Creator
Dengue Fever (band)
Dengue Fever is a Los Angeles band that performs Cambodian rock and pop alongside original songs.
Dengue Fever is a six-piece Los Angeles band, formed in 2001, that plays Cambodian rock and pop of the 1960s and 1970s alongside its own songs.[1][2] As of 2023 its members were vocalist Chhom Nimol, guitarist Zac Holtzman, keyboardist Ethan Holtzman, bassist Senon Williams, horn player David Ralicke and drummer Paul Smith.[1][2]
History
Ethan Holtzman came to 1960s Cambodian pop on a 1997 trip to Cambodia and brought cassettes of it back to Los Angeles.[3] The founding musicians had also taken to the 1996 compilation Cambodian Rocks. In 2001 Senon Williams and Zac and Ethan Holtzman were invited to play a Los Angeles show, and they looked for a singer in the Cambodian community of Los Angeles; the LA Phil places that search in the Cambodian community of Long Beach.[2][3] The show never took place, but they found Chhom Nimol, who had performed often for Cambodia's king and queen, and within weeks the band was playing live around Los Angeles.[2][3] It drew crowds in Long Beach's Cambodian clubs and in the city's rock venues, and in 2002 it won LA Weekly's Best New Artist Award.[3] The same year Matt Dillon asked the band for a Cambodian version of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" for his film City of Ghosts.[3]
The self-titled debut, Dengue Fever, was made up mostly of Cambodian classics and honored singers and songwriters killed by the Khmer Rouge.[3] The band wrote almost all of the follow-up, Escape From Dragon House, which took a more psychedelic and experimental direction.[3] It included "Ethanopium," a cover of a song by the Ethiopian musician Mulatu Astatke that was used in Jim Jarmusch's film Broken Flowers. Another song, "One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula," appeared on a film soundtrack and on the television series Weeds.[3]
In 2005 Dengue Fever toured Cambodia. It was the first band, and the first American band, to perform Khmer rock there since the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975.[3] On the tour the band met and played with Cambodian master musicians who had survived the Khmer Rouge years, and it recorded those sessions.[3] The documentary Sleepwalking Through the Mekong, curated by the band, follows the trip. It played at international film festivals and at festivals in Tucson, Los Angeles and Hawaii, and premiered in New York at the Margaret Mead Film Festival.[3][2] M80 Records released Venus on Earth in 2008.[3]
Later albums include Cannibal Courtship and The Deepest Lake.[1] The sixth album, Ting Mong, was released in September 2023 on the band's own label, Tuk Tuk Records. The band recorded it in a house in the desert, arriving with no prepared ideas, and Williams has said the aim was to capture moods and atmosphere.[2]
Music
The band plays songs first recorded by Cambodian artists of the 1960s and 1970s, among them Sinn Sisamouth, Ros Serey Sothea and Pen Ran, together with original songs that draw on psychedelic, surf, Latin and jazz styles.[1][2] Chhom Nimol writes lyrics in Khmer and English, and Williams names surf, African, Latin, jazz and Khmer music among the band's influences.[2] Dengue Fever has also released compilations of rare and lost Cambodian music.[2]
The band's appearance at WOMEX raised its international profile, and it has drawn audiences in Los Angeles, the United Kingdom, Maui and Moscow.[3] It has played globalFEST and WOMAD and toured with Sean Kuti, Tinariwen and Angelique Kidjo.[2] As of 2023 it had been part of the world music scene for about two decades.[2]
Recordings
Releases include:[4]
- Dengue Fever, the debut album, which has marked its 20th anniversary
- Sleepwalking Through the Mekong (M80 Records, Minky Records LP)
- Sleepwalking, a double LP limited to 1,000 copies
- Dengue Fever 2003–2015 (Green Cookie Records)
- Ting Mong (Tuk Tuk Records)
Its official videos include "Touch Me Not," "Silver Fish," "Wake Me Up Slowly" and a lyric video for "Room 720."[4]
Recognition
Amazon.com named Escape From Dragon House its number-one international release of 2005.[3] The band won Best Fusion Album at the 2009 Independent Music Awards.[1]
Works
- Cannibal Courtship (Music release)
- Dengue Fever (Music release)
- Escape From Dragon House (Music release)
- Sleepwalking Through the Mekong (Music release)
- The Deepest Lake (Music release)
- Venus on Earth (Music release)