Party: Sabertooth Micro Fest - Day 3

Party: Sabertooth Micro Fest - Day 3

Sabertooth website:
http://www.sabertoothpdx.com/

3-Day Pass Tickets: http://bit.ly/Sabertooth3DayPass

Sunday, February 7

McMenamins and Portland Mercury present
"Sabertooth Micro Fest"
featuring:
Built To Spill
Mikal Cronin (acoustic duo)
The Fresh and Only's
Brett Netson & Snakes
In Lola’s Room: Blasphemous Brew Fest
Al's Den: Sean Badders (Quick and Easy Boys)
A musical celebration of the Crystal Ballroom's psychedelic history
sponsored by Mercury, Sizzle Pie, Jackpot Records and VooDoo Doughnuts
7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show
All ages welcome
$30 advance, $35 day of show
"Sabertooth Micro Fest"
McMenamins And Portland Mercury is excited to announce the full lineup for the Crystal Ballroom's 2nd Annual Sabertooth psychedelicstonerrockmicrofest, a property-wide musical celebration of the Crystal Ballroom's psychedelic history.

Click here for the listing for all three days!

3 Day Passes and VIP tickets available!

Built To Spill

“Three and a half years in the making, the efforts of writing and recording There Is No Enemy led Built to Spill founder Doug Martsch to wonder whether this would be the last album he ever makes. As his wife, I watched him work, pouring hour after hour, day after day into writing. Song lyrics were labored over then thrown in the trash, guitar parts revised again (and again). A musician and artist like Doug edits far more than he keeps.



“For over twenty years, Doug Martsch has been writing and recording music. Built to Spill members Brett Nelson (bass), Scott Plouf (drums) Jim Roth (guitar), and Brett Netson (guitar) have all been musicians for two decades. That adds up to more than a century. Doug's strong aesthetic combines with the band members' mix of approaches to create an aural topography. Doug sets course and navigates. Each member of Built to Spill comes to the music with a different set of expectations and ideals.

“With the complexity and variety of music they have created, Built to Spill endeavors to make songs interesting to themselves and their audience. They hope that the band will remain special and that people will discover the music for themselves. Year after year, new fans show up. Just like the band members, listeners come to the music with expectations and ideals. They make up their own ideas about the songs.

“I once overheard Doug on the phone being interviewed. He sounded almost stand-offish in not 'telling' an interviewer the meaning of a song or describing its origin. Doug and I have speculated about this sometimes: meaning (whether intended or not) is not inherent in lyrics or in any art. Listening, looking closely, and responding with one's feelings, thoughts, and senses transforms. Doug simply does wish to disrupt any meaning someone else has found.

“I can barely repress the urge to tell you what There Is No Enemy means to me. When making the new record, Doug literally lived in the studio. To be able to work all day and all night. To spend hours and hours laying down guitar tracks he realized he couldn't use since the first live takes had the best tone and feel. To undigitally remix the record. With so much work behind the band, the record is here. Now comes the album's journey into the world. This venture Built to Spill does not map out. The record is yours to respond to.

“When I listen to songs Doug writes and the whole band plays, I think, 'How can people make music this good?' Even though I witness and minorly assist, I still do not understand how theirs or any beloved music comes into the world. To me, the process and result are magic.”

Website:
http://www.builttospill.com/
Mikal Cronin (acoustic duo)

MCIII is the third album from Californian singer-songwriter Mikal Cronin. Marked by the lush arrangements, stunning melodies, and deeply personal lyrical work for which Cronin is now known, the album is also a deliberate attempt to simply "go big."

Written and recorded over the course of 2014, between long bouts of touring, MCIII finds the Laguna Beach native splitting his latest full-length statement into two distinct halves. On Side A, behold a shimmering tsunami of furious, undeniable pop songs. On Side B, marvel at a beautifully wrought concept record in miniature, built around the radiant retelling of what Cronin calls his "coming-of-age" story: After leaving California to go to school in the Pacific Northwest, he found himself alone and adrift, struggling with debilitating back pain and a dissolving sense of self. "It's about a pivotal moment in my life that changed things, just within a couple of months," he says. "It was a shifting point that sent me on the path to doing what I'm doing right now."

As he did on his self-titled 2011 debut and 2013's MCII, Cronin arranged and played nearly all of the record himself, including the tzouras, a traditional Greek string instrument he heard and subsequently bought while on tour in Athens. There's French horn, saxophone, and trumpet. There are mood-altering crescendos and heartbreaking turns-of-phrase, guitars both gorgeous and pugnacious. No longer satisfied with the sound of "just one string player," Cronin arranged parts for a full string quartet instead.

"It's a continuation of what I've been trying to do up until now, but I'm finding a better way to do it," he says. "I'm finding a more successful way of working those unexpected elements and textures and instruments into a rock record, of exploring that wormhole and mushing everything together harmoniously. I like riding the line between the two," he adds. "I like finding new ways to bring different musical worlds together."



