About Us (Bio) - Poppermost Pop Rock Music Band

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Poppermost Bio
Original Las Vegas indie pop rock music band

"We believe our songs give our listeners and supporters the feeling of having something that is theirs, that's not a part of everybody else's world," says Alex Oliver, musical director for Poppermost.

Described by music fans as "early R.E.M. meets early Beach Boys at a Queen concert" and "pop vocal band America meets the Ramones," Poppermost is an indie pop / rock music creation based in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. Originally an acoustic pop duo, Poppermost is now the original music division for TriPops Productions, a combination of Oliver's label and publishing, and Trimordial Studio Las Vegas which is owned by the other half of Poppermost, Roy Rendahl.

The eclectic, diverse pop rock songs on their 4th full-length album, By Your Inspiration, were inspired by the winning essays from the Poppermost "Especially For You" win-your-own-song contest. While the collection of songs will ultimately be released on one disc, it is currently being released gradually as a four volume series of EPs.

The contest was simple -- every month for one year, Poppermost posed different questions to their listeners and friends via email, the Internet, and their website. Based on the "best answer" for each month's question (i.e. "who was your first love," or "who is the most inspiring person you know"), Poppermost would pick a winning essay each month and, as a prize, create a "personal musical valentine" for the essay writer.

"The contest was our way of saying thanks to our listeners and friends, who we call 'the different.' They have supported and inspired us for over ten years now," says Oliver. "Love like that you can't really pay back. The best of what we have to give back is in our music. They believe in us, and we do our best to entertain them through song."

By Your Inspiration also represents a personal best for the team of Oliver and Rendahl, both of whom man all the musical and audio switches. In addition to regular single releases, new songs for the contest had to be written, arranged, performed, recorded, and mixed each month. Turns out, it was a really fun, and trying, challenge for the duo. "The songs were recorded during the first wave of the economic downturn. Jobs were scarce, and all we had at one point were time and these songs to write and polish for our supporters. By the grace of their inspiration, it was great therapy."

Starting out as a duo on July 4, 2001, singer / songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alex Oliver joined forces with bassist and audio / graphics guru Roy Rendahl and freed themselves from a budding garage cover band in order to write and perform original music.  During the next 5 years, their expanded versions of the band turned in blistering live performances. They have released 3 other full-length CDs (the mellow acoustic self-titled debut, the daredevil power pop of Absolutely Sonic, and the shimmering retro pop / rock of Bitter Suite Swan Songs) plus numerous CD singles and extended-plays, which quickly became "must-haves" for flocks of indie pop music lovers all over the world.

Even after officially saying goodbye to live performances, they continue to earn airplay globally on commercial and Internet radio, as well as earning great reviews from the press and supporters.  "First and foremost, we believe in writing and creating music that people will enjoy and remember. In our case, we don't feel we need a typical band situation to accomplish what we need to do."  In addition to writing and producing their own original material, Oliver and Rendahl have branched out to assist indie musicians world-wide in arranging and recording their own music. Thus, TriPops was born.

Poppermost has been voted "Best of Las Vegas 2007" by the Las Vegas Review-Journal and listed as one of "Our picks for the best bands" in Las Vegas Weekly's annual music issue. Poppermost is determined to "capture ears, one song at a time" as the band continues to increase its radio and Internet presence. As Jarret Keene of LV's CityLife says, "Can’t stop Poppermost!" No matter where the journey takes them, or in what form, the creators of Poppermost are working to make their own significant mark on pop music history.

The Poppermost name originates from the early Beatles' inspirational call and response, "Where are we going lads?... To the toppermost of the poppermost!"

Some people say that Poppermost sounds like: The Turtles, The Beach Boys, Harry Nilsson, Simon & Garfunkel, Queen, Elliott Smith, Elvis Costello, The Kinks, Paul McCartney, The Hollies, The Beatles, Traveling Wilburys, Oasis, The Who, Electric Light Orchestra, Wilco, and classic '60s / '70s pop rock radio.

© 2012 Poppermost

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Alex Oliver with Poppermost at the Cannery Las Vegas

Alex Oliver
Makin' the Notes

Poppermost music director, Alex Oliver (ASCAP), is a singer / songwriter, acoustic and electric guitarist (both lead and rhythm), pianist / synth player, and drummer originally from Los Angeles, California. There he spent the '90s as a solo performer and as a veteran of several pop rock bands such as Junetown, Clover Club, and After Hours.

Alex Oliver:

vocals, guitar, piano
December 21 (Sagittarius, folks!)
blue
Beatles
chocolate milk and fencing
music and lyrics
Steve McQueen
"A Hard Day's Night" and "The Maltese Falcon" (tie)
"What in the hell does that have to do with music?"

"The summer of '76 was a pretty heavy time for me, man. I found FM rock radio, and it changed me. I can only equate it to 'The Wizard of Oz,' when everything goes from black and white to color."

