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

Greetings:

Tonight in Phnom Penh for acoustic music Green Leaf Motif are at Penh 278 and Scott Bywater is at Botanico, Khmer songs with Shane and Beelin Na and Vichet Em Ma at Le Vin, and jazz with Gerard at Mayazon.  Rock’n’roll goes late with The Extraordinary Chambers at Oscar’s on the Corner.  In Siem Reap, Andy Luna is at Republic Bistro, Wildcard Voodoo and Quantum are at Villa D and Neena & Giuliano play between Harry’s & The Welsh Consulate. 

On Friday in Phnom Penh there’s bluegrass with Grass Snake Trio at Craft, visiting crossover pianist Jolynn J Chin is at Sundown Social Club and Christophe is at Littlewine Bistro, and there’s more acoustic music from Robin Narciso and Alisha at The Tin Hat.  Things will be a little louder at Cloud with Spiked Gravy opening for. Vartey Ganiva, and at Oscar’s on the Corner English singer-songwriter Billy Page plays his last show for this season with Phil Javelle and John Paul.  In Siem Reap, Sasha & Drepana Arcuata are at Republic Bistro.

Saturday night in Phnom Penh sees Ice & Dara at Botanico, Alita & Smey YPLuS at Le Vin  and the old time trad jazz of The Pearly Kings at Sundance.  Elsewhere Arome Khmer are at Cloud and Diego DiMarques makes a rare Phnom Penh appearance at Excelsior.   The Blue Souls join with special guest Felix McFadden at Oscar’s on the Corner and Faceslap play their final gig [see our feature interview here] at Back Street Bar.  Johnny Stock is at Kep Natural and Sovann Kan and Oudom is at The Bay in Kampot.  In Siem Reap find Jam Cha at Star Bar and Those Handsome Devils at Arin’s.

Looking forward to Sunday in Phnom Penh, Marianna Hensley and Greg Beshers are at The Vine, then there’s the regular Sunday Sundowners open mic at Tacos Kokopelli and Stu Cottom at Bar Oz.  Special events are a piano and flute recital with Issei Sakano and Anton Isselhardt at Raffles Le Royal and three songwriters – Lewis, Gary & Arone – at Back Street Bar.  Going late as ever, the longest running expat rock’n’roll band in Cambodia Joe & The Jumping Jacks are at Oscar’s on the Corner.

The Leng Pleng Feature Interview

Farewell forever shows and other dubious contentions-  Arone and Jesse of Faceslap

Usually upon arrival in Cambodia, new expats begin immediately to attend farewell events for other expats.  The music scene is frequently marked by goodbye forever gigs, and this month offers plenty – among them the infrequently seen Faceslap, who play their last at Back Street Bar this Saturday night.  LengPleng went to the Wood House Studio and talked with Arone Silverman and Jesse Ricketson of Faceslap (and several other bands) while two other prominent Phnom Penh musicians strummed and harmonised on the balcony.

LP: Faceslap always seemed to be sort of band that was forever rounding out the numbers at a hastily thrown together festival.

Jesse: We haven’t played a lot of gigs.  We’ve done four ever, I think.  It’s kind of odd, because it’s a really fun band, probably my favourite band that I’m in here, just in the uniqueness and vibe that we create.

Arone: I enjoy the challenge, it’s a completely different mind-set.  It’s been difficult to do the gigs because it’s such a niche.