Website:
https://www.mergerecords.com/mikal-cronin
The Fresh and Only's

The Fresh & Onlys are an American rock band. They were formed in San Francisco in 2008 by Tim Cohen of Black Fiction, bassist Shayde Sartin and guitarist Wymond Miles. A year later they recruited drummer Kyle Gibson. They are a key band in what has been described as San Francisco's "new garage rock" movement, but their sound is equally aligned with pastoral psychedelia, brooding new wave, western twang, and jangly literate 80's guitar pop.

Website:
http://thefreshandonlys.blogspot.com/
Brett Netson & Snakes

The solo project of BRETT NETSON, well-known for his time spent in Built To Spill, Caustic Resin, on Earth's most recent album and much more, will debut this Winter, as BRETT NETSON & SNAKES is now preparing their Scavenger Cult EP for release.

Spawned in Idaho's Great Basin/Snake River Plain, Brett Netson specializes in heavy, psychedelic, lowdown rock and roll guitar; in some ways, that's all a person needs to know. But with the upcoming release of his newest full-time project - BRETT NETSON & SNAKES, and the band's debut, Scavenger Cult - as with the artist's ‘2009' intimate solo doomsday meditation, Simple Work For the Dead, and all six of Caustic Resin's full-length releases, there is much evidence that there are different dimensions to Netson's existential, freak out rock records. "The spirit made it through with no digitization" Recorded on 2" 16-track tape with Jason Ringelstetter at Tonic Room in Boise, Idaho, mixed to 1/2″ tape by Steve Lobdell at Audible Alchemy in Portland, Oregon with analog mastering at Salt Mastering in Brooklyn, New York, the release features drummer Steve Gere, and stereo bass contributions from Ian Waters and Josh Gallaway, in addition to guitar, bass and vocals courtesy of Netson.

Issues the frontman of his latest venture, "Scavenger Cult was made specifically for the decent ‘70s tuners and turntables that you can still occasionally find at yard sales, pawn shops and thrift stores. Crank this motherfucker up, open the front door and sit on the porch. Smoke, drink, whatever, and just be okay with your damn self and ALL the crazy shit that you are."

Scavenger Cult will see release this March on LP and digital in the US through Think Indie/Coallition Of Independent Music Stores distributor and BandCamp, and in Europe, Australia and New Zealand through TYM Records. A limited preorder of 100 LPs including a digital download and bonus tracks including live jams and alternate mixes will be available in January.

Brett Netson is well-known for his recurring role as guitar slinger/loose cannon for the populist, alt-pop/art-rock institution of Built to Spill. Since the inception of BTS, Netson has provided an element of, in the moment, conviction and color. "If you hear a slide, wah pedal or a clear vivid howl, it's Brett." Although he is known for his playing with Built to Spill, there's more to that story. After Caustic Resin was put on indefinite hold in 2003, Netson joined Mark Lanegan's touring band through 2005, hitting Europe and the US West Coast once or twice a year. Netson has also appeared on a few of Lanegan's albums and EPs including Field Songs, Here Comes That Weird Chill, and Bubblegum. During that time he'd also played on albums from Mike Johnson and the Evildoers What Would You Do and Gone Out of Your Mind on UP records, Helvetia's The Acrobats on The Static Cult Label, and the Delusions independently released Keeping Up Appearances. More recently, Netson appeared as a second guitarist on Earth's critically acclaimed new album, Primitive and Deadly, and Nate Hall's (of North Carolina's psych/metal outfit USX) solo release, Electric Vacuum Roar.

"Despite the obvious roots, Netson obviously has no interest in recycling hoary Neil Young country-rock clichés. Rather, he seems bent on using hard rock to destroy itself. From his vocal approach, Netson seems to have a love/hate relationship with '70s fixtures such as Ozzy Osbourne, Roger Waters, and Jethro Tull, who both inform the sound and provide something for it to react against." - Dusted Magazine



Facbook:
https://www.facebook.com/SnakesBrett-Netson-Band-495377270527963/timeline/
Al's Den: Sean Badders (Quick and Easy Boys)

The Quick & Easy Boys' highly anticipated second full-length album, Red Light Rabbit, is an amalgamation of funk, psychedelic rock, and garage-soul with a slight pinch of honky-tonk. Imagine the Minutemen, Funkadelic and Willie Nelson rolled into one. Also, these new recordings highlight the undeniable talents of this power trio who have been packing Northwest venues for the past few years.

Formed in 2005, The Quick & Easy Boys quickly made a name for themselves in Eugene, Oregon before heading north and building a Portland, OR fanbase. Their shows are an interactive party with electrifying stage antics and profound musical moments as the trio pours out every ounce of their energy, leaving nothing behind. The band has gained the reputation for moving a crowd all-night long whether it be a big festival or a tiny watering hole. The core members - - Jimmy Russell on guitar, Sean Badders on bass, and Michael Goetz on drums - - have continued to evolve musically...and audiences continue their enthusiastic calling of "Yeah Bud!" at every show.



