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Thao & The Get Down Stay Down—the San Francisco−based band fronted by singer and songwriter Thao Nguyen—releases their fourth album, A Man Alive, on March 4, 2016. Following the critical success of We The Common (2013), which was largely inspired by Thao’s volunteer work with the California Coalition for Women’s Prisoners, 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.” The Get Down Stay Down are at their best on this record, and Thao herself experimented with programming drumbeats for several tracks, although live drums are also played on every song.

Mostly recorded at Tiny Telephone Studios in San Francisco, A Man Alive was produced by Merrill Garbus of Tune-Yards. Collaborating with Garbus, who is a close personal friend, allowed Thao to achieve the sound she had been striving for on previous releases. “Looking back,” she says, “I was less sure of what I wanted. With this record I had clearer vision and aspirations. I wanted emotion. I wanted power. I wanted beats. Merrill’s priority was that I take songs and ideas and run with them; she pushed us all over the place. She carved out time and space for us to experiment at will and fostered a very supportive, creative environment. Everyone was compelled to go beyond what they were comfortable doing. Musician-wise we kept it tight knit because the songs were so personal and vulnerable, and it was such an intense process, I only wanted those who know me well.”

A Man Alive finds Thao exploring darker and more personal territory than in her earlier songwriting. She grew up in Northern Virginia, on the outskirts of Washington, DC. When Thao was young, her father left the family. She helped out in her mother’s laundromat as a teenager, sitting at the counter with a guitar, making change for customers, working on her first songs, and playing at open mics in the evenings. Her father drifted in and out of their lives.

“The record is essentially about my relationship with my dad, its trajectory. 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. There are songs from his perspective: I imagined what it would be like to have kids and choose to exist without them, or feel like you have to save them from yourself. I realized there was this relationship that I never really talk about, realized it’s defined so much of me. So it was a point of reckoning. The record wrote itself. Painstakingly, of course.”

The emotional center of A Man Alive is the gorgeous, plaintive “Millionaire,” a song about a wayward father. While the song could have ended up as a folk ballad, its instrumentation and atmosphere is of a piece with the rest of the album, pushed along by heavily reverbed synthesizer, a simple guitar riff, and subdued drums and bass. “That’s a sad fucking song,” Thao said. “I remember walking out of the vocal booth, and I saw Merrill tearing up. It’s uncompromisingly sad, which I don’t traffic well in. It took a lot.”

Much of A Man Alive is vibrant and danceable—including standout tracks such as “Astonished Man,” “Slash/Burn,” “Nobody Dies,” and “Meticulous Bird”—and the juxtaposition of that exuberance with the dark themes explored in the lyrics is one of the album’s great achievements. The songs are often punctuated by handclaps, sing-along 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. “I suspect that’s always been my motive,” Thao says, “but this is the most actualized that it’s ever been. I wanted to make a record that was very introspective and personal, but it would also seek to communicate. And we would have fun performing it—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. We want people to dance and feel. And I want to do that every night, too.”

A Man Alive is undoubtedly a new career highlight for Thao & The Get Down Stay Down. 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.

—Dan Stone

Mirah Yom Tov Zeitlyn has been creating incorruptible independent pop music since the late 1990’s. She has released over a dozen solo and collaborative recordings on K Records, Kill Rock Stars and various domestic and foreign independent labels. Her new full length record is due out in September.

Defined by her graceful songwriting and adventuresome recordings, Pitchfork has praised her “incredible voice—a versatile coo that can flit from low, sultry tones to high, airy falsetto in one breath.”

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Mirah has always sought the creative company of unique collaborators, from multi-media artists and orchestral composers to dj’s, Baltic music enthusiasts, and entomologists. A partial list of some of her collaborators includes Phil Elverum (The Microphones/Mount Eerie), Merrill Garbus (tUnE-yArDs), Thao Nguyen, Tara Jane O’Neil, Khaela Maricich (The Blow), Jherek Bischoff and Lori Goldston.

Katie Von Schleicher rose from intern to artist on Brooklyn label Ba Da Bing with Bleaksploitation, a self-recorded 2015 mini album of irreverent, fuzz-laden tunes. On her debut full-length, Von Schleicher strikes again on the magic that comes from her warped and uncompromising sound. Shitty Hits channels the bright, sunny radio burners of the 1970’s, songs you drive to, carefree, and songs you can cry to, which The Guardian describe as “Portishead meets the Beatles,” and NPR’s Bob Boilen calls “one of those constant repeat records for me.”

