Hank & Cupcakes

The most fun you will have listening to any band in the new year -- guaranteed! The Israel via Brooklyn husband and wife duo are a two person Gogol Bordello and they will have you stomping across the aisles. - Huffington Post

The most fun you will have listening to any band in the new year -- guaranteed! The Israel via Brooklyn husband and wife duo are a two person Gogol Bordello and they will have you stomping across the aisles. - Huffington Post

Her short blonde hair (roots and all) slicked back like Bowie, every iota of Cupcakes was in motion as she cat walked center stage, tossed her pink pumps on an amp and slapped down on her drum kit. One half of the Israel-born, Brooklyn-based funk-pop duo, Hank & Cupcakes, the petite drummer and singer was ready along with her other half—hubby and bassist Hank.

The momentum was already building for Hank & Cupcakes when they got on at 10:30 Saturday night at Bowery Ballroom. Opening the night were Brooklyn’s Mother Feather, spurting out a glam rock base for the eve, and popping out tracks that matched their neon latex get ups. Tehran-bred quartet Hypernova were second up, judiciously stirring in more rock to the dance party. Even as headliners Deadbeat Darling brought in their indie grooves, standing on a stage covered in fragrant rose petals, something still radiated from the prior set.

Moving through 11 songs, Hank & Cupcakes pulled out new tracks (well, fresh since their self-titled debut EP in 2010) like the anthemic “Hit” seizing the audience with their charm, Cupcakes emitting something bigger than her petite frame and shouting “You tell me I don’t have a hit, but guess what this is it.” Her bottom half covered in black sequined leggings and topped off with a white sleeveless t-shirt, Cupcakes grabbed the audience by the balls. Full of heavy bass, Hank plucked his bass like he was trying to fill out for any missing guitar or synth. Combined with Cupcakes' hammering drums and exacting vocals, they didn’t have a thing missing.

Since releasing their EP last year, Hank & Cupcakes have evolved considerably. Together for more than 10 years (when the duo first joined a Beatles cover group back in Israel), the twosome sought musical solace in Cuba for six months before making a new home in Brooklyn in 2009. This August, they record their debut at Berlin’s Hansa Studios. (Coincidentally, Bowie spent the late ‘70s recording there for 1977’s Heroes and Low—as well as 1982’s Baal.) Fittingly, more than a handful of H & C influences—Iggy Pop, Depeche Mode, U2, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds—have recorded inside the legendary walls.

Marriage doesn’t take anything away from Hank & Cupcakes’ sex appeal. Sex thrusts out of each note; it oozes out of them with every gyration, as they get off to their own beats. “Are you guys warmed up,” said Cupcakes, wearing Hank’s neon yellow shades. “Hank & Cupcakes wants people to do something that make them sweat.” And sweat they did. - New York Press

Hank & Cupcakes have been making music for over a decade, but it took moving to Brooklyn to put them on the map.
Formed in Israel more than a decade ago, the Williamsburg-based boy-girl bass and drums duo decided that in order to do what they love right, they needed to leave.
“The music industry where we come from is more challenging, less diverse and less open-minded,” said Sagit Shir, better known as Cupcakes.
Shir’s husband, Ariel Scherbacovsky, the “Hank” of the outfit, added, “We wanted to leave Israel and go to a new place to do new things. We figured New York would be amazing for that.”

The two chose correctly. Since moving here nearly two years ago, the duo have attracted attention for their infectious dance music, heard on their self-titled EP, released last month, and in their energetic live show.
It’s been easy to catch them live, too; when not touring the globe, the two play here almost constantly, with at least one show a week if they can swing it (they achieve that next week, with a show outside the Lovin’ Cup Cafe in Williamsburg on June 21 and then again in the neighborhood on June 23 at Brooklyn Bowl).

“The shows are the center of excitement in our lives,” said Cupcakes, who handles the drums and vocals, while Hank’s on the bass.
Cupcakes also is responsible for the lyrics, which pull from her everyday experiences in Brooklyn. The New Wave dance track, “Ain’t No Love,” for instance, was the first song Cupcakes wrote upon moving to New York, inspired by the “experience of weird alienation here, riding the subway and people not making eye contact, which was weird or me to get used to,” said Cupcakes. “Now, I’ve learned to be part of the crowd.”

On stage, at least, she can’t help but stand out, with her explosive, commanding voice and overt sexuality (despite her cutesy nickname, this is a woman who penned the track “Pleasure Town,” a funk-disco enthused “Love Shack”).

When they play Brooklyn Bowl this month, they look to “rock the stage really hard and hopefully burn the place down,” said Cupcakes. Don’t be surprised if they do. - New York Post