Call for Musicians for Jam Night at Penhstock

Hi,

This Thursday night Sharky Bar will be putting on Penhstock - Cambodia's equivalent to Woodstock. It will feature not less than six local bands !!!. This is unprecedented in Cambodia I believe and will culminate in a session after about 1:00AM where all musicians will be welcomed to get up and sing / play. The featured bands will include:

• Bum n' Draze
• Lost Highway
• Stiff Little Punks
• The Hellhounds
• JP and the Nurses
• The Happy Cockroaches

It all starts some time after 6:00PM this Thursday the 31st of December. See you there and don't forget to put some flowers in your hair.

There will be more music on at Sharkys on the Friday and Saturday following with Lost Highway playing on Friday and (the almost famous) Plan B from Australia playing with a huge horn section on Saturday night. There may be other bands featured on these two subsequent nights also.

Cheers and see you around the traps.

Live Music This Weekend - Friday 18-Dec-2009

The coming week wil be a-buzzin' with live music - as it usually is in the week before Christmas.

The Curtis King Band is in town with their popular brand of electrified blues and rock & roll legendary tunes. They will play twice - tonight at Talkin' to a Stranger which will be more a jam session with a mix a musicians, a cut-down drum set and a more intimate and motivated atmosphere. Tomorrow they will play at Sharkys for the bar's 14th anniversary party. That should be a blast with the full band kitted out to play a major session - looking forward to it.

Also, since my last blog post, there has seen the emergence of the a new experience - The Cambodian Space Project. This has been put together by Julian Poulsen who is on his third (I think) trip from Australia to the land of dust and confusion. As always, he brings a sense of buzz and excitement to the music scene here with his professional, inclusive, creative and eclectic mix which is always so inspiring and unique. I really encourage everyone to get to see a set from this setup - especially of the current line-up with Davis Zunk on bass.

We will also be spoilt with a visit from the United States in the form of Paul Benoit. Paul is a blues/roots/country acoustic player and he will do a show at Talkin' to a Stranger this coming Wednesday. See http://www.paulbenoitmusic.com/Bio/index.htm for more details.

Here are the gigs for the coming week:

1. Tree will be at the Velkommen Inn crooning the girls that pass by down the 104 avenue - starts at about 8:30PM
2. The Curtis King Band will play at Talkin'to a Stranger. Show starts around 8:30PM or 9:00PM
3. For the more culturally-inclined there is the 3rd Annual Friendship Concert - this is a classical performance featuring both Cambodian and Japanese players. It is at the ITC University (Cambodia-Japanese Friendship Centre) and starts at 3:00PM
4. The Lazy Jazz Drunks will play at Rory's on Saturday night starting around 8:00PM
5. The Messenger Band play the Meta House at 7:00PM. This is a group consisting of garment factory workers and they do a collection of Khmer songs - last I heard they were playing with Kong Nai the famous Champei player.
6. Ritchy& Phil will play at the FCC on Saturday. They are a duo who put on a totally entertaining show of jazz, Rn'B and pop. Well worth getting there - it starts at 8:00PM
   
7. The Curtis King Band will play at Sharkys 14th Anniversary party - should be huuuuuuugggggeee !!! Starts around 9:00PM
8. The Hellhounds play their blues-roots-cajun stuff at Talkin' to a Stranger again this Sunday - starts around 6:00PM and is a great place to relax and hear some great sounds on a Sunday evening. With a bit of luck they may be joined by ex- and founding member Davis Zunk.
9. On Wednesday the 23rd of December at Talkin to a Stranger Paul Benoit will do a show. Not to be missed and a great lead up to Christmas. There will be a warm-up set by The Hellhounds starting at 7:30PM followed by a set or two by Paul. The next set will hopefully turn into a more eclectic mix of those musicians present.

Coming Up

• Battle of the Bands - Sharky's New Year's Eve party
• The Hellhounds will start a series of regular Friday night gigs at Talkin' to a Stranger and Thursdays at Sharkys
• International act from Australia  Plan B will play at the Memphis Bar and at Sharkys
• The Cambodian Space Project will host a boat trip along with the Alley Cat Café. More details here

Cheers and see you around the traps !

Live Music This Weekend - Friday 11th of December

The are a few gigs on this weekend - mainly from the until recently defunct but resurrected Stiff Little Punks who are up to 3 gigs for the weekend. Make sure you catch at least one of them. It seems that Kheltica have managed to add the Baitong Restaurant to the list of bars offering live music so try and support it if you can. The same goes for the Frog & Shamrock who are hosting the Stiff Little Punks on Saturday.

This Weekends Gig Guide

• Tree plays the Velkommen Inn. The Velkommen is a great place to get down to straight after work for a few beers - plus their menu is totally worth a try if you haven't already. The music starts around 8:30PM
  
• Stiff Little Punks do the first of their three gigs at 10PM at The Cavern
• Kheltica are playing tonight at the Baitong Restaurant (Nº. 7, Street 360). They are staring at 8:30PM. The spiel goes like this: " provide an entente chordial of musical traditions from France and the British Isles. Jean-Claude on flute and whistles, David on Guitar, Philip on fiddle, Chin on Chinese violin and Feargal on guitar and lyrics perform an eclectic mix of folk songs and dances from Brittany blended with traditional Irish and Scottish folk tunes and songs."
  
