Thao performs at Paste and reflects on opening for Rilo Kiley

Click above to watch a live performance of "Bag of Hammers" from Thao with the Get Down Stay Down 's album We Brave Bee Stings and All, out now on Kill Rock Stars.

Singer/guitarist/beatboxer Thao Nguyen and her band, The Get Down Stay Down, may occasionally have a country between them (she stays in San Francisco, while the GDSD live in her home state of Virginia) but they've been sharing a van for the better part of 2008 while on tour behind their Kill Rock Stars debut, We Brave Bee Stings and All.

When the band stopped by the Paste office last week, they played a mini-set for a small but rapturous crowd, and Thao discussed the downside of opening for Rilo Kiley:

"A lot of their fans are great, but then they also have the die-hards, who are very honest teenage girls who come up to the front row, the one that you can see the best, and they just want Jenny Lewis and we are not her. They're yawning and talking and texting and looking for split ends ... I would see them resting their heads on the barriers, 'cause you know they've been outside since probably like 11 in the morning ... and then they have another two hours before their loves come on and they're just so over it. But that said, mostly it was great."

The Paste staff is anything but “over it” when it comes to Thao. She and the band will kick off a headlining tour (hopefully sans split-end searchers) in mid-July and aim to record a new album in January 2009, which Thao estimates could be swimming into ears across America by September of next year.

To download a free MP3 of Thao's live performance of "Beat (Health, Life and Fire)" and check out more live performances, please visit the Paste Station on our homepage.