Album Preview: The Hundred in the Hands

KCRW is streaming the new self-titled album from The Hundred in the Hands as part of our Album Preview series. Read more from KCRW DJ Mario Cotto:

2010 has been a banner year for attractive young boy/girl duos. 2010 has also been an interesting year in that many new bands are being overt about their influences, while still creating something fresh and exciting. The Hundred in the Hands fits easily into both of these categories.

The Brooklyn duo is made up of Jason Friedman & Eleanor Everdell, who were formerly in a band called the Boggs and had done some work with TV on the Radio (“Dear Science”). As a lark, the duo recorded their first track “Dressed in Dresden” and released it as a 7”. A sharp and simultaneously throbbing piece of vinyl that sounds like a Wire single produced by Andrew Weatherall, the “Dressed in Dresden” 7” flew off shelves in London record shops and eventually made its way to a desk at Warp Records.

The rest as they say is history.

The Hundred in the Hands apparently got their name from a Red Cloud’s War battle between the U.S. Cavalry and Cheyenne and Lakota warriors, where the warriors drew the Cavalry into battle by shaking their bare-asses in the Cavalry’s direction.

However, their name could just as easily be a reference to how well Friedman and Everdell balance the spectrum of artists they seem to be referencing, from ESG to The Cure, from Tom Tom Club to King Tubby, sometimes all within the same song. With production work by dance stalwarts Jacques Renault and Richard X and the rockish elements of the DFA squad Eric Broucek and Chris Zane, their self-titled debut album is moody but not sullen and complex without pretension. More essentially, it’s catchy.

Every time I play “Dressed in Dresden” out, without fail people will bob their heads and ask what it is. It’s The Hundred in the Hands. And they challenge you NOT to dance. This is war.

— Mario Cotto, KCRW Music Host and DJ

Track listing:

1. Young Aren’t Young

2. Lovesick (Once Again)

3. Killing It

4. Pigeons

5. Commotion

6. This Day is Made

7. Dead Ending

8. Gold Blood

9. Dressed in Dresden

10. Last City

11. The Beach

Video from “Dressed in Dresden”: