Starting today - stop in any time!

Borrowed from Matt's music blog (http://mattfacingsouth.blogspot.com/): 

I have to be honest - I hadn't really heard of this guy before a few months ago; let's just say I'm not the world's biggest thrash-metal afficionado. Alex Skolnick popped up on my radar when my Yamaha sales rep called me up and said that they'd like to put on an acoustic guitar clinic featuring him right here at the store. My part-time guys, Josh and Andy, were floored - they knew of Alex from his days with Testament. Sure, let's do the show.

What happened next surprised me: Josh brought in a CD called Last Day in Paradise by the Alex Skolnick Trio. What surprised was that it was a jazz album that takes a different look at popular songs like Rush's "Tom Sawyer" and Testament's "Practice What You Preach" (the latter done as a Samba, which floored me), as well as a lot of original jazz in a progressive jazz/metal-ish sort of slant. Forgive me, but it's hard to correctly label modern jazz and often such labeling puts the music in a box, which I abhor, but I feel the need to describe it in some way. Now, some folks may have a hard time conceptualizing a mixture of jazz and metal; I know I did, but this clinic was about to alleviate that obstacle.

Alex, along with his support crew of Jamie Medina (our Yamaha sales rep), and Mike Tempesta (Yamaha artist relations, and brother of Testament drummer John Tempesta) arrived at Popplers last Wednesday to put on the clinic. Alex started by quoting some riffs from legendary fusion guitarist Al Di Meola and, in doing so, began to illustrate his mental process of combining jazz and metal. Along the way he recommended the audience read a book called "Effortless Mastery" by Kenny Werner, a jazz pianist. This particular book was gifted to me by a former bandmate and had been collecting dust because, frankly, I've been too afraid to dig into my subconscious musical mind. In actuality, after reading through the first quarter of the book this last week, I'm finding that it's exactly what I needed. I'll blog about that another time; back to the clinic.

Alex then took a riff from one of my favorite jazz albums: Chick Corea and Bobby McFerrin's (yes, the "Don't Worry, be Happy" guy) Play. In that album there is a lick that Chick plays (a Chick Lick?) on his composition entitled "Spain" that has always blown my mind. To my delight, it was this same lick that Alex electronically slowed down and turned into a couple of Metal riffs right on the spot, which was not only cool to hear, but inspiring to boot. Who knew that jazz could influence metal - and that metal could influence jazz. It was a clinic that both inspired me and opened my eyes; I'm now a follower of Skolnick - even if I'm a lowly pianist!

On a side note, we took them to Sanders after the clinic and they throughly enjoyed the food, drinks, and service - this coming from guys who live in New York, LA, and Milwaukee. So some (not surprised) props to the staff there!

copied from Matt's post @ ND Indie Rock: 

Thanks to everybody who made it to the show - it went well enough that we'll definitely do it again! We'll, of course, try to improve upon a few things (early start, I know) and hopefully try to do it outside next time 'round. It was great to see the bands. Thanks for braving the weather and sorry to a couple bands that we didn't have more of a crowd for you. We'll just build these kinds of events from this experience.


Thanks again, guys!

Everybody ready for Saturday?

Here are a few housekeeping items:

1) We'll provide the PA, you provide your backline gear. If you need anything special, let me know now so I can accomodate you.

2) We'll have a table set aside for merch if anyone needs it (I know the Bismarck was asking about this).

3) Each set will be one hour, including set up and tear-down. Don't show up at the last minute.

4) Venue rules - it has to be said: respect the venue. We'd like to be able to continue doing these for you, so no alcohol/substances and no moshing/jumping off things, otherwise our insurance company won't let us do it again.

Otherwise, we're ready to rock. I hope you are, too... --> google_ad_section_end -->

---Matt

-New post-
The final lineup as of 4/17:

11:00 The Bismarck
12:00 7 Kane
1:00 Inkedindecision
2:00 Edit-----Symbiont

3:00 The Offensive
4:00 KSA
5:00 Edit-----A Bitter Hostility

6:00 Wheat Missile
7:00 Surrounded by Silence

Pimp, Tom, pimp.

