There aren't many original ideas out there, but Zac and Ethan
Holtzman had one about six years ago. The brothers wanted to start
a band and play a kind of music most Americans had never heard:
psychedelic Cambodian rock from the 1960s. All they needed was a
lead singer who spoke fluent Khmer.
That part was a problem, said Zac: "Neither one of us knew any
Cambodians."
Nevertheless, they found one - more on her later - and the band,
Dengue Fever, became one of the least likely success stories of the
past few years. Blending shagadelic rock with wriggly Asian pop,
the group built a following among hipsters and World-music fans
alike. After its 2005 album, "Escape From Dragon House" (M80
Music), was voted No. 1 on Amazon's year-end International music
list, Dengue Fever became a favorite of the influential L.A. DJ Nic
Harcourt, landed a spot on Seattle's Bumbershoot Festival and,
last year, played its first New York show at a sold-out Joe's Pub.
How did Zac, the guitarist, go from playing in the funk-punk band
Dieselhed to Dengue Fever? Speaking by phone from his home in L.A.,
he explained that Ethan, who plays Farfisa organ, first heard
Cambodia's forgotten rock music while traveling through the
country in the back of a pickup truck; he returned home and the two
brothers began jamming together. The hunt for a lead singer led
them to Long Beach, a Los Angeles suburb with a substantial
Cambodian population, where they scoped out singers in various
bar-restaurants.
Eventually, they found a spot called Dragon House and discovered
Chhom Nimol, whose powerful and highly elastic voice would become
Dengue Fever's secret weapon. "As soon as Nimol sang," Zac said,
"I started elbowing my brother."
Nimol, a fairly recent immigrant, spoke little English apart from
"yes" and "thank you," Zac said. But little by little, she and the
band - including bassist Senon Gaius Williams, drummer Paul Drew
Smith and horn player David Ralicke - formed a rapport. They even
wrote original songs, sending their English lyrics to a friend in
Washington, D.C., who translated them into Khmer for Nimol.
At times, the band's go-go beats and exuberant melodies conjure up
an Asian B-52's, but there's a serious undercurrent to the music.
In the 1970s, the Khmer Rouge regime crushed Cambodia's budding
rock scene, and many of its stars mysteriously vanished. Dengue
Fever's song "One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula" is based on the
local legend of a woman who was forced to sing while walking in a
circle until she collapsed.
An American documentary on the band, called "Sleepwalking Through
the Mekong," was shown on Cambodian television nearly nonstop in
2005, making the group minor celebrities in the country, Zac said.
On a recent trip there, he said, "We'd go the top of these temples
in the Angkor Wat ruins, and the monks would come out and go,
'Dengue Fever!'"
Source:
Newsday.com
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