Thao Teams With Neko Case on “Catch As Catch Can” — and Show Me Is the Comeback Six Years in the Making

Thao Nguyen has been quietly building toward Show Me for six years. In the time since her last album Temple, she guest-hosted Song Exploder, hosted a PBS television show, developed a musical, scored films, started a book for Graywolf Press, and went through a divorce. Out went the long-time band name, Thao and the Get Down Stay Down. What arrived in its place is her most personal record yet: a real-time accounting of a life evolving into a different relationship with love, desire, and identity. It comes out October 30 on Kill Rock Stars, co-produced with Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner of Tune-Yards.

Latest single “Catch As Catch Can” features Neko Case, one of Nguyen’s all-time favorite singers, and the pairing is immediately right. The song came from a set of images Thao couldn’t stop seeing: bodies surrendering to each other in the ocean, a remote lighthouse, the doorway of a cottage by a violent sea. Case’s voice lands on top of a propulsive, serpentine melody and the result is one of the year’s most quietly arresting singles. The album also features The Linda Lindas, Adrian Quesada of Black Pumas, and Tune-Yards throughout.

Thao heads out on a short North American fall tour in November. One dollar from every SF and LA ticket sale goes to Working Families Power. Pre-order the album below.

Pre-order Show Me ↗