"Venus on Earth" by Dengue Fever (M80/Ioda)-Out now

“Dengue fever: Fun to say; not so fun to have.” That was my friend Annie in an e-mail about the febrile “bonecrusher disease” she got from a mosquito in Thailand in 2003, about the same time as Los Angeles band Dengue Fever came out with their first, self-titled album. Since then, the widely touring band has proven its music—it’s billed as Cambodian-pop-meets-1960s surf rock but is far more bizarrely dynamic— is as fun to have as its Khmer lyrics are to, um, well, attempt to say.