Kevin Bronson on July 25th, 2014

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There’s never been a shortage of My Bloody Valentine acolytes in these parts, but San Fernando Valley quintet Draag make a heckuva first impression – on their self-titled album and, it turns out, in person. When the band – Adrian Acosta, Adrian De La Cruz, Jessica Huang, Carlos Michel and Danny Rossi – made their live debut Thursday night in the stiflingly hot small room at Lot 1 Cafe, there was crowd-surfing and moshing while the band bled walls-of-sound and engineered its own mix from onstage. (Ah, the DIY life.) Anyway, the young shoegazers’ music begs for such physicality. The album starts with 45 seconds of thrash before undulating between sweet dream-pop (“Tragic” and “Midnight Confessions”), classic shoegaze (“You’re My Boy Blue”) and anthemic excursions (“Big Eyes, Big Lies”). As the DIY production of “Draag” (available on a pay-what-you-want basis on Bandcamp) suggests, they are just getting started. They might have no trouble being heard.

||| Stream: “You’re My Boy Blue” and “Tragic”

||| Live: Draag, along with HOTT MT, Washing Machines and Cigarette Bums, play Aug. 1 at the Smell.