photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

Father John Misty / Lee Fields / Sharon Van Etten

Saturday (5/18) at Great GoogaMooga in Prospect Park was Misty both onstage and off. J. Tillman (aka Father John Misty) played mid-afternoon set as light, atomizer-like rain frizzed hair and kept everything just a little moist. (Sunday the rain got worse and producers pulled the plug on the event.) Unlike Friday's paid-ticket kickoff event with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Flaming Lips and The Darkness, Saturday's admission was free (though you had to order tickets) and also featured sets from headliners Matt & Kim, plus Lee Fields & the Expressions, Sharon Van Etten, Jovanotti and more. Pictures from Saturday are in this post. Did you brave the not-too-bad-weather for some music, beer and grub?

You can check out Friday pics of YYYs, The Flaming Lips and The Darkness. More pictures from Saturday below...

Continue reading "GoogaMooga day 2 in pics (Father John Misty, Lee Fields, Sharon Van Etten, Matt & Kim ++ more)"

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

YYYs @ GoogaMooga 2013

We've already posted photos from the first two bands (The Darkness and The Flaming Lips) to play the Great GoogaMooga kickoff concert on Friday (5/17). Here are a set from headliners Yeah Yeah Yeahs who were the only band to actually get to play after sunset. A few shots of Chairlift, who played two different DJ sets that day and who will perform in the same location of the park this summer, are also in this post.

Did you go on Friday? How was your GoogaMooga experience?

Right after playing GoogaMooga, YYYs hopped down to Gulf Shores, Alabama to play the 2013 Hangout Fest on Sunday (5/19).

"About halfway through the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Hangout Music Festival set, frontwoman Karen O took a moment to make a special announcement before playing the band's 2004 breakout single "Maps." "This is dedicated to Stevie Wonder," she called out to the thousands of fans who showed up to catch the Yeah's set. The iconic R&B star was slated to follow the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the Hangout Stage as the weekend's headliner." [MTV]

Despite not having the most successful event either this year (rain) or last year (lines), a Channel 12 report claims GoogaMooga will be back in 2014. Meanwhile, BV Chicago reports that GoogaMooga might be coming to Chicago in August.

More Yeah Yeah Yeahs photos are below.

Continue reading "Yeah Yeah Yeahs played Hangout Fest & GoogaMooga (pics); GoogaMooga coming to Chicago next?"

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

Banana split: The Darkness @ GoogaMooga 2013

While Brooklyn's music-food-beer fest Great GoogaMooga 2013 came to a soggy, earlier-than-expected end, Friday's kickoff show (5/17) couldn't have been more perfect, weather-wise. The day got off to an early start and a bang with Lowestoft, UK's finest cheeky rockers, The Darkness. An expert at crowd participation, frontman Justin Hawkins (who was hopefully wearing sunscreen with that catsuit) had the crowd showing him their thumbs as the band cranked out tunes that tread the fine line between clever and stupid.

Chairlift and N.A.S.A's Sam Speigel had DJ sets on either side of the Darkness' performance that was followed by The Flaming Lips and Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The Darkness play Philly on Tuesday (5/21) before heading back to England. All dates are listed, along with more GoogaMooga pictures and video, below...

Continue reading "The Darkness played GoogaMooga (pics, video)"

photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

Will the woman who lost a small baby please come to the stage...

Two days after their appearance on Fallon and one day after they headlined Wellmont Theater in Montclair, the Flaming Lips played a 6:15pm set in Prospect Park as part of the first day of the second year of GoogaMooga (which ended up not having a third day). They want on in the light after the Darkness and before Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Here are some pictures, the setlist and video from their set. It all continues below...

Continue reading "The Flaming Lips played GoogaMooga (pics, video, setlist)"

people waiting to get in Sunday morning (via)

They really thought they were going to open today. They even announced that more tickets were being released today and that James Murphy, following in Sharon Jones's footsteps, had cancelled his performance today due to a family emergency. But the rain has won, and the second day of the 2nd GoogaMooga is now officially CANCELLED. The people pictured above waiting to get in today are probably especially upset.

Official reason: "NYC Parks Dept, Prospect Park Alliance & #Googamooga have canceled today's event in the interest of safety & prevention of damage to park."

All Sunday VIP ticket purchases will be refunded in full.

Bands and DJS that were supposed to play today included Delicate Steve, Cults, De La Soul, Kool & the Gang (instead of Sharon Jones), Nancy Whang & Pat Mahoney (instead of James Murphy), and M.A.K.U. Sound System.

