Ganging Up on the Sun (Guster)

[Rob]

The first time I heard Guster they were opening up for Barenaked Ladies at the Fleet Center in Boston. Ed Roberts came out and did a song with them and later, during BNL's set, the three guys from Guster came out in orange prison jumpsuits with the ass cheeks cut out. They each had a letter written on a cheek: B, N, L. I know you had to be there but it was pretty frickin' hilarious. I've been a fan ever since. One of the things that blew me away about the band was their unique percussion sound. Their drummer, Brian Rosenworcel plays a drum kit where the tom's have been replaced with conga's and he plays the entire kit (yes even the cymbals) with his hands. Ouch is right. He's had pictures of his hands, cracked and bleeding after a set on their site. But the results are undeniable. When I met the band after a show at Fairfield University the first thing I did was ask the Thundergod how his hands were. Joe Pisapia (a multi-instrumentalist) joined the band around 2003 and became the fourth member of Guster. "Ganging Up on the Sun" is their fifth studio album among a flurry of live albums and bootlegs (the band has a very liberal taping policy) and it really shows their maturity and Pisapia's influence in broadening the spectrum of sounds available to them. The first time I heard "One Man Wrecking Machine" I told the band after the show that I thought it was one of the best songs I've ever heard. I still feel that way. The album as a whole is exceptional and that was reflected in the fact that it was their highest charting album. But it really is the music that makes it and the folkie, flirty, rocky rhythms of Guster are just excellent. There simply isn't a bad song on the album. If you've never heard of the band then this is a good place to start, you'll find yourself collecting their other albums very quickly.