by Andrew Frisicano

DOWNLOAD: Thao with The Get Down Stay Down - Bag of Hammers (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Thao with The Get Down Stay Down - Beat (MP3)

Thao @ Mercury Lounge 6/4/08 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Kill Rock Stars' Thao with The Get Down Stay Down will play SXSW before heading out on a monthlong US tour with Sister Suvi and Samantha Crain. The dates include the previously mentioned NYC stop at Bowery Ballroom on Thursday, May 14th. Tickets are still on sale.

Down at SXSW, Thao with The Get Down Stay Down's appearances include the previously mentioned Kill Rock Stars day party (3/18) with Marnie Stern and The Thermals; NPR day party (3/19) with Dirty Projectors and Blitzen Trapper; Hotel Cafe SXSW Showcase (3/19); and KUT SXSW Showcase (3/20). Thao w/ TGDSD will also play the Brooklyn Vegan SXSW day party at Radio Room on Thursday, March 19 (her third show that day) (full line-up to come).

The Thermals are also playing the Rachael Ray SXSW day party (plus 7 other SXSW shows), then touring w/ two NYC dates.

Sister Suvi, who will be touring with Thao post-SXSW, is traveling first with Takka Takka - both visit the Cake Shop on Sunday, March 15 before heading south to Austin.

As an aside, Merrill Garbus, one of the members of Sister Suvi, is Tune Yards, who played MHOW w/ Beiruit and Inlets on 2/4. Tune Yards also released its debut, BiRdBrAiNs, as a for-donations download.

In 2008, Thao with The Get Down Stay Down played a ton of NYC gigs, including a headlining Mercury Lounge show (2/4), two nights opening for Rilo Kiley at Terminal 5 (2/2 & 2/3), and a solo appearance at the Revenge of the Book Eaters benefit on October 7th. And 2008 also saw Thao's debut We Brave Bee Stings and All on Kill Rock Stars.

All Thao Nguyen with The Get Down Stay Down and Sister Suvi tour dates below...

Continue reading "Thao with The Get Down Stay Down - 2009 Tour Dates w/ Sister Suvi, SXSW & stuff"

photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

Last night's show (2/4) at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn was a solid bill from start to finish begining with headliner Beirut playing after Inlets who played after Tune Yards...

For musician Merrill Garbus -- whose one-woman band Tune-yards features ukulele, voice, and found sounds filtered through a hand-held digital voice recorder and then sent to her laptop for mixing -- self-releasing her debut Bird-Brains was all about empowerment. "Bird-Brains was very intentionally done all through 'free' media, i.e. the digital-voice recorder, my laptop, free Audacity software -- and all by me. I was very much in a feminist frame of mind when I chose to use those as my limitations," she says. "As a woman musician, I'm in the world of men a lot. I catch myself, even, assuming that women musicians don't record, produce, or even write their own stuff." [Venus Zine]

Beirut's current band incarnation isn't as large as we've seen in the past. Friday and Saturday night at BAM it will be bigger than ever. More pictures from last night below...

Continue reading "Beirut, Inlets & Tune Yards @ MHOW, Brooklyn, NY - pics"