Then there's the band. Nguyen has found herself some peas-in-a-pod in the Get Down Stay Down, a trio of rootsy indie-rockers who make We Brave Bee Stings And All a full-band listening experience, as opposed to that of a singer-songwriter with a backup group. It's a qualifier worth making, as the disc feels like four individuals (in possession of an innate understanding of each other, I might add) creating music together, and not the work of a single artist with anonymous accompaniment.

Maybe that sounds like splitting hairs, but it's an important point: the disc's spine does say "Thao with the Get Down Stay Down," after all, not just "Thao." These folks sound like they've been together forever. I can't think of a finer compliment for a band only on their second album. (Their debut, 2006's Trust Me Records release Like the Linen, is a bit tough to track down). Frank Stewart (guitar, organ, piano), Adam "the OK Bird" Thompson (bass, piano, backing vocals), and Willis Thompson (drums) bring an impressive palette of colors to Nguyen's alluringly down-homey ditties, thus elevating them from simple strum-alongs to intricate, dynamic pieces. Quite the guest roster, too: geology-loving folksinger Laura Veirs joins in, as does experimental organist-John Zorn collaborator Wayne Horvitz and avant-bluegrass banjoist Danny Barnes, among others.

We Brave Bee Stings And All begins with the roguish martial rhythms and lyrical acoustic guitar ripplings of "Beat (Health, Life And Fire)," a carefully building confession powered by a fascinating vocal delivery landing halfway between a yelp and a sigh. "Oh no / how can you stand it / When I run, when I run like a bandit / I wear him like a habit / in the lining of my jacket," Nguyen observes with a curious mixture of urgency, bemusement, and off-the-cuff nonchalance - but before you've even finished scratching your noggin over that one, in come the horns to send the song into rousing, theatrical flourishes. Its follow-up, "Bag of Hammers," benefits from a jovial guitar-funk pattern and subtle mouth-percussion bubbles popping away underneath Willis Thompson's head-nodding rhythms. The song also offers one of Nguyen's best lines, meted out in equal measures of kittenish charm and cat-and-mouse taunting: "And as sharp as I sting / as sharp as I sing / It still soothes you doesn't it / Like a lick of ice cream."

"Swimming Pools" is pushed along by a mesmerizing banjo raga - courtesy of Barnes, probably, but Nguyen is also credited with banjo on the disc, as well as guitar and organ - and skittering brushed-drums. It's a swinging piece of country-jazz for indie kids who never thought they liked either style of music. Fans of Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twin's pithy observations and front-porch arrangements on 2006's Rabbit Fur Coat (Team Love) could very well find themselves similarly wowed by Nguyen's declarations of "we brave bee stings and all / we don't dive, we cannonball" against a shimmering backdrop.

The full-length's centerpiece, however, arrives at the midway point: "Feet Asleep," a New Orleans-informed finger-snapper peppered by ragtime piano and feisty Dixieland horn fills. It's a moment of pure jubilation: that is, until you start paying closer attention to Nguyen's vocals and discover that she's detailing a less-than-perfect relationship. Nguyen opts for more of a "throw-your-whole-body-into-it" approach that sends the song into delicious catharsis by it culminates in an a cappella-and-handclap finale.

There's no video for "Feet Asleep," sadly. The song's just screaming for a riverboat/barbershop quartet theme, if you ask me. But I did find some fantastic footage of the band performing "Big Kid Table" back in their DC stomping grounds.

Thao Nguyen and the Get Down Stay Down perform with Xiu Xiu on April 12, 10 p.m., $12, at Bottom of the Hill, SF.