While still in college, Atlanta band Lunar Vacation have self-released two EPS and maxed out venues in Los Angeles, Austin, New York and, or course, their hometown. Doling out plentiful rock riptides anchored by internal pop currents, their work is a rugged often beautiful synthesis of the band’s complicated influences. They are set to release their debut LP sometime later this year and are working to shape its rhythmic curvature with producer Dan Gleason (Grouplove) and engineer T.J. Elias.
The band recently shared a new single called “Unlucky,” and it’s a gorgeously roaming ramble incorporating Jesus and Mary Chain-esque guitars, a particularly fluid percussive lope and an elegant heartache inhabiting singer Grace Repasky’s swooning vocals. There’s a languid gait to the music, a breezy architecture that provides just enough foundation for the band to develop a complex emotional weight. Wistful and transient, the track isn’t tacitly bound to the past, though it does use those experiences to guide its steps forward.
“’Unlucky’ was the first song that stuck after around five months of not writing anything that I was happy with,” explains Repasky. “In March of 2019, I was feeling really discouraged with music, was having trouble with some relationships and got cheated on. Looking back, I definitely wrote it in a mindset of self-pity and wallowing in sadness, but the song has changed meaning over time. The song wasn’t fully finished until October of that year, which gave me time to really think about what I wanted to say with it. But now, I feel it’s more about reflecting on things that happen in your life and how to grow from it, realizing that you aren’t the only one who goes through shit. Even though it may feel like nothing is going right for you, everything happens for a reason and it shapes you to grow.”
Check out the track and the band’s upcoming tour dates below.
U.S. TOUR DATES:
4/23 – Columbia, SC – The Senate*
4/24 – Chattanooga, TN – The Signal*
4/25 – Huntsville, AL – Mars Music Hall*
5/02 – Atlanta, GA – Vinyl (Shaky Knees Late Night Show)^
5/03 – Atlanta, GA – Shaky Knees Music Festival
6/11 – Chicago, IL – Beat Kitchen
*with Manchester Orchestra
^with Durand Jones & the Indications
