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

Greetings:

Friday night in Phnom Penh, visiting solo electro-comedy show JUNK is at The Box Office/Speakeasy Theatre, while you can find Danny Healy Swing 3 are at Craft, Lisa Concepcion at Botanico, and Green Leaf Motif at Tacos Kokopelli.  Dua Lipa & The Dua Lipas are at Back Street Bar, Soselo Summer are at Cloud and Temple are at Oscar’s on the Corner  .  In Siem Reap, find Jam-Cha at Supernova Bar and Salazar Quartet at Villa D.

Things get started early on Saturday with The Busking Kings at Front Bar, whereas for the more classically minded The Piano Trilogy 1 featuring Christina Sen from Cambodia, Philippe Javelle from France and Gabriele Faja from Italy is on at Meta House, and The Broken Cymbal are at Botanico.  A triple bill at The Tin Hat features Absolute Zero, We Are Ewe and MAOZI, while Antonio & the Creative Mind are at Sundance and Los Primos are at Oscar’s on the Corner.  In Kampot Graham Cain is at The Bay and in Siem Reap Sokunthea & the Dukes are at Enjoy Boutique Hotel.

The LengPleng Feature

Organic formulations:  Gary Custance on We Are Ewe and Daisy’s Daytime Radio Show

A new set of bands is beginning to appear on the horizon, just before they all head off on vacation.  LengPleng checked in with Gary Custance, formerly of Little Thieves, to see how his new band We Are Ewe is shaping up and what else is on his dancecard.

“We Are Ewe just did our third gig, the fourth will be on Saturday,” says Gary.  “I’ve been close friends with Robin Narciso (Sangvar Day, Blood Bricks) for many years, and he was almost a member of Little Thieves.  We’ve been writing songs together, becoming more focused as Little Thieves came to an end, taking it a little bit more seriously.

Read the whole article here

Passing Chords – a few things you may not know about

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Coughlan.  Songwriter and guitarist with Soselo Summer, who play at Cloud on Friday night; he will also take part in The Originals (with Lewis McTighe and Gareth Bawden) at Back Street Bar on Sunday evening.

Do you have a pet musical hate?
Breathy loungey covers that we can probably blame Starbucks for.  Maybe in the infancy of that there were one or two songs that were interesting, but now that we’ve heard the entire musical catalogue like that it’s pretty tiresome.

A private musical indulgence:
It’s funny – it’s not that different than the pet hate.  I have a small baby and I find myself listening to a lot of baby jazz.  It’s not babies playing jazz, it’s light piano songs of the same breathy covers but without the singing.  Louis Armstrong, Elton John, but soft piano.  It creates a calm environment.

The year you first came to Cambodia:
September 2008, to work at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge tribunal.  I left in 2015, then came back again.  There’s a certain gravity that’s hard to escape, you need real thrusters to get out of Phnom Penh.

An early music memory:
I went to see Kylie Minogue when I was four.  That’s very early.  It’s not great either.  But I went to see Pulp when I was 11.  That’s better.  Also I was in a band with my brother and my cousin jumping around the place – I remember the lyrics for one song called Time Out:  time to get up, time to get down, time to put your feet back on the ground.  It was catchy stuff.

The last thing you had to eat:
Not to make this too baby related, but I just came from feeing here, and the last thing I ate was a piece of apple that I picked off the floor, and I wasn’t entirely sure what it was, I took a chance.

A country you want to visit:
All of them, really.  I’ve written a couple of songs about places I haven’t been – we have a song in Soselo Summer called Ecuador.  No one in the band has been there.  And also have a song about Madagascar.

A book or movie you keep going back to:
I watch Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm on repeat.  For books, I’ll read anything by Bill Bryson – he also does audio books, which is really nice.  He’s a nerd, and you can really hear his enthusiasm in his voice.

What languages do you have?
English, poor Khmer, very poor French.  Like all Irish people I learned Irish in school – Irish people called the language Irish rather than Gaelic.

Your primary instrument, and when you started playing it:
Guitar, I was 12 maybe, or perhaps even younger, I played all through my teens but then I don’t think I played for ten years.  I tend to play electric at home rather than acoustic.

Something people might be surprised to know about you:
I’m pretty tall, but I’m the shortest in my family, apart from my mother.

You have a time machine and a magic ticket to one gig or festival. What do you choose?
I’m reading a book by David Byrne, so I could be cool and say Talking Heads at CBGBs in the 1970s, but I think it would actually be Ronan Keating at Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh in 2007.

 

 

 

 

 

Ronan Keating pauses for a photo with Cambodian police

A question from the last participant – how long do you intend to stay in Cambodia?
It depends on work.  It could be anywhere between a few months or the rest of my life.  That’s Phnom Penh for you.

Department of Mutual Support:  Friends of LengPleng

LengPleng is now offering (further) assistance in promoting live music throughout Cambodia.  Being a Friend of LengPleng will assist venues and musical acts in promoting direct to our growing readership: the committed live music audience.  Becoming a Friend of LengPleng will get your logo into the weekly email and onto the weekly wrap page, – see below – and all your gig listings will automatically click through to a page on our website (i.e. a non-Facebook presence for those punters who don’t Facebook) for further information, photos, videos and so on.  We can create a starter page, then it is yours to change as you please.   Oscar’s on the Corner, Little Susie and The Deck are now onboard – Individuals may also wish to nominate a venue or band to support either anonymously or for the personal glory.

Your contributions will help us keep the lights on and upgrade the infrastructure to more reliable levels at LengPleng Towers – $25 for three months, $40 for six months and $75 for 12 months.  Everything else stays free.  Email gigs@lengpleng.com for further details.

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Porte Photo of the Week

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visiting Argentinian ska-punk band The Argies at The Deck, Thursday 11 May 2023

If you wish to receive LengPleng in your inbox every Thursday please send a subscribe email to gigs@lengpleng.com.

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 18 May 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