click here for an audio-visual look at the gig highlights

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

Greetings:

In Phnom Penh on Friday night, find Stu Cottom at The Vine, Gaby Courroux at Craft, Adam Marsland at The Box Office, Phil O’Flaherty at Botanico and Ex-Pulse at The Tin HatCardboard Li-Fi are at Noisy Chili, Summer Lee Carlson & Mute Speaker are at Bat Muk Yu and Smack the Unicorn are at Hometown Hangout.  Irish punky folk outfit My Druthers (USA) (see Passing Chords below) are followed by The Lark at Oscar’s on the Corner, and Miss Sarawan are at Uniga.  In Kep. Billy Page & Phil Javelle are at Kep Natural and Wooden Bridge are at Banyan Tree in Kampot.

On Saturday afternoon a service will be held in memory of Phnom Penh muscian Ned Kelly, details are available here.

Also on Saturday afternoon at AmCam Exchange a panel featuring American musicians Stephen Doster and Greg Engle, Cambodian artist Sin Setsochhata (granddaughter of Sin Sisamouth), and Arn Chorn-Pond of Cambodia Living Arts, will discuss how music bridges culture and fosters international understanding.  Register here.

On Saturday in Phnom Penh, The Originals Sessions at The Deck  features Summer Lee Carlson & Mute Speaker, and Matsumara Fishworks, wihle Skeptical Chemistry are at Craft, Carmela Santos Torres is at Botanico, and Shining Hearts are at VinotecaThe Blue Souls are at Au Marche, Brooke Palmer is at Bat Muk Yu and Hugo Marcellesi is at Samai Rum Distillery.  Later on, Oscar’s on the Corner hosts a tribute to the year 1974, featuring Clay George, Marianna Hensley, Adam Marsland, Felix McFadden, Scott Bywater and more, with Electric Muxu Orchestra to follow.  On the coast, Intan Andriana & Phil Javelle are at Coco Beach : Kep West, Bamboo Train are at The Bay and Billy Page is at Madi Bar and in Siem Reap, Johnny Stock is at Mex’d Up.

Department of Things to Preview, Purchase and Vote On

Just released on Bandcamp is Indian Tales by Tired Panda, an electronic project by Andrea Rubbio of Geography of the Moon – you may have heard sets during the holiday season festivals.  “Some songs I recorded with an electric Sitar, Ableton and some pedals that I use with GOTM.  One of the songs features Mahesh Vinayakram on vocals.”     Preview and purchase link.

Roshani, a band led by Roxanne Dumont, a Swiss musician with close links to Phnom Penh, have had their song Bahor nominated for Best Swiss Video 2025 – you can watch it and vote for it here.

 The LengPleng Feature Article

Doing new things – The Players’ Ball

The last year or so has seen a slew of major live music events in interesting places – boats, Maloop, B-Box – and it turns out it’s the same creative team behind it all, closely related to Japan Guitar Shop.  Ahead of the next big one, on Saturday 1 February, The Players’ Ball at Seekers Spirits, with prominent horns – Checkered Past and Jazz Sauce along with JGS – LengPleng sat down with Cove Aaronoff (of JGS) and trumpeter Cameron Smith of the other two bands to get the lowdown on next weekend’s event.

Cove is quick to give credit to his JGS bandmate Colin Hodgkins.  “Colin has been trying to create events that haven’t previously been seen or put on.  Ho Chi Minh-based Skeleton Goode at B-Box – that was both of us putting our heads together.  Usually Colin spearheads it, especially in the initial phases.  For example we approached Maloop and asked them about doing a big day, saying we believe it could happen in a symbiotic and beneficial way.  And it did.

Read the full article here

The Kumnooh Feature Article  

This week our sister publication Kumnooh: gig guide for the contemporary arts in Cambodia, published an interview with Paul Glew of The Box Office.

Here’s a show for you – The Box Office relocates

Taking steps forward as a venue in live music, theatre and comedy, is The Box Office.  A recent relocation from Street 244 across Wat Botum Park to Street 258 has allowed a re-visioning and expansion of the premises formerly occupied by Voodoo Boulevard.  I sat down with owner Paul Glew to discuss, among other things, business, beer, tourists, streets and the road ahead.

