Good Luck Dark Star
Memphis, Tennessee, United States | INDIE
Music
Press
1. Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
Looking back at the albums that grabbed me in 2010, many were from bands that had already earned a permanent place in my heart. Superchunk’s new album, their first in nine years, tops this list. Perfectly rocked out
2. The Morning Benders - Big Echo
My favorite new discovery of the year. Full of psychedelic texture and great pop songwriting, it sounds old and new at the same time.
3. Good Luck Darkstar - Hologram/I Told You 7?
Memphis’s best band keeps vinyl alive, and vinyl seems like the right way to listen to their 70's influenced space-age powerpop.
4. Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame
Another favorite band of mine that can do no wrong. This album sounds bigger-budget than Dr. Dog’s past records, and they use it to their advantage, dressing up their classic songs with shiny production.
5. Snowglobe - Little More Lived In
title says it all. Possibly my favorite Snowglobe album since Doing the Distance, this album is comfortable.
6. MGMT - Congratulations
Much less sticky than their first album, I have gotten many more miles out of this one.
7. Cloudland Canyon - Fin Eaves
Memphis’s Kip and Kelly Uhlhorn drench their music in fuzz and reverb and ear candy, and make you listen really hard for the simple pop songs underneath. I like this album for the same reason that I like Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion.
8. Broken Bells - Broken Bells
Danger Mouse and the Shins’ James Mercer. The last Shins album hinted that this type of production on Mercer’s songs may work, but this is a pairing that I would not have imagined. See also: Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse - Dark Night of The Soul, where Mouse and Mercer first collaborated on the track “Insane Lullaby.”
9. Tame Impala - InnerSpeaker
Fuzzy and psychedelic and warm. Fans of Dungen should check this one out.
10. Leatherface - The Stormy Petrel
A big influence and former BYO Records label-mate of my band Pezz (our latest release The Wicked Leading the Blind EP features a cover of Leatherface’s “Watching You Sleep”, available on 7? or digital download).
Honorable Mention: Cutting off this list at 10 was incredibly hard. Here are some other albums I loved this year, that I just couldn’t fit on this list. Vending Machine - Let the People Sing, Harlan T. Bobo - Sucker, The City Champs - The Set-Up, Arcade Fire - The Suburbs, LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening, Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer, No Age - Everything In Between, Vampire Weekend - Contra, Sleigh Bells - Treats, Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest, Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM.
Graham Burks plays in the Perfect Vessels and Pezz. The Perfect Vessels’ first album, Name Our Own Stars, will be released nationally by Makeshift Music on April 5, and is available now from local record stores Goner, Shangri-La, Spin Street, and Davis-Kidd, or as a digital download.
Related articles
Broken Bells Add More Dates (pitchfork.com)
Danger Mouse Enlists Jack White, Norah Jones for LP (rollingstone.com)
The Shins cover The Magnetic Fields (chromewaves.net)
U2 Working with Danger Mouse On New Album (mtv.com)
- http://www.thevinyldistrict.com
1. Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
Looking back at the albums that grabbed me in 2010, many were from bands that had already earned a permanent place in my heart. Superchunk’s new album, their first in nine years, tops this list. Perfectly rocked out
2. The Morning Benders - Big Echo
My favorite new discovery of the year. Full of psychedelic texture and great pop songwriting, it sounds old and new at the same time.
3. Good Luck Darkstar - Hologram/I Told You 7?
Memphis’s best band keeps vinyl alive, and vinyl seems like the right way to listen to their 70's influenced space-age powerpop.
4. Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame
Another favorite band of mine that can do no wrong. This album sounds bigger-budget than Dr. Dog’s past records, and they use it to their advantage, dressing up their classic songs with shiny production.
5. Snowglobe - Little More Lived In
title says it all. Possibly my favorite Snowglobe album since Doing the Distance, this album is comfortable.
6. MGMT - Congratulations
Much less sticky than their first album, I have gotten many more miles out of this one.
