Music
Press
"....Lustra provided the change of pace I was thirsting for. Their slick hard rock had a techno twist, probably due to the presence of a drum machine/sequencer in the background. To get an idea of their sound, think Stone Temple Pilots’ 'Sex Type Thing,' Love and Rockets’ 'So Alive,' and Nitzer Ebb’s 'Join in the Chant' all in one carry-out bag. Lustra even pulled off a cover of Dead or Alive’s 'You Spin Me Right Round.'" - Entertainment Today
Big guitars, big beats, melody, and swagger. Hard rock with a very forward-looking attitude.
After working the Boston rock scene for several years and touring nationally, LUSTRA established themselves as a formidable 4-piece rock outfit. This extensive gigging and countless hours spent surfing radio stations during the driving between shows left them with a strong desire to forge a new sound and move to higher ground both musically and geographically.
After a bout of litigation and a 3,000 mile move to Los Angeles, LUSTRA has produced the result: a rather experimental record which features the heavy guitar and vocal bombast they are known for but also incorporates some big dance beats, electronic sounds, and adroit melodies. The new improved sound has won them acclaim in a number of Los Angeles music publications and won them airplay and an enthusiastic response in their tour of South Africa. - CD Connection
by Katy Kroll
The Internet is changing the music industry, and Lustra is reaping the benefits.
The Los Angeles-based band has been working tirelessly to promote its song "Scotty Doesn't Know," which was featured in the 2004 film "Eurotrip," on such Web sites as MySpace and iTunes. And it's finally paying off.
The song made its chart debut in the July 22 issue of Billboard, and is currently No. 59 on the Billboard Pop 100 and No. 78 on the Billboard Hot 100. It appears on both the movie soundtrack and Lustra's album "Left for Dead" (Xoff).
"When the soundtrack was released, we expected some sort of press, which just didn't happen," guitarist Nicholas Cloutman tells Billboard.com. "We really believed in the song, so we just decided to keep this [going] ourselves. Two years after the film came out, kids are still crazy for it."
Although "Eurotrip" didn't make big bucks at the box office when it hit theaters, the teen comedy has built a cult following since being released on DVD. And "Scotty Doesn't Know" steals the show as its running joke.
The song is based on the title character, who learns that his girlfriend has been cheating on him. When his friends bring him to a party to cheer him up, he is forced to watch a band perform "Scotty Doesn't Know" as the singer gyrates against his ex-girlfriend while singing: "Scotty doesn't know that Fiona and me do it in my van every Sunday / She tells him she's in church but she doesn't go / Still she's on her knees and Scotty doesn't know."
"It was basically supposed to be like that annoying little mosquito that won't leave you alone," says Cloutman.
Cloutman and bandmates Chris Baird (vocalist/bassist), Chris Cunningham (drums) and Travis Lee (guitar) even appeared in the movie -- with honorary band member Matt Damon cameoing as the lead singer.
"For me, watching [vocalist] Chris' voice coming out of somebody else's mouth is like watching really bad karaoke," Cloutman says with a laugh. "A lot of people think that Matt Damon actually sang the song, which is ultra funny."
All that exposure certainly helped put the track on the map, but it was the members of Lustra and the fans who ultimately put it on the charts.
"I got really involved in the whole MySpace thing, and all the kids on there rallied to get [the song] on iTunes," he says, adding, "MySpace allowed us to sort of move forward whereas normally we might have been dead in the water. I think a lot of people are still sort of scratching their heads wondering how we managed to be so DYI and make it [to] this level, but MySpace is almost the new radio."
And indeed it may be, especially considering the fact that "Scotty Doesn't Know" has received no radio airplay and appears on the charts solely because of digital downloads.
Now, it may seem like all Lustra has to do is sit back and wait for the offers to roll in. But there's a lot more to it than that.
"Holding down a day job and trying to [field] all the interest that's coming from all sorts of labels is like three jobs in one," he notes. "We're really such a proactive, hardworking band, we follow leads wherever we think they're viable. We're open to the notion of [signing with] a major [label] if that's what it takes to get us to the next level.
"Right now we need the distribution and the promotion to make this work," he adds. "We're doing everything we can on a guerilla level to get radio to sit up and listen. Obviously the demand is there, we just need to get people to give us a few spins nationwide and maybe we can go on tour. We definitely have a substantial fire going, and all we need is the gasoline to make it into something much, much bigger." - Billboard.com
Discography
Left For Dead, LP (2005, x-off Records)
I'm Having Santa For Christmas, single (2007, LUSTRA Music)
What You Need & What You Get, LP (2008, x-off Records)
Streaming Songs at http://www.myspace.com/lustra
Photos
Bio
LUSTRA is a rock juggernaut from Boston by way of Los Angeles that are ready to rock your world and leave a trail of destruction in their wake. Out of the Eastern Seaboard rock scene, that spawned the Pixies and Dinosaur Jr in the past, LUSTRA’s rock hijinks have already gained well-deserved notoriety that is sure to blossom into worldwide recognition.
