Additional personnel: Louis Castle (vocals, guitar, trumpet, organ); Joe Cardamone (vocals, guitar); Alvin DeGuzman (guitar); Don Devore, Daniel Holden (bass guitar).

Giant Drag's debut is a sometimes hazy, sometimes fizzy blast of who-cares rock, meaning not that you, the listener, will find it as disposable as the cups sitting next to the beer keg, but that its creators, singer/guitarist Annie Hardy and drummer/keyboardist Micah Calabrase, seemed to have tossed it off while waiting for their next turn at the tap. Hardy's voice, a Liz Phair-ish, PJ Harvey-ish concoction that's part sleepy little girl, part pissed-off teen, reels you in from the meowing outro of first track "Kevin Is Gay" all the way through the '90s-reminiscent closer, "Slayer," but it's her banged-up guitar playing and light touch with a batch of twisted lyrics that seem most enduring. "This isn't it," she sings rather poignantly of a doomed relationship on the same-titled track; minutes later, she's cooing in the direction of a "Pretty Little Neighbor." Influences find their way through the music in little fits, with the Beach Boys surfacing here, Nirvana poking up there, and My Bloody Valentine erupting through the occasional racket more often than both of them. ~ Tammy La Gorce

L.A.'s Giant Drag plays a brand of smart, breezy indie rock that owes a heavy debt to dream pop and My Bloody Valentine-style shoegaze. The band is led by guitarist/singer-songwriter Annie Hardy, and while one can hear traces of P.J. Harvey and Mazzy Star in Hardy's songs and delivery, she does bring something new to the table on the band's full-length debut, HEARTS AND UNICORNS. At times atmospheric and ethereal, with a heady wash of guitars, and at others full of straightforward rock muscle, Hardy's stylish amalgam is seductive and appealing, and promises to put Giant Drag on the indie rock map.