Read the full interview here

Passing Chords – a few things you may not know about

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Martin Sutch, rhythm guitar player with blender, Wednesday night house band at Oscar’s on the Corner.  “In the mid to late 80s through to the mid 90s I was involved in a few bands in Adelaide, actively playing live, there were a few demo tapes recorded along the way.  In 1989 I had the distinction of being the only person on the planet with two songs in the top ten of the yearly roundup on the local independent station, in two different bands.  The first band I regularly played in was called The Car Hank Died In – punkified country – then a jangly pop-rock band, Death Valley PTA, and later a band called Self Winding Principle that also performed at times under a few pseudonyms, one of which was Neon Giraffe, where it was fortunate that we played under a different name because the gig was a disaster.  In the mid-90s I was in a band called Seth and then renamed Soda, at the time when four letter band names.  With one of these bands we played support for White Cross, a Melbourne band who were just bubbling under, when they came to Adelaide, then they invited us to Melbourne, where they would have been our support, according to them – we were a little bit taken aback by that.  So we couldn’t have been too bad.  Unfortunately we didn’t make it to Melbourne.”

Do you have a pet musical hate?
I can’t say I have any pet hates in terms of genres of music.  Personally speaking my pet hate is breaking guitar strings.  Music is really just sound.  I don’t actively hate any music, and I actively love a lot of music – there’s a lot of music that falls in between.  The strongest emotion I have against certain genres is just indifference.

A private musical indulgence:
When I was first going out and buying albums – I think the first album I bought was Tubular Bells – I was always into prog rock.  In recent years I’ve discovered what I’d call modern prog is coming out of metal bands – so consequently I’ve got into bands like Opeth, Catatonia, Mastodon.  I’ve picked up on the more progressive elements and gone back through their earlier work and discovered a love of death metal and doom metal.  The last thing that really blew me away was Opeth.

The year you first came to Cambodia:
2013, as a traveller.  I fell in love with the country, as many do.  Had half an idea of moving here, it took a few years for that to really crystalise, then circumstances allowed me the freedom to do it and so I came in 2016 – on Friday 13th of July.

An early music memory:
Seeing an Australian guitarist called Phil Manning at a guitar clinic that my dad took me to at about 13 years old.  The first concert I went to independently was Jeff Beck in about 1976/77 in Adelaide.  Right at the front of the stage.

The last thing you had to eat:
Beef tacos at Sundance.

A country you want to visit:
I’d like to go to Japan.  I’ve been a fair bit of travelling, but not Japan.

A book or movie you keep going back to:
I tend to move on, both with musical tastes and also films – I can’t say I really rewatch films, I’m a big one for the first experience.  I love discovering new things.

What languages do you have?
English of course, and a smattering of Khmer – enough not to get me in trouble, enough to almost initiate a conversation and it going so far before I’m lost.  A lot of locals recognise me as knowing a little of the language and perhaps I pronounce what I do say well enough that leads into questions I don’t understand.   So transactional rather than conversational Khmer.

Your primary instrument, and when you started playing it:
These days I’m the rhythm guitarist – emphasis on rhythm – with blender, but in a previous life I’d always been a bass player, occasionally taking vocal duties.

Something people might be surprised to know about you:
I’m an English teacher, and ordinarily I’m quietly spoken and known as being very laconic, but in the classroom I’m very different – my students would be surprised that I’m so laconic outside the classroom and the people who know me would be surprised how I operate in a language classroom.  I believe in being a very active teacher.

You have a time machine and a magic ticket to one gig or festival in the past. What do you choose?
Through circumstances outside of my control I missed the Ween gig in Adelaide sometime in the mid-2000s – wish I’d gone to that.

A question from the last participant: why did you come to Cambodia?
I’m tempted to say “circumstances outside of my control” – but I did have some control over it.  I pretty well had a ticket to anywhere – a ticket to a new life you might say – and I thought I’d go for a place already familiar, where I felt I had some chance of success in the long term.

Steve Porte Photo of the Week

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The beautiful Dane of the house band at Yang Pov Riverside, Monday 13 February 2023.

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Musicians, venues, punters:  if there are things 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 (mailto:gigs@lengpleng.com)

Weekly Gig Guide – week commencing Thursday 16 February 2023

** residency/weekly

For DJs and clubs, we recommend Phnom Penh Underground

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

*Note that Wednesday events are often not announced until early in the week – check back here for updates*

Coming soon:

By Weekly Wrap