Oakland-based weirdos Neung Phak play an homage to East Asian psych rock that is almost better than the real thing. A few of them run the hallowed Sublime Frequencies label, so you know these guys aren’t dicking around. They’ve listened to more obscure Cambodian garage-rock 45s than there are grains of rice in my rice cooker. (“Rice is great when you’re really hungry and want to eat two thousand of something.” –Mitch Hedberg) They sing in a variety of languages native to Indochina—Neung Phak’s dedication to authenticity is quite incredible, and I can’t imagine how much time it must have taken to learn those languages, not to mention the exotic scales, chord progressions, etc. True cultural immersion on this scale is rarely ever successful, but they’ve pulled it off, with room to spare for their own ideas. Peter freakin’ Conheim is in this band, and the first track features Alvarius B. of Sun City Girls.

Ample FCCs on 3, but it’s the best track—late-night DJs, play the hell out of this!
1. (4:14) Jolly, bouncy, quirky Indonesian rock ‘n’ roll classic.
2. (3:41) Upbeat, anxious, romantic-sounding cheesy surf with a vaguely Mediterranean or Persian party style.
3. (2:03)** FCC unclean and likely to get you on a no-fly list… but so much fun, I exhort late-night DJs to play this anyway. Twisted fun Asian garage-punk. I can’t even count the levels of irony going on here—a gringo band pretending to be an Asian band bitching about uncle sam—but it works, because they seem so unabashedly self-aware. I give this my first MEOW ALERT.
4. (3:05)* Psychedelic funk reggae mariachi rock, instrumental, sounds like Morricone wrote a theme song for a Cambodian knock-off James Bond flick, played on a jukebox in a dive bar in Bangkok circa 1968.
5. (3:19) Catchy garage-pop with cartoonish female vox, see Sublime Frequencies “Princess Nicotine” comp or any assortment of Cambodian pop.
6. (2:57) Start-stop syncopation, intermittent hypnotic wailing in Thai (or Lao or whatever), noise freakouts.
7. (2:45) cool funk/soul groove with twittering non-Cambodian pop chanteuse
8. (4:07)* raucous party anthem, sounds like Jim Morrison with Saigon’s answer to the Supreme’s on backup vox backed a drunk ska-punk band. Cowbell. Moog. Fun.
9. (2:10) bouncy straightahead surf, sounds like the theme song for an unmade Asian western flick (“Pad Thai western”? I just made that up.)
10. (3:47) Spooky organ warble, some creepy singing, then a dark garage rock jaunt starts. Soundtrack for a haunted pagoda.
11. (6:58) Drifting, hazy ballad-like. Plodding drums, farfisa and guitar wandering over some exotic scales.