Stay tuned for our pictures from Friday and Saturday, coming soon. Meanwhile watch a channel 12 video report that was filmed in the park early Saturday (it claims GoogaMooga will be back "bigger and better in 2014"), and a video of the Flaming Lips playing "You Lust" on Friday (you can hear people screaming "Vaseline, Vaseline!"), below...

Continue reading "GoogaMooga Sunday CANCELLED due to rain"

The Darkness in The Daylight @ GoogaMooga 2013 (via Ana Bollocks)

GoogaMooga 2013 is now officially underway. Flaming Lips on at 6:15pm, also in the light (followed by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs).

Check out pictures from the Lips' dark show in NJ last night.

Saturday afternoon brings Sharon Van Etten, Father John Misty and more to Googa, and Sunday has De La Soul, James Murphy and Kool & the Gang but not Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings.

If you're missing the Darkness today in Brooklyn, they also have shows coming up this month in Albany, Montreal and Philly. Check out their list of tour dates with a short Vine clip from GoogaMooga below...

Continue reading "It's 4:45 & The Darkness have taken the stage #GoogaMooga"

by Dominick Mastrangelo

The Flaming Lips @ Wellmont Theatre, 5/16/2013

The Flaming Lips played the first of two New York-area shows last night (5/16) at the Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, New Jersey.

It was near-sensory overload -- as all Flaming Lips shows have been since The Soft Bulletin tour -- as strobes and lasers flashed all about the theater. Wayne Coyne ascended a pile of silver half domes where his mic sat atop and he cradled an infant doll for the first three songs as black confetti was shot from cannons, two on either side of the stage, during the second song of the evening, "The Terror." It was everywhere and I found myself fishing confetti out of my camera bag on the train ride home.

It was also a far cry from my first Lips show - "The World's First Headphone Concert" - in Dallas in 1999 when Coyne had a solitary trash bag of confetti and would launch handfuls of it into the crowd. Colors cascaded through fiber-optic cords that snaked around the domes and back behind Coyne. From afar it looked as if he was standing on the glittering remains of a Disney Electrical Parade float. You may have seen it on their Late Night with Jimmy Fallon appearance.

The set leaned heavily on material from their new release, The Terror, and the past few records back to Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. We were treated to one song from The Soft Bulletin ("Race For The Prize") and nothing from the earlier records which I think is a bit of a shame.

Nonetheless, it was a spectacle that looked and sounded great. Spanning thirty years, the Lips maintain an eclectic and wide-ranging age group of fans. The younger part of the crowd did their part as kids toward the front wore costumes and covered themselves in glitter and fake blood. One girl - front and center - even had her own infant doll.

The Flaming Lips, along with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and The Darkness, will play the first night of Great GoogaMooga 2013 tonight (the Lips are on at 6 PM) before heading over to Europe for a handful of dates.  Setlist and more pictures from Wellmont --  including ones of opener Julianna Barwick -- are below.

Continue reading "The Flaming Lips played Wellmont Theatre (pics, setlist); GoogaMooga is tonight"

Kool & the Gang (not a recent picture)

Bummer news from GoogaMooga:

We regret to share the news but due to an urgent family matter, Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings are unable to perform as scheduled this weekend. Sharon and the Dap-Kings are all tremendously disappointed they are unable to appear at GoogaMooga and trust fans will understand. They hope to see everyone at another show soon.

While GoogaMooga will miss Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and wishes them all the best, we are thankful and excited to announce that festival goers will still be able to get their moves and grooves on with Kool & The Gang, who will now headline the Nethermead Stage on Sunday, May 19 at 6:45pm.

Classic Kool & the Gang video below...

Continue reading "Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings drop off Sunday's GoogaMooga bill; Kool & the Gang added"

Flaming Lips in Toronto (more by David Andrako)

The Flaming Lips were planning on landing in Simsbury, CT on July 15th, but Simsbury, CT has decided Wayne Coyne and crew will need to make other plans:

The town has decided against having The Flaming Lips play at the performing arts center at Simsbury Meadows this summer.

First Selectwoman Mary Glassman said the concert was conditionally approved pending a permit but that after conversations with Police Chief Peter Ingvertsen officials decided against the concert.

Glassman said the issue came down to staffing, and that it would have been difficult to get the necessary police officers in place for the concert, especially since the previously approved Emmylou Harris concert is planned for the following night. [Hartford Courant]

Meanwhile, the Flaming Lips have arrived in the NYC-area for a three-night run that looks like this:

Flaming Lips are here:
May 15 - The Late Show with Jimmy Fallon
May 16 - Montclair, NJ The Wellmont Theater
May 17 - Prospect Park Brooklyn, NY - GoogaMooga

All tour dates and the band's newest (and very) NSFW video below...

