Moogfest: Yeah Yeah Yeahs Guitarist, ‘Stranger Things’ Band Lead Lineup
UPDATE: Flying Lotus, Animal Collective, Gotye, Derrick May and 808 State are among the artists added to Moogfest 2017. Stones Throw producer-DJ Peanut Butter Wolf will also honor artists who died in 2016, including Jean-Jacques Perrey, Pauline Oliveros, Bernie Worrell and Keith Emerson.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner, Stranger Things composers Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein of Survive and Nona Hendryx are among the artists that will flock to the 2017 Moogfest, taking place May 18th to 21st in Durham, North Carolina.
The Haxan Cloak, Wolf Eyes, ambient musician Laraaji and Simian Mobile Disco’s Jas Shaw are also part of this year’s lineup at the festival, which serves as an annual intersection of music, technology and art in the home state of electronic music pioneer Dr. Robert Moog. Festival organizers said that the lineup is the “first of eleven upcoming announcements” with a “big headliner announcement” to be revealed in the coming weeks.
Each day of the festival will feature “Future Thought” presentations, panels and installations, while the night brings the “Future Sound” segments of musical performances. Hendryx will perform with the aid of “wearable tech instruments,” a collaboration between the one-time Labelle singer and students at the Berklee College of Music. Zinner and the Haxan Cloak will also perform together.
Laraaji has planned an eight-hour “Sleep Concert” where “participants will imagine their self in the present time of a sincere desire, dream vision being fulfilled. Gentle ambient celestial sounds and tones unfold over an eight-hour period with zither, and various instruments supporting rest and trance, in an extended yoga savasana. Participants awake with a 15-minute guided laughter meditation.”
Like the 2016 incarnation, Moogfest remains stationed in Durham even as musicians boycott the Tar Heel State following North Carolina’s controversial “bathroom bill.” “It’s fitting that Durham is the site of Moogfest once again,” Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau’s Shelly Green said in a statement. “Durham has a long history of embracing diversity as well as activism against discrimination, so we welcome Moogfest and this theme with open arms.”
Wolf Eyes said in a statement, “We have never been activists, but in this day and age it has become clear that we need to use our music as a carrier signal to fight against all forms of prejudice. Rather than boycotting North Carolina, we are excited to participate in building a network of artists and activists by collaborating with Moogfest.”
Check out the Moogfest site for more details and ticket information.