December 7th, 2009:
Oxfam
YALL i posted on Oxfam's site to try and help bring more attention to the human toll of climate change and the climate talks beginning today in Copenhagen. Please visit Oxfam's site if you like reading loose and fast skits involving world leaders BUT MUCH MORE IMPORTANTLY please visit to find out how to get involved and stay updated on Copenhagen.
CLICK HERE
thanks thanks thanks
thao
December 2nd, 2009:
Thaokyo with The Get Down Stay Down
Yall we are going to JAPAN! in six days. Japanese record label P-VINE has very graciously agreed to release our new record and thus we are going to thank them in person. We will also be playing shows with Superchunk and our dear friend Simone White. Also we will eat so many things we do not immediately recognize and we will ride on very fast trains and we are going to try very hard to sleep standing up.
if you are in Japan or will be passing through, might you consider joining us for an evening, or seven. that is how long we will be there.
from our econo-jet to yours,
thao
November 10th, 2009:
Europe in January
Dear Far-Flung Friends:
We are coming toward you.rope.
Here is how:
16-jan FR Lille - Peniche
17-jan NL Rotterdam - dBs
19-jan DE Cologne - Blue Shell
20-jan DE Hamburg - Grüner Jäger
21-jan DE Berlin - Magnet
22-jan DE Munich - 59to1
23-jan AT Vienna - FM4 Festival @ Arena
24-jan AT Innsbruck - PMK
27-jan IT Milan - Casa 139
28-jan FR Basel - Kaserne
29-jan FR Paris - la Maroquinerie
30-jan BE Brussels - Botanique
01-feb UK London - Barfly
02-feb UK Manchester - The Deaf Institute
thank you so much for your consideration. We hope to see you soon.
All the best
thao
Why climate change matters, right now
Hello out there. I am very pleased to be writing you on Blog Action Day, as it is my favorite day of the year. Last year on this day I dressed up as a blog, but because I’m more of an idea person, execution was poor and no one could really tell. This year will be clearer and different.
Thao with the Get Down Stay Down. Photo: Tarina Westlund
I am a songwriter and musician by trade, and although that is incredibly fortunate in and of itself, I feel especially lucky for such job placement because it has afforded me the unique opportunity to closely work with and support Oxfam America.
I have always loved Oxfam’s focus and application of energies and issues to real live people, and how the scope and arch of causes great and small always return to how real places with real people are being affected, and what can be done to help improve their quality of life. Climate change is a real bastard, as we all have heard. And it’s happening, let’s not deny it. If you keep turning a blind eye to climate change it will probably be injured in a surprise gale force wind. Or not. The issue of climate change has painted the town so many times with so many brushes, it is understandable that those of us with the ability and privilege to forget, would.
Enter Oxfam and others of its ilk to keep us aware and connected: The people the world over who have done the least to upset nature are always the ones who bear the brunt of its imbalance and fury.
Speaking of bearing the brunt of most of the environment’s and society’s ills, let us please discuss the women of the world. Oxfam’s Sisters on the Planet films turn much-needed attention to the extreme difficulties climate change presents to women in developing countries, and what can be done. I grew up in Virginia in a traditionally Vietnamese household, raised by a single mother, and witnessed many of the very specific challenges faced by women as providers: the lengths they must go to and the obstacles they must hurdle to keep their families healthy and stable. In many cases and places, the challenge for these women is to keep their families alive.
Global women’s issues are the ones I am most passionately linked to, so it was an enormous honor and excitement to be asked to serve as an ambassador for the Sisters on the Planet. I have seen the list of incredibly impressive women who are also ambassadors. It feels more appropriate to me to ask to interview to be their intern.
This campaign, this footage, and these women give me pause and then an overwhelming sense of urgency. What stronger kick in the pants could we ask for? I hope you will engage in this urgency, this sense that action must be taken, on behalf of all because it affects all. Thankfully organizations like Oxfam can help us distill and focus and maintain, that we might help in the most helpful way.
If you happen to come to a show of ours, Oxfam tablers will most likely be there, waiting to talk to you. They have buttons. And bandanas. And ways we can be better.
Hey everyone, here's a new video of us making our new record, Know Better Learn Faster.
Enjoy and spread the word. http://awe.sm/1iJz. Please check it out and also please follow us on Twitter - we are @Thaogetstaydown.
Friends- old and new, real and virtual: Welcome to our most updated selves. We have got for you a new record, a new tour, and this website so handily crafted by our friend Adam. Please wander around and click on everything. See you live sometime, we are hopeful.
Warmly,
Thao with The Get Down Stay Down
NEW record NEW tour NEW blog post
Friends, real and otherwise:
We are proud and pleased to announce the upcoming release of our new record Know Better Learn Faster-- out Oct. 13th on Kill Rock Stars. To celebrate, we are going on tour. Please see show dates; we are thrilled at the prospect of seeing you again or for the first time.
On this record, we clapped, sang, shouted, laughed, danced, played instruments, and i cried just a little bit, for texture.
We hope you like it more than you don't like it.
Joining us across the country and even some of canada will be The Portland Cello Project and David Shultz and The Skyline.
We are a little bit older and a little bit different but the same amount of very excited to see you in your town, among your people.
all the best,
thao, adam and willis