THAO & THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN’S A MAN ALIVE STREAMS EXCLUSIVELY AT NPR MUSIC’S FIRST LISTEN
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, the critically acclaimed San Francisco-based band fronted by singer and songwriterThao Nguyen, is now streaming their fourth studio album A Man Alive exclusively via NPR Music’s First Listen.Stream/share the record here. NPR Music calls it a “brilliant, jarring new album…[Nguyen’s] most rewarding work yet.”
The group recently premiered the Brook Linder-directed video for the album track “Astonished Man” here. Preorder A Man Alive digitally here and via Ribbon Music here. To celebrate the release, the band will tour the U.S. throughout the spring with a stop at the SXSW Music Conference. Tickets are available at www.thaoandthegetdownstaydown.com and upcoming shows are listed below.
A Man Alive was recorded at Tiny Telephone Studios in San Francisco and was produced by Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs. The two, close personal friends, experimented extensively during the creation of the record resulting in a unique, new sound for Nguyen.
“With this record I had clearer vision and aspirations. I wanted emotion. I wanted power. I wanted A Man Alive to be beat- and bass-driven,” says Nguyen of the album. “A Man Alive is more instrumental, more riff- and loop-centric, and has more manipulated sounds.”
The new album also finds Nguyen exploring previously untouched subjects including her relationship with her father who left the family when she was a young girl. “The record is essentially about my relationship with my dad, its trajectory,” Nguyen says. “It’s a document of my life in conjunction with his, even though we’ve always been leading our lives away from each other. Some are optimistic and forgiving, some are the opposite.”
A Man Alive explores new territory for Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, but regardless of subject matter the songs onA Man Alive are vibrant and danceable, lending themselves well to the band’s trademark high-energy live show. Nguyen says, “I wanted to make a record that was very introspective and personal, but would also seek to communicate and that we would have fun performing. Not just fun, but I wanted a kind of crazy, rabid, animal energy. That’s my favorite thing about performing—you can tap into this frenzy.”
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down’s 2013 album We The Common was released to widespread critical acclaim; Pitchfork declared it Nguyen’s “most sharply written record to date” while NPR called her “one of the most commanding and distinctive young singers around.”
A MAN ALIVE
1. Astonished Man
2. Slash/Burn
3. The Evening
4. Departure
5. Nobody Dies
6. Guts
7. Fool Forever
8. Millionaire
9. Meticulous Bird
10. Give Me Peace
11. Hand To God
12. Endless Love
THAO & THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN LIVE
March 3 Seattle, WA Sonic Boom Records
March 4 Portland, OR Music Millennium
March 14 Austin, TX SXSW AV Club/The Onion Manic Monday Party @ Barracuda (9 p.m.)
March 15 San Antonio, TX 502 Bar
March 16 Austin, TX SXSW Official Showcase @ The Parish
March 17 Austin, TX SXSW
KUTX Broadcast @ Four Seasons Austin (9 a.m.)
March 17 Austin, TX SXSW
Urban Outfitters Party @ Space 24 Twenty (3 p.m.)
March 18 Austin, TX SXSW Showtime “Roadies” Party @ Clive Bar (3 p.m.)
March 25 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom*
March 26 Seattle, WA Neptune Theatre*
March 27 Vancouver, BC The Cobalt*
March 30 Minneapolis, MN Fine Line Music Café†
March 31 Milwaukee, WI Turner Hall†
April 1 Chicago, IL Thalia Hall†
April 2 St. Louis, MO The Ready Room†
April 3 Louisville, KY Headliners†
April 5 Asheville, NC Grey Eagle†
April 6 Nashville, TN Mercy Lounge
April 7 Cincinnati, OH Woodward Theater†
April 8 Millvale, PA Mr. Smalls Theatre†
April 9 Toronto, ON Adelaide Hall‡
April 11 South Burlington, VT Higher Ground Ballroom‡
April 12 Cambridge, MA The Sinclair‡
April 13 New York, NY Webster Hall†‡
April 15 Washington, D.C. 9:30 Club†‡
April 16 Philadelphia, PA Underground Arts†‡
April 17 Richmond, VA The Broadberry‡
April 18 Carrboro, NC Cat’s Cradle‡
April 20 Atlanta, GA Terminal West§
April 21 New Orleans, LA One Eyed Jacks§
April 22 Houston, TX Warehouse Live Studio§
April 23 Austin, TX The Mohawk§
April 24 Dallas, TX Trees§
April 26 Albuquerque, NM Launchpad§
April 27 Phoenix, AZ The Crescent Ballroom§
April 28 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up§
April 29 Los Angeles, CA The Regent Theatre§
April 30 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore§
*with Car Seat Headrest
†with Saintseneca
‡with Little Scream
§with Seratones
