We Brave Bee Stings and All

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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 Virginiabred 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!).
"When acoustic singer-songwriters 'pop' out their sound, there's always the risk that they've done so at the expense of their original charms. And so when early reports of Thao Nguyen's Kill Rock Stars debut We Brave Bee Stings and All first surfaced and seemed to unanimously stress the record's souped-up production values (with mentions of beat-boxing thrown in for good measure), one couldn't be blamed for fearing the worst: Brilliantly low-key singer-songwriter changes labels, layers sound into oblivion. Fear not! A track off We Brave Bee Stings has surfaced, and while it is a step up in production for Nguyen, it also happens to be absolutely irresistible. 'Beat (Health, Life, and Fire)' takes (surprise) a tight, deliberate beat, plugs in a backing guitar, and then from there plays it smart - letting Thao run wild with her gorgeous acoustics and typically spunky lyrical style: 'Beat my heart / beat my chest / beat the ones who love me the best / oh, how could they be liars / they assure me health, life and fire.' Nguyen's pop flourishes here seem much less like the evolution of a sound than they do the fleshingout of a personality that was already there." - prefixmag.com


Produced by Tucker Martine ( The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, Mudhoney and Laura Veirs )
Toured with Laura Veirs and Great Lake Swimmers touring extensively in 2008, including playing SXSW