Daily Tune On - Guster Beams Down With “Satellite”
What I have of Guster on my IPOD is from their first 4 albums. I’ve got songs from “Parachute,” “Keep it Together”, “Lost and Gone Forever,” and “Goldfly.” I was going to focus on one of those songs, but then I started listening to the song “Satellite,” which is the title track from their newest CD, found myself liking it quite a bit, and thought for those who haven’t listened to Guster, or haven’t listened to Guster in awhile, there’s no time like the present for us all to get caught up.
Guster’s three main band members are Ryan, Brian, and Adam, who met during freshman orientation while attending Tufts University. They soon became friends and started writing music together and playing together while still living in their dormitory at Tufts. Originally their band was called “Gus,” and the guys went by this name for about four years until they graduated from university, bought a van, and started to hit the road. Around this same time they discovered that there was another artist also called “Gus,” who had recently been signed by a major label, at that point the group was forced to change their name. That’s when they came up with and began to become known as “Guster.”
The band released their first albums “Parachute” and “Goldfly” independently. Two years later the band was signed by Sire Records and “Goldfly” was re-released by the label. Along with the deal came some promotion and publicity and “Guster” started to take off and was able to garner a larger fan base. A fourth member, multi instrumentalist Joe Pisapia who also plays with his own group joined forces with “Guster” and regularly plays and tours with the band.
First known for their short infectious songs, acoustic guitars, vocal harmonies, and drummer Brian’s playing with his hands, his use of percussion, bongo’s, and cymbals; the group developed a strong grass roots following. They played clubs and toured, and their fans were their first reps, helping them to sell their records and promote the band and it was this strong support that got the attention of the labels and got them signed.
Recently the band has also become closely associated with “Reverb,” an organization that was founded by Adam and his wife Lauren, it was set up to assist touring artists make their tours more “green” and environmentally friendly. “Reverb” has worked with The Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson, Barenaked Ladies, Bonnie Raitt, John Mayer, and more.
Checking out their website besides their music one of the biggest things the group produced this past year was lots of babies, three in total. But they swear they’ve also written 17 new songs and we can look forward to hearing them in 2009. They also recently changed labels and are no longer with Reprise/Warner Brothers Records but have inked a new deal with Aware/Columbia Records.
To see their video to the song, “Satellite” either click on the link below or cut and paste it into your browser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI-9VcZlhl8