 |
Always a tripCambodian-rock revivalists Dengue Fever deal
|
The world evoked by California’s Dengue Fever is indeed a lost one, that of the opulent, groovy psych-rock emanating from Cambodia prior to the devastation of the Khmer Rouge takeover, which in the mid-’70s took the lives of millions. This past May at the San Francisco International Film Festival, however, the band explored another Lost World—the dinosaur-packed 1925 silent film, which Dengue Fever accompanied for a sold-out house. “It’s fun to have the film doing all the moving, and us just sitting down and only focusing on the music,” says guitarist and band co-founder Zac Holtzman. “It’s like the film became a member of the band—sorta like the leader of the band, almost.” Another neat item is the band’s split seven-inch with Chicha Libre, whose resurrection of the Amazonian psych-pop style chicha is comparable to Dengue Fever’s own audio odyssey. No surprise the two acts have hit it off. “We just did this tour of the south of the U.S. together, and when we were in Louisiana, we went on a swamp tour on a little boat, all the Chicha guys and me. It was fun, saw a lot of crazy birds and alligators and stuff.” Speaking of cool nature stuff, Dengue Fever have hooked up with both the World Wildlife Foundation and the Cambodia-focused Wildlife Alliance, and hope to return to the country in that capacity (their earliest visits are captured in the recent documentary Sleepwalking Through the Mekong). “Picture travelling by boat up the Mekong River, playing shows and spreading word about, y’know, ‘Please don’t kill these giant catfish because they’re a unique species, one of the biggest fish on the planet.’ They need to lay off the dolphins and catfish—and there are bears in the Cambodian forests.” Meanwhile, Dengue Fever are still bringing homeland sounds to the diaspora—in Long Beach, in Lowell, MA, and at the Cambodian Festival at Parc Jean-Drapeau this weekend. “Occasionally, we’ll go down to the old bars that [singer Ch’hom] Nimol used to sing in, we’ll be having dinner and they’ll ask us to get up on stage, use the band’s equipment and play a few songs. That’s always a trip!” WITH NUTSAK AT IL MOTORE ON |