In 2008, they released Bad Decisions With Good People which left people raving about their unique and vibrant sound, and in September of 2009, they sojourned out on their first United States tour. Two national tours are now planned for 2010. They've opened both locally and nationally for The Bridge, Iglu & Hartly, The Pimps of Joytime, Southern Culture on the Skids, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Bob Wayne & the Outlaw Carnies, Vince Herman, Scott Law and Shanti Groove.

The Quick & Easy Boys' high-energy thought-provoking original music provides a bounce to the step that only dancing can cure. So if you're tired of the same old sounds and looking for the next up-and-coming thing, The Quick & Easy Boys' newest release, Red Light Rabbit, is sure to give you a run for your money.

YEAH BUD!!!
-----
"Maybe Bootsy Collins wasn't listening to Farmer John when he said the Funkadelic bassman could sleep in his barn, because it appears Bootsy did have relations with John's daughter, and out popped Portland's The Quick & Easy Boys. Honky-tonk ain't never been this funky, and funk ain't never been this close to a cornfield. Riff-heavy and driven by a stoned-out beat wrested from the Mothership, The Quick & Easy Boys' sound is a one-of-a-kind cerebral treat. Maybe this is what it sounds like when Willie Nelson puffs extra purple herb." ~Willamette Week

"I predict that within a couple of years, the band's rallying-cry, ‘Yeah, Bud!' will be on bumper stickers from Beaverton to Bonnaroo and beyond."
~ P. Vaughn Shaver, Oregon Music News

Website:
http://www.thequickandeasyboys.com

MySpace Page:
http://www.myspace.com/thequickandeasyboys
A musical celebration of the Crystal Ballroom's psychedelic history

The Saber-toothed Cat thrived from the Eocene Epoch to the Pleistocene Epoch (a 42 million year stretch), and it's our hope that our Sabertooth Festival, with its roots in Portland's own "psycheluvic epoch"* will survive as long.

While psychedelic music covers a range of styles and genres, it is inspired by psychedelic culture and the attempt to replicate the mind altering experiences that started in mid-'60s folk rock and blues. As such, Sabertooth celebrates the historical role the Crystal Ballroom played through previous half-century of psychedelic music.

In the late 1960s the Crystal Ballroom celebrated an era referred to as "18 months of Psychedelia," and hosted mind expanding artists of the day from Frank Zappa to the Grateful Dead. While the modern Sabertooth Festival celebrates this history and shares the same common thread of experimentation and the ability to transport the listener to an altered reality, it is not a rehash of artists from a bygone era; the psychedelic music of the 21st century is in fact very different than what it was in the 1960s.

The Crystal's psychedelic cred includes notable nuggets from rock and roll history:

the famous Peace Rites event at the Crystal in the '60s, where Allen Ginsberg disputably first read 'Howl' (we celebrate his fellow beats in the Joe Cotter mural in the room itself).
the Dead recorded much of their exploratory Anthem of the Sun at the Crystal
the forefather of the distorted and processed guitar, Jimi Hendrix, played there as well
The Crystal has always been the nexus of this scene and McMenamins has continued to program and promote music of this nature since its opening.

Those looking at psychedelia's earliest roots will also see the Crystal playing a role. The first use of the word "psychedelic" in reference to music was in reference to our friends and extended family, the Holy Modal Rounders (members of whom will be performing at the Sabertooth event) of the East Village Freak Folk scene. Other key players of this scene were John Fahey, who's last Portland show was with us at our St Johns Pub; Bert Jansch (Pentangle) who we have hosted on two occasions in Lola's Room and the Rounders themselves who have performed multiple reunion concerts at the Crystal Ballroom.

In the late 70s the new psychedelic revival featuring bands like Echo and the Bunnymen, George Clinton and Fishbone... all acts who have played the Ballroom. And as time moved on, the early 90s brought a "neo-psychedelic " movement with the Elephant 6 collective, and the Crystal continues to host their music (Jeff Mangum, Neutral Milk Hotel, of Montreal - and supporting the Saturday night show The Minders).

The 21st Century lineage continues with such bands as Tame Impala, Animal Collective and The War on Drugs, who in fact just performed at the Crystal and whose early member/collaborator Kurt Vile headlines the February 7 event.

When psychedelic music melded with doom metal and evolved into Stoner Rock, Sleep was the first band of that kind and headlinine the first night of the festival.

Psychedelic music in its varying forms and styles is part of the lifeblood of the Crystal Ballroom: we wouldn't be open today without it, and we have continued to program it. Sabertooth is a natural extension of this, a full blown celebration of the music where the Company and the Crystal , as our predecessors , eternally presses Furthur ...

*from the Oregonian, March 3, 1967

Wiki-Delia:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_music

Interesting Related Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Remember-the-Crystal-Ballroom-of-the-60s/1429127164040565