Sunday Best 2010 Summer Schedule

[eamon_harkin]

The summer's just around the corner, and we can barely contain ourselves. It's going to be another lovely season of Sunday afternoons down on the Gowanus with Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin, Doug Singer and, of course, tacos.

We've been keeping it a secret for a while, but we're happy to announce to you all the special guests who'll be playing alongside us this summer. They're all listed on the Sunday Best site at this very moment...

Sunday Best

with resident DJs
Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin and Doug Singer

And our guests

May 30th - Michael Mayer
June 6th - DJ Koze
June 13th - Dam Funk
June 20th - Fred P
June 27th - Kenny Larkin
July 4th - Rich Medina
July 11th - Alex from Tokyo
July 18th - Todd Edwards
July 25th - Ashley Beedle
August 1st - Linkwood
August 8th - Floating Points
August 15th - Frank 'Vodoo Funk' Gossner
August 22nd - Prosumer
August 29th - Optimo
September 5th - No guests, just the Sunday Best residents taking it home


Outdoors at BKLYN Yard
Fresh Food, Cold Drinks.
400 Carroll Street between Bond & Nevins
FG to Carroll St or NR to Union St
$12, all ages
$8 in advance at residentadvisor.net/sundaybest (http://www.residentadvisor.net/sundaybest)
or $8 before 4pm with RSVP to rsvp@sundaybestnyc.com

www.sundaybestnyc.com (http://www.sundaybestnyc.com)
www.bklynyard.com (http://www.bklynyard.com)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4052/4568874253_b8666de91b_o.jpg

http://www.residentadvisor.net/images/events/flyer/2010/us-0613-162893-back.jpg

[eamon_harkin]

Just two weeks to go to the season kick-off. Justin, Eamon, Doug & Kompakt chief Michael Mayer!

[eamon_harkin]

Our hearts are broken. We've just received news that BKLYN Yard has ceased operations. (You can read the story here (http://bklynyard.com/bklyn-yard-shutting-our-doors/).) We're still trying to make sense of it all, but while we're doing that, we're working on other plans to keep Sunday Best going.

For now, this Sunday's party with Doug, Eamon, Justin and DJ Koze will be at Littlefield (http://www.littlefieldnyc.com/). All tickets will be honored, and all the pricing and timing details will be the same. We'll let you know as we have updates for following weeks, but for now, rest assured that we won't stop until we have a home that makes sense for this good thing we've got going on. Every loss presents an opportunity.

Keep your eyes here, or sign up for the email list to stay in the loop, and we'll be in touch very soon with some good news.

Doug, Eamon & Justin

[eamon_harkin]

We are beyond happy to announce that we are taking a stab at bringing Sunday Best back to the very tree-specked, canal-side lot at 400 Carroll Street where we started this season and spent the past two years. This Sunday, June 13th, we'll begin. We'll be playing in the sunshine alongside LA boogie revivalist Dam-Funk.

We're taking it week by week: This Sunday there'll be no bar, and there can't be any alcohol at all on the property (so please, please, please leave it at home, as the rest of our season depends on it). We're working on bringing alcohol sales back as quickly as possible. The good news, though, is that the food vendors are prepping, and the disco ball will be spinning under the trees.

As usual, we'll have a back up in case of inclement weather, so keep an eye on our site if a storm comes up.

We look forward to joining everyone again in the great outdoors!

Your DJs,

Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin & Doug Singer

[Free Russell]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJeIvLtPciU&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJeIvLtPciU&feature=related)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKDVA2_Fmz4&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKDVA2_Fmz4&feature=related)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEeavV0Zr9M&feature=related (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEeavV0Zr9M&feature=related)

http://www.sundaybestnyc.com/ (http://www.sundaybestnyc.com/)

The Toxic Joys of Sunday Best

"I'm a reformed '90s raver," confesses DJ Doug Singer. "So dance parties for me used to be hundreds of people gathering at random spots and finding something in common together. The first parties I ever played were at campgrounds on a lake."

Seated together with his fellow DJ/promoters—North Carolina transplant Justin Carter (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Justin+Carter) and Irishman Eamon Harkin (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Eamon+Harkin)—at a bar in Fort Greene (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Fort+Greene), Singer, an Ohio native, reminisces about a decade spent partaking in and promoting dance parties amid the cement strictures of New York, and how far the scene here has fallen. "With bottle service and Manhattan club life, going out became a chore. So we're bringing it back to where you don't have to be into anything other than having a good time."

The trio returns to those halcyon days of outdoor dancing with Sunday Best, which kicks off this Memorial Day (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Memorial+Day) weekend at Brooklyn Yard with German superstar-techno DJ Michael Mayer (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Michael+Mayer) and runs through Labor Day (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Labor+Day), offering nothing more pretentious than a good time alongside, uh, the infamously toxic Gowanus Canal (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Gowanus+Canal). "Brooklyn Yard is a legitimate business with liquor licenses and insurance, but it still feels mom-'n'-pop," Carter says. "It has the qualities of other Brooklyn dance parties that aren't at clubs, which happens to be the zeitgeist right now."

Carter had worked at APT in the Meatpacking District (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Meatpacking+District) and Nublu on the Lower East Side (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Lower+East+Side) for years before opting to book mobile dance parties with Harkin. "We're not investing in rent," Harkin says. "We're focusing our attention on the sound, building the brand, bringing great DJs, and having great artist relationships." Christening themselves "Mister Saturday Night," they've gone everywhere from loft spaces in Bushwick (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Bushwick) to the Water Taxi Beach (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Water+Taxi+Beach) in Long Island City (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Long+Island+City). And joined by Singer, the trio has hit upon their finest, most offbeat locale yet. For three years now, Sunday Best has made thousands of New Yorkers forgo the Hamptons to instead carouse, sweat, and shake along the banks of the Gowanus (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Gowanus) (and not from high PCB levels). Or, for those who prefer to sit on what their mothers gave them, you can also eat pupusas (served by Red Hook (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Red+Hook) vendors) and down sangria under shady trees while people-watching amid the throng on the cement-slab dance floor.