In the beginning, Chris (Baird, bass/vocals) and Nick (Cloutman, guitars/vocals) jumped subway turnstiles to make it to practice with enough money to buy beer. "Practice" was the side effect of a good time that took place in other bands' rehearsal spaces, with other bands' gear, whether they knew it or not. Maybe the blood on the guitars or the sawdust around the drum kits was a giveaway. Practice spaces weren’t the only thing the band appropriated – back then they were known as Seventeen, until the magazine of the same name didn’t think that was such a great idea. Whatever the case, this trail of carnage and unapologetic determination ushered LUSTRA out of the piss-hole basements of Boston and into some of the world’s better venues.
Thirsty for some sunshine and eager to avoid the “Boston curse” so many of the metropolis’ bands fall victim to, LUSTRA took their East Coast conquests, shed their P-coats for T-shirts, and headed west to Los Angeles. Success came quickly when the band landed a songwriting opportunity for the film Eurotrip, which in turn landed them bit parts in the film itself, in which Chris and Nick lip-synced "Scotty Doesn't Know" alongside Matt Damon playing Donny, their fictitious lead singer. More importantly, LUSTRA had unwittingly written themselves a cult hit that would transcend the film to become its own entity, drawing a feverish global response no one could have predicted.
But there was silence before the blast. Original members of the band left to pursue families, nervous breakdowns and "more money," leaving the founders to rebuild. What they built was a stronger, more determined, monster. Adding guitarist Travis Lee, LUSTRA completed work for 2006's aptly named Left for Dead and released the disc with absolutely no promotion or publicity. Within days of the release, digital sales of "Scotty Doesn't Know" would catapult the band onto both Billboard's Hot 100 and Pop 100 charts. LUSTRA had their ferocious fan base to thank for this head-scratching phenomenon as they lobbied iTunes for the swift addition of this disc. Add to that fanbase the 10,000 lucky American GIs who received free copies of Left For Dead that the band paid for out of pocket as a holiday gift to troops in the Middle East.
Next, LUSTRA took two years to craft the work on their follow-up release, What You Need & What You Get, recorded at Los Angeles’ Sound City Studios with producer John Paterno (Eels, The Warlocks, The Thrills). The album features the same lineup from Left For Dead, now rounded out by Swiss drummer Manny Baldanza. The energetic twelve-track album (thirteen, if you count the bonus “second coming” of “Scotty Doesn’t Know”) is packed with punk-pop gems, crunchy power chords and impassionedly shouted vocals. Of the album’s direction, Cloutman says, “With this album, we wanted a more to-the-point rock record…it’s a reaction to the super-formatted stuff on the radio, which has sort of bored us into action.”
The album features new single “It’s a Shame About Boston,” a wistful, homesick portrait of geographical heartbreak, featuring a driving beat, laidback talk-sung vocals and raucous guitar work. The lyrics combine lines about disillusionment with the local music scene - “Please don’t come and see my band/because I don’t want to see your band/and I bet that I’d forget it anyway” - with suggestions of a lost love affair: “It’s a shame about you/You left your heart where you lost it/Now that I’m gone.” Songwriters Baird and Cloutman also make sure to mention the “Boston curse” from which they’ve escaped, in addition to name-checking Bostonian landmarks Central Square and rock club Middle East.
Elsewhere, the Baird/Cloutman songwriting team tackles past experiences of drug-induced paranoia with the thinly-veiled innuendos of “White Powder,” set against a nervous, tension-filled rock strut – Chris sings, “I waited all summer just to watch it snow.” A tangled, faltering love affair is depicted in “Dinosaur,” where the band shows themselves more than capable of chiming rock majesty when they feel like it, utilizing subtle dynamics, a plaintive bass melody and open-string guitar strumming. Silent partner Travis Lee makes his first songwriting contribution to Lustra with the appropriately named “Barnburner,” a gritty rock number that speaks to a reckless partygoer - “At your birthday party, getting drunk and having fun/Stand to make a speech, and you fall down in front of everyone.”
So far, the success of this rags-to-riches act has been astounding. iTunes sales of “Scotty Doesn't Know” earned the band a 7 week stay on Billboard's
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