• The Mekong Pirates will be at the Chinese House on Saturday night with their BIG BRASS sound in combination with the accordion and backed up with a bouncy, fun and versitile rhythm section. The vocals and the song selection also means that you will have a really great night of dancing and enjoyable entertainment. One not to miss!
  
• Another good option is the Frog & Shamrock 9:30PM where the  Stiff Little Punks will play their second gig for the weekend.
  
• The Stiff Little Punks play again at 3:00PM the following day at Gasolina
• Talkin' to a Stranger will also have D'Sco: The Geckos of Love. This is part of a series of gigs that will happen at Talkin' that includes several gigs by international artists (see below). Talkin' are really doing a lot for live music here in Phnom Penh so please get down there and see the gigs. Talkin has a great outdoor garden and ambience much akin to relaxing, berr / wine-drinking and music.
  

Coming Up

• Curtis King Band at Sharky's and Talkin' to a Stranger - backed up by the another anticipated return  to Phnom Penh by Davis Zunk.
  
• Battle of the Bands - Sharky's New Year's Eve party
  
• Paul Benoit at  Talkin' to a Stranger. Paul is an accoustic, roots-rock, pop, folk, blues singer / songwriter and will be here closer the Christmas. See http://www.paulbenoitmusic.com/Bio/index.htm for more details.
  
• The Memphis Bar is hosting an international act from Australia for the New Year. It is being billed as ther Plan B Concert

Cheers and see you around the traps.

Live Music This Weekend - Thursday 3rd December, 2009

As Christmas time approaches and the the tourist season starts to kick in, live music gigs will hopefully become a more regular thing. This week and next is looking quite good - especially with the "return" of the Stiff Little Punks and their 3 gigs. Also there are 3 international artists playing this weekend - all on different days - hence giving us the best chance to catch all of them.

Please note that the Bong Thom web site and their hard-copy publication, The Krawma, is now taking an initiative to try to promote live music in Cambodia. The Krawma will have a live-music gig-guide within their pages every issue. These publications will focus in on live music by giving special precedence to any shows featuring live musical performances. I will try to round up the gigs for the web site, the hard-copy and the Leng Pleng blog every week. I hope this will help both the publications and the live music industry in Cambodia to some level of success and benefit.

Additionally I will now definitely move a head and start to organize a month (or so) long battle of the bands competition. There are 2 first steps that need to be taken. The first thing is to establish an organizing committee. This will allow a number of decisions to be taken in order to get lay the groundwork. The second thing to do is to attain a good level of sponsorship so as to have a significant prize pool. If you are interested in being part of the organization then drop me a line (Televisionted@BongThom.com).

The live music for this weekend follows:

1. Tree again does a set of acoustic contemporary ballads at the Velkommen Inn on Friday starting at 8:00PM
2. The Lazy Jazz Drunks are set to demolish Huxley's yet again this Friday. The gig they played at Rory's was really a great time for all those who stuck around. It usually turns into a fairly informal gathering by the end with a mix of musicians getting up and doing whatever works. I really encourage every musician to get down there. It is a great time and very relaxed.
3. At the FCC this Friday there is an international band called Ratatat. They are billed as "Brooklyn electronic music" and are known for their ambient, electronic instrumentals and elaborate audio-visual stage shows. They have toured and recorded with some big names - you can see some more info at the FCC web site - http://www.fcccambodia.com/newsletter/1209/december.php?r=h
4. On Saturday the FCC has another international act. The name of the band is I Heart Hiroshima and they are billed as one of the hottest acts to emerge from the blistering music scene in Brisbane, Australia. They play indie-pop apparently - cooool !
5. Saturday also see's the Stiff Little Punks playing at The Tree. The Tree is a new venue that inhabits Street 118. Apparently there will be special guest appearances by Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Adolf Hitler.
   
6. Sunday will see The Hellhounds playing at Talkin' to a Stranger. This will be the last time for a while that you will be able to catch them as their full 5-piece set-up. Dan (bass) will be heading back to Sweden for the Christmas period. They will, however, be continuing on as a 4-piece for the interim period - more news on that later.
7. Sunday has yet another international act - this time at The Chinese House. The Fun is third Australian act to hit Phnom Penh in the last 2 weeks. The members of this band also have a varied array of big names with whom they have played. They will perform an acoustic set on Mandolin, Djembe and guitar.
   

Coming Up:

• Stiff Little Punks at the Gasolina and The Cavern
• The Hellhounds new Friday gigs
• The Beer O'clock Band playing at Talkin' to a Stranger
• Mekong Pirates at the Chinese House
• Little Duke and Television Ted debut
  

For a round-up of the weekends gigs ==>don't forget to visit Scoddy's blog Following the Applause at http://phnompenhgigs.blogspot.com.

Cheers and see you around the traps.