Art Hounds: Dengue Fever, Rochester art and a teen mystery novel

"Why Can't We All Just Get Along?" by Tony Tasset

This week's hounds rave about an L.A. band specializing in Cambodian psychedelia, two exhibitions at the Rochester Art Center, and a young adult novel about two teenage super sleuths whose latest adventure takes them to the wilds of Kenya.

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Arts journalist Britt Aamodt gushes about St. Paul author Susan Runholt's latest teen mystery, "The Adventure at Simba Hill." It's a whodunit featuring heroines Kari and Lucas, set at an architectural dig in Kenya. Britt says it's another engrossing story from Runholt with spectacularly evocative writing.

Mix one part California surf rock with two parts '60s-era Cambodian psychedelic rock and Cambodian pop music and you have one of Greg Swan's favorite bands at the moment: Dengue Fever. Dengue Fever, five white musicians fronted by a Cambodian pop star, plays the 7th St. Entry, Friday, June 3. Greg, who writes about music for Perfect Porridge, discovered the group watching the documentary "Sleepwalking Through the Mekong," about Dengue Fever's Cambodian tour.

Visual artist and mnartists.org Project Director Scott Stulen says a rich art experience awaits anyone traveling to the Rochester Art Center this summer. Scott says a pair of exhibitions, "Tony Tasset: Life During Wartime" and "John Fleischer: ALLMOST" features the work of two aesthetically distinctive yet thematically similar artists. Tony Tasset is based in Chicago and John Fleischer is a Minneapolis native. The Tasset show runs through September 4 and the Fleischer show runs through July 31.

For more Art Hounds' recommendations, check us out on Facebook and Twitter. And you can get an early sneak peek at the Art Hounds' picks every week by texting the word ART to 677-677. Art Hounds is powered by the Public Insight Network.