***for full gig listings jump to the bottom***

Greetings,

And welcome to December and what appears to be a fullthroated run through to the end of 2021.

Tonight, Thursday, it’s all the residencies, from the jams at Cloud and Bosporus to jazz at The Attic and the Elephant Bar, Cuban music at Sora Sky Bar, and rock’n’roll with The Extraordinary Chambers at Oscar’s on the Corner.

 Friday night Scotch & Soda are back, and they’re at at Odom Gardens, while Gerard, Gaby and Danielle are at Green Pepper.  Khmer Magic Music Bus at Bouchon, Carmela is at The Sharky’s, Austin & Vita are at Central Café and Art Chemistry is at Hard Rock Café Phnom Penh .  Ronan and Jack of The Goldilocks Zone team up for a duo called Rundown Guesthouse at Bosporus ($5 on the door) and Los Primos are at Duplex.  K’n’E take it late as ever at Oscar’s on the Corner.

Out of Phnom Penh on Friday, Joe & the Jumping Jacks head to Monkey Republic in Kampot, while Major/Minor are off to Wat Opot Children’s Community in Takeo for a Christmas party.

On Saturday night Central Café are advertising a Grand Opening night with live band but that’s apparently all the information available. During the afternoon, Hills&Bells are playing a Christmas show at Paradise House, then later Intan, Gaby and Daisuke are on the rooftop at Aquarius, The Brexiteers with the Scoddy Acoustic Trio are at Bosporus ($5 on the door), and K’n’E are at Oscar’s on the Corner.  In Kampot, the Samurai Saloon has restarted its Saturday night open mic.

Sunday is a busy day this weekend.  Villa Grange is holding a special afternoon as a remembrance for our friend Peter Doyle with what promises to be a ripping open mic hosted by Packo and featuring many acts, including the Stiff Little Punks.  Then at Tacos Kokopelli it’s the return of the longest running open mic in Phnom Penh, the Sunday Sundowner Sessions. zargz is at Little Susie, and Joe & the Jumping Jacks are late at Oscar’s on the Corner.

**For the rest of the gigs check out the listings at the bottom of the page**

Coming soon is the annual Radio Oun (formerly Kampot Radio) Top 100 Songs Of All Time – nominations open shortly, with voting in the second half of December and a countdown at International New Year.  Leng Pleng is mounting a campaign to make sure local recordings and releases take centre stage, so be sure to make your nominations count.

Siem Reap musician Paul Mackie has launched a The Shack Collaboration Community Project as a way of rebuilding the music scene, particularly those attempting to make their living from music in these tough times.  “I have built a lovely but tiny space from bamboo for our live and tiny film production and  installed a home studio set up for recording. My aim is to keep our musicians and visual artists alive. It will be at least a year until enough tourism is back and we can get back to what we do, play music and entertain our wonderful city and country.  I will coordinate music and art collaborations with our talented local musicians and make sure we have regular output for you. I hope you guys can help us out in the ways that are set out here on Patreon. If you would like to know more or collaborate with us then please do get in touch.”    Check out Patreon and YouTube.

Details are continuing to slow emerge for the Angkor International Festival of the Arts (incorporating the Angkor Writers and Readers Festival) to be held 10 – 12 December in Siem Reap.  Keep an eye on the Facebook pages for more information as it comes.

Note:  LengPleng.com has returned to its weekly email service.   If you wish to receive LengPleng in your inbox every Thursday please send an email saying Subscribe to gigs@lengpleng.com.   And tell your friends.

 The Leng Pleng Weekly Feature

Songwriting as alchemic therapy, and open mics are good too: Gareth Bawden

Gareth Bawden has been slowly making a name for himself in Phnom Penh both through open mics and restaurants about town.  This Saturday he revives The Brexiteers, adding Nathan Fanoni on bass and Troy Campbell on drums, at Bosporus, to play a mixture of his own songs and carefully selected covers.  He sat down at Golden Home with Leng Pleng to talk songwriting and open mics.

So are you a singer-songwriter?  Guitarist?  Performer? Entertainer?  “I always describe myself as a singer/songwriter.  Sometimes people call me a musician, but I don’t see myself as a musician.  I lean more towards being a poet who uses music as a medium to share his poetry.  In any given environment I use music to connect to people.”

Read the whole article here.

Passing Chords: a few things you might not know about… Darryl Packo Paxton

Darryl Packo Paxton, man about town and increasingly active singer and guitarist.  “I’ve been an oil rig worker all my life.  I love to see all the good musicians here.  At home in my own room I like to have a bit of a play, and lately I’ve been trying to play a little bit more, what the hell.  I love playing.”  Packo will be part of the special open mic at Villa Grange on Sunday afternoon in memory of Peter Doyle.

Do you have a pet musical hate?
No, not really.  I’m only a backyard guitar player.  To me every time we get to play, it’s fun.  Last night we were running through some of the old bands, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and that kind of, and I was saying to people, oh, I never went to see them.  When I got older I regretted not going to see them.  We had so many bands come through Brisbane when I was young, mid-week, it was really easy to get to Festival Hall and see any band.

