Loser's Luck

In the dark ages before MySpace, the local social network stlpunk.com introduced suburban teens to the joys of anonymous smack talk. Loser's Luck was an easy target for the attackers. The trio pounded out pop-punk at the height of the Blink-182 imitation epidemic and inundated its songs with anti-abortion platitudes, while George W. Bush began his second term. Yet Loser's Luck persevered, touring obsessively and defying haters with textbook execution of its maligned genre: Adam Gardner's nasal snarl and power chords, Britton Campbell's pogo backbeats and the melodic, Hoppus-esque undercurrent of bassist Charlie Springhart. The trio's reunion serves as a reminder about a band that never pandered — and made friends and enemies alike with straight-from-the-gut stylistic and political conservatism.