Dragging aheadAnnie Hardy, the restless soul at...

Dragging ahead

Annie Hardy, the restless soul at the fulcrum of Giant Drag, won’t pause to celebrate Tuesday’s re-release of the EP “Lemona” on U.K. label Wichita Recordings. She’s been holed up in a downtown L.A. studio with a rotating cast of musicians, working on Giant Drag’s full-length debut, due this summer, for Interscope-affiliated Kickball Records.

Not that she’d necessarily recommend “Lemona” -- except that the Wichita release has a video for her anthem of antipathy, “This Isn’t It.” “The EP was rushed, and what we’re working on now is going to be really great,” Hardy says of the sessions with Louis Castle and James Bairian (band mates in Dirty Little Secret) at the controls. “Vocally and with the guitar, I’ve progressed a lot.”

“Lemona” had a great run the first time -- local imprint Leftwing couldn’t press enough copies, it seems, to satisfy fans taken by Hardy’s dusky, world-weary vocals and gauzy guitar. Imagine a more rapier-like Mazzy Star, or a more approachable P.J. Harvey, rooting around in corners where some writers squirm. Or whine.

With original drummer Micah Calabrese back in the studio, what could go wrong? Well, don’t liken Giant Drag to the Breeders, as one magazine did. Not only did Hardy respond caustically on her website, the comparison got into her head. “After the review I wrote a song, and I thought, ‘Oh crap, this song does sound like the Breeders,” she says. “They’ve brainwashed me.”

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Vintage punk

Magnolia Thunderpussy had its 15 minutes at the height of the mid-’80s L.A. punk explosion. Signed briefly to Greg Ginn’s SST Records, the teen band broke up before it could make much of a mark beyond its legacy as sonic adventurers who were part jam band, part punk and part balladeer. Now come the results of MTP’s one studio session, “Starin’ Down the Sun” -- 11 songs recorded in two hours in the summer of ’85. The CD also includes live recordings, not to mention tape of the police busting one of their impromptu shows.

“I really had to put this thing out. I got tired of sitting on it,” says bassist David Jones, one of three MTP members to have re-formed for occasional shows (including Sunday night at the Echo).

Jones will be joined by guitarist Chris Hundley and drummer Pat Palma. With vocalist Dale Nixon out, MTP’s show will feature guest vocalists such as Abby Travis and Josh Haden.

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Fast Forward

* “All Rise,” the debut album by Inara George, affects you like dozing off in the sun on a brisk morning -- strangely relaxing, yet energizing. The album will be out Tuesday, and Wednesday there will be a celebration at El Cid. Best bet: Catch her at Largo on Feb. 2.

* Jake La Botz’s “All Soul and No Money,” also due Tuesday, is certainly all glorious guts, whether the L.A.-based singer-songwriter is coming at you as a bluesman, punker or purveyor of twang. Tuesday, he’s at Spaceland.

* Shane Alexander is releasing his first solo album since his L.A. rock band Damone broke up in 2003. It’s a bucketful of charm titled “The Middle Way.” He plays the Soul Satisfaction night Sunday at the House of Blues’ Foundation Room. soulsatisfaction.org.

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-- Kevin Bronson