Cambodian Rocks: Dengue Fever

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DENGUE FEVER can be a terrible way to go: dizziness, vomiting blood, uncontrollable laughing. The L.A.-based Cambodian psych band by that name, however, is much more agreeable, layering traditional Khmer-language vocals over retro-lounge guitar jangle.

The six-piece band — which has been dubbed "world music for the cool kids" — is fronted by Cambodian superstar Chhom Nimol and backed by a cadre of indie rockers, including brothers Zac and Ethan Holtzman, and Senon Williams, who also plays bass in Radar Bros. The unlikely match started in a karaoke bar, where the Holtzmans were searching for a singer who could re-create the '60s pop that bubbled up in Cambodia prior to Pol Pot.

Ethan Holtzman had traveled to Cambodia in 1997 and fell for national pop legend Sinn Sisamouth over the course of a seven-hour truck ride from Angkor Wat. "The drivers of the truck were listening to this mixtape of really good stuff, and the tape kept looping," he remembers. "I wrote down the names, and when I got to Phnom Penh, I went shopping and bought all these cassette tapes to bring home."

Four years later, he found himself at the Dragon House, trying — through a major language barrier — to convince Cambodia's answer to Madonna that his band was on the level.

"Nimol didn't know any American bands when we met her. She didn't know the Beatles or the Rolling Stones," says Holtzman. "But most people here don't know who Sinn Sisamouth is, and he's like the Bob Dylan of Cambodia." Chhom herself comes from a long line of established singers in Cambodia, and sang regularly for the king and queen of Cambodia. "Now that she's lived here for eight years, she loves hip-hop," says Holtzman. "We played a show with MIA and she loves her."

Dengue Fever's latest release, "Venus on Earth," features some of the band's first original songs in English; until this record, Chhom sang entirely in Khmer, with the brothers' lyrics translated from English. Some address elements of history that Cambodians themselves seldom discuss: "One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula" details the fate of a singer taken in by the Khmer Rouge and forced to sing in the sun until she dropped. "When Nimol says, 'I can't say this,' or, 'I can't do this,' we respect that," notes Holtzman. "There's still fear there. The wounds are still pretty fresh."

The band visited Cambodia in 2005, a journey chronicled in John Pirozzi's documentary "Sleepwalking through the Mekong." "We played on the Cambodian Television Network, a two-hour program. It was 95 degrees and full of kids and their grandparents, and they aired it every day nonstop," Holtzman recalls. "The music that inspired us to form is like the classic rock of their country.

"It's all world music," sums up Holtzman. "It's all from here — Earth."

» Black Cat, 1811 14th St. NW; with Chicha Libre, Sun., 8 p.m., $15; 800-551-7328. (U St.-Cardozo)

Written by Express contributor Shauna Miller

Photos by Kevin Estrada