Junior High, don’t ever change. XOXO Giant Drag. Giant Drag and their Frosh album, “Hearts And Unicorns” (the name says it all, no?) don’t want the school year to end. Giant Drag is Singer/songwriter/guitarist Annie Hardy and nice older man friend/drummer/keyboardist Micah Calabrese. (Even Giant Drag’s record label, Kickball Records, gleefully stirs up traumatic childhood memories.) With Hearts and Unicorns’ album art - pink school book paper, oversized cursive; with spheres dotting the i’s, Hardy in polo with, as always, knife in hand – Giant Drag’s badass indie rock takes one back to the awkward years faster (but no less painfully) than an episode of “Saved By The Bell”. Which, ever since Slater broke Ali Landry’s heart, should never be watched again.
Location really is everything. Annie Hardy is an O.C. girl. Not the O.C. you have perhaps seen on the television. No, no, her O.C. is near a nuclear power plant – much like on The Simpsons. Thereby making Hardy the San Clemente Kewpie doll to Marissa Cooper-Nickel’s Newport Barbie. The suburban development Hardy was raised in, Forrester Ranch, is centrally located on top of a toxic waste dump. Further explaining the, not poisonous, but black sense of humor that is prevalent in Hardy’s lyrics and stage antics. i.e., if Micah should mess up, it can and will result in a beat down. Yes, a sense of humor so black it could inspire Seth Cohen to start playing drums in an Emo band (Big Japan.)
Onstage beat downs are just the beginning. A labored recording process, shakeups in the bands’ structure and daddy issues that – allegedly - rival – allegedly - Jessica Simpson’s all threatened to keep this awesome record from seeing the light of day. Some people might hate on Giant Drag because they were middle-class suburban kids from Orange County. But an eye (Micah’s left-handed drumming, right-handed synthing) and ear for the unusual (track 13, you guys) plus Hardy’s good taste in musical influences (Beatles, Neil Young and Hall & Oates) give Giant Drag their place in the sun. And frankly in today’s status-conscious climate…well, let’s just say that Giant Drag won’t be featured in Teen Vogue anytime soon like fellow ‘L.A. girl band’ (sorry Micah), The Like is.
Have I told you lately that Giant Drag rocks? “Hearts & Unicorns” is one part Black Sabbath, one part Nirvana, one part - forgive me haters - Hole sprinkled generously with equal parts Mike & Ike’s and Xanax, and severely juvenile through and through. Opening track (and track title) “Kevin Is Gay”, most illustrates this last point. Especially when Hardy meow, meow, meows the last verse of this song like the (twenty) four-year old that she is. |