Crush Luther Are A Pop Band, Damn It

In a musical climate where bands pay more attention to what scene they fit into than the quality of their music, it's refreshing to see Crush Luther so far removed from it all. The Toronto quintet aren't interested in what people may think of them, and this is never more apparent than in concert.

"One of the things that I think will take heat is how we aren't more straightforward [on stage]," says drummer Brent Mills of the band's irreverent nature. "Stuff that we might find funny, other people might not get. That's just the way the five of us are, but we recently realized, who cares? It's hilarious.""I would do entire summations of Full House episodes," frontman Luther Mallory says of their antics. "It would take an entire five minutes and, by the end, people are like, 'Shut up!' And we're just basking in it."

Of course, you're probably thinking, "Why Full House? This band must be nuts."

"Because," Mallory reasons, "it was a great episode."

"Except it wasn't," counters lead guitarist Matt Fury. "It was an entirely mediocre retelling of this episode, with no punch line. One time, when we played the Horseshoe, he went on this long rant about how blowjobs go on for way too long in porno."

"They do," Mallory insists. "Just get it in there.

"Let's talk about the function and practicality of pornography. Any kind of pornography needs to be as long as you can masturbate to it successfully. Thirty seconds, or a minute, of blowjobs is fine. Three minutes? You can go, like, 14 times. Well, I can, personally. But I digress..."

Crush Luther's members' easygoing nature is inherently apparent in their music, which is unabashedly catchy without hiding behind a genre tag that begins with "post" and ends in "core." In fact, the band embrace that they're a pop band.

"People are scared to say they're in a pop band," says Fury. "Everyone has to say they're in an indie rock band.

"People are scared of the pop label because it's gotten a bum rap for years. We're unapologetically a pop band, and we all have different musical backgrounds. We all take influences, like Luther from Lyle Lovett or Brent from Terror, or me from Pantera. It's all over."

"The formula was just me growing up listening to pop, listening to metal, everything," Mallory explains. "My favourite bands were, like, Faith No More, The Moffatts, Sepultura and Savage Garden.

"I suggest for anybody getting into writing to listen to everything. It's interesting, and now Max Cavalera is an influence on our pop band."

Though Crush Luther aren't immediately reminiscent of the Brazilian metal band, such unlikely inspirations are made evident throughout their self-titled debut, from the swing-influenced "Don't Fight About It" to the ska-tinged "When We Were Golden." The quintet never take the obvious route by overusing punky chords and faux-metal guitar solos. Led by Mallory's finely honed voice, they create music that's fun and entertaining, without trying to be something they're not.

"I got retardedly into singing, listening to Billy Joel and Pink Floyd and stuff," the singer recalls. "I would just practise for three hours a day, listening to those wailers like Nazareth and think, 'How do you do that?'

"So now, we open with this Beethoven thing, and then we do a metal version and I go, [singing in a very high-pitched voice] 'Yeaaaah!' Everybody is like, 'What? Huh?'"

Here are Crush Luther's upcoming dates:
Feb. 17 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
Feb. 24 Oshawa, ON @ The Dungeon
March 10 Toronto, ON @ Kathedral