“I’m excited about this year in many ways,” says Paul.  “We’re hoping to be a bit more vocal about what we’re doing.  We are now committed to music every Friday on the outside stage, undercover.  We’ll often have something on separately in the theatre, and we can run two events at once.  A few weeks ago we had Shining Hearts outside, quite loud, a full house, and we had a movie going on inside.  We’ve never had that luxury before.

Read the full article here

Passing Chords – a few things you may not know about

Jeff Butler – fiddler and folk musician – Druther and gunslinger, of Irish-themed US touring band My Druthers who are currently on a tour of Southeast Asia with shows in Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia – they will be at Oscar’s on the Corner on Friday night.

Do you have a pet musical hate/pet peeve?
Probably ultra-repetetive lyrics over dance music that just sound like bored talking, for example that “f*ck the pain away” song

A private musical indulgence:
Not really private, but been jammin to some old Blink-182 recently

The year you first came to Cambodia:
Never been! In the Bangkok airport now awaiting departure

An early music memory:
My first sentence was a song. I had got ahold of a cardboard paper towel tube and sang, “I got’s new bopper and i know it’s clear.”  It wasn’t clear, it was brown, and I don’t actually remember that but it was relayed to me. I do remember the first time I learned 2 power chords, A and E, and I just went back and forth between them for hours with the distortion cranked on my little Fender practice amp

The last thing you had to eat:
Spicy grilled squid Lays and peanuts. Been really loving the sea-flavored potato chips.  Nori seaweed is my fave, with spicy lobster a close second

A country you want to visit:
India

A book or movie you keep going back to:
I just read Sea Wolf by Jack London for the third time. It’s an interesting tale with a lot of accurate shipping history and terms that relate to the sea shanties we play

What languages do you have?
Just English and a small bit of French, but I haven’t used it in so long

Your primary instrument, and when you started playing it:
Fiddle – I started 15 years ago and guitar 20 years ago

Something people might be surprised to know about you:
I recently started learning and teaching the drums. I’ve always been pretty strictly a string player but both my teaching jobs needed a perccussion instructor so I started learning

You have a time machine and a magic ticket to one gig or festival in the past. What do you choose?
I think the ’99 Woodstock would be pretty wild to see, although i hope the magic ticket means I don’t die or have to drink the sewage water!

A question from the last participant :  If you could share the stage with one band or artist that is still active today, who would it be and at what location?My Druthers at Oscar’s on the Corner in Phnom Penh, Cambodia!  Really i’m having a blast doing these shows in SE Asia, it’s an amazing experience I never dreamed I’d have the chance to do. If we could get Flogging Molly to open for us that’d be pretty tight

Book of the year: Around the Traps 2024

Available now and selling fast – the sixth annual volume collecting the interviews and articles from LengPleng during the year.  This year’s edition includes interviews with international visitors Wild Flowers and Chakra Shakers (both of Portugal), PlanB (Australia) and Skeleton Goode (Vietnam), organisers of jazz and metal festivals, local bands Checkered Past, Japan Guitar Shop, Absolute Zero and Nightmare A.D. and more – plus Passing Chords mini-profiles of the likes of Summer Lee Carlson & Mute Speaker, David Atkinson, Tiffany, Jesse Zenchuck, Cameron Smith, Carling Vail and Vince Solomons.

The price is still $7.50 after all these years, and still $5 if you’re in the book (or on the cover).  Guarantee your copy via email – gigs@lengpleng.com or by DM to our Facebook page or by bailing up Scoddy.

Department of Mutual Support:  Friends of LengPleng

      

 

 

Being a Friend of LengPleng is open to venues, acts, and even private individuals; if you value the service we provide please consider assisting us financially.   For a modest contribution ($25 for three months, $40 for six months, $75 for 12 months), you get the logo of your choice into the weekly email and onto the weekly wrap page, and an automatically click through to a page on our website for further information, photos, videos and so on – we like to think of it as an alternative to Facebook.

We also pay special attention when you have a good story for us – an upcoming event or an artist you wish to highlight.  Email gigs@lengpleng.com for further details or bail up Scoddy wherever you see him.

Steve Porte Photo(s) of the Week

Sal DiGaetano enjoying himself with Clay George & the Riverside Kings on Monday 20 January 2025 at Oscar’s on the Corner.

 

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 23 January 2025

** 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: