Thao with the Get Down Stay Down

[September 3rd, 2008]

[FOLK POP] It’s the stuff award-winning music documentaries are made of: Trapped in the Bed, Bath & Beyond-ridden suburb of Falls Church, Va., and roped into the tedium of lending a hand at her mother’s laundromat, 12-year-old Thao Nguyen picked up a guitar for the first time. Nearly a decade later, while concentrating on degrees in both environmental studies and music (wait, are we sure this girl isn’t from Portland?) at the College of William & Mary, Thao gathered buzz when she courageously tossed out her picks and began strumming her guitar with a toothbrush. The enchantress drew in lollygagging musicians like a magnet, and by the band’s first record, Like the Linen, rock antihero Slim Moon (founder of Kill Rock Stars) had signed himself on as the band’s manager. Thao relocated to San Francisco, and the rest is history. After opening tours with big names like Xiu Xiu and Rilo Kiley, it’s become clear the buzz about TWGDSD is not undeserved: The band’s proclivity for rolling pop progressions and smart, kitchen-sink instrumentation becomes exceptionally clear on the band’s latest, We Brave Bee Stings and All (Kill Rock Stars). The centerpiece is obviously Thao herself, whose vocal style calls to mind a tamer version of Cat Power’s Chan Marshall, and who tackles everything from personal revelations to whimsical narratives in her songs.