The Hands

This Seattle band debuts with an excellent 7-song EP of high-energy garage-rock, highlighted by primal guitar riffs and catchy, well-written songs. - Don Yates, KEXP

It's no easy task to carve out garage rock that sounds fresh these days, so I was pleasantly surprised to stumble across the Hands, a fiercely talented five piece that recently released a seven-song EP that could pass for a lost component of the Nuggets box set. - The Stranger

There's a feeling that's conjured up with old basements—windowless and unfinished, creaky, steep stairways and swinging, naked light bulbs—equal parts creep out/total and utter freedom to do whatever the hell you fucking want, because you know no one's gonna bug you down there. The Hands raucous, thrashing and addictive debut EP, So Sweet (Basement Empire) is testament to the uninhibited genius that basements can spawn. While recording last summer in the depths of Ballard's Bop Street Records, this local five-piece threw down seven shit-hot, good old-fashioned garage-rock sides—well-crafted, catchy, and laden with screaming vocals and ripping guitar riffs. The result is refreshing yet not shy about borrowing from those who've gone before. Elder influences like the Stones make themselves known; fourth track, "Cold Ground" lyrically pays homage to "Satisfaction." With two KEXP in-studios under their belts and a slew of sweet gigs around town, the Hand's talent shouldn't be shrouded in darkness for long. - Seattle Weekly

Abbey dubbed 2006 “the year of the EP,” and the deeper I delve into the independent music scene, the more I am beginning to agree. Seattle band The Hands put out their EP So Sweet back in October, but I didn’t get hip to their throwback garage rock until just a few weeks ago. I picked up So Sweet last week and I have listened to it at least once every day since then. Had this EP been on our radar earlier, it would have been one of our top Northwest releases of 2006, and the Best EP of the year for 2006.

Simply put, to me, this band is Rolling Stones version 2.0. Their lead singer sounds enough like a young Jagger that the comparison is pretty obvious after the first listen. That being said, his singing is unique and updated enough that it never sounds copycat or trite, his style is just smartly grounded in one of the greatest rock vocalists ever. More than just the vocals, instrumentally this band has moments that sound strikingly like the Stones of yore, and this is especially true in the song “Cold Ground (Lay Me Down)” where some of the lyrics are sampled from the Stones classic ”(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.”

The lead single “So Sweet” is a breath of fresh air in our existing culture of sad bastards and quiet singer-songwriters. “Lies Lies Lies” and “Do Me Right” have been occupying my brain for a solid week now. “Arrows” might be my favorite song though, solely for the reason that every time I hear it I wish was in a space where I could get my white-boy-dance on in full effect.

Every song on this EP could be a single that would sell records. How this band isn’t the biggest thing right now baffles me. Just as Abbey named 2006 the year of the EP, I am going to proclaim 2007, “The Year of The Hands.” If this band doesn’t explode in 2007, like the Cold War Kids did in 2006 and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! did in 2005, there is something very wrong with the music business (and the world in general) today. - Sound On The Sound

Goddamn! The Hands just might be the perfect soundtrack for the worst day ever—screaming hardcore just makes the headache worse and that melancholy shit is for babies. So maybe today sucked, maybe everything went wrong (or at least nothing went right)... well get ye to the Tractor and let the Hands make you shout and shake your ass back into Feelgood City. It's straight up rock and roll with a little bit '60s, a little bit garage, a whole lot catchy, and all kinds of fast. And if the Hands can make you feel that good after feeling oh so bad, imagine what they'll do to your insides if you hit the dance floor already beaming! Prepare for a full-on eargasm, my friends. Just sayin'. - The Stranger

Because they're more scruff than scraggle and completely unselfconscious, watching the Hands stomp through their So Sweet EP during the release party was the most fun I'd had in a long time. Obnoxiously loud and infectiously melodic, they deliver blistering, sloppy pop-rock with no trace of "Isn't it fun to be dumb?" irony.

"This is really cool," I said to myself as I bought the CD. "I wonder if the disc rocks as hard as the show? And if it does, I wonder how long it will take before these guys get popular?" That was last month.

Since then, the Hands have done two KEXP in-studios, played several high-profile shows, and seen serious press. Why are they getting famous-ish? Because the moment you hear the Hands, you will remember that rock 'n' roll, through fun and unprofessionalism, has always been there to help listeners escape from hard times. - The Pacific Northwest Inlander