Noisey & Nick Walker Present: Hanni el Khatib - "F-A-M-I-L-Y" (Han Cholo Biker Gang?)
Hanni el Khatib is the first natural-born American from a family of Palestinian and Filipino immigrants, who bravely heads up his own one-man band on a mission to revive 1950-60's era Rock "N" Roll, classic cars, Greaser chic, and straight razors. Khatib is a talented multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter/producer who's equally influenced by the stylings of Johnny Cash, Sam Cooke, Iggy & The Stooges, Black Sabbath, Johnny Burnette, etc. as well as Blues, Garage Rock, Soul, Folk, and Doo-Wop. Hanni el Khatib linked up with similarly-minded Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach to record his second album, Head In The Dirt, which Innovative Leisure's putting out on April 30th. The pair recorded 11 tracks down in Nashville, soon after Khatib opted to "erase everything he'd become comfortable with and to make an album out of only raw instinct and inspiration."
Head In The Dirt's lead-off single, "Family" now has a RIGHTEOUS companion sex, drugs & Rock "N" Roll-fueled music video. Guerrilla director Nick Walker shot the Hanni el Khatib-less clip @ Wright Ranch (Malibu) back in January 2013. Walker's featured video description continues, "I had written that treatment 3 years ago in a notebook with other ideas and concepts. After a few conversations with Hanni [el Khatib] about different video ideas, I sent him over some scans from the notebook with a few different ideas. A year after receiving these, he asked me if I was still interested in doing the 'Wild Asian Motorcycle Sex Gang' video, and I said, 'Of course!'"
In a nutshell, it stars a scantily-clad sex obsessed biker gang that consists of Snoopy, Mousy, Joker, Spider, and Sad Girl... we're talkin' about downright wild cats that somehow manage to shave, drink booze, ravage chicken, get it on, and basically ACT A FOOL whilst driving down a dangerously curvy mountain-side strip of road. Hanni el Khatib is headed out on tour with Cold War Kids & The Black Angels from March 2-May 17th, which is set to cross through SXSW and Coachella.