Habibi plays Middle Eastern surf rock
By Kevin Duggan They’re making waves!
A surf rock girl group will
bring its ’60s-style harmonies
and Middle Eastern themes to the Bric
House in Fort Greene on April 11. The
band Habibi, a name that means “my
love” in Arabic, formed in New York
City in 2011, but the shared Detroit
background of singer Rahill Jamalifard
and guitarist Lenaya “Lenny” Lynch
— and their mutual passion for the
Motor City’s rich musical history and
its large Middle Eastern community —
was the lynchpin for the band, according
to the lead singer.
“Lenny grew up with loving the
Stooges, Suzi Quatro, a lot of that
rock ’n’ roll stuff and also Motown,”
said Jamalifard. “And also there’s a
huge Arab community there. I was
also raised with Iranian, Arabic, and
Turkish music.”
The band, which is now a fivepiece,
released its self-titled debut in
2013, which combined Lynch’s jangling
guitar with back-and-forth vocals reminiscent
of classic 1960s girl groups such
as the Ronettes. But rather than singing
about boys, the lyrics drew from the rich
Iranian poetic tradition and folklore that
Jamalifard’s father passed down to her,
filtered through her own experience.
For example, the song “Sweetest
Talk” is about an empowered Middle
Eastern heroine moving smoothly
through the Western world — which is
part of the band’s identity, according to
the musician.
“She’s a representation of me or a
personification of the band, a strong
female character who is in the Western
world but also of the Eastern world,”
Jamalifard said. “It was a way to navigate
my personal relationship in society
or how I feel within it.”
Lynch’s riffs echo the late godfather
of surf rock Dick Dale, who has his own
connection to the Middle East, since his
grandparents emigrated from Lebanon.
After a brief hiatus, the group
returned in 2018 with the short album
“Cardamom Garden,” which had a
much stronger Iranian focus, with songs
written in Farsi, including a Persianlanguage
cover of the 1960s garage
rock song “Green Fuz” — for which
Jamalifard had to enlist her father to
help with some of the translation.
“It’s already an abstract song, but my
dad helped me with that,” she said.
The Williamsburg band is currently
working on its second full-length
album, due out by the end of this year,
COURIER LIFE, M 44 ARCH 29–APRIL 4, 2019 24-7
according to Jamalifard.
This record will be darker and more
mature, she said, and will include influences
from Jamalifard’s post-punk side
project, as well as her recently acquired
skill on the vibraphone.
“It does sound like Habibi, but it’s
with a lot more age and knowledge,”
she said.
The new record will include songs
in English, in Farsi, and possibly more
languages, according to the singer.
Brooklynites can hear some of
the band’s new material at its upcoming
session, when Habibi opens for
Portland indie-folk act Y La Bamba.
Habibi at the Bric House Ballroom
647 Fulton St. at Rockwell Place in
Fort Greene, (718) 683–5600, www.
bricartsmedia.org. April 11 at 8 pm.
$18 ($15 in advance).
Tby Bill Roundy his weekend, at the tail end of
Women’s History Month,
we celebrate women
and tear down the tyranny
of men!
It all starts on
Friday night, at the
Rock ’n’ Roll Hall
of Fame Induction
Ceremony at
Barclays Center (620
Atlantic Ave. at Pacific
Street in Prospect Heights,
www.barclayscenter.com)!
Sure, there are a handful of masculine
music-makers there for the induction
— Radiohead, the Cure, and Roxy
Music — but we will be there to support
superstars Stevie Nicks and Janet
Jackson. Tickets for the show, which
starts at 7 pm, start at $106 and go up
to about five times that.
On Saturday, you can sample some
suds and support women who are
conquering the male-dominated
field of home-brewing.
Brooklyn’s first femalefocused
fermentation
festival will feature
15 women coming
out of the kitchen and
into the brewery! For
just $20 (or $15, if you
buy in advance) you
can spend the afternoon,
from 2 pm to 5 pm, in the
backyard of Sycamore 1118
Cortelyou Rd. between Stratford and
Westminster roads in Ditmas Park,
www.sycamorebrooklyn.com, filling
your souvenir sample glass with beer
from all 15 amateur ale artists and
voting for your favorite. Smashing the
patriarchy never tasted so good!
