Thao & The Get Down Stay Down‘s new album, A Man Alive, is awesome for several reasons. Like much of Thao’s work, this batch of songs takes a daunting subject (in this case, her father’s departure from her life at a young age) and pulls it out of the dark with sharp lyrics and luminous pop arrangements.

Thao Nguyen returns to St. Louis this Saturday. [photo: Maria Kanevskaya]

‘Shatter what you will not carry / smash what you won’t bear…’ challenges Thao over wavy, dreamlike instrumentation on “Millionaire”. Merrill Garbus’ (tUnE-yArDs) production shines here and all over the record. Hemingway warned us not to take trips with those we don’t love. If that’s true, then A Man Alive is a journey embarked upon by two artists with deep love and appreciation for one another’s work and worldviews, and therein lies its success as a collaborative project.

On Saturday, April 2nd, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down play The Ready Room with Saintseneca (!). As someone who has been #blessed by seeing her perform a couple times in St. Louis, I say with confidence that Thao’s live shows rule. Joy, abandon, humor, and musicianship: these are the hallmarks of a T&TGDSD concert.

And whaddya know, we’re giving away a pair of tickets! Leave a comment below or on the corresponding Facebook post to be entered to win. An RT on Twitter or a share on FB will result in bonus entries! I’ll randomly select a winner on Thursday at 3:00 pm (so leave a valid email as part of your comment). Good luck and we’ll see you out there. 

In closing, a Funny Thing:

Original video for context.