Because you’re, like, an uncultured philistine? Figures it would take a Southerner to lecture a Canadian on good music. Anyway, both Chairs Missing and Pink Flag are totally excellent in the same vein, though much more loud, abrasive, and punkier. On a good day, Pink Flag may be my favorite punk album.
On topic: the greatest and most influential American band of the '60s (ask Tom Petty and R.E.M. and Wilco and any guitarist who’s done the jingle-jangle). The only band to make a #1 hit out of quoting Ecclaisteses (sic, sorry forgot exact spelling). To everything, turn, turn, turn… “Transcendent” is I believe the proper adjective.
Cheers to Roger McGuinn and Gene Clarke and Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons. I may have it even my heart to say hello that living walrus David Crosby, just for being for a short time in tbe one good band that fat old crackhead’s ever been in.
BTW, heads up you folks in Taipei (and Taichung): I just got back from a gig by a French punk band by the name of Dimi Dero in the 335 bar in Tainan, and they totally smoked, even though there were less than two dozen people in the audience. 99% of the live bands I get to see in Tainan suck, but these dudes put on an awesome show. They’re playing Taichung tomorrow and Taipei for three nights this weekend, and I heartily recommend them. Sorry, I forgot the names of the bars…do a search on Google. Really nice guys, too, hung out a bit after the show. Snuck in an awesome cover of Motorhead’s “Ace of Spades” - everybody was talking about that after the show.
What am I listening to? Cambodian pop, but not your normal Mando/Canto/Thai influenced modern paff, this is sixties surf guitar meets psychedelia meets Cambodian/Laotian/Thai folk/pop (Mow Lam), 60s Cambodian pop, taken back to LA session musos and translated via a Cambodian pop diva. Sounds weird, but it is stunning stuff. Dengue Fever is the band - see their home page here.
Aside from one of the best cover pics I’ve seen in ages, they freakin’ rock!
Their first album is essentially covers of classic sixties Cambodian pop. The second they write some of their own, in English and translate it into Cambodian, and their third (above is a mix of all the above and some English tunes.
Both of whom were killed by the Khmer Rouge. Here is these two doing Chnam Oun 16 (I’m sixteen, which is also covered by Dengue Fever. thecoleranch.com/Chnam_oun_16.mp3
i like, was hoping for a psychedelic guitar jam at the end of i’m 16 though lol. maybe a little bit like it must have felt to slip a new album on back in the 60’s, nice.
This song has stayed with me all day long for a few days now. The gentle power of the singer, a giant Hawaiian man who passed away some ten years ago, strikes me in a deep place. Brings me peace in a hectic world. Enjoy.
