New and Used Records: Dengue Fever

Seeing Dengue Fever live is an experience unlike any other. For one, I get to see them an intimate setting - The Independent in San Francisco - which is almost unfair given the broad scope of their sound. Singer Chhom Nimol commands the stage, playfully interacting with both the band and the audience. The five musicians carry the force and talent of a jam band - but without all that pesky jamming. The crowd is well-behaved, yet completely mesmerized at what they are witnessing. On record - the sound is equally powerful. The five musicians - who hail from Los Angeles - came together through a mutual interest in Cambodia pop/rock of the sixties and seventies. Adding Nimol on vocals - a bit of a Cambodian pop star in her own right - completed the formula, creating a sound that meshed these mutual interests with Nimol's prior leanings, and a host of other musical influences. Spending much of their debut covering classic Cambodian rock songs, the band took to writing original material for last year's Escape From Dragon House . Performing new material was a new task for Nimol - who also translated much of the lyrics from English - but one she fulfills with ease. We caught up with the band's rhythm section when they were recently in San Francisco, and the video features the songs "Tap Water," "Sni Bong," "Tip My Canoe," and "We Were Gonna" - as well as footage from their shows in Cambodia last year. ::MP3s:: " We Were Gonna " " Sni Bong " " Sleepwalking Through The Mekong " " Lost In Laos (Tom Chasteen Remix) " (from the Digi EP ) Purchase Escape From Dragon House ... Buy at iTunes Music Store Buy at Napster Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody Buy at eMusic Buy at GroupieTunes

Mevio | August 21, 2006

Tags:. .sound. .completely. .completed. .together. .original