Railway Station rocks, and other events: 3 - 6 June

Way back last Thursday, so long ago I can hardly remember, the Hellhounds played their last for a while at Sharky Bar - a break forced by the temporary departure of the Swedish Ambassador for a good two months.  This hardworking jack-of-all-axes will be sorely missed by the musical community of Phnom Penh.  We gave him a good send off from Sharky and know that the Hellhounds will rise again.

Friday night, back at Sharky again, was another familiar instalment in the saga of the Lazy Jazz Drunks, including line up changes within an hour of taking the stage, and a general shortage of traffic police on the stand.  Still, we saw - and heard - the highly entertaining bass debut of the Mythical Dude amid some thumping and valiant blues rock complete with false endings, a brief guest singer, and some weird and wonderful jamming on an extended Whole lotta love.   Some pics are here:  Sharky Blog

The big night of the week of course was Saturday, when the much unused Phnom Penh railway station was converted into a party venue, including a train trip off to a rice field, where the Phnom Penh Hot Strings delighted the delightable crowd, then returning to a great gathering of people who rocked out to the Cambodian Space Project on the platform.  This is well documented here and here.  A great night that was only hampered by the DJs coming on too early  ; )

Then on Sunday the public debut of Espresso Thmei took place at Paddy Rice.  And not such a bad crowd for a Sunday night either.  The pocket-sized version of the CSP mixes in a number of brand new songs with the regular CSP repertoire, and, through the different and more acoustic setting, brings the lovely voice of Srey Thy well to the fore.  And it's a pleasure to play.  And Thy's newest biggest fan wrote it up as well.

see you around.

FTA back on the beat ... 28 - 29 May

Friday night was a mixture of the new and the old.  The Velkommen Inn hosted Bayon Blues, with the acoustic blues fireworks of Little Duke, the sensational Kristin on vocals, and the everywhere-at-once Bong Thom squeezing and bending away on the harmonica.  Good old traditional blues, played damn well - a nice clean crisp sound.  You can be forgiven for wondering if you're in Phnom Penh at all.  Then it was a short step up the river to the Chinese House where the Mekong Pirates juggernaut were making their presence felt.  A huge crowd helped set the night alight, but it turns out I missed some serious wildness at the end of the night by succumbing to the need to sleep and heading home early.

On Saturday night Chinese House again the venue of choice.  The Bong Thom dot Com tenth anniversary party featured four bands:  Bayon Blues, the Hellhounds, the Cambodian Space Project and the debut of Espresso Thmei (technically just the CSP pocket-size edition, showcasing Srey Thy's vocals with acoustic guitar and a little harmonica).   The Hounds stuck to the straight and narrow with guest Canadian Dave on bass, and the CSP continued to refine its post-electric sound, with Bong Sak on a smaller but no less effective drumkit, and encouraging to the front the clarinet of Bun Hong. 

So here's the call, people:  please send in gig reports,  let us all know where it's happening and who's doing it.  It was great to see writeups from new contributors at the end of last month, keep them coming.   See you next weekend somewhere. 

Hot licks, wet picks and sunburned songs: 24 April 2010

The searing near mid-day heat of Phnom Penh is not really the kind of environment where you would expect the spirit of rock’n’roll to thrive, but at last Saturday’s Mith Samlanh FunFair that sprit was well and truly live and kicking in the form of a short sharp set from former front man of 1980’s UK new wavesters Radio City, Skip Sutherland. A crowd of over a hundred Khmer and expats clapped and roared their sometimes baffled but enthusiastic appreciation at his solo return, just one man, one guitar, and his songs.

Skip rattled through a quickfire set of his own material and a couple of choice covers, resembling some wired cross between Joe Strummer and Elvis Costello and sweating so profusely that Mith Samlanh boss Didi rescued him from almost certain heatstroke by donating her baseball cap to the rapidly burning bard!

Skip’s own songs inhabit that glorious crossover land between classic 60’s and 70’s British rock and punk, with the Kinks, the Who, Clash and Costello being the obvious touchstones, echoed in the covers he also tackled – Costello’s Alison, with an extended dramatic pause in the middle, a misty-eyed take on Ray Davies’ finest three minutes, Waterloo Sunset and a storming punk-charged version of Van Morrison’s Brown-Eyed Girl to end, earning a huge ovation from the crowd. Undoubted highlight though was his solo version of Radio City single Love and a Picture, which he delivered with the same drive and energy (and I swear in the same key!) as the 1980 original. Snatching the briefest of chats with him afterward, he told me recent interest in the single on E-bay and from collectors of New Wave music was the spur to performing again, and that Japanese label 1977 records plan to reissue the single in the very near future. As to his future plans, he doesn’t rule out any further solo gigs, and is also working on another band project which he described as ‘angular art-punk melodic noise’….

I for one can’t wait…

Laurence W. Talbot

(you can listen to Radio City here - http://musicruinedmylife.blogspot.com/2009/12/radio-city-love-and-picture.html)

…and  muchas gracias to Ani and Stine for the pics

Scoddy says: Thanks Laurence!  

Remember, this is an open blog, keep sending your reviews in!

BUM N’ DRAZE KICKED OFF THE KHMER NEW YEAR’S LIVE ROCK! - Match report, 23 April 2010

When things started to slide slowly ‘back to normal’ after the pre-Khmer new year crackdown of vices in Cambodia, including ban on loud music, Bum N’ drazE’s ‘Back To Abnormal’ 2010 toür hit Sharky big time in Phnom Penh on Friday 23 April!