Continue reading "Simsbury, CT cancels the Flaming Lips (who play Prospect Park at 6PM Friday) ++++ Fallon tonight, NJ Thursday"

GoogaMooga 2012 (more by Chris La Putt)

Brooklyn food, drink, and music festival The Great GoogaMooga, who we're sure have been working hard on figuring out to do things better the second time around, have announced the lineup for their second year which goes down from May 17 to 19 at Prospect Park. We just mentioned that the fest begins with a kickoff show on the Friday (5/17) with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Flaming Lips, and The Darkness. The rest of the lineup includes Matt & Kim, Father John Misty, Sharon Van Etten, Lee Fields & the Expressions, and more playing on Saturday; and Sharon Jones & the Dap-KIngs, De La Soul (who recently announced a tour with LL Cool J, Public Enemy, and Ice Cube), Cults, The Soul Rebels, Delicate Steve, and more playing on Sunday.

Tickets for the kickoff show and VIP Cocktail Experience tickets for Saturday and Sunday go on sale Thursday (3/28) at noon, and general admission tickets for Saturday and Sunday become available in an online ticket giveaway which runs from April 1 to 3. "Complimentary tickets will be awarded at random and recipients will be notified by email on or before Wednesday, April 10."

Check out pictures of day 1 and day 2 of last year's festival.

Full music food and drink lineup below...

Continue reading "GoogaMooga 2013 lineup & tix (Father John Misty, Sharon Van Etten, De La Soul, Sharon Jones, Matt & Kim, and more)"

The Great GoogaMooga is returning to Brooklyn from May 17 to 19 at Prospect Park this year, and the festival will begin with a kickoff show on the Friday (5/17) from 4 PM to 10 PM with Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Flaming Lips, and The Darkness. Whoa! Tickets for the kickoff show go on sale Thursday (3/28) at noon. More info on the rest of the festival coming very soon HERE.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs also play a sold out show at Webster Hall on April 7 and The Flaming Lips also play Wellmont Theatre on May 16 (tickets).

Updated YYYs dates are listed, along with their new video for "Scarilege", below...

Continue reading "Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Flaming Lips and The Darkness playing GoogaMooga kickoff show in Prospect Park"

GoogaMooga (more by Ryan Barkan)

"AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE FOR EXTRA MOOGA TICKET BUYERS"

Dear Friend:

We promised you a terrific Extra Mooga experience this past weekend and we didn't deliver, particularly in providing an adequate amount of food and beverage on Saturday. We're very sorry if we disappointed you.

To officially extend our apology, we're offering you a 100% refund of your Extra Mooga ticket price, including handling fees.

If you'd like a refund, please email your request within 30 days to refunds@googamooga.com. Make sure to include the email address you used to make your initial purchase. You'll receive a refund to the credit card you used for your purchase within approximately 10-14 days of the date of your request. We'll inform you by email when your refund has been processed.

If you paid in cash, please email us from the address you gave us when you purchased your ticket and give us a mailing address for your refund check.

When developing The Great GoogaMooga, we envisioned Extra Mooga as an outstanding all-inclusive, premium experience, with top-tier programming and lots of great food and drink. We were also excited to shine the spotlight on this magical part of Prospect Park, one of the City's great treasures.

Our intentions were good, but our execution came up short in several areas. As we continue to evaluate what went wrong, your feedback is important to us. We've set up a special address for your comments--ExtraMoogaFeedback@googamooga.com

At Superfly Presents and GoogaMooga, we pride ourselves in creating great experiences--and exceeding expectations--and we sincerely hate to disappoint and under-deliver. We're in this for the long haul and are committed to building a great, iconic food festival for New York. We hope you'll look past this year's mistakes and join us at next year's Great GoogaMooga festival.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Mayers, Rick Farman, Rich Goodstone & Kerry Black
Co-Founders, Superfly Presents & GoogaMooga

Peter Shapiro
Co-Founder, GoogaMooga

PS: We promised a portion of each paid ticket would go to support the Prospect Park Alliance. Although we will refund your purchase price in full, rest assured that we are still following through and making the donation to the Alliance.

Pics from the weekend HERE, HERE and HERE.

photos by Ryan Barkan

New Brooklyn food and music festival GoogaMooga just spent two extremely sunny days in Prospect Park which is hard to believe on this extremely rainy Monday. And though the weather was super, a few other details were not, and for that they've apologized along with a promise to be back next year. You've already seen pictures from Saturday and Sunday. Here are some more from Sunday. They continue below...