Alex's influences include: The Beatles, R.E.M., The Beach Boys, Queen, Wilco, Oasis, classic '60s AM and '70s FM, The Who, Carol King, and Burt Bacharach and Hal David.

Co-owner of TriPops Music Productions and music director of Poppermost. Write to Alex at alex@poppermost.com. Or call 702-985-2278.

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Roy Rendahl with Poppermost at the Cannery Las Vegas

Roy Rendahl
Rockin' the Bass

Roy Rendahl (ASCAP), the Poppermost technical director, plays electric bass guitar, is the audio, video, and graphic art director (the band's logo and web page designer). The '80s saw him in bands such as Take five, The Barb Timm Band, Changes, and Sweetwater around his hometown of Winona, Minnesota playing a wide range of genres including R&B, country rock, and pop. This is where Roy started M City Music & Art studio. The '90s took him to Fresno, California doing audio and video recording, and changing the name of his studio to Trimordial Studio - Audio Video Graphics Web.

Roy Rendahl:

Since the age of 3 when he built his first model airplane, artistic expression has given Roy Al Rendahl great purpose in life. He was, and still is, always creating something. The many talents and accomplishments of this "little mad scientist" or "Mr. Wizard" whose actions and attitudes belie his age consist of the traditional forms of art like drawing, oil painting, photography, and more. Roy's many major triumphs include selling an oil painting to the Ben and Abby Grey Foundation collection at NYU, and having his Mac-computer-pixelated 8'x20' photograph mural featured as part of a highway beautification program in Fresno, California. In Las Vegas, he has had several photographs and oil paintings displayed in the new offices of Cirque du Soleil. Roy's love of color and light and the feeling of being limited by the range of colors available to the artist may have had some bearing on his branching out into other areas of creativity. At his long time "day job" as a mechanical machine design engineer (which is really commercial sculpture) he invented and patented one of the mechanisms used in a machine he designed.

Through the years, no matter what else he was doing, music and sound played a part in his life. The music portion of his artistic talents started in the form of playing a little toy percussion set he got in grade school; in junior high he "upgraded" to cardboard drums. He also was interested in the bass, so he taught himself to play bass from a regular guitar book using a "fake" bass made from a piece of plywood for the body, matchsticks for the frets, and kite string for the strings; until he got his first "real" bass by mail order from Allied Radio (which later turned into Radio Shack) and began his music career. He built his first amp by combining two SAMS schematic diagrams, one from a church organ and one from a radio. It went into some really neat distortion and sound effects if you turned it up too far! In another early experiment, Roy also built an analog synthesizer out of a small electronic organ by installing a synthesizer integrated circuit chip and sound shaping controls. He also built a Leslie style rotating speaker system from a lamp shade, an old TV cabinet, and a sewing machine motor. Roy has been designing and building speaker systems ever since, including the DeadLine Array (DLA), which is described in his business plan for Hackerz Niteclub.

Roy's professional music performance experience spans the '80s in the Winona, Minnesota area with a wide range of genres including psychedelic-jazz-rock, R&B, country rock, and pop in bands such as Blooze Union, Peppermint Love, Hot to Trot, Take 5, and The Barb Timm Band. The groups played in a variety of clubs and events; perhaps the hardest gig was at the Winona Athletic Club where they had to haul all their equipment and PA system up 3 flights of stairs. The most interesting was definitely when TBTB played Winona's Steamboat Days Parade. The R&B rock band's caravan presented quite a picture, performing throughout the parade route on a hay wagon pulled by an old black Caddy that said "Rascals Bar" on the sides. Behind them, a trailer carried the sound man and PA system, and yet another trailer behind that carried the generator to run it all. They were so loud that the marching bands had to keep the space of a block in between them in order to be heard by the judges. As loud as they were, the band could actually be seen even before they were heard due to Roy's powerful flashing lights directed forwards into the crowd from atop the hay wagon.

Roy officially started recording other people during his tenure in the band, Changes, and did more with the band, Sweetwater, but actually began his crusade to "save the good music" on tape much earlier in high school. He has continued using these skills in the '90s through today with his audio recording, video production, and graphic arts / web design business, Trimordial Studio. Being a member of a band these days also puts all Roy's talents to good use. Playing the bass, collaborating on the creation of the songs' foundation, engineering them, and creating the artwork for the band's logo, website, and CD's are only a small part of what he does as the technical director of Poppermost, and as co-owner of TriPops Music Productions. Write to Roy at roy@poppermost.com. Or call his cell at 702-340-6748.

Roy's influences include: Bruce Swedien, Roger Nichols, Bob Clearmountain, Dave Rat, Bob Ludwig, Tom Scott, Jimi Hendrix, Rolling Stones, The Who, Santana, Fleetwood Mac, Hank and Cupcakes, The Joy Formidable, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, and NPR's "Song Of The Day" (on some days).

See Roy's expanded bio with photos on his Trimordial Studio website.

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