Thao with the Get Down Stay Down “Bag of Hammers”
From the album We Brave Bee Stings and AllAfter picking up her guitar at the age of 12, Thao Nguyen began performing and recording as a pop-country duo with a high school friend. Raised in Falls Church, Virginia with her single mother, she often practiced her songs while working at her mother’s laundromat. She often cites Lilith Fair as an inspiration for her desire to become a singer/songwriter. After recording an EP that differed from her initial style, she began performing as a soloist with her acoustic guitar. In 2005 she recorded Like The Linen, her first full-length album.
Nguyen initially toured as a duo with drummer Willis Thompson, but expanded her act to a band of four during the Kill Rock Stars “Sound The Hare Heard” tour. The band now consists of Nguyen, Willis Thompson, Adam Thompson, and Frank Stewart. The band was named The Get Down Stay Down by a former bassist. —Last.fm, Bio
According to Thao Nguyen, she has two talents: her first is she has a knack for beat-boxing and humming at the same time (Rahzel needn’t worry about any competition just yet though) and her second, and in her opinion finest, is that she had a capacity to watch so much TV as a kid, she’s convinced her personality is made up of several different sitcom characters. Of course Thao, the 23 year Virginia-bred songwriter, is forgetting her unique voice, natural sense for a good melody, and striking lyrics, skillful guitar plucking and her deadly dry sense of humour. Thao’s debut for Kill Rock Stars, showcases all these talents and more, proving she’s a star in the making.
With her perky strumming guitar, bluegrass tinged banjo, giddy sense of self and uninhibited vulnerability, Thao manages that rare combination of songs that sound happy but are, at times so sad. Whether using an acoustic guitar strummed with a toothbrush or a sharpie pen, or employing keyboards, horns and a full rhythm section with her band The Get Down Stay Down, her songs are always buoyant, littered with catchy riffs and lyrics gripped with intimate details juxtaposed with her cheeky humor. “My songs reflect my personality as far as shirking the seriousness of things” says Thao.
Thao’s sly and mischievous sense of humour is all over this record, lightening the gravity of her words in the tradition of the very best songwriters, raising the mundane and ordinary to the extraordinary. Her music comes to life during her live performances, where Thao’s clever, self-deprecating and charming personality shines, surpassed only by her guitar picking skills.
The vinyl version contains two extra tracks: a cover of the Smoky Robinson classic “You Really Got Hold On Me” and an a Thao original “Tallymarks”. —Buy Olympia
On Last.fm as Thao and on Last.fm as Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, with 179,356 plays (8,169 listeners)and 102,038 plays (3,372 listeners) scrobbles respectively.
Thao with The Get Down Stay Down on MySpaceMusic
Bag of Hammers on YouTube
Buy Olympia | Kill Rock Stars
