![](https://lde1.cdn.occur.la/site/blog/images/2013/01/thao.png)
Album review - Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
We the Common
Ribbon Music
There's nothing "common" about Thao Nguyen's talent and vibe. A delicious unease grasps these 12 tracks, a sort of folksy Williamsburg (Kentucky AND Brooklyn) feeling. Her voice, gritty as a washboard and sincere as a dove, slices through young-adult monotony.
"We don't call, we don't write. We love some strangers every night-- oh, no," she laments in the brassy "We Don't Call." In battling with a dooting sax that acts as her foil, she musically walks the tightrope of coolness and frailty. It's a song that's all at once a throwback to Edie Brickell and a rocket blasting off into the future NYC sound.
In further looking back to look forward, Nguyen teams with Appalacian-granny-sounding Joanna Newsom on "Kindness Be Conceived," a Carter Family-like boot-stomper. It's a fun little think-piece on "why we breathe and why we die." Agnosticism never sounded so pretty.
T&TGDSD take other cues from nascent acoustic R&B (Dirty Projectors influence rings clear and true on the spidery "Every Body)" and other ferocious fillies ("Move" would make Karen O and Alison Mosshart proud). Nguyen is an artist that sings as gayly of life's tribulations as she does of its triumphs. And that is worth celebrating.
- Melissa Bobbitt
More from Melissa Bobbitt (See All)
Interview - The Gitas Go Hard and Holy
Melissa Bobbitt 0“Los Angeles is the cradle of all the showbiz dreams,” Sasha Chemerov says in enthused broken English. Chemerov, a Ukrainian cultural refugee who now fronts Angeleno band the Gitas, explains his motive for moving to...
Feb 9, 2015Concert review - Shiny Toy Guns
Melissa Bobbitt 0Photo courtesy Shiny Toy Guns' Facebook page "Do you really not see me when I come home late at night?" Carah Faye Charnow purred while performing her mammoth single "Waiting Alone." Truth be told, it...
Oct 24, 2012Comments
Recent posts
Occur Goes Global - The Music of Jamaica
Oct 16, 2017Occur Goes Global - The Music of the Ivory Coast
Oct 2, 2017Occur Goes Global - The Music of Italy
Sep 13, 2017Sponsors
Subscribe!
Receive updates on what's going on in live entertainment, events, and music.