There's a crop of young American acts approaching the genre less as ethnomusicology and more like pop, from the hip-hop collage approach of New York's Balkan Beat Box to the emigre garage rock of Los Angeles' Dengue Fever, who headlined the festival's final night.

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But for my money, Dengue Fever really hit their stride when they rock out and let Nimol lay into quirky, melodramatic Khmer melodies.

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Elvis was one of the 20th century's biggest cultural forces--the first white, mainstream rock star whose slick hair and shaking hips unleashed the pent-up dance fever and sexual energy of 1950s teenagers.

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The group credits Seattle dance pioneers such as DVS Crew, Fever One, DJ DVone, DJ Kamikaze, DJ E-rock, and BOSS Crew for their inspiration.

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It was here, in March, 2001, that the Taliban, in the high fever of their zealotry, demolished two magnificent statues of the Buddha that had been carved out of the rock escarpments of the Hindu Kush, fourteen hundred years before.

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