Puking Rainbows

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More About

• Annie Hardy
• Micah Calabrese
• The Breeders (Musical Group)
• The White Stripes
• Sonic Youth

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Giant Drag boasts a set list that reads like the inside of a 13-year-old delinquent's spiral notebook—"Kevin is Gay," "YFLMD" (translation: "You Fuck Like My Dad"), "My Dick Sux" and personal favorite "You Are Full of Shit (Check Out My Sweet Riffs)"—and a ridiculously adorable, doe-eyed, sweet-voiced front woman in singer/guitarist Annie Hardy. So it's understandable that some people—okay, a lot of people—are caught off-guard when they hear the California band's post-grunge rock sound.

Adding to the confusion, of course, is the whole one-boy-and-one-girl thing that Hardy and drummer/synther Micah Calabrese have going on. Sure, the two make a ton of noise, but the band is more reminiscent of Helium, That Dog, Sonic Youth and the Breeders—or even the hazy resonance of My Bloody Valentine—than oh, let's say, the White Stripes.

Still, all that hasn't stopped them from gaining a cult following, especially in LA, where the duo scored residencies at both Silverlake Lounge and Spaceland after the release of their 2003 Lemona EP. Thanks in part to Hardy's tendency to talk back to rowdy and/or belligerent audience members, Giant Drag are now a not-to-be-missed staple on show bills. But there's also another reason for the fuss: some very-much-justified critical acclaim. Hearts and Unicorns, their 2005 debut full-length, mixes silly-yet-great-sounding tracks (the meow-meow-meows of "Kevin is Gay") with much more palatable ones ("High Friends in Places"), rendering it the perfect album to, you know, puke rainbows (or, uh, hearts and unicorns) to or something.

Giant Drag with Pretty Girls Make Graves and Whale Bones at the Glass House, 200 W. Second St., Pomona, (909) 865-3802; www.theglasshouse.us. Fri., 7 p.m. $12. All ages.