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Thao & The Get Down Stay Down

Temple

    Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, the San Francisco-based band fronted by singer and songwriter Thao Nguyen, is set to release their fifth studio album Temple on 15th May via Ribbon Music. In celebration of the upcoming album, the band is debuting the title track alongside a video directed by Jonny Look, featuring choreography by Erin S. Murray

    The album is among Thao’s most open and honest work yet, finding her coming out in her public life after a long career in which she kept her queer identity quiet in an effort to avoid turmoil with and alienation from a family and culture she deeply loves. “But that shit will kill you,” Thao says.

    “I have divided myself into so many selves. I am nervous, but hopeful that in belonging to myself, I can still belong to my family, and my Vietnamese community, especially the elders.” She continues, “I believe that shame has made my work more general, when I’ve always wanted to be specific. This record is about me finally being specific. If you listen to my music, I want you to know who you are dealing with.”

    Thao almost opted not to make another record, feeling that rock music no longer was capable of saying what she needed to express. But it turns out making a record was necessary; it forced her hand to create a space wherein she could finally exist as her entire self. Temple is an album compelled by love and the urgent need to live one full, whole life. Thao and her girlfriend got married recently, and she says, “I have my partner and our home to ground me in this life, in my one life. And everything I do now, everywhere I go, every time I present myself to people, it is finally all of me.”

    Temple is the first Get Down Stay Down record to be self-produced. Thao teamed up with longtime bandmate Adam Thompson to produce the record; he shares writing credits on five songs. Mikaelin “Blue” Bluespruce (Solange, Carly Rae Jepsen, Mariah Carey) mixed the record. “Blue mixes more in the hip-hop and pop world and that’s what we wanted,” says Thao. “More fidelity, more upfront beat and groove-heavy mixes that are filled out and immersive…high highs, low lows, lush tones.”

    Temple follows Thao & The Get Down Stay Down’s 2016 album A Man Alive, which was released to widespread critical praise. Over the past year, Thao also served as guest host of the acclaimed podcast Song Exploder.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Temple
    2. Phenom
    3. Lion On The Hunt
    4. Pure Cinema
    5. Marauders
    6. How Could I
    7. Disclaim
    8. Rational Animal
    9. I’ve Got Something
    10. Marrow

    Thao & The Get Down Stay Down

    A Man Alive

    Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, the San Francisco-based band fronted by singer and songwriter Thao Nguyen, release their fourth album, ‘A Man Alive’, via Ribbon Music.

    Following the critical success of ‘We The Common’ (2013) - largely inspired by Thao’s volunteer work with the California Coalition for Women’s Prisoners and featuring a duet with Joanna Newsom - ‘A Man Alive’ is an evolution in both subject matter and sound. Thao says: “I wanted ‘A Man Alive’ to be beat and bass-driven - rather than guitar-based - extending and elaborating upon the hip hop influences of the previous record. ‘A Man Alive’ is more instrumental, more riff and loop-centric, and has more manipulated sounds.”

    Mostly recorded at Tiny Telephone Studios in San Francisco, ‘A Man Alive’ was produced by Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards. The songs are often punctuated by handclaps, singalong choruses and ass-shaking beats. While these songs come from a deeply personal origin, they have such an accessible quality that it is easy to imagine an engaged and participatory live audience.

    The album presents a fiercely original group sound that is rife with experimentation and playfulness. It demonstrates Thao’s development as a songwriter and it achieves that most elusive quality in music - to create an album of songs that are dark yet buoyant, tragic yet redemptive, personal yet inclusive.

    TRACK LISTING

    Astonished Man
    Slash/Burn
    The Evening
    Departure
    Nobody Dies
    Guts
    Fool Forever
    Millionaire
    Meticulous Bird
    Give Me Peace
    Hand To God
    Endless Love

    Thao & The Get Down Stay Down

    We The Common

    Ribbon Music are set to release ‘We The Common’, the third full-length album from critically acclaimed artist Thao & The Get Down Stay Down.

    The album was produced by John Congleton (St. Vincent, Bill Callahan, The Walkmen, Explosions In The Sky) and features a duet with Joanna Newsom on the track ‘Kindness Be Conceived’.

    TRACK LISTING

    We The Common (For Valerie Bolden)
    City
    We Don’t Call
    The Feeling Kind
    The Holy Roller
    Kindness Be Conceived
    The Day Long
    Every Body
    Move
    Clouds For Brains
    Human Heart
    Age Of Ice


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