Spazz Music: January 2005 Archives
This band really messed with me. Just screwed with my old noggin'. You see, I normally title these articles by taking a lyric that I am fond of or that I find apt for the piece and throw that up there put in a colon and then the band's name. Well, Dengue Fever just through all the rules out the window, because all of their lyrics are in the Khmer language. So, left to wits I came up with a dumb joke. I'm never listening to FOREIGN music again.
Dengue Fever is an interesting story, though. It goes something like this. Dude goes to Cambodia. Dude loves this Cambodian rock music from the 60s he finds while there. Dude contracts Dengue Fever. Dude returns to Los Angeles. Dude brings his brother some awesome tapes of this music he finds. Both dudes are now mega pumped on it and try to find all music like this they can. They make a band with some other dudes to play covers of some of these songs. The dudes then find a former Cambodian pop star (Chhom Nimol) in Long Beach (more specifically Little Phnom Penh), who is like the Cambodian version of the Jacksons (Michael, Janet, Jackson 5). The dudes talk the Cambodian pop star lady into joining their band. The band, now called Dengue Fever, plays tons of shows and dudes love it. Dengue Fever is named best new band in the LA Weekly. Post 9/11 policies of the racist variety caused Chhom Nimol to be arrested for immigration reasons. She was in jail for 3 weeks and it took a year of legal battles for her to get a legit visa. In the meantime Dengue Fever released their self titled debut album. Dengue Fever is the bands only widely available release. The album's opening track, "Lost in Laos," is so immediately exciting and attention demanding. "Lost in Laos" is probably the album's high moment, but the moment is so high that rest of the album can be not as good as the opener but still be pretty strong. The band sounds energized as it blows through a mix of covers and originals.
Dengue Fever is an odd combo. Bringing together sounds of the distinctly Khmer melodies that amble up and down the register so often it would be impossible to write down with heavy use of organ, rock drums, crazy active horns, guitars, and more Dengue Fever feels so alive. I get so pumped up every time I put it on. There are things about the music that are familiar like the surfy/spy sounding guitar lines, the subtle vibe that this music was once in some lost Quentin Tarantino film, which all sorta makes this sound a little novelty and trite, but it's not. It has sorta this timeless/hard to put your finger on it vibe because it is songs from and inspired by the 60s, but played by musicians who have the influence of the 40 years since the 60s and who are coming together a whole world away from where this music already existed. The music sounds completely authentic and loyal to the original Cambodian source, but yet somehow feels so current/futuristic because of some subtle influences that seep into the music. More and more music will start to have this amazing vibe as other cultures start to have more influence on music that is being created in America. Dengue Fever has me more excited and hopeful to see where music goes in the next years than any other current music, and nothing can make spazz out as much. I believe there is a direct correlation between ability to make this dude mega spazz out and being The Greatest Band of All Time.
