This week Cannibal Cheerleader is going to be highlighting our favorite releases of 2010 with an emphasis on artists we haven’t seen on many (or sometimes any) of the major music blogs’ lists. While these bands may not have the hype, resources, cash, or fanbase of Kanye or the Arcade Fire, they have all crafted music of an equivalent mastery in their own right and without a big budget. We begin with one of our favorite acts from the beginning of 2010, Giant Drag.

Like steel-toed boot thudding down into an ankle-high puddle of blood, the Swan Song EP splashes and thunders with a joyous clamor that was well worth the five-year wait between releases from this blasting LA-based duo. Frontwoman Annie Hardy’s lilting voice belies a raucous fury and each of this release’s four tracks flies off the speaker cones when her shriek peaks or a riff careens spinning off the frets. Even when not belting away her haunting croons, Hardy’s pedal-stomping, masterful guitarwork takes the form of a snarling Doberman lending a growling edge to even the sweetest of lyrics. These are love songs with teeth, crunchy breakup tracks with gore and guts abound. The whole EP is over as quickly as it begins, a maelstrom of layered guitars and a walk along the razor’s edge between heartfelt and eat-your-heart-out. Even the closer, the acoustic “Heart Carl” burns like forgetten Zippo, unfettered by the wind and batting back the darkness of some squalid, awesome, rocking night club. We can’t wait for this group’s new album, hopefully out in 2011!

Giant Drag – “Stuff To Live For”

We here at Cannibal Cheerleader have been waiting with bated breath since even before we started the blog for new material from our favorite foul-mouthed ferocious songstress Annie Hardy aka Giant Drag and finally her infamously delayed Swan Song EP gets a release date – Feb. 16th people on Roar Scratch. Get on this immediately folks, check out the tracklist below, the sweet as shit video for lead single “Stuff to Live For” below that, and a live version of “Swan Song” below THAT. Exciting stuff.

Swan Song EP
1. Swan Song
2. Stuff to Live For
3. White Baby
4. Heart Carl

Giant Drag – “Swan Song (live)”