‘Cambodian Rock Band’ - music culture

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‘Cambodian Rock Band’ - music culture

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‘Cambodian Rock Band’ looks at a brutal piece of history through music in its world premiere at SCR
08 March 2018
Eight years ago, one of playwright Lauren Yee's friends took her to see indie-rock band Dengue Fever.

"As soon as I heard them, I said, 'Oh my god this music is amazing!' " the San Francisco-born writer said. "And that night I immediately went down a rabbit hole to discover everything I could about it."

That rabbit hole, twisted by "unbelievable coincidences along the way," comes to an end on South Coast Repertory's Argyros Stage, where Yee's "Cambodian Rock Band," a play with music directed by Chay Yew, is making its world premiere through March 25.

Yee learned that the music of the L.A.-based Dengue Fever is based on Cambodian oldies of the 1960s and '70s, and in turn were based, as band bassist Senon Williams explained in the 2007 documentary "Sleepwalking through the Mekong," on California surf music that went to Cambodia and was rewritten with Cambodian melodies...
http://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilo ... story.html
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Re: ‘Cambodian Rock Band’ - music culture

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

Oregon Shakespeare Festival Review: ‘Cambodian Rock Band’ an instant classic
By Bill Choy
Posted Mar 23, 2019 at 7:42 AM Updated at 12:41 PM

“Cambodian Rock Band” is a straight-up masterpiece that brings to the forefront a story that needs to be told.

The play sheds light and truth on a dark period of history that many people are unaware of. It shows what happened in Cambodia in the mid-1970s, using music as a key component to tell this tale. Saying that this is a must-see production is a vast understatement.

“Cambodian Rock Band” opens with two numbers by the Cyclos, a Cambodian rock band, with five members of the cast in the group. We find out that American rock music was quite popular in the country in the 1960s and 1970s, with Cambodian pop-rock bands playing throughout the nation. Things changed in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge took over.
https://www.mtshastanews.com/entertainm ... nt-classic
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Re: ‘Cambodian Rock Band’ - music culture

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UCSD grad Lauren Yee making noise with ‘Cambodian Rock Band,’ as La Jolla Playhouse stages much-buzzed work
Locally trained playwright, who has gained national prominence since receiving degree here in 2012, sees local debut of her music-driven, time-jumping play.
By San Diego Union-Tribune -
November 6, 2019

The story at the center of Lauren Yee’s music-propelled play “Cambodian Rock Band” stretches halfway around the world and a half-century back in time — to the war-ravaged Southeast Asia of the 1960s and ‘70s.

But a key inspiration for this nationally buzzed work, which is about to receive its first area production at La Jolla Playhouse, is rooted a lot closer to home — in, of all things, a visit to San Diego’s annual Adams Avenue Street Fair eight years ago.

Yee was still a student in the University of California San Diego’s renowned graduate playwriting program when she found herself in Normal Heights one Saturday evening in September 2011.

In full: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/en ... uzzed-work
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Re: ‘Cambodian Rock Band’ - music culture

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Doch Chkae, the metal band born on a rubbish dump

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It was the most powerful symbol of the poverty under which many lived in mid-2000s Cambodia: a vast rubbish dump on the outskirts of the capital.

For many, the Stung Meanchey dump near Phnom Penh was home. About 2,000 men, women and children would sift through the 100-acre mountain of rubbish in appalling conditions looking for recyclables to sell.

Stung Meanchey was also a dangerous place. Some were crushed by dump trucks while jostling to get a prime spot when waste was released. People would fall ill through exposure to open sewage and harmful toxins.

Among those born in the dump were Sok Vichey, Ouch Theara and Ouch Hing. "We'd have no food for days, we just hung around the city with plastic bags to pick up cans to sell," Vichey, 18, says.

"It was very hot under the sun and we had no water. We didn't go to school. We had no choice."

Theara's mother had died and his father had left. He was living with his aunt and her seven children on Stung Meanchey. Vichey lived next door and had also lost his father. His mother spent her days sifting through rubbish on the dump for a couple of dollars a day.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49795218
If you enjoy noise pollution and obnoxious driving practices, Phnom Penh is the place for you!

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Re: ‘Cambodian Rock Band’ - music culture

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Captain Bonez wrote: Wed Nov 06, 2019 4:53 pm
Doch Chkae, the metal band born on a rubbish dump

It was the most powerful symbol of the poverty under which many lived in mid-2000s Cambodia: a vast rubbish dump on the outskirts of the capital.

For many, the Stung Meanchey dump near Phnom Penh was home. About 2,000 men, women and children would sift through the 100-acre mountain of rubbish in appalling conditions looking for recyclables to sell.

Stung Meanchey was also a dangerous place. Some were crushed by dump trucks while jostling to get a prime spot when waste was released. People would fall ill through exposure to open sewage and harmful toxins.

Among those born in the dump were Sok Vichey, Ouch Theara and Ouch Hing. "We'd have no food for days, we just hung around the city with plastic bags to pick up cans to sell," Vichey, 18, says.

"It was very hot under the sun and we had no water. We didn't go to school. We had no choice."

Theara's mother had died and his father had left. He was living with his aunt and her seven children on Stung Meanchey. Vichey lived next door and had also lost his father. His mother spent her days sifting through rubbish on the dump for a couple of dollars a day.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-49795218
Interesting story there Captain Bonez.