Continue reading "more pictures from GoogaMooga Sunday"

Anya Sapozhnikova @ GoogaMooga Day 2 (more)

GoogaMooga says:

THANK YOU!

A huge thank you to everyone who helped make the inaugural Great GoogaMooga so special: all of the food & drink vendors, our excellent staff & volunteers, the amazing musicians & chefs, the park & mother nature for the unparalleled weather and most importantly, all of you fans!

And to those who had a frustrating experience on Saturday - we are sorry. We truly regret the first year glitches and really appreciate your patience as we worked to smooth them out. As with all our festivals, creating and providing an enjoyable experience for everyone is the driving force behind all that we do, and a responsibility we take very seriously. We couldn't have done it without you and hope to see you all next year!

photos by Chris La Putt

Hall & Oates & Peelander-Z - in Prospect Park (5/20/2012)

Unlike Chris (who took these pictures), I didn't get to the Nethermead until 5pm, but what I saw was consistent with reports that the second day of GoogaMooga was free of a lot of the kinks experienced on Saturday. Lines were shorter on Sunday, there was more food, there were maybe a few less people, and everyone just generally seemed to be having a great time. Conversations on the first day were all about how long you had to wait to get something. Conversations on the second day seemed to be more about how much better things were, and how awesome it was to hear Hall & Oates play 80 minutes of hits in a huge park on a beautiful day to thousands of people, many of whom were dancing and singing along. Sure there were still lines for popular items, but nothing like the day before, and there were a lot less of them (would you agree?).

Other highlights of Sunday's free but ticketed event included a memorable performance by colorful punks Peelander-Z (whose red member can be seen flying over a porta-potty in one of the pictures above), a rocking set of Led Zeppelin tunes by Lez Zeppelin, soul by both Charles Bradley and Fitz & the Tantrums, another hour ExtraMooga Q&A session by the extremely entertaining, even to vegans, Anthony Bourdain who went into detail on his opinions of vegetarians at the request of one audience member (Anthony appears live in Brooklyn again at BAM on June 9), and an ExtraMooga night-closing Big Gay Ice Cream Dance Party complete with a DJ, alien dancer things, drag queens, free ice and ice cream, and scantily clad stilt workers (also ExtraMooga only).

The plan seems to be to bring GoogaMooga back in 2013 (hopefully next time with more vegan options), so stay tuned. More pictures from Sunday in Prospect Park, below...

Continue reading "GoogaMooga day 2 in pics (Hall & Oates, Peelander-Z, Fitz, Patton Oswalt, Tom Colicchio, Charles Bradley & more)"

photos by Chris La Putt

If you're going to GoogaMooga on Sunday, you might want to eat and drink before you get there. More pictures from Saturday below...

Continue reading "GoogaMooga day 1 in pics (Roots, UMO, Aziz, James Murphy, food, LONG LINES, Marc Maron, Holy Ghost! & more)"

Holy Diva

This weekend in NYC offers you a plethora of tribute band options starting tonight (5/18) at Brooklyn Bowl where all girl tribute to Motley Crue "Girls Girls Girls" are sharing a bill with the female-fronted Dio tribute band Holy Diva and Bottoms Up who are a tribute to classic Van Halen - the only classic Van Halen you're going to get in the NYC-area for a while (or maybe just until Saturday) .

If you meet a member of Holy Diva in the crowd, find out what their thoughts are on Black Sabbath's decision to crop Bill Ward out of photos. DIO Rest in Peace.

Saturday (5/19) the fun continues in Prospect Park when GoogaMooga hosts a set by Unchained (another Van Halen tribute band). All girl Led Zeppelin tribute Lez Zeppelin play GoogaMooga on Sunday.

Saturday night is the return of Guns 'N Roses cover band Mr. Brownstone at Bowery Ballroom where they'll be joined by Rolling Stones tribute Mick's Jaguar, which should be a good warm for the Mick Jagger episode of SNL which you can watch on your DVR when you get home from the show. Tickets are still available and we're giving away a pair on Facebook. Adam Hertz & the Interns (ft. The Internettes) and Thunderpony are also on the bill of what should be a very drunken night (though hopefully not one met with serious bodily harm).

Superfly presents the Great GoogaMooga this weekend (5/19-5/20) in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. As can you can see by the posted schedule, live music will be happening on two stages concurrently with food demonstrations, comedy and other entertainment while food is being served all around. Don't have one of the free tickets, and aren't planning on buying one either? Probably best to not show up then. At least that's what festival co-founder Kerry Black of Superfly told us in the interview that you can read in full below...

