By Will York

GOOD BANDS NAMED after diseases are rare, but Los Angeles-based Cambodian rockers Dengue Fever are one of them. "My brother's friend got dengue fever when they were in Cambodia," says Dengue Fever guitarist-vocalist Zac Holtzman, who was once a member of sadly defunct local country-rockers Dieselhed. It's transmitted by a "daytime, low-flying mosquito," he continues, laughing loudly in a tone that seems to acknowledge that human suffering and great comedy are not so far apart from each other.

But getting back on topic – Cambodian rock. This is where I should pause for those of you who don't have any idea what I'm talking about. If you do, it's probably because you either saw Dengue Fever the last time they played the Make-Out Room or heard the Cambodian Rocks album on Parallel World.

Cambodian Rocks is a collection of anonymous – or at least, uncredited – recordings laid down during the late '60s and early '70s but not released in the United States until the mid '90s (more recently, it was reissued in 2000 on CD with additional songs). The specifics of it may be a mystery, to most of us, anyway. But whatever the case, it's a great album, full of genuine parallel-world – the pun is unavoidable – takes on late '60s acid-psych-garage rock, as filtered through the prism of an entirely different culture. At the risk of oversimplifying, it's sort of like the midway point between Bollywood and the Nuggets compilations – a real East-meets-West hybrid.

"It's kinda like their classic rock," Holtzman says, referring to how enthusiasts he's met in the Cambodian community of Long Beach feel about the music. "You play them one of those songs, and they'll go [in unimpressed tone], 'Yeah....' But there's some other ones that are more obscure that they get more excited about."

Dengue Fever's other instrument-playing members – Holtzman's brother, Farfisa organist Ethan, bassist Senon Williams (who also plays with Radar Brothers), drummer Paul Smith, and saxophonist David Ralicke – have spent a lot of time tracking down such obscure recordings in supermarkets and other unglamorous locales in Long Beach's Cambodian neighborhoods. ("The biggest Cambodian population outside of Cambodia," 50,000 strong, resides in the city, according to Holtzman.)

"Luckily, [the tapes] only cost like $2 each," Holtzman notes. "Most of 'em suck and you can barely listen to 'em, but then every once in a while at the very end there's like one good song."

One of those songs, which shows up on the four-song EP the band has been selling at recent shows, is "Will You Shave Your Beard?" Despite the almost too-perfect facial-hair allusion – Holtzman has for years worn a long, shaggy beard of ZZ Top proportions – the band didn't have any clue what the song was about when they first heard it. Vocalist Chhom Nimol's translator filled them in.

"We just thought it was a really beautiful song," Holtzman says. "[Nimol] really looks at me when she's singing that song, and no one really knows why. It's because the song's about some guy who's growing his beard out, and the girl's nervous that he's growing his beard out for some other girl."

A well-known singer in the Long Beach Cambodian community, Nimol performed with her sister for royalty in her native country before the pair moved to the United States. "She was our dream pick," Holtzman says. At first, Holtzman and his bandmates were skeptical about their odds at getting Nimol to join their band, while the vocalist, who speaks little English, was initially skeptical of their motivations for asking her in the first place.

"At first, she was like, 'Why do these American guys want to play Cambodian music?' " Holtzman says. "But she's getting more and more comfortable with us. Now we don't have to drive her back to Long Beach every time [after practice] – she's stayed over at our house. She trusts us."

Dengue Fever may sound like the ultimate niche-market band, but their music is not exclusive by any means: it's fun to listen to, and audiences have recognized this, both outside and inside the Cambodian community. Several months ago, the rest of the band attended one of the Long Beach clubs where Nimol still performs on a weekly basis and eventually wound up joining her onstage for a few songs.

"One of the songs was a duet where I sing with Nimol. I don't really know what it means," Holtzman confesses in reference to the song's lyrics. "But I sang it slowly in front of people, and they said that all the words were pretty much right. It was just crackin' everybody up to see some white guy with a beard up there singin' in Khmer."
Dengue Fever play with Chhom Nimol Dec. 31, 9:30 p.m. Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd St., S.F. $20-$25. (415) 647-2888.