Lustra

WHO ARE LUSTRA, AND CAN THEY BE STOPPED?

PART I: BASICS

It all started with fine wine and cheeses. Ok, it was cheap beer and stolen cigarettes. In any case, Chris and Nick met in a film and video class on the campus of U-Mass and soon formed a band, as if by a slightly drunken accident. A few cases of Meister Brau later, Chris’ brother Jon joined. Jason (a complete stranger) was found asleep on the floor of their rehearsal space one day. No one knew where he came from, including himself, but he could sure play a mean lead. Bruce would eventually arrive from South Africa as the result of a bizarre child adoption effort on Nick’s behalf.

The band first assembled under the name ‘Seventeen’ in the fall of 1999. Since then, the group has seen a name change [see below] and a shuffling of rosters and roles, including the recent departure of Jon (who is now following troops in the Middle East, armed with just an acoustic guitar.) The remaining four members march upon the world as Lustra.

In 1999, the band introduced Breakfast at Tammy’s into the world of ideas. This, the band’s first full-length disc, was a self-recorded and self-promoted paean to a mythical teenage girl of the 1980’s, and though its commercial sales proved to be – uhh, non-brisk, still the recordings were greeted with much critical enthusiasm. It was, in fact on the strength of Breakfast that the band would be delivered from the basements and family restaurants of Somerville, MA, and onto the big Boston stages; and likewise, with this disc, would they be delivered out of crushing debts and into the motherly arms of XOFF Records.

With XOFF’s help and backing, Lustra found producer and former Letters to Cleo bassist Scott Riebling, who tracked the Ransom Your Handsome EP. Ransom garnered the band a second wave of press, a slightly improved lot of New England gigs [and even a bolt to Virginia and back], and a stepped-up rotation on college and local commercial radio. But it wasn’t until they came out of the studios at Long View Farms with their second full-length, Bikini Pie Fight!, that Lustra began dropping coast-to-coast thunder.

PART II: ADVANCED

Bikini Pie Fight! pre-production tapes brought the band into contact with Ron St. Germain [Tool, Sonic Youth, Creed, Soundgarden – actually forget these guys, this guy worked on ‘The Hustle’] who, along with Riebling, produced the 12-track disc and handed it over to the promotional team then being assembled by XOFF financier and svengali Scott Benson. With XOFF’s backing, BPF! powered its way into the CMJ top 50 [including a #11 stay at most-added], scored a nationwide distribution deal with BMG/V2 Records, and launched its first single, ‘Porno Getaway,’ onto commercial airwaves from Seattle to Texas to Florida to Boston. In support of the disc, the band lit out on the gradually-less-lonesome American road, touring throughout the promotional cycle, showcasing nationally and opening for the likes of Staind, Queens of the Stone Age, Primus, Nashville Pussy, the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, One Minute Silence, and others.

By the Fall of 2001 the band decided to change its base of operations, and moved to sunny Los Angeles, where they began assembling and honing new material for their third release (the now self-titled Lustra disc.) Within a few short months, Lustra found themselves back in the studio and back in the capable hands of Scott Riebling, who aided them in tracking four new songs. These four tracks, along with a series of pre-pro recordings, would then earn them the attention of top-name producer Sylvia Massy Shivy [Tool, Red Hot Chili Peppers, System Of A Down.] After four weeks in Weed, CA at Massy’s own Radio Star Studios, Lustra returned to LA to mix with the extremely talented Mr. Joe Barresi [Queens of the Stone Age, Weezer, Fu Manchu.]

Since the completion of this adventurous new disc, Lustra have only continued to gain greater and greater momentum in their quest for world domination. Aside from touring California with regularity, 2002 saw the band break away for a month-long tour of South Africa in support of that country’s multi-platinum selling act, Just Jinger. Not long after returning to the U.S., Lustra was commissioned to write and record the featured track (‘Scotty Doesn’t Know’) for the upcoming Dreamworks film, tentatively titled ‘The Ugly Americans.’ The band was later flown to Prague to appear in the film along side Matt Damon, who makes a cameo as Donny, the fictitious lead singer in the band. In the meantime, Lustra has also been hard at work composing and recording music for ‘Parking Lot,’ a documentary series, expected out on cable’s Trio channel in the coming season. All of this is to say nothing of the work that has begun for the band’s next album.

Can Lustra be stopped? Not with the weapons of today, no.