Whatever you do, though, don't go cool off in the nearby water. "At Metro Area, at the end of our very first year," Harkin recalls, "we had a guy jump in and climb out, going, 'Oh! It's tingling! It's tingling!' " The table collectively chuckles. "He had to go to the emergency room."
Originally, the undeveloped plot of land that runs along Carroll Street and abuts the canal was to only host a one-off party with Norwegian space-disco infiltrator Prins Thomas (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Prins+Thomas). "But Thomas caught the vibe there immediately and told us we had to do it here," Carter recalls of that Field of Dreams moment. And even though summer rain fell on the open-air space often during that first year, spirits never dampened. In fact, it often spurred guest DJs like Afrika Bambaataa (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Afrika+Bambaataa) or Detroit's Omar S. to make rain dances out of their sets.

This year, the trio has expanded its reach, drawing dance-music heavyweights from U.K. house producer Ashley Beedle (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Ashley+Beedle) (July 25) to New York's own Frank "Voodoo Funk" Gossner (August 15) to Scotland (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Scotland)'s heralded duo Optimo (August 29), who'll be playing their first Sunday party since shuttering their weekly residency in Glasgow (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/Glasgow) last month, widely regarded as the greatest dance party of the past 10 years. "We are monumentally psyched to be asked to play," writes Optimo's JD Twitch about the invite. "Musically, what we played only worked because it was a Sunday—there's a certain freedom one can have then that perhaps isn't attainable on other nights. And playing outside creates a whole different atmosphere than playing in a dark nightclub."
But bringing over Mayer—the Berlin resident, Kompakt label head, and staple of huge techno clubs like London (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/London+(England))'s Fabric and Berlin's Panorama Bar—is the party's biggest coup. "I've heard such great things about Sunday Best . . . and am in awe of the spirit there," Mayer writes from Germany. "Fun times ahead!" To which Carter adds: "Ordinarily, it wouldn't make sense, because Michael's such a big star. But musically, it's going to be perfect."

Paradoxically, the Environmental Protection Agency (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/U.S.+Environmental+Protection+Agency)'s recently granting the Gowanus a Superfund designation might keep the party going beyond this year. The move "will put less pressure on the neighborhood to build condos on that space," Singer says. For internationally known techno/house/disco luminaries to play in an out-of-the-way empty lot bordering an ecological disaster proves that, despite other international cities' glamorous nightlife, New York's legend still resounds.

"Last year, we developed a great gay crowd, and a crowd for people with children, and an underage crowd, because we can do all-ages there," Carter says. "We got all these different people there, and the thing that they share is they're all open-minded." Such a mixture for Harkin means that "when it goes off in New York, there's nowhere better." So when the packed, diverse throng in South Brooklyn (http://www.villagevoice.com/related/to/South+Brooklyn) watches as the sun sets and the disco ball begins its luminous rotation, the tiny lights reflecting off the leaves, the ceremony will begin anew. "It's something special, being outdoors and dancing," Singer says. "It's primal."

[eamon_harkin]

SUNDAY BEST UPDATE:

Dearest Sunday Best Friends,

When BKLYN Yard suddenly announced that it was closing its doors, we tried our best to save our home on the canal for the 2010 season. In the end, even though our liquor permitting process was near completion and all the other necessary logistics were sorted, we were prevented from continuing to operate in the space, and we've been made powerless in our attempts to stay there.

The owner of the property, the local police precinct, and the community have worked with us over the past couple weeks to keep Sunday Best on the Gowanus, and we thank them greatly for everything they've done. We also thank you for continuing to stick with us. It means a lot to us.

Now let's get to the future! We have secured another outdoor venue for the rest of our summer, and we're very excited about it. Our new home is the courtyard at Brooklyn Fire Proof, a place where we can continue to dance under the sky, where you can lounge in the outdoor café area, and where you can (finally!) sip on beers and cocktails. As usual, delicious food will be on hand, and the music will be great. All that adds up to nothing but good news.

This weekend the three of us residents will be playing with Kenny Larkin, a legendary Detroit DJ and producer, who's one of the highlights of our season. Not a bad way to inaugurate or new stomping grounds...

We can't wait to see you this Sunday and beyond! Here's to it.

Best,

Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin & Doug Singer


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Sunday Best
with Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin and Doug Singer
and special guest Kenny Larkin

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Sunday, June 27 // 3pm - 9pm

Outdoors at Brooklyn Fire Proof's Courtyard
Fresh Food, Cold Drinks and Good Music
L Train to Morgan Avenue

$12 at the door, $8 in advance at residentadvisor.net/sundaybest
or $8 before 4pm with RSVP to rsvp@sundaybestnyc.com

all ages

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sundaybestnyc.com
brooklynfireproof.com

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Upcoming Sunday Bests

June 27th // Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin, Doug Singer and Kenny Larkin
July 4th // Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin, Doug Singer and Rich Medina
July 11th // Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin, Doug Singer and Alex from Tokyo
July 18th // Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin, Doug Singer and Todd Edwards
July 25th // Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin, Doug Singer and Ashley Beedle
August 1st // Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin, Doug Singer and Linkwood
August 8th // Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin, Doug Singer and Floating Points
August 15th // Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin, Doug Singer and Frank 'Vodoo Funk' Gossner
August 22nd // Justin Carter, Eamon Harkin, Doug Singer and Alexander Robotnick
August 29th // Mister Saturday Night versus Optimo
September 5th // No guests, just the Sunday Best residents taking it home