Babas

Babas is the project of Sunny Ali and Karna Ray, both associated with the Pakistani-American punk band The Kominas, a group that emerged from the Boston area in the mid-2000s and mixed punk with South Asian references and pointed satire. The two had previously worked together as Sunny Ali & the Kid, a duo that ran punk instincts through country and western forms.

The name Babas translates roughly as spiritual elder, or father and friend, a fitting label for two longtime collaborators returning to work together again. Babas keeps the political lyricism the pair carried over from The Kominas, applying it to a new musical frame.

The band pairs twanging guitar and simple country structures with a dry, unsentimental delivery, letting punk's playful cynicism sit against country's earnest simplicity rather than smoothing the two into something more polished.