Lord Huron and Thao & The Get Down Stay Down

Lord Huron are simultaneously a band out of time, and a band absolutely of this time. Their brand of rustic, atmospheric Americana is absolutely illustrative of this, as it is classic sounding music that, by now anyway, sounds absolutely natural playing alongside Lorde and their touring partners Alt-J on alternative radio stations. However, this is also a band named after a lake that Ben Schneider, the main songwriter and leader of the band, grew up visiting. He learnt to play music while sat on its banks, a campfire burning gently next to him. That’s undeniably an image that could come from a Huckleberry Finn novel, but on the other hand, at what other time period other than now could you take a band and make an entire Alternate Reality Game to compliment the music?

That’s where the thrillingly modern aspect of the band comes in, and the truly astonishing thing is that it’s, by and large, all come from the mind of Schneider and very few others. Born in Michigan, Schneider’s childhood was colonised by music and art, but as he grew older music became more and more of a hobby. He studied visual arts at the University of Michigan and once his course was over, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in visual arts. It didn’t go quite according to plan, and he ended up as the art director of a small Los Angeles advertising agency, developing ad campaigns for pizza restaurants and an online poker tournament.

However, his creative side was well and truly revitalised with the discovery of Alternate Reality Games, or ARG’s. These are interactive stories told through a number of different mediums where players have to piece the story together through interaction with other players. ARG’s have been put together by everyone from Nine Inch Nails to Steven Spielberg, and Schneider decided to try his hand at a couple of his own. These also didn’t quite go according to plan but with the scale involved, including hiring actors, designing websites, making a small museum exhibition among many others, that’s entirely understandable.

In 2010, he took a week off from the hustle and bustle of L.A to return to Lake Huron, and it was on those same banks that he learnt to play guitar on, that he recorded three songs that he’d been working on over the past several months. Those three songs would later comprise the entirety of the “Into The Sun” E.P, which he released onto the internet by June and dispersed some CD copies of the E.P into the merch stalls of some California music festivals, one of which fell into the hands of the San Francisco based music blogger Yours Truly. With the blog’s promotion the songs started to get a lot of people’s attention, and in November, Scheider put out his second E.P, “Mighty”.

As the attention around the Lord Huron project grew, Schneider decided to combine what he knew about ARG’s with his growing reputation as a musician. However, soon he was faced with a far more traditional problem for a solo artist. His newfound fans wanted him to go on tour, and he didn’t have a band. He called the only musicians he knew, some childhood friends of his who’d formed a band called Okemos, and went out on their first set of tour dates soon afterwards. Soon afterwards, he made his first music video for the band’s song “The Stranger” and released it in January 2011, the enigmatic effort alluding to a lot of what would later become the bands fictional backstory.

The band continued touring and performing for the rest of 2011, building up a strong reputation as a quality live act and by January 2012, they had signed to IAMSOUND Records. Their debut album “Lonesome Dreams” was released in the same year, and ever since then, the band have been one of the most genuinely fascinating acts in modern rock. The music stands up on its own merits but it’s the trappings around it that are truly astonishing, a silencing answer to the criticism that, in today’s internet based only music culture, we’ve lost touch with the mystique of rock and roll. They’re a band that could never have really existed until now, and they’re genuinely pushing the boundaries of what a rock and roll band is capable of. For that, they come highly recommended.

Originally formed by vocalist and guitarist Thao Nguyen, drummer Willis Thompson, bass and keyboard player Adam Thompson, and lead guitarist Frank Steward, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down was born in 2003. Prior to the formation, Thao studied for a degree in Sociology and Women’s Studies, Willis Thompson performed with the groups Camp Tigerclaw and Acousticore, Adam Thompson was a solo jazz act known as The OK Bird, and Stewart was a member of the bands Durian and Verbal.

Thao & The Get Down Stay Down’s debut album “Like the Linen” was recorded and released in 2005, produced entirely by guitarist Frank Stewart. Despite not playing live together before, the band embarked on their label Kill Rock Stars’ “Sound the Hare Heard" tour in mid-2006, before sending the album to indie-darling, Laura Veirs. The record later landed in the hands of Grammy-nominated producer Tucker Martine, known for his work with Sufjan Stevens and R.E.M., who offered to produce the band’s subsequent album.

Released in January 2008, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down’s sophomore album, “We Brave Bee Sting And All”, earned rave reviews from the critical press. Following the release the band moved to San Francisco, California, and supported Xiu Xiu and Rilo Kiley, before embarking on a headlining U.S. tour. Thao & The Get Down Stay Down’s third studio album “Know Better Learn Faster”, released in October 2009, features folk singer Andrew Bird on the title track and was supported by touring alongside The Portland Cello Project. After singing with Ribbon Music in October 2012, the band issued their fourth studio album “We the Common” in 2013.