Meet Thao Nguyen, a 23-year-old singer-songwriter from Virginia, who signed up with Seattle-based Kill Rock Stars to release her first album with her band, The Get Down Stay down.
Thao is pretty wonderful, hitting notes somewhere between Cat Power and Kimya Dawson — that is, it’s as if Cat Power were singing Kimya’s lyrics. Basically, she has perfect timing, as the above two ladies couldn’t be bigger right now.
I first heard about Thao on my fourth-favorite NPR show, Studio 360. (For those keeping score, 1: This American Life, 2: Wait Wait Don’t tell Me, 3: On the Media.) She has a lovely little story, which includes her delightful mother, a laundromat owner. Take a listen to the entire story:
Thao, to me, represents part of a new wave of music for my generation. It’s quirky, but adult, grown-up. As shown by the Studio 360 story, Thao is an amalgam of many of the social issues facing our generation, including being a second-generation, American minority, as well as overcoming the broken-home syndrome and honoring family and tradition. We, as twenty-somethings, seem to be guided by our humor, which has its quirks and takes its foundation from reality. I hear that humor in Thao’s music, even though it isn’t really “funny” music. Listen to “Geography:”
Thao’s new album, We Brave Bee Stings and All is out now. It’s worth every penny. Plus, it’s on KRS, meaning buying the album helps a great artist and a great Pacific-Northwest label. Meanwhile, another song: