(Entered June 8, 2000)

Read The Village Voice review of the Battery Park set online:
(Photo of Yoko included with Review)
Village Voice

(Entered June 7, 2000)

New York Times Story Courtesy Kevin Concannon via Ono-Net --

Complete Review here:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/music/060600stereo-music.html

Ann Powers, writing for the New York Times, June 6, commented extensively on Stereolab's performance at the Bell Atlantic Jazzfest Battery Park show, and had this to say about Yoko, Thurston and DJSpooky:

"A brief summit meeting of Yoko Ono, Thurston Moore and DJ Spooky delivered exactly what it advertised. Ms. Ono pushed her mostly nonverbal vocals toward agony and ecstasy while Mr. Moore assaulted his guitar with a drumstick, as he has many times in the band Sonic Youth, and DJ Spooky deployed turntables, a sampler and an upright bass in hip hop-flavored abstractions. This unrestrained wallop of sound showed three stars working their best tricks. Next to tidy Stereolab, it seemed totally indulgent. But such lack of design has its own charm."

Complete review here:
http://www.sonicnet.com/news/story.jhtml?genreNameForDisplay=Dance%2FElectronic&genreDirectoryName=dance&id=971670

Dylan Stableford reported that Stereolab's set was "disappointing" - but felt the Yoko-Moore-Spooky set was "introspective" and Yoko's vocals were "vibrant."

Stabelford said:

"The intriguing combination of Ono, Moore and DJ Spooky provided the most spark, with Sonic Youth's signature dissonance on display during an introspective, experimental set. Ono's vibrant vocal snarls brooded above DJ Spooky's funk-laden beats, ambient washes and the enjoyably distorted fret work of Moore.

"After the set, Moore said, 'Everybody was really down. They were just rockin', into it.'"

Stableford said the backstage buzz centered on the Ono-Spooky-Moore set rather than the headliners, Stereolab. Backstage were Sean Lennon, guitarist-producer, Arto Lindsay and Sonic Youth singer Kim Gordon.

"Thurston's background is, you know, the '80s experimental rock stuff, and of course Yoko, and I'm into the '60s sh--," DJ Spooky explained. "We just wanted to get it out there."

Related story: DJ Spooky Talks About Yoko