Music release

Escape From Dragon House

Escape From Dragon House is the second album by the Los Angeles band Dengue Fever, released in 2005.[1][2]

Album cover: a smiling woman with a high bun beside a green vinyl record whose yellow label reads Escape from Dragon House.
Cover of Escape From Dragon House (2005).

About the release

Most of the songs on Escape From Dragon House were written by the band, in a mildly psychedelic pop with garage rock choruses, spaghetti-western guitars, an acoustic ballad and a Cambodian rap bridge.[3][4] It followed the band's 2003 debut, Dengue Fever, which was made up mostly of covers of Cambodian pop from the 1960s.[3][1][5] Chhom Nimol sings mostly in Khmer, with some choruses in English.[5] On "Hummingbird" she sings in both English and Khmer.[3]

The only cover is "Tip My Canoe," a song written by Ros Serey Sothea and Sinn Sisamouth, on which Zac Holtzman also sings in Khmer.[3][6] The rest of the songs are credited to Dengue Fever.[3] The Showtime series Weeds later used "One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula."[4] Amazon.com named it the top international release of 2005.[4]

Title

The album is named for Dragon House, a restaurant, bar, karaoke and nightclub in downtown Long Beach, California, where Nimol sang when the Holtzman brothers found her.[7][1] Drummer Paul Dreux Smith explained that the band's goal was for Nimol not to need to work at the Dragon House anymore.[1]

Editions

M80 Music released the album in the fall of 2005.[5][6]

The album had been unavailable for over ten years when Tuk Tuk Records reissued it on colored vinyl on April 9, 2022.[2]

Band

  • Chhom Nimol, vocals
  • Zac Holtzman, guitar and vocals
  • Ethan Holtzman, Farfisa organ and keyboards
  • Senon Williams, bass
  • David Ralicke, horns
  • Paul Dreux Smith, drums[2][5][1]

Background

The band toured Cambodia during the 2005 Water Festival (Bon Om Thook).[4][8]

Track list

The band's discography lists 11 tracks:[3]

  1. "We Were Gonna"
  2. "Sni Bong"
  3. "Tip My Canoe"
  4. "Tap Water"
  5. "Sleepwalking Through the Mekong"
  6. "One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula"
  7. "Escape From Dragon House"
  8. "Made of Steam"
  9. "Lake Dolores"
  10. "Saran Wrap"
  11. "Hummingbird"

Access

References 8
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 UCLA International Institute, Dengue Fever
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Vinyl District, Dengue Fever vinyl reissues in stores 4/9
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Dengue Fever Music, Escape From Dragon House
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Hollywood Bowl, Dengue Fever
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Metro Santa Cruz, Dengue Fever (March 8, 2006)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 PopMatters, Dengue Fever: Escape From Dragon House (November 6, 2005)
  7. ↑ Imprint Lab, Imprint Long Beach: Chhom Nimol and Zac Holtzman of Dengue Fever
  8. ↑ Dengue Fever Music, Sleepwalking Through the Mekong Trailer
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This page was last edited on 22 October 2026, at 04:29.