Songwriter Thao Nguyen To Release Kill Rock Stars Debut

THAO NGUYEN SET TO RELEASE FIRST ALBUM FOR KILL ROCK STARS
WE BRAVE BE STINGS AND ALL OUT JANUARY 29, 2007

According to Thao Nguyen, she has two talents: her first (and in her opinion finest) is that she can watch TV for longer than most people could stand it: "As a kid, I'd watch, like, nine hours a day," says the 23-year-old Virginia-bred songwriter. Thao also admits to a knack for beat-boxing and humming at the same time, which she displays on "Bag of Hammers," the first single from her Kill Rock Stars debut, We Brave Bee Stings And All.

Of course when Thao says she has two talents in life she isn't thinking about her unique voice, nor of her natural ability with words and melodies. Thao's songs are richly musical, whether using just an acoustic guitar strummed with a toothbrush or employing keyboards, horns, and a full rhythm section. And while her music feels buoyant, even giddy at times, Thao endows her lyrics with a curious juxtaposition of gripping personal detail and saucy humor. "My songs reflect my personality as far as shirking the seriousness of things," says Thao. She also says Lucinda Williams was right when she said the best songs "sound happy but are so sad" - a powerful insight into Thao's own music.

Thao began writing songs with a simple intention: to accompany the television programs she loved so much. "I was really into Party of Five. I remember Sarah McLaughlin was playing in the background on one episode. From then on, I kinda always wanted to be on the soundtrack."

In college she recorded an EP and released a full-length debut, Like the Linen, on a local Virginia label. After playing shows all over the country she landed a spot on the Kill Rock Stars 2006 singer-songwriter compilation The Sound the Hare Heard. Soon after she began recording in Seattle and then Portland with Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, Mudhoney, Jesse Sykes). Taking a break to tour in Europe with Laura Veirs, she spent most of 2007 recording the 11 diverse tracks that constitute We Brave Bee Stings And All, a subtly powerful album concerned with admissions of guilt, life revelations, and failed domesticity (with beat boxing!).

"Violet" is an example of the latter, a song that was born from watching her neighbors argue. Like so many of Thao's songs, the sweet, singsong melody and jaunty acoustic guitar belie the seriousness of the subject matter. "My songs that are incredibly vulnerable are the closest I get to a love song, but it's never a love song," she says. "It's more of a 'want song' -- like you want but you can't have."

Thao's sly, mischievous sense of humor is all over this record, lightening the gravity of her words in the tradition of the very best songwriters. Thao is young, but her words are wise and funny and sad already. Attention, music supervisors!