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Know Better Learn Faster

by Thao and the Get Down Stay Down

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1.
The Clap 00:33
IF this is how you want it Ok, ok, ok
2.
Cool yourself You are flush red Your ankles make you twist cause the truth made you bend But oh goddamn If you wanted it you would I will not ask anymore I cannot ask anymore I will love you like this now You can recognize it later But I would never blame you If you would never stay here
3.
When We Swam 02:58
When we swam our love to pieces We washed up on messy beaches You cleaned dry I would not drift yet I should drink salt water to forget Oh why, oh why, oh why Won't you sing Bring your hips to me Oh bring your hips to me Well once I arrived But you would not receive me I wanted it all You could not tell Then I paid expensive attention to detail The fall of your face The wish of the well The rush of the push The length of the spell And you won't Bring your hips to me Oh bring your hips to me You tug so lightly on me Work like you are on vacation While I was swept wide I wept for you across the nation All my love I do deny When they place their hands On both my sides
4.
I can't do the real thing I hurt all my feelings You gotta keep it kind You make it a mean while What a shameful way to be the same But I need you to be Better than me And you need me to do Better than you I disarm you in the morning I was up in arms all night And now it counts I am too, too sleepy to fight Know Better Learn Faster
5.
Body 03:12
What am I just a body in your bed Won't you reach for the body in your bed We were the loved ones Sworn up and down upon You, you are a dead man I just have to shoot the gun What about the future of your vision With the stare and glare of handsome men and women It's good to see you, it's too good to see you What am I just a body in your bed Won't you reach for the body in your bed I have been just a body in your bed Won't you reach for the body in your bed
6.
The Give 03:43
Who will run my family business I leave it mostly unfinished Why can't I My oldest is getting married My youngest can barely bare me Alive. Live Live Live. Oh sweet girl remember this: The saddest ones cannot resist They'll keep you if you fall for it But I promise they will never notice Now I am a gentleman, a gentleman I taught you how the water moves Of course I love you a little bit, a little bit And that does more than I can do I admit everything you know An aimless man with places to go Again. Again. What gives. Give it to me.
7.
We all wrote you songs We know you like to choose We asked our lovers to break us So we could be of use Good bye good luck They said Good bye good luck So here we come We have sad sex We move steady to forget We swear upon our happening lives We mined We bared We hoped you cared We agreed to see you next time They said Young hearts, you must be different Not for us, but next time We don't have strength or patience to hold you Take care with your neck and your spine Take care with your neck and your spine And good luck and good bye
8.
Everybody please put your clothes back on We must see what the trouble was for And everybody needs sugar from your mouth But I'll take none for me I was late You've run out Come back, come back, cause I got smart In the time you took to get this far A fight so old Its body complains I come back cause the punches always hit the same Not for the world Would we fall in the way Of a fight so old
9.
Oh. No. 02:46
Hey little one What do you think you've done Good ones are going Best one is gone Why don't you take it Where they give it What makes you think you would When you didn't Oh. No. I meant to come home to you I meant to stay I never said what I meant Now I make my living take me away Oh. No.
10.
Fixed It! 02:57
Since you left I'm only more sincere I swim in it Authentic to my ears But we made it Won't we save it And I fixed it What you hated Come on I'll keep it to myself If I can't sell you some I'll tell you sober truth In my sleepy tone Make sure to be sure are you done with me I can prove it so your pretty eyes can see I fall upon my only knees Recall last time how you were pleased I'll go with valor everywhere I will lay so still when you're not there How about now? I'll keep it to myself If I can't sell you some I'll tell you the sober truth In my sleepy tone But I fixed it!
11.
Burn You Up 02:28
I try so hard I give up so violently I don't know how I still could go so quietly You want to go home You won't take me too Oh what I lovely start Oh how I mishandled you But don't you think we came close Don't you want to come home with me But I remember the most Don't you want a new memory I will wait the winter long I think I could burn you up Quick to taste cause you never know I think I could burn you up
12.
This is what strangers do I want no part I kiss your ears with the truth How could it hurt so hard But what did we decide What can strangers decide I'd take you to the cinema We'd share our love and grief I would be serious, I could be serious You would be sweet But oh. What of this desert between What then of the strangers What then of us Hand to chest How could we forget
13.
Easy 03:37
I know the stories of those before me You have so much information But you only know why not How come, how come Look at all the time they got Before me I make it easy, easy to stop I'll make it easy, easy enough But don't you let me see you weigh the worth I don't get to leave cause you left first So don't you let me see you weigh the worth Before me I make it easy, easy to stop Are you gonna keep it easy, easy or what

about

“The album is named ‘Know Better Learn Faster’ because you can’t,” explains Thao. “By the time you realize you should, it’s too late. And I enjoy the predicament and the totally devastating, unfunny humor of that.”

Thao and the ever-versatile Get Down Stay Down (Adam Thompson on bass, keys and additional guitar, and Willis Thompson on drums and percussion) return with the follow up to their critically lauded and riotously applauded previous album, “We Brave Bee Stings and All”, the breakout success and best-selling record of 2008 for Kill Rock Stars. With super-producer and friend Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Bill Frisell, Spoon) again at the helm, Know Better Learn Faster perfectly captures the band as their more mature, tastefully raucous, tastefully subdued and musically adventurous selves. Honed, trimmed and tightened over the last year and a half of constant touring, the now-trio delivers Thao’s cleverly crafted and emotionally evocative songs with vibrant, innovative instrumentation, incredible energy and a still-acutely-solid sense of what sounds good. The new batch of songs spans all genres and influences, all the while staying faithful to their distinct style, sharp wit, and the infectious and enamoring exuberance of their renowned live shows.

But the band can be serious too. Know Better Learn Faster is in many ways a boisterous, frenzied, and resigned break-up record, and with that territory comes a few songs wherein Thao does not employ her trademark method of juxtaposing brighter melodies with melancholic content. “A few of these are just straightforwardly sad. Sometimes there’s not much room to mince words and music when you feel like shit,” she says.

The diverse and wide-ranging songwriting only helps to showcase the trio’s formidable musicianship: all members have stepped up and expanded their repertoires to fill out the trio’s sound. To further help the cause, the band was thrilled and humbled to enlist album guests Andrew Bird, Eric Earley of Blitzen Trapper, Laura Veirs, Horse Feathers, Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, Jenny Conlee of The Decemberists, and close friend and new 4AD artist Tune-Yards.

Know Better Learn Faster is a deeply felt, honestly rendered audit of the end of one or any number of relationships. Thao says: “We are thankful for the opportunity to have explored and then purged all crippling tensions and anxiety inherent in such dramas and hope you enjoy the scrappy by-product.”

***

“Packs a subtle punch, sweet but not sappy.” - Spin

“Elliptical lyrics, bright guitar work.” - The Wall Street Journal

“Worn down by the endless pitfalls of romance? Thao Nguyen most definitely is not.” – Time Out New York

"Like tea and honey spiked with a healthy shot of whiskey.” – Elle

credits

released October 13, 2009

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Thao and the Get Down Stay Down Falls Church, Virginia

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