Wickedly cute...

Annie Hardy, who essentially is Giant Drag, is adorable. Her songs aren't.

They are, however, very cool, completely rocking and occasionally hysterical. You may already have heard one of them, without knowing it. Nip/Tuck promoted its last season with her blazingly awesome cover of Chris Isaak's Wicked Game.

Giant Drag's music has the distortion that gave grunge its signature sound, but is more melodic than grunge ever was. Think Mazzy Star turning the amps up to 11 and really rocking out on some good covers - while drunk.

I've also got to say that, even if Giant Drag wasn't an awesome band, anyone who refers to their song You Fuck Like My Dad as "Jesus's favorite" is alright with me. Or who accuses Chris Isaak of raping her as a young, young girl and stealing Wicked Game.

All of this makes the fact that her record label has apparently dropped her even more unfortunate. Fuck them I say. Fuck them good and hard.

be my PET?

I've had a recurring fantasy lately of strangling Avril Lavigne with one of her stupid neckties while playing be your own PET at full volume. Not enough to kill her - just enough to make her eyes tear up and smear her awful, trendy black eye-makeup down her face and realize how un-punk she really is.

Maybe I'll bring the boys from Good Charlotte in on this fantasy too. I'd love to take a pair of pliers to every piece of poseur jewelry those hacks have in their faces.

be your own PET is proof that punk made by teenagers doesn't have to sound like teen punk, or that most oxymoronically grating of appellations, pop-punk.

BYOP is led by an unfairly adorable Jemina Pearl Abegg, who's not quite jailbait young but looks the part. Still, she can pull off a Karen O/Brody Dalle scream that you really shouldn't have until you've lived hard for a few years. It's a voice that screams "fuck-me feminism," and makes you want to find a girl who bites when she kisses.

I loved their first, eponymous, album, and their new one (Get Awkward) is an even stronger follow up, with no signs of sellout. The songs are a little longer, but that's not a bad thing - they still clock in at punk-appropriate times.

Check 'em out.