More from the article:
Doch Chkae started making small waves on the world's metal scene and in 2018 were invited to play Wacken Open Air in Germany, one of the biggest metal festivals on the planet. But their visa was denied after German authorities deeming the band a flight risk. "In normal language? They were too poor," Timon says.

Many from the metal community were furious about the decision and more than 10,000 signed an online petition calling for authorities to reconsider. The band was eventually granted a visa and in August, played a triumphant show at Wacken before a crowd of thousands.
Despite their success in Germany, the band members are still living a hand-to-mouth existence, doing odd jobs and selling merchandise online when not rehearsing or playing live.

Doch Chkae are recording a new EP and hope to embark on a tour of Europe after its release. Although they feel ignored by many in their homeland, metal music - and the interest of the metal-heads of Europe - has given them hope for the future.
These guys need more local exposure. There must be some outlets for Metal in Phnom Penh.

;-)
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Re: ‘Cambodian Rock Band’ - music culture

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Metal bands play Oscar's on the corner and Cloud mainly
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Re: ‘Cambodian Rock Band’ - music culture

Post by CEOCambodiaNews »

The show Cambodian Rock Band keeps on rocking.

Lauren Yee's Cambodian Rock Band Opens at Off-Broadway’s Signature
By Olivia Clement
Feb 24, 2020

The intimate rock epic, seen around the country and now premiering in New York, is directed by Chay Yew.
in <i>Cambodian Rock Band</i> Joe Ngo, Abraham Kim, Courtney Reed, Jane Lui, and Moses Villarama in Cambodian Rock Band Joan Marcus

Off-Broadway's Signature Theatre celebrates the official opening of Cambodian Rock Band February 24. The new play with music by resident writer Lauren Yee, directed by Chay Yew, premieres Off-Broadway following multiple productions around the country.

In Cambodian Rock Band, which features songs by the band Dengue Fever, a Khmer Rouge survivor (Joe Ngo) returns to Cambodia for the first time in 30 years, as his daughter (Courtney Reed) prepares to prosecute one of Cambodia's most infamous war criminals.

Rounding out the cast are Francis Jue as Duch, Abraham Kim as Rom, Jane Lui as Pou, and Moses Villarama as Ted/Leng.

The creative team for the Signature production includes scenic designer Takeshi Kata, costume designer Linda Cho, lighting designer David Weiner, sound designer Mikhail Fiksel, projection designer Luke Norby, and music supervisor Matt MacNelly. Fight direction is by Unkle Dave’s Fight-House with casting by Caparelliotis Casting. Charles M. Turner III is the show's production stage manager.

Cambodian Rock Band has had productions at La Jolla, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Victory Gardens in Chicago, and South Coast Rep. The play began previews Off-Broadway February 4 and continues its extended run through March 14.

The Signature production launches Steinberg Award–winning playwright Yee’s Residency 5 at the Off-Broadway theatre.
http://www.playbill.com/article/lauren- ... -signature
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Re: ‘Cambodian Rock Band’ - music culture

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On the making of the musical play 'Cambodian Rock Band':

1 Dengue Fever Concert Led to This Deeply Personal Play About Survival and the Rocker’s Spirit
By Olivia Clement
Feb 07, 2020

Sometimes, a night out will unexpectedly change the course of your life. For playwright Lauren Yee, that was an evening in 2011. While living and working as a grad student in San Diego, Yee found herself at a Dengue Fever concert with friends. There, an immediate love of the band and its trademark blend of 1960s Cambodian pop and psychedelic rock led her down a rabbit hole of modern Cambodian history. This inspired Yee to write her play with music Cambodian Rock Band, which now debuts at Off-Broadway’s Signature Theatre directed by Chay Yew, following multiple productions around the country.

There were many years, and multiple drafts, between that first Dengue Fever concert and the show’s recent trail of success. “It’s the play that I never thought I would write,” says Yee. “I didn’t know yet how to tell a story that was about survival and joy, and the rocker’s spirit of what it means to make art and make music.” Because Cambodian Rock Band is not just an intimate rock epic with a live band; it’s also the story of a Khmer Rouge survivor returning to Cambodia for the first time in decades, as his daughter prepares to prosecute one of Cambodia’s most infamous war criminals.

While researching the Khmer Rouge’s genocidal regime, Yee learned of the party’s attempts to eliminate Western-influenced culture and art. “There was this incredible, very modern-sounding musical history that the Khmer Rouge tried to wipe off the face of the earth,” says Yee. “We as American artists make our art without much thought about the consequences or how it might be threatening to a political regime… I was very moved by the work of those artists. I was struck by the music and wanted to share it in some way.”

Cambodian Rock Band features the songs of Dengue Fever as well as classic Cambodian songs. The play’s story has also been shaped by the real life of one of the show’s actors, Joe Ngo, whose parents escaped Cambodia during its most brutal chapter.

“It’s been a play that has very much lived in my heart and also lived and breathed in his heart, too,” says Yee. “I think it’s a play that exists because of the people, especially Joe, who became part of this show.” When Yee spoke to Ngo about his mother, a woman often described as one of the happiest people, she knew she had found what was missing. “That’s usually the opposite of what we’re presented with when we think of survivors,” says Yee. “[But] joy can be a survival strategy. It’s another way that we chose to say, ‘I choose to live.’”
http://www.playbill.com/article/1-dengu ... ers-spirit
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