Introducing their new brilliant axeman, guitar slinger Jet ‘Zetor’ Odrerir (USA), who knocked out the Sharky crowd with his killer solos, BnD’s April 2010 show did not seem to leave anybody cold or unastonished about the nastiest-sounding and longest-serving original material-playing expat hard rock band in post-war Cambodia.

The show kicked off with the drummer and throat-shredder Twilight Dzouns sporting the Jason (Friday the 13th) hockey mask, then spurting a remarkable amount of artificial blood from his mouth at the crowd Gene Simmons-style and staring at the audience with a lunatic look in his eyes, while Zetor and bassist P. Sonic started the immortal riffs of Ted Nugent’s ‘Cat Scratch Fever’ – and the noisiest party in town was underway immediately!

During their set BnD introduced some new material, but mostly band’s good old class-sicks before wrapping up the gig with the total destruction of two acoustic guitars and more blood from Dzouns’ drooling loudmouth: “This is what we think of acoustic folk music!”.

As one enthusiastic fan concluded after the show: “Bum N’ drazE are rock’n roll in the only meaningful sense of the word. Everyone else in Cambodia is just pretending!” and “BnD looked for Ace Frehley- or Andy McCoy-style lead guitarist, but in Zetor got more than they asked for, goddamn great shit, man!”. Well, take or leave it, but stay tuned for the next tour dates of BnD’s ‘Back To Abnormal’ 2010 and follow www.myspace.com/bumndraze!

Setlist 23.04.2010:

Cat Scratch Fever (Ted Nugent)

March Or Die (Don’t July) (Bum N’drazE)

Black Cadillac (Bum N’drazE)

Havana Affair (Ramones)

Sickville (Randall Planet-Twilight Dzouns-Bum N’drazE)

If Mekong Was Whiskey (Bum N’drazE)

Dirt (The Stooges)

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Copy supplied by bumndraze@hotmail.com - thanks guys

 

Television Ted reports - KlapYaHandz event: 24 April 2010

This event was all about real Cambodian creativity from the new youth of Cambodia.

If you were lucky enough to be at the Phnom Penh Night Market on Saturday afternoon and night then you would have been privileged to see the continued emergence of a new Khmer sub-culture based on Hip-Hop. It was a great night of street art, improvised lyrics, DJs and dance. In the audience were 1000+ young Cambodians. It included the trendy and very sexy girls, sporting the latest in Khmer fashion - to the kids from the underprivileged side of things, sporting colours from the street. There was a definite buzz throughout the audience for all of the 7 hours with most members wide-eyed, expectant, enthusiastic and entertained. The audience was not only able to view this performance for free but was also provided with a flow of T-shirts, CDs and other prizes throughout the night.

The young, male-dominated crowd responded well and honestly to all aspects of the performances – whose improvised lyrics, backed by professional DJs, can claim to be on the cusp of current Cambodian musical creativity. Amongst the crowd was a group of street kids who formed a circle and flip-flopped between near-fighting to near-dancing – possible proof that the event was catering to the true street essences of Hip-Hop. The event also included children’s art and socially minded messages to the listeners.

The presentation and professional framework made available by KlapYaHandz was first-rate – large stage, good lighting, international artists, Cambodia’s most imminent Hip-Hop artists, professional DJs and (most importantly) a clear & booming sound system. It also included street art that framed the front part of the stage and that evolved as the night progressed.

In all, it was a well and truly enjoyable and professional event that had great success in provisioning the advancement of culture for Cambodian youth.

- thanks to Television Ted for providing this match report. 

Too much I didn't see: 22 - 24 April

The Cambodian Space Project commenced its progression towards the soft, smooth dinner music that it's always deep down wanted to be this weekend, with a performance at one of our favourite places, La Croissette.  Technical issues were somewhat minimised, we welcomed the return of the clarinet of Bun Hong, and we played without either drums or bass.  The results were ... mixed.  While most of the tunes worked perfectly well, there were a couple that we found ourselves lost in the middle of, with no way out ... a moment or two of ankle-deep sludge in the second set.  Not to leave on a downer, we revved it up again and played one last tight after-midnight set.  Upward and onward! 

Friday night myself and The Lovely Irene played a private party, and I rediscovered how much people like Simon & Garfunkel.  And Saturday night I was at the theatre.  Elsewhere, Bum'n'Draze (Fbook photos) and then Lost Highway (Fbook photos) played at Sharky, the Bayon Blues Ensemble (Fbook photos) debuted at the Velkommen Inn, and the KlapYaHandz hiphop event was held at the night market.  Others will have to chronicle such events.

PSE Charity Party: 9 April

It's got so quiet lately I completely missed one: the Cambodian Space Project played at the PSE Charity Party out in Stung Meanchey on Friday 9th.  Huge.  After a procession of performers from Rock Productions, traditional dancers, and a prize draw for The Krawma, the new stripped down version of the Space Project was unveiled.  In the absence of the Space Commander, Mr Pink took up big red, and G-String took the bass.  Bong Sak, Bong Thom, the Breton Bandit and The Lovely Irene filled their regular places, and we were joined from Siem Reap by Aya on melodica.  Srey Thy was far from daunted by the huge and mostly Khmer crowd, who danced and danced.  Apparently the quality of the sound depended upon where in the audience you were ... situation normal ... but it was a big sound nevertheless.   And by golly there was dancing afterwards as well.  

The next night PSE did it all again, featuring Cacath and Los Poporks - any reports? 

Photos courtesy of Gaetan.