Thursday, May 12, 2005

CAMBODIA ROCKS!

The Afghan girl-group The Burka Band we covered here last week got me thinking about other weird bits of rock-xotica (like that word? I should copyright it) like the Cambodia Rocks series. Vol 3 is now out, documenting, well, Cambodian rock, primarily from the '60s & early '70s before the Commies took over. Although they did some Western pop covers, most Cambodian rock songs were originals, or Cambodian tunes reworked with Western instruments and a rockin' beat. One of my favorite radio shows here in Los Angeles, "The Molotov Cocktail Hour," played this utterly berserk Booker T & MGs cover that stopped me dead in my tracks:

Lelu Thaert "Dance Soul"

Inspired by these collections, a group of LA musicians formed Dengue Fever with an authentic Cambodian female singer who could be that country's entry to the Miss World pageant. They have one album out, new one coming soon, and they've been touring thru California (supporting Jonathan Richman!) so y'all have to come out here and see this:

"Lost In Laos" video

1 comment:

Mr Fab said...

Yeesh, what a crappy video. Sorry, I posted the link before I watched it. Good tune, tho.