7. Cloudland Canyon - Fin Eaves
Memphis’s Kip and Kelly Uhlhorn drench their music in fuzz and reverb and ear candy, and make you listen really hard for the simple pop songs underneath. I like this album for the same reason that I like Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion.
8. Broken Bells - Broken Bells
Danger Mouse and the Shins’ James Mercer. The last Shins album hinted that this type of production on Mercer’s songs may work, but this is a pairing that I would not have imagined. See also: Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse - Dark Night of The Soul, where Mouse and Mercer first collaborated on the track “Insane Lullaby.”
9. Tame Impala - InnerSpeaker
Fuzzy and psychedelic and warm. Fans of Dungen should check this one out.
10. Leatherface - The Stormy Petrel
A big influence and former BYO Records label-mate of my band Pezz (our latest release The Wicked Leading the Blind EP features a cover of Leatherface’s “Watching You Sleep”, available on 7? or digital download).
Honorable Mention: Cutting off this list at 10 was incredibly hard. Here are some other albums I loved this year, that I just couldn’t fit on this list. Vending Machine - Let the People Sing, Harlan T. Bobo - Sucker, The City Champs - The Set-Up, Arcade Fire - The Suburbs, LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening, Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer, No Age - Everything In Between, Vampire Weekend - Contra, Sleigh Bells - Treats, Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest, Charlotte Gainsbourg - IRM.
Graham Burks plays in the Perfect Vessels and Pezz. The Perfect Vessels’ first album, Name Our Own Stars, will be released nationally by Makeshift Music on April 5, and is available now from local record stores Goner, Shangri-La, Spin Street, and Davis-Kidd, or as a digital download.
Related articles
Broken Bells Add More Dates (pitchfork.com)
Danger Mouse Enlists Jack White, Norah Jones for LP (rollingstone.com)
The Shins cover The Magnetic Fields (chromewaves.net)
U2 Working with Danger Mouse On New Album (mtv.com)
- http://www.thevinyldistrict.com
The new single represents a tremendous step forward for the band itself, which is now strong enough to stand up to Krock's soaring pop melodies. The A-side ("Hologram"), in particular, is perhaps the finest stab at Rundgren-ish power-pop this town has seen since the late '70s.
- Memphis Flyer / Contemporary Media
The new single represents a tremendous step forward for the band itself, which is now strong enough to stand up to Krock's soaring pop melodies. The A-side ("Hologram"), in particular, is perhaps the finest stab at Rundgren-ish power-pop this town has seen since the late '70s.
- Memphis Flyer / Contemporary Media
Led by singer/guitarist Bret Krock, Good Luck Dark Star have emerged as something a little different on the local scene, with their smooth spacey echoes of prog and glam rock providing a contrast to the city's prevailing garage-rock and roots-rock sounds. This track is from the band's 2009 debut You'll Need It. - Limewire
Led by singer/guitarist Bret Krock, Good Luck Dark Star have emerged as something a little different on the local scene, with their smooth spacey echoes of prog and glam rock providing a contrast to the city's prevailing garage-rock and roots-rock sounds. This track is from the band's 2009 debut You'll Need It. - Limewire
Good Luck Dark Star featured on Aquarium Drunkard mix tape - Aquarium Drunkard
Good Luck Dark Star featured on Aquarium Drunkard mix tape - Aquarium Drunkard
That there are more obvious historical precedents in Krock's first album as Good Luck Dark Star shouldn't diminish his accomplishment on You'll Need It, which was originally self-released but is getting a wider digital release via local label Shangri-La Projects (www.shangrilaprojects.com). With energy to spare, Eighty Katie devoted itself to heart-on-sleeve pop songs about unattainable girls and the Who's Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy. GLDS has more to do with life's harsher disappointments and ELO's Out of the Blue. He's not just making the old sound new, but space-age: Especially on the lower-key second side, Kevin Cubbins' production is airy and open, creating a roomy ambience for Krock's layered vocals and some melodies inherited from Chris Bell. Softer, keys-based songs like "Good Luck and "Phenomenology" sound weightless, while the guitars on "Mirror Ball" and "Last Hurrah" sound jet-propelled. "Map of the Sun," with its arcing George Harrison guitars, is immediately catchy but only deceptively sunny: That chorus will stick with you for days until you realize how heartbreaking it is. Like Reager, Krock is using pop's energy and effervescence to explore darker ideas about isolation and emotional drift. Every night he tells himself he is the cosmos. - Blurt Magazine
