Though slightly bizarre at first glance (but we think it’s absolutely fantastic!), Metallica’s Kirk Hammett has chosen the song “One Thousand Tears of A Tarantula” from Cambodian-American band Dengue Fever for his Rolling Stone magazine Best Music Of The Decade Ballot. Selected the #2 song of the decade in order of importance, “Tears” sits between Radiohead’s “Everything In Its Right Place” and Mastodon’s “Oblivion” [link]

Dengue Fever’s music is a combination of classic Cambodian pop, Ethiopian jazz and Bollywood blitz, with lyrics mostly sung in lead singer Chhom Nimol’s native language of Khmer.  “One Thousand Tears of A Tarantula”, originally released on 2005’s Escape from Dragon House, and again on the 2009 soundtrack to the band’s documentary DVD/CD soundtrack Sleepwalking Through The Mekong is a blistering jam with trance-like lyrics. Listen here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4988059

While there is no plan (yet) for Dengue Fever to cover  “Call of Ktulu” from Metallica’s Ride The Lightning, the band would certainly love to have Hammett guest on the track during the band’s upcoming West Coast tour. Dengue Fever guitarist Zac Holtzman said, “It’s a real honor to have Kirk Hammett pick “One Thousand Tears of a Tarantula” as the second best song of the decade. It’s kind of mind-blowing actually. It also happens to be my mom’s favorite song. We’d love to have Kirk come up onstage and take a solo when we hit the Bay Area next month.”

Upcoming tour dates include:

12/31 @ The Mint, Los Angeles, CA

01/07 @ SoHo, Santa Barbara, CA
01/08 @ The Independent, San Francisco, CA
01/09 @ Berbatti’s Pan, Portland, OR.
01/10 @ Neumo’s, Seattle, WA.