Continue reading "an interview w/ Great GoogaMooga co-founder Kerry Black (about this weekend's fest in Prospect Park)"

James Murphy at Brooklyn Bazaar (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

It's benefit season, don't you know? MoMA's annual Party in the Garden is on Tuesday (5/22) with Santigold as the featured performer, and then the next night (Wed. 5/23) it's the Spring Gala Benefit at The Kitchen, one of New York's oldest not-for-profit performance spaces. It happens at Capitale (130 Bowery) and this year's guests of honor are video and performance artist Joan Jonas and minimalist composer Steve Reich. The evening features performances from David Cossin (Bang on a Can), Jason Moran and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden. The afterparty features a DJ set from James Murphy.

Tickets are still available, and will set you back anywhere from $500 - $25,000. If you just want to go to the afterparty, tickets start at $75. The proceeds will support artistic and production fees for The Kitchen's annual presenting season, which features experimental work by innovative artists, both emerging and established. Programs range from dance, music, and theatrical performances to video and media arts exhibitions to literary events, film screenings, and artists' talks.

If you can't make the Spring Gala then you can still catch James Murphy behind the decks at GoogaMooga this weekend. He'll headline the Pagoda Stage on 5/19 as part of the ExtraMooga portion of the program. Tickets for ExtraMooga are still available and the full schedule of events (with times) are up. Murphy will also DJ the upcoming Roots Picnic.

The lineup was just announced one post ago, and already The Roots and Unchained "the Mighty Van Halen Tribute" have been added to Saturday.

Questlove and Black Thought were also on the Central Park Summerstage lineup announced today.

"The Festival will feature two stages of music per day, both located in the Nethermead Meadow. More artists to be announced. Performances start at noon and end at 8:30 pm on Saturday. Performances start at noon and end at 7:30 pm on Sunday." Announced music lineup for the two day Prospect Park food and music festival, below...

Continue reading "GoogaMooga music lineup announced (and updated)"

We still have a few more days before we find out the entire music lineup of the Great GoogaMooga, but the new Prospect Park festival announced the May 19th & 20th schedule, and almost-full lineup, of "ExtraMooga", the part of the fest that requires you to pay extra money. Taking place in multiple park venues that you can see illustrated in the above map, in addition to chefs and the previously announced James Murphy & Aziz Ansari, the lineup now also includes WTF with Marc Maron, Hot Tub with Kurt & Kristen, and Patton Oswalt too. You can view the whole thing HERE.

Meanwhile, Hot Tub with Kurt & Kristen continues every Monday night at Littlefield.

Brooklyn's Prospect Park food & music festival The Great GoogaMooga is still somewhat of a mystery, though the food lineup seems to grow by the day. What about the music (and more general admission tickets)? Well, the festival just posted this:

"Turns out we've got just as healthy of an appetite for music as we do for food and drink. On Monday, April 23rd, we'll be laying out the spread of musical enticements so you can come to The Great GoogaMooga ready to rock out between bites - 2 days, 2 stages and 10 acts each day.

Since we'll already have you drooling on Monday, we'll be opening general admission ticket registration the next day, Tuesday, April 24th. More details to come...

Preservation Hall Jazz Band's full tour schedule, below...

Continue reading "Who's playing the Great GoogaMooga?"

Did you get free tickets for GoogaMooga the other day? The promoters posted the following message:

Early Registration GoogaMooga Festival is Now Full - More to Come

General admission early registration for the GoogaMooga Festival is now full. There will be more tickets released in the coming weeks. Check www.GoogaMooga.com regularly for more information regarding additional allotments of tickets.

As the official ticketing company for Googa Mooga, we [Eventbrite] are committed to offering a smooth, pain-free ticketing experience for event attendees and organizers. We failed on that [Thursday], and apologize to GoogaMooga fans and the event organizers. While there were people who were successful in securing early registration for GoogaMooga, due to high demand and some serious technical problems, our ticketing page was unavailable to many who were trying to register for the event.

We are working together with the GoogaMooga event organizers to take care of everyone who was trying to get tickets today and fulfill all pending registration requests.

Please keep an eye on GoogaMooga.com for information on additional ticket availability. We'll also be sending posts via Twitter and Facebook when these tickets are available.

Still no word on what bands are playing.

Free tickets for the Prospect Park food and music festival GoogaMooga go on sale at noon. "Extra Mooga" will cost $249, and though details are vague, a press releaes mentions that, "Extra Mooga will include performances by culinary luminary Anthony Bourdain and Parks and Recreation star and comedian Aziz Ansari as well as a DJ Set by James Murphy, DFA Records / LCD Soundsystem."