Dengue Fever performs Saturday at Pappy & Harriet's. / Courtesy Photo
Written by Judith Salkin
Desert Post Weekly
If you go
What: Dengue Fever in concert When: 9 p.m Saturday Where: Pappy and Harriett's Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown Tickets: $10 Information: (760) 365-5956; ticketweb.com
If you're into Cambodian pop sounds (and even if you're not), make your way up to Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown Palace on Saturday to catch Dengue Fever's 9 p.m. set.
It's a pre-release party for the band's “Cannibal Courtship” disc that drops on April 19 (there's a listening party that night at the Troubadour in West L.A.), said bassist Senon Williams.
“We played Pappy and Harriet's several years ago and loved the place,” said Williams from his Los Angeles home. The desert, Williams added, is a favorite place to visit for all the band members. “All of us spend a lot of time out there.”
Named for a nasty jungle bug, Dengue Fever was founded by Ethan Holtzman who fell deeply for the reverb surf guitar sound of Cambodian pop on a 1997 trip to Southeast Asia. His traveling companion ended up contracting Dengue fever, and Ethan (who plays Farfisa and Optigan organs) thought it sounded interesting enough to use it for the band's name.
Back home in the States, Ethan gave brother Zac, a member of the alt-country band Dieselhead, some of the cheap cassettes he'd brought home and added a convert to the sound.
The rest of the band all carried SoCal rock credentials.
Williams was in the Radar Brothers and worked with Chuck Mosley (Faith No More) in Cement; saxophonist David Ralicke had played with Beck, Ozomatli and Brazzaville. Ralicke shared Zac's interest in Ethiopian jazz, another world music element in the band's sound. And drummer Paul Smith came up through the ranks of a number of local bands.
Perhaps the biggest coup for Dengue Fever was finding lead singer Chhom Nimol, a Cambodian pop star living in Los Angeles.
When they met, Chhom's English was limited, said Williams. “It's gotten better over the years.”
Williams and Ethan had been friends long before Dengue Fever started up.
“We used to hang out and talk about music,” he said. “We talked about our love of music and both of us thought we needed to open our eyes and ears to other sounds or we'd never progress as musicians.”
While Dengue Fever started out doing covers of the music Ethan brought back from his trip, they later segued into writing in English and having the lyrics translated into Khmer for Chhom.
As Chhom's English improved, “Nimol was adamant about singing in English,” Williams said. “It's the progression she is on and the rest of us respect it.”
What: Dengue Fever in concert When: 9 p.m Saturday Where: Pappy and Harriett's Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Road, Pioneertown Tickets: $10 Information: (760) 365-5956; ticketweb.com
If you're into Cambodian pop sounds (and even if you're not), make your way up to Pappy and Harriet's Pioneertown Palace on Saturday to catch Dengue Fever's 9 p.m. set.
It's a pre-release party for the band's “Cannibal Courtship” disc that drops on April 19 (there's a listening party that night at the Troubadour in West L.A.), said bassist Senon Williams.
“We played Pappy and Harriet's several years ago and loved the place,” said Williams from his Los Angeles home. The desert, Williams added, is a favorite place to visit for all the band members. “All of us spend a lot of time out there.”
Named for a nasty jungle bug, Dengue Fever was founded by Ethan Holtzman who fell deeply for the reverb surf guitar sound of Cambodian pop on a 1997 trip to Southeast Asia. His traveling companion ended up contracting Dengue fever, and Ethan (who plays Farfisa and Optigan organs) thought it sounded interesting enough to use it for the band's name.
Back home in the States, Ethan gave brother Zac, a member of the alt-country band Dieselhead, some of the cheap cassettes he'd brought home and added a convert to the sound.
The rest of the band all carried SoCal rock credentials.
Williams was in the Radar Brothers and worked with Chuck Mosley (Faith No More) in Cement; saxophonist David Ralicke had played with Beck, Ozomatli and Brazzaville. Ralicke shared Zac's interest in Ethiopian jazz, another world music element in the band's sound. And drummer Paul Smith came up through the ranks of a number of local bands.
Perhaps the biggest coup for Dengue Fever was finding lead singer Chhom Nimol, a Cambodian pop star living in Los Angeles.
When they met, Chhom's English was limited, said Williams. “It's gotten better over the years.”
Williams and Ethan had been friends long before Dengue Fever started up.
“We used to hang out and talk about music,” he said. “We talked about our love of music and both of us thought we needed to open our eyes and ears to other sounds or we'd never progress as musicians.”
While Dengue Fever started out doing covers of the music Ethan brought back from his trip, they later segued into writing in English and having the lyrics translated into Khmer for Chhom.
As Chhom's English improved, “Nimol was adamant about singing in English,” Williams said. “It's the progression she is on and the rest of us respect it.”
1 comment:
Chhom Nimol looks almost like Angelina my fev movie star.
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