Thao + The Get Down Stay Down release Zoom music video for “Phenom”
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down (photo: Jon Ching) Earlier this month, Oakland-based indie band Thao & The Get Down Stay Down released the music video for their latest single "Phenom." Shot entirely in a single take via the digital conferencing app Zoom, the music video is a brilliant adaptation to our current socially isolated environments. It's full of energy and choreographed remarkably. Eight dancers swirl around lead singer Thao Nguyen as they defy gravity, pass around and pour glasses of water, and construct a hulky body through multiple screens. The end product is simply mesmerizing, and a testament to the [...]
Mixtape: Local Musicians at Eleven Upcoming Bay Area Music Festivals
Download: Mixtape: Local Musicians at Eleven Upcoming Bay Area Music Festivals (Podcast #429) This episode first ran on KQED.org. With the debut of the Blurry Vision Fest in Oakland earlier this month, and Bottlerock Napa Valley and Carnaval San Francisco taking place this weekend, music festival season is officially underway in the Bay Area. This mixtape features music from Bay Area bands performing at festivals around the region in the next several months. Outside Lands may be the biggest summer music festival around -- with a 2018 lineup notable for the overdue inclusion of female headliners and a ton of [...]
Giveaway: Thao Nguyen at The Chapel
Thao Nguyen, I often like to say, is the best reason to stay in San Francisco. Nguyen has been playing music in the city since 2009, and her onstage charisma, unstoppable shreds, and dedicated, compelling lyrics have made her a fundamental part of the Bay Area's music scene. A champion for independent artists and incarcerated women, Nguyen's voice in the SF arts scene is unique and needed. Nguyen's band, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, released their last album, A Man Alive in 2016. The album is fantastic in its production, in its composition, and in its tight and personal lyrics. Meticulously [...]
Is the San Francisco music scene dead? We search for clues.
Hot Flash Heat Wave at the Rickshaw Stop, January 31, 2016 I recently heard the music scene in San Francisco was dead, and being a writer for a website dedicated to covering the music scene in San Francisco, I was obviously a little concerned. To get to the bottom of this, I went out to find some comments from some members on the scene. But man, it was kind of difficult. I thought I'd start with Chuck Prophet, who at this point should be considered one of the deans of the SF scene (if it still exists). Unfortunately, [...]
Mixtape: Highlights and More from South by Southwest 2016
http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebaybridged/SXSW_2016_Mix.mp3 Download: Mixtape: Highlights from South by Southwest 2016 (Podcast #382) Every March, thousands of aspiring bands flock to Austin, Texas for South by Southwest Music, a week-long event functioning as part conference, part music festival, and an all-around great opportunity to sample some of the world's best acts. The sheer number of options blanketing the Texas capital during the festival can be overwhelming, but it remains one of the premier places to discover new and emerging bands. That's the view from a music fan's perspective, mind you. For a musician, the degree to which South by Southwest performances might [...]
Thao & the Get Down Stay Down announce new album, New Year’s show with the Decemberists
Thao Nguyen (Photo by Maria Kanevskaya) We're still reeling at how good they were headlining Noise Pop's 20th Street Block Party in September, but there are tons of new goodies in the world of local twang-rock heroes Thao & the Get Down Stay Down. We'll start you off with a cute little video, courtesy of their label Ribbon Music. That'll get things going. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9SvZvOVV0Y Yes, if you watched 'til the end of the video, you saw the good news: Thao Nguyen and the gang will be releasing a new album next spring, the follow-up to 2013's robust and danceable We The Common. If [...]
Premiere: Thao & The Get Down Stay Down return with new short on eve of Phono del Sol performance
Phono del Sol Music Festival co-headliner Thao & The Get Down Stay Down is reviving the Shorts video series, returning with the project's seventh installment and first in nine months, entitled "The Shepherd and The Guardian". This latest video was directed by Lauren Tabak and was made especially for the San Francisco International Film Festival in April, which featured Thao and company at the Castro Theatre accompanied by "classic, strange and funny films from the silent era" as well as Shorts, a loosely fictionalized sketch series about frontwoman Thao Nguyen herself. "The Shepherd and The Guardian" tells the amusing tale [...]
Phono del Sol: The LAST ticket giveaway before the show!
John Dwyer of Thee Oh Sees at Phono del Sol 2013 Phono del Sol is so close, we can taste it. In ten days, Potrero del Sol Park will be the epicenter of all that is right with the Bay Area independent music scene with a lineup featuring both locals (Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, Blackbird Blackbird, Yalls, Tony Molina, A Million Billion Dying Suns, The Tambo Rays, and Bill Baird) as well as a dash of out-of-town talent (Baltimore's Wye Oak and San Franciscans-turned-Angelenos Nick Waterhouse and White Fence). We could not be more excited to open [...]
Win tickets to see Wye Oak, Tony Molina, and more at Phono del Sol!
Phono del Sol is one month from today, and we're gearing up for the home stretch by giving away yet another pair of tickets to San Francisco's best summer festival. Taking place July 12, 2014 in San Francisco’s Potrero del Sol Park and featuring ten of the best local and out-of-town indie acts, including Wye Oak, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, and Tony Molina, and more, Phono del Sol Music Festival is slowly becoming one of the City's hottest summer shows, entering its fourth year in 2014. Find out how to win tickets below, and then check out [...]
Mixtape: Bands of the 2014 Phono del Sol Music Festival
http://media.libsyn.com/media/thebaybridged/Phono_2014_Mix.mp3 Download: Mixtape: Bands of the 2014 Phono del Sol Music Festival (Podcast #340) We're just a month away from the 2014 Phono del Sol Music & Food Festival! Our fourth annual all day, all ages fest returns to Potrero del Sol Park on Saturday, July 12, 2014, with a lineup full of great local and touring bands! This mixtape collects two songs each from all ten of the terrific acts performing at this year's festival, including Wye Oak, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, Nick Waterhouse, Blackbird Blackbird, White Fence, Yalls, Tony Molina, A Million Billion Dying Suns, [...]