The Hundred in the Hands Perform Live on the Interface

Emerging electro-pop duo the Hundred in the Hands are still strangers to many music fans. Few know the random details about the Brooklyn duo, such as how guitarist Jason Friedman was once a walking tour guide in Berlin or that vocalist Eleanore Everdell was really into ballet as a child. Then there's the fact that Friedman was once a member of the indie rock outfit the Boggs and that Everdell is the angelic voice in the background of TV on the Radio's 'Lover's Day.' As for the basis of their band name, that's just as much of an anomaly, unless you are a history buff.

"It's the name of a battle that Crazy Horse fought in," Friedman told Spinner during the band's Interface taping in our L.A. studio. "Before Custard's Last Stand, it was the biggest victory that [Native Americans] had against the American Army. The story is that the night before the battle, the Shaman came riding in out of the town saying, 'I got too many in my hands. I got a hundred in my hands,' and then the next day they killed 100 US soldiers, so it's the battle of the Hundred in the Hands."

The band title popped out at the couple while they were skimming through books, just as Everdell's voice did when Friedman heard her on a demo tape. "There was one really good one that I played a few times in a row," says Friedman. "I was really into it."

The duo is also really into Hot Chip. "We were both really psyched on how huge Hot Chip's sound was without having to have drummers," Friedman says.

"I feel like sometimes bands just come up with a sound that develops because of their limitations," adds Everdell. "We wanted it to be really energetic and rhythmic so we got a drum machine and we started writing beats." So contagious was their energy that they penned their commercial-friendly debut track, 'Dressed in Dresden,' where Friedman's post-punk guitar riffs are balanced by Everdell's carefree yet punchy delivery, in a couple of days. Then there's the more literal 'Tom Tom,' which was written during a moment when the duo were "just really geeking out on Tom Tom Club" and the New Wave act's ability to write "light and fun" songs. "The lyrics were kind of irreverent," Everdell says, "but you don't really notice it. It's all summery. We wanted to draw directly from that vibe and see what we could make that felt like that."

The Warp records signee's stateside introduction came only this May with the release of their ethereal 'This Desert' EP. A poppier self-titled full-length will follow this fall, and Spinner is betting money that soon everybody will know exactly what THITH stands for.