This is a repost from Matt's original blog:  http://mattfacingsouth.blogspot.com/

A few weeks ago I was in Anaheim, CA for the Winter NAMM show. As I alluded to before, this is a colossal event - probably the second-biggest music gear show in the world, and definitely the biggest in North America.

It's like any other trade convention in that manufacturers from near and far are peddling their wares to retail buyers such as myself. While there, I get to wear the coveted blue badge, which elicits solicitation from the sales-types: "Hi... Matt, are you interested in carrying this, the latest line of nose flutes?"

"No, thanks... um, could you point me toward the Moog booth?"

Needless to say, to a gearhound like me, it's heaven. Literally every current piece of musical gear can be found in the cavernous 1.2-million square-foot convention center. Yeah, that's a quarter-mile of gear and aging rock stars. A fun activity is to watch all the cats who were semi-famous and still have that long-hair, leather pants, strung-out look. Paul Stanley and I had a weird eye-contact "moment." I left feeling a little scared, but thanks for that anyway, Paul.

Anyway, glitz and glamour aside, the show was a good place for me to re-center myself in my primary occupation, which is to sell the stuff to folks like you. As I've said somewhere, maybe here, I like to think of myself as more of a faciliatator than a salesman - I am a musician myself and I'd like to think I'm providing a service to those who are in my shoes (or anywhere on that path). The NAMM show usually provides me insight into how to better do that by way of product demonstrations, learning seminars, and general networking with others in the business.

That, and I got to spend a week in my "backyard," (well some may call it the toilet - I am from Northern California) which happened to have a gorgeous week of 75 and sunny - sandwiched between two of the rainiest weeks they've had in 5 years. I rented a Nissan Altima (which pretty much rocked - 500 miles on one tank?!) and spent a couple of days reconnoitering various music stores in the Inland Empire as well as just taking in the sights and sounds of greater L.A. If you don't know - I actually like driving in L.A. There's so much to see and the traffic - as long as you expect it and aren't in a hurry - gives you time to reflect. I've told my wife many times that I just need to get out and drive sometimes.

Eating at TK's burger shack on Huntington Beach was a highlight. Oh, and I consumed lots - I mean lots of Mexican food. I also got to take in a few shows - Joey DeFrancesco's organ trio featuring the legendary George Benson on guitar, and one of my idols, Stevie Wonder, was the special guest at the Yamaha dealer show.

As I said all of this serves to educate and re-focus me so I can do a better job for you. Meanwhile, we picked up a few new product lines: ESP/LTD guitars, and Washburn guitars. There have been some really killer guitars trickling in from these guys and our acoustic room is about as full as it's ever been (over 100 guitars). We also firmed up our commitment to Pearl drums, a brand I can barely keep up with inventory-wise they are so popular.

I also came up with some new programs and projects that will hopefully serve the music community in Grand Forks. The first will be the Popplers Meltdown Fest on Saturday, April 26th - right here in the store. I already have 9 groups signed up to play and there will be food, door prizes, etc. A fun day for sure.

Stay tuned for more. Until then - thanks, L.A., for your hospitality and beautiful weather!

Yup, you asked for it... Popplers is having it's first Meltdown Festival on Saturday, April 26th (EDIT - thanks for the heads up, all) at the store. What I need from you is... you. I need about 7 local indie rock bands to fit the bill. We'll start at noon and go until 7:00 - each band has one hour (includes setup/sound check and teardown). We'll provide sound and all that - you just bring your axes and be ready to rock.

So, who's in? First come, first serve.

And let me know what time you'd like as well as a second choice in case that doesn't work out.

More details once I get a picture of who's playing...

Matt Strand

Combo Department Manager

Popplers Music, Inc.

800-437-1755