Conjuring the home recorded sound of Paul McCartney’s McCartney or Jeff Buckley’s Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk, Shitty Hits was created on a tape machine at Von Schleicher’s childhood home in Maryland. Where Bleaksploitation courted a kind of sonic nihilism, Shitty Hits shows confidence, growth and unflinching self-realization. Inhabiting the roles of producer and engineer, Von Schleicher cements her voice as one to be reckoned with, parsed and pored over, on an album that is “never less than beguiling” (Pitchfork).

Alix Brown

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Alix Brown is a DJ, musician and fashion muse living and working between NYC & LA. Alix was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, where she cut her teeth playing in bands and throwing dance parties, before moving to Memphis, Tennessee, where she began touring internationally and running Shattered Records with Jay Reatard.

Alix’s evolution took her to New York, where her first job was at the legendary Academy Records, which helped with her growing addiction to finding good tunes.

Her wide-reaching knowledge of music and performance led her toward DJing and working as a Music Director. It was a natural evolution; her early days of working in record stores and digging internationally have amassed her with an enviable record collection and a sonic understanding shared by few.

Highlights of her illustrious career include playing at clubs: Don Hills, Kenmare, Paul’s Baby Grand, Paul’s Casablanca, The Standard Hotel (NYC & LA), No Vacancy (LA), Tenants of the Trees (LA), La Mano (Paris), Hotel Grand Amour (Paris); and parties for the likes of Playboy (NYC & Palm Springs), Campari, Samsung, Levi’s, Surfrider Foundation (LA), Jill Stuart, Ralph Lauren, Helmut Lang, Pamela Love, Eddie Borgo, Pam Hogg, Alexa Chung, Cartier, Bally, Giorgio Armani Prive (Italy), Juicy Couture (London) and more.

Alix spends her days as the Music Director for the Soho Grand Hotel, Roxy Hotel, and Jack Austin’s, where she curates the music playlists, books DJs, live acts and even curates screenings in the Roxy Cinema. She takes a personal approach to each, considering the space and audience to elevate each experience.

Breanna Barbara

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“If you dig Alabama Shakes, there’s a good chance you’ll dig this too” (Brooklyn Vegan). In fact, her debut album ‘Mirage Dreams’ (2016) was recorded and produced by their collaborator Andrija Tokic. “It’s swaggering, smoky blues rock, with fuzzed-out riffs, organs, and Breanna’s attitude-fueled voice leading the way.”

2017 marked the singer’s busiest year yet: Breanna toured everywhere from North America, to the mountains of Switzerland, and the beaches of Italy. Her song “Nothin But Your Lovin” soundtracked Dior’s Love Chain New York ad campaign. She released an official re-work of Tricky’s “When We Die” before joining his touring band as the lead female vocalist. Barbara also performed at Bryant Park Emerging Talent, Meltasia, and Seaport Festival, and opened for Deer tick, Hurray For The Riff Raff, and Delicate Steve to name a few. She received nods from V Magazine (“her smoky quartz voice is one in a million”), Bandcamp Daily (“fans of Chelsea Wolfe and King Dude will find plenty here to love”), and Paste who hosted her for an intimate performance session.

Lyla Vander (Roya)

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| https://www.instagram.com/chorizo_nyc/ | https://chorizonyc.bandcamp.com

“Lyla Vander is an NYC based and bred multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter, known most notably behind the drum kit. Bringing an energetic playfulness and power to live performances and collaborations with a “catchy, modern and nostalgic” style according to ID-magazine in bands Bad Girlfriend, Chorizo, Roya, the B-Girls ‘77 reunion, and Street Smells. Additionally sharing the stage with a host of other artists including Reputante, Triple Hex and many more, sharing bills with Thee Oh Sees, the Allah Las, and The Julie Ruin, playing in fashion shows, and appearing onscreen in Adam Green’s Alladin and international ad campaigns.

Reni Lane (Fever High)

Dida Pelled

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New York-based Israeli guitarist and vocalist Dida Pelled has a particular talent for storytelling. Whether it be a jazz standard, a scorching blues Instrumental, an old country ballad, or a heartfelt original “Dida sings in a voice sometimes playful, warm, resonant, no frills. She sings the words, giving them their meaning, their weight, with perfect diction and charm.” (Jazz Hot, France)