A private musical indulgence:
The first LP I ever bought when I was 14 years old, through the old World Record Club, was Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited.  The other day I sneakily played one of them myself in my room.

The year you first came to Cambodia:
I first came here in 2005 around Christmas time.  I was living in Jakarta, Indonesia at the time.  I came to visit Angkor Wat, and I came to Phnom Penh, but I was sick.  Afterwards I returned to Brisbane and said to my best mate where’s that map of Asia.  He said where are you going?  I went: Phnom Penh. Although I was sick I liked the look of the place.  I arrived here on the 20th of December 2008.  In a couple of weeks it’ll be 13 years.   The flight got in at 8 am, and by the afternoon I was drunk as a lord, playing pool.  An Aussie guy said to me, oh, you like playing pool?  There’s another bar I’m going to meet some guys at, do you want to come?  Sure!  What’s it called?  Sharky Bar.  I walked in – this is my type of bar.

An early music memory:
Back when all the bands were coming to Festival Hall in Brisbane I’d ring my mates, do you want to go?  Mum would drive to town, I’d leap out, run in and buy the tickets.  Very often we got seats in the first ten rows.  We were surfies.  Back in the day Brisbane was known as a bit of a drunks town, so the bands never really wanted to play on Friday or Saturday night, so we saw so many bands mid-week.  Santana twice; Osibisa twice; John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, once with Freddie King, second time with Mick Taylor; The Kinks; Neil Young; Supertramp.  So many.

The last thing you had to eat:
I just cooked some satay with New Zealand tenderloin steak.  I’m a bit of a secret chef – my daughters would burst out laughing if they heard the old man’s a cook nowadays.

A country you want to visit:
I’ve been to South America in my work, Columbia, but I always wanted to go to Cuba.  I’d certainly like to do some of South America, but I know now I’m too old.  I’ve probably been to 50 countries.

A book or movie you keep going back to:
I don’t really have any favourites.  I used to read profusely until I moved to Cambodia, and I just seemed to have dropped off reading.  When I was a working man I’d always have a book in the room late at night after work.  I watch The Blues Brothers every couple of years, always thought they were pretty funny.

What languages can you speak?
Bahasa Indonesia.  I lived and worked in Indonesia on the oil rigs, back in 1990 I worked in East Kalimantan, and later Sumatra, Java, and  lived in Jakarta for ten years.  My Khmer is dodgy.

Your primary instrument, and when you started playing it:
Guitar, at 17.  In 1973 my mate showed me three chords.

Something people might be surprised to know about you:
I really like traveling.  I used to travel all the time with my oldest daughter, until COVID.  I think we’ve been in 17 countries together already.

You have a time machine and a magic ticket to one gig or festival in the past.  What do you choose?
I saw the Rolling Stones in Brisbane in 1972 at an outdoor tennis court venue and it rained, they really couldn’t perform.  I’d love to jump a plane tomorrow and go and catch their current American tour.  Sadly no Charlie Watts.  When I was young I saw Buddy Guy five times, and my best mate and I always said we’d go to the Easter Blues Festival, and go early because Buddy performs in his club Legends in January each year.  I’d love to see Buddy Guy in his own club.

A question from the last participant:  is there music that you like that your parents do not?
My mum liked Nat King Cole and Elvis Presley, but my dad liked Bob Dylan and The Band.  And actually took me and my two older brothers to see The Band.

New and Recent Releases

Sam Sandak (AKA Ozymandias) from LA is back in the kingdom and on the loose….  His EP Back To Life was recorded earlier this year by and with Professor Kinski – three punky tracks including a version of Three Little Bops, a musical retelling of Three Little Pigs from a 1957 Looney Tunes cartoon (look it up) and the Ramones tune Beat on the brat.  It’s now available for your listening pleasure at Soundcloud.  And be prepared for Ozymandias & the Phnom Penh Pythons on stages shortly.

On Bandcamp and your favourite streaming platform – Ernie Buck & the Cham Ticks, Self Portrait with Moustache.

Steve Porte Photo of the Week

 

Salvatore DiGaetano enjoys the new lighting set up at Oscar’s on the Corner, 25 November, 2021

 

If there are things that you know that LengPleng should know, please tell us and we’ll do our best to tell the world.

See you around the traps.

your correspondent,

Guillermo Wheremount
LengPleng.com
gigs@lengpleng.com

Weekly Gig Guide – week commencing Thursday 2 December 2021

** residency

Thursday 

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Coming soon:

Los Primos at Botanico@Odom Garden
First World Problems at Cloud
Little Thieves at Sunset Boulevard
Spiked Gray, Burning Swamp and Ozymendias & the Phnom Penh Pythons at Oscar’s on the Corner
Grand opening (no band info) of The Sharky’s

Coming later:

Geography of the Moon at The Vine (new location, St 244)
Geography of the Moon at Oscar’s on the Corner
A Taste of Africa at The Sharky’s
Japan Guitar Shop at Sam’s

 

By Weekly Wrap