The Bay Area’s Loquat has the same soft, light, and pretty but dark quality as Lush and Mazzy Star; bands that at some point or another worked their way into college radio hipness in the 90s. Loquat’s a little bouncier, though, like a distant cousin to New York’s Brazilian Girls.

Thao Nguyen, who performs with a band as Thao With The Get Down Stay Down, earns cool band name bonus points right off the bat. But her recent performance at the Independent in San Francisco (she’s on a national tour) really closed the deal for me. She’s got this punk rock-ness to her that gives her pop melodies some grit.

The full blog post at Mother Jones.