Dengue Fever Tops the Chart with "Cement Slippers"

Listen to "Cement Slipppers" by clicking on the player below:

Mel's Weekly Top 20

Week of March 27, 2011.

This Week	Tiitle	Artist	Last Week
1	Cement Slippers	Dengue Fever	2
2	Price Tag	Jessie J	1
3	Rolling In The Deep	Adele	3
4	Born This Way	Lady GaGa	4
5	Pumped Up Kicks	Foster the People	7
6	Let's Go (feat. TobyMac)	Group 1 Crew	6
7	This Is The Stuff	Francesca Battistelli	8
8	On The Floor	Jennifer Lopez Feat. Pitbull	9
9	Just Can't Get Enough	Black Eyed Peas	11
10	Down By the Water	The Decemberists	5
11	Rogue Machine (Say That You Need Me)	The Daylights	12
12	L.O.V.	Fitz & The Tantrums	13
13	UBerlin	R.E.M.	14
14	From a Table Away	Sunny Sweeney	16
15	Hands	The Ting Tings	10
16	Who's That Chick	Rihanna	17
17	L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.	Noah & the Whale	19
18	S&M	Rihanna	20
19	I Do	Colbie Caillat	--
20	Machu Picchu	The Strokes	--

CHART NOTES

Dengue Fever moves into the #1 spot with their lead off single from their forthcoming album Cannibal Courtship called "Cement Slippers". The song has been a free download off the Dengue Fever website for weeks now and precludes the April 19 release of the new album. Listening to the sample tracks off the new album has me excited about getting it on the first day out. I've become a fan of Dengue Fever since I was made aware of them late last summer. Saw them in concert on October 30, 2010. Love their music. "Cement Slippers" could be their big breakout single. Reminds me somewhat of the old "Rock Lobster" song from the B-52s.

Elsewhere on the chart: Not much upward movement in most of the songs this week. Foster the People break into the top 5 this week with their hit "Pumped Up Kicks". The song moves up 2 from #7 to #5. Most of the other songs on the top 20 make small incremental moves up by 1 or 2 notches.

Songs taking signifcant falls this week include The Decemberists' "Down By the Water" dropping from #5 to #10. This was a former #1 record. Also dropping big is "Hands" by The Ting Tings. They drop 5 from #10 to #15. The Ting Tings have been on this chart with "Hands" since the fall of 2010. Looks like this could be their last week on.

The two debut songs for the week are "I Do" by Colbie Caillat at #19 and "Machu Picchu" by The Strokes at #20.

VIDEO SHOWCASE

This week the spotlight is on Dengue Fever. Enjoy!

DENGUE FEVER - Cannibal Courtship Teaser



DENGUE FEVER - Mastadong Explanation



DENGUE FEVER - Only a Friend



DENGUE FEVER - Seeing Hands (as performed on "Later")



DENGUE FEVER LINKS

Dengue Fever Official Website

Cannibal Courtship Preview

I Caught Dengue Fever (Oct. 30, 2010)

Dengue Fever - Cement Slippers

Dengue Fever is coming out with a new album. This is what the cover will look like. The first single off the album is a track called "Cement Slippers". Got a great beach vibe, fuzzy guitars and saxophone. Vocals by Chhom Nimol and guitarist Zac Holtzman are great. Reminds me somewhat of the old "Rock Lobster" song from The B52's. Give it a listen.

The new album Cannibal Courtship is coming out in April.

More Dengue Fever

Dengue Fever Official Website
Cannibal Courtship Preview
I Caught Dengue Fever (Oct. 30, 2010)

I Caught Dengue Fever

I've become a fan of Dengue Fever. They are another indie band that has been around for years. I was recebtly made aware of them a few months ago, although I may have listened to a song or two some years back too. Thanks to my friend Daniel, he turned me on to their music and today I own 3 of their albums and enjoy nearly all of their songs.

The thing that make Dengue Fever quite unique is the fact that this high powered indie rock outfit pays homage 1960s style Cambodian Psychedelic Rock, complete with female Cambodian singer Chhom Nimol singing most of the songs in her native Khmer language. The other members of the band are all from California - Zac Holtzman also on vocals and guitar, his brother Ethan Holtzman "farfisa" organ/keyboards, Senon Williams on bass, David Ralicke on saxophone/brass and drummer Paul Smith.

According to their Facebook biography, Dengue Fever was started by brothers Ethan and Zac Holtzman in 2001 "when they discovered they shared a love for the Cambodian pop music of the 60s. After adding sax man David Ralicke, drummer Paul Smith and bassist Senon Williams, they went looking for a Cambodian singer. Enter Chhom Nimol, who performed regularly for the King and Queen of Cambodia . Her powerful singing, marked by a luminous vibrato that adds exotic ornamentations to her vocal lines, and hypnotic stage moves based on traditional dances, complimented the band's driving Cambodian/American sound."

I was lucky enough to catch them at a free concert held in Honolulu on the night before Halloween (see photo slide show above). Like most bands in the alternative rock genre, Dengue Fever sounded way better live than they do on their records. They have a lot of energy with Chhom the mesmerizing center-point of their show. Any guy could fall in love with her! She's great on vocals and to me has a gracious way of connecting with her audience, not to mention that she can also ROCK.

I hardly make it many live concerts, but for 2010, Dengue Fever probably tops the list of favorite live performances that I have seen.

Find out about Dengue Fever by watching the video and listening to the audio tracks below.



Dengue Fever - Tiger Phone Card (live in studio)



Dengue Fever - Seeing Hands (music video)



Dengue Fever - A Go Go (live at UC Davis)

Chhom Nimol - Dontrey Besdoang (live, 9-2009)