Filed under: News , Video IFC The second season of ' Portlandia ' kicks off this Friday, Jan. 6 on IFC, but fans needing an instant fix of Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein are in luck. The show's stars are midway through a nationwide promotional tour, and in the video below, shot last week in San Francisco, the duo offers up a spot-on version of the Salt-N-Pepa classic 'Push It.' [...]
Mark Arm of Mudhoney ::: photo by Josh Lovseth City Arts Fest comes to an end with a crash and a barrage of bills featuring some of Seattle's finest and loudest acts. Here's our recommendations. Mudhoney, Hot Bodies in Motion, Thee Emergency, Lovesick Empire at Neumos Before I was a black adult, I was a black [...]
Watch as Thao & The Get Down Stay Down sing a very sultry version of Smokey Robinson classic, "You Really Got A Hold On Me" at last weekend's Pickathon 2011 just outside of Portland, Oregon. See also Bill Callahan performing on the Mountain Stage at this year's event.
The Head and The Heart ::: photo by Abbey Simmons After nearly a year of constant touring and supporting some big name bands like Death Cab for Cutie, My Morning Jacket, Iron and Wine and The Decemberists all over the world, The Head and The Heart will be heading out on their first headlining tour [...]
The Moondoggies ::: photo by Abbey Simmons Tomorrow, The Moondoggies triumphant Tidelands will be released to eager ears. This Saturday, the band celebrated their sophomore release in an unlikely venue: a puddle-filled tent at the Pyramid Alehouse during their annual Snow Cap Party. It was a strange venue choice for one of the few local bands [...]
The Moondoggies ::: photo by Abbey Simmons Tomorrow, The Moondoggies triumphant Tidelands will be released to eager ears. This Saturday, the band celebrated their sophomore release in an unlikely venue: a puddle-filled tent at the Pyramid Alehouse during their annual Snow Cap Party. It was a strange venue choice for one of the few local bands [...]
The Black Lips: "Before You Judge Me" MP3/download Not a WHOLE hell-of-a lot of time to post today, but I wanted to share the nice, Strange Boys-ish new Black Lips single, "Before You Judge Me," and also alert you to the existence of the new issue of Signal To Noise Magazine. This is StN #58, [...]

We've talked about my love , and quite possibly your love for Thao with the Get Down Stay Down before. It is still growing, hopefully yours too. Currently on tour with the equally excellent Mirah as Thao and Mirah with The Most of All, most definitely worth a look if they're passing through your place of residence. If however they are not, tide yourself over with this, the video for the excellent Body directed by Glee's Dianna Agron, and debuting exclusively at Oxfam America . Good music and good causes; wonderful things are [...]
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down premieres the new video for "Body" on Oxfam America's website, hoping that it'll get people to click around the site and maybe even sign up for some do-gooding. The vid is directed by Dianna Agron from the TV show Glee. Have you seen it? She plays the pregnant [...]

It would seem I am slow to the boat when it comes to Thao but I shall make up for it with this, a Thao extravaganza of most momentous proportions, for those who are already on board and for anyone else still plodding in the general direction. Thao and the Get Down Stay Down released their new album at the end of last year and named it Know Better, Learn Faster because, "By the time you realize you should, it's too late. And I enjoy [...]

The Great Inbox Clearance is my way of getting through the overwhelming number of emails we received after taking a week off. Check out this post for the details behind the project. That post will also explain why lemurs are involved. The kind folks at Baeblemusic.com have posted two concerts this past month that are definitely worth checking out. The first is from my favorite Glaswegians, Camera Obscura (they will hold that title until Belle & Sebastian get around to releasing [...]

Chop Suey was a nice, intimate setting for this show. The three bands that played this Thursday night appeared to know each other well, and the small room allowed them to call to the stage friends from the crowd and members from other bands. Not all of the show was ground breaking or what I would call top-notch performance, but the room was packed for the final band, Thao With the Get Down Stay Down , and the wait was worth it. David Schultz , a solo acoustic guitarist from Richmond, VA, hit [...]
It's been awhile since we last wrote about Thao Nguyen and her band The Get Down Stay Down. It was the San Francisco-via-DC act's fantastic 2008 release We Brave Bee Stings and All that blended Nguyen's introspective lyrics with their brand of bouncy indie-pop that first hooked me. Nguyen & Co., who really impressed me during their daytime set at NPR's SXSW showcase, have just released Know Better Learn Faster their second album for venerable indie label Kill Rock Stars . The band's latest record [...]
Thao and the Get Down Stay Down - Know Better Learn Faster This weekend I finally got to witness the talented Thao Nguyen rock out on stage at... (Visit my blog for more!)
Old People Watch MGMT's Kids Video The Streets - Don't Mug Yourself The Decemberists - The Rake's Song The Decemberists – The Rake's Song from The Hazards of Love (2009) [...]
Thao and the Get Down Stay Down: "Know Better Learn Faster" Our blog has quickly become inundated with great new music videos-- weird to actually call them music videos -- what is this the "10 Spot?" Thao and the Get Down Stay Down (still a complete bitch-of-a-band name for writer) recently released this video for a track of their newest record, Know Better Learn Faster titled, "When We Swam." Our feelings toward this album are mainly positive, but there are some of us in the Stark camp that feel the album lacks [...]

Filed under: News , New Music , Exclusive On Thao Nguyen 's third album, 'Know Better Learn Faster,' one of the more poignant moments comes during the song 'Oh No.' During the course of writing it, the San Francisco-based songwriter admits at one point she was just yelling the title over and over. "More than any other, that song is about the realization of f---ing up," Nguyen tells Spinner. "When I was writing it, I had no other compulsion than to scream 'oh no' over and over again. I wanted [...]

The tough times for better or worse, generates some rather interesting ideas to save something we're passionate about. The people at CASH Music - a nonprofit organization for artists and musicians have come up with an amazing idea to save their ass. Basically, they nabbed a couple of very talented musicians (including Sunset Rubdown and Xiu Xiu ), exclusive prizes and are now holding a fund raising raffle. Photo: Stefan Jora It may seem just like a lucky dip but when Thao (from [...]

Some of y'all were like "hey, EAR FARM, where done gone 'dem Free Music Friday MP3s from last week?!" Truth is, we were all caught up in our mini redesign and relaunch and needed some extra time to take care of business. But now! Now we are back, better than ever, with an extra-large Free Music Friday post that includes some free and legal music from a bunch of heavy hitters... just click the band name for the band's site and the song name for the MP3. In addition, we've got a bit [...]
Know Better Learn Faster is the name of the forthcoming album (out in October) from Thao & The Get Down Stay Down. They have made the title track available for advance download and it is a must-have in our opinion. We first became aware of the band after the release of their breakthrough record, We Brave Bee Stings And All, which contained a number of tracks that we found ourselves returning to