Women deserve more than just
one month, so we are going to annex
Monday, April 1, and reclaim it for
feminist her-story. Tonight’s entertainment
revisits a tale from “One
Thousand and One Nights,” about
a brash man who — in a typical
example of male privilege — steals
a treasure, relies on a woman to save
him, and then claims all the credit.
The Target Margin Theater
(232 52nd St. between Second and
Third avenues in Sunset Park, www.
targetmargin.org) will set the record
straight tonight, at the official opening
of “Marjana and the 40 Thieves,”
an immersive show that takes the
focus away from Ali Baba and gives
it to the real heroine. The show starts
at 8 pm, and tickets are on a pay-whatyou
can scale from $25 (for those
who, for instance, earn 80 cents for
each dollar men make) to $35 (for
capitalist fat cats).
A crafty show: The Love Show Dancers will present a beer-themed
burlesque show at the Brooklyn Brewery on April 8. Bryan Kwon
Tby Aidan Graham alk about an intoxicating
performance!
A new show will
combine beer, ballet, and
burlesque into a heady brew
that satisfies all your senses.
“Brooklyn Beerlesque,”
pouring into the Brooklyn
Brewery on April 8, will
pair provocative performances
of music and dance
with compatible local
lagers, ales, and stouts, said
the show’s creator.
“We take the beer
and we’ll come up with a
dance piece closely linked
with the history and the
quality of the beer,” said
David Slone, who lives
Williamsburg. “For example,
we’ll take a Russian
stout and put on a Russianthemed
performance.”
Each ticket to the hourlong
show includes a flight
of beers that correspond
to the show’s six songand
dance numbers, along
with a free full-sized pour.
Slone, who is a licensed
Cicerone, or beer expert,
will also introduce each of
the intimate numbers.
“We’ll have five performers
— me as the emcee
of the event, three dancers,
and a surprise guest,” he
teased.
Together they will present
an alluring ale-powered
show for up 150 guests in
the brewery’s taproom,
which was recently remodeled
to allow a more intimate
feel, said Slone.
“Brooklyn Brewery
has revamped their tasting
room, which allows us
to make the performance
more immersive,” he said.
“We can talk about the
history and style of the
beer, talk about the performance,
and guests can ask
questions.”
The performers are
part of Slone’s theatrical
dance company the Love
Show, which often performs
across the river in
Manhattan, as well as at
Bushwick’s House of Yes.
If the debut performance
at the Williamsburg brewery
goes well, the group
hopes to make it a monthly
event.
Slone first planned the
boozy burlesque spectacle
for 2012, but it was shelved
when the brewery realized
that it would violate the
city’s archaic cabaret laws,
which were passed during
Prohibition. Those laws
were repealed in 2017, and
Slone is ready to give it
another shot.
“Up until recently, you
couldn’t have more than
one person moving rhythmically
in a place that didn’t
have a cabaret licence. It
was basically used by the
city to shut down dance
clubs,” he said. “Now that
those laws are gone, we’re
back!”
“Brooklyn Beerlesque”
at Brooklyn Brewery 79
N. 11th St. between Wythe
Avenue and Berry Street in
Williamsburg, (718) 486–
7422, www.brooklynbrewery.
com. April 8 at 7:30
pm. $35 ($30 in advance).
Eclectic vibes: The surf rock five-piece Habibi, playing at Bric on April 11, fuse 1960s girl
group harmonies with lyrics written in English and Farsi. Bailey Robb
Thirst troupe
GNARLY IN FARSI
Brooklyn smashes the patriarchy!
Boozy burlesque at
the Bklyn Brewery
/www.brooklynbrew-ery.com
/www.bricartsmedia.org
/www.barclayscenter.com
/www.sycamorebrooklyn.com
/www.targetmargin.org
/www.targetmargin.org
/www.bricartsmedia.org
/www.brooklynbrew-ery.com
/www.brooklynbrew-ery.com
/bricartsmedia.org
/www.barclayscenter.com)
/www.sycamorebrooklyn.com
/targetmargin.org