That there are more obvious historical precedents in Krock's first album as Good Luck Dark Star shouldn't diminish his accomplishment on You'll Need It, which was originally self-released but is getting a wider digital release via local label Shangri-La Projects (www.shangrilaprojects.com). With energy to spare, Eighty Katie devoted itself to heart-on-sleeve pop songs about unattainable girls and the Who's Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy. GLDS has more to do with life's harsher disappointments and ELO's Out of the Blue. He's not just making the old sound new, but space-age: Especially on the lower-key second side, Kevin Cubbins' production is airy and open, creating a roomy ambience for Krock's layered vocals and some melodies inherited from Chris Bell. Softer, keys-based songs like "Good Luck and "Phenomenology" sound weightless, while the guitars on "Mirror Ball" and "Last Hurrah" sound jet-propelled. "Map of the Sun," with its arcing George Harrison guitars, is immediately catchy but only deceptively sunny: That chorus will stick with you for days until you realize how heartbreaking it is. Like Reager, Krock is using pop's energy and effervescence to explore darker ideas about isolation and emotional drift. Every night he tells himself he is the cosmos. - Blurt Magazine
Discography
1. "Good Luck Dark Star, You'll Need It" - 2009, Shangri-La Projects
2. "Hologram / I Told You" 7" - 2010, Shangri-La Projects (vinyl release only)
Photos
Bio
"This isn't going to be space rock, is it?'
My less informed companion asked this question the first time we went to watch the Good Luck Dark Star. The group spent the next forty-five minutes living up to their name, emanating vibrations that were high and sweet against the backdrop of an exploding white dwarf. There was space, and there was rock, But lying in wait between the two was euphoric harmony!
Singer Bret Krock was no neophyte on this night, I had first heard of him near five years ago when he led Eighty Katie to power pop infamy. But this new group was playing something very different from the Cheap Trick-type rave-ups Krock had made a name for himself with. Drummer Preston Todd had been sought out by Krock just a few months before. Guitarist Johnny Guttery had first teamed up with Krock a year earlier when they stepped into the roles of Ace Frehley and Gene Simmons, respectively, in a one-off KISS tribute. Logan Hanna had joined the fold just recently as GLDS's new bass player. For all intents and purposes, that's enough personnel for a rock group, isn't it?
The first few Good Luck Dark Star shows went well, but not
quite up to the groups' expectations. The album (Good Luck Dark Star, You'll Need It) Krock had recorded with friend Kerry McDonald (Christie Front Drive, the Mighty Rime) is laden with ELO-inspired harmonies. Harmonies that weren't being replicated live.
Bret Krock and his sister, Lisa Krock-Isbell had long talked about starting a group, and Good Luck Dark Star quickly became an opportunity to finally see idea that through. With more voices to handle (some of) the harmonies recorded months before, the current Good Luck Dark Star ascended.
Good Luck Dark Star certainly aim high with their live set. Already a little imposing with their five players, when the power is turned on, GLDS do invoke the aesthetic of some of their inspirations - the effortless melodies of Big Star and Jeff Lynne, the electric guitar density of Crazy Horse or Queens of the Stone Age, and the upper atmospherics originally mapped out by David Bowie.
While an actual Dark Star obliterates any matter or light that comes within its grasp, Good Luck Dark Star betrays their namesake by performing in an opposite capacity! On that first night I saw GLDS, I heard songs about boyfriends and girlfriends separated by light years, desperate calls from unimaginable distances, and the phenomena of dreams. Perhaps suspended animation isn't so hard to take, if Good Luck Dark Star provides the soundtrack - H.C.
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