“It’s hard to get 11 or 12 people in the same place at the same time, too,” Fleming adds.

And having that many people on stage can be a chore for the workers involved behind the scenes trying to maintain the quality of the show.

“We’re a pain in the ass to a lot of people – like sound people,” Fleming says. “Or even people who are trying to record us.”

“Anytime you add more instruments and more vocal mics, it’s going to add to the complexity of the mix,” says Elliot Nielsen, a sound technician for the Maintenance Shop.

And although it’s more difficult to mix 12 instruments than three, PCC tries to be understanding, and has to be.

“The last time I did [sound for] them, I thought it turned out pretty good,” Nielsen says. “It ended up being better sounding than I thought it would overall.”

Although PCC has obstacles to overcome, this is the band Fleming has always dreamt of being in.

“I always had this band idea in my head,” he says. “While I was living in Sibley I thought it would be perfect if I could get all my friends together in a band and play `60s-inspired pop.”

And now he has all his friends together playing in a band that cites influences such as the Elephant 6 collective – including Elf Power, The Apples in Stereo and Beulah – as well as The Beach Boys, attributing much of their sound to the surf-rockers’ “Pet Sounds” album. Life couldn’t get much sweeter.

Poison Control Center seems to have the recipe for success, and Fleming seems pleased.

“It could be the AA album,” Fleming says as the room erupts in laughter. “You could go to AA and they would be like, `We don’t know what to tell you. There’s no hope for you; Just listen to this album.’

“We could be the drug,” he says with a smile.

And now, with “The Go-Go Music Show” ready for release, Poison Control Center is ready to give the world a taste of its addictive ear candy.