INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE
Guster, Ben Kweller
GusterMonday, July 21, 7 p.m., $25-$27, all-ages
Singer/guitarist Ryan Miller says one of the overriding goals within his band, Guster, is to make a timeless album that people will still listen to 15 years down the line.
The verdict on Guster’s latest CD, Ganging Up on the Sun, won’t be known, of course, for some time. But Miller’s sense of excitement about the CD, and about the musical growth of the band in general, is evidence enough that he feels Guster is on the right track.
“I feel like we keep getting closer to that goal,” Miller says. “Of the reviews I’ve read of our record so far, no one’s said it yet. Who knows who’s in charge of making that [classic album] designation, but I definitely believe that our records benefit from multiple listens.”
Miller feels the band’s ambition has been proved by just how much he and his bandmates (singer/guitarist Adam Gardner, drummer Brian Rosenworcel and the recently recruited multi-instrumentalist Joe Pisapia) have been willing to reinvent Guster over the past five years.
The most obvious change came with the group’s previous CD, the 2003 release Keep It Together. On that CD, Miller, Gardner and Rosenworcel, who formed Guster in 1992, diverted from a signature sound that had been built almost entirely around a pair of acoustic guitars and bongos.
Instead, Rosenworcel used a full drum kit, while Miller and Gardner plugged in, transforming Guster on several songs into a full-on electric guitar pop band.
Ganging Up on the Sun delves further into a fatter sound. Though the instrumentation is still judicious, songs like “Satellite,” “One Man Wrecking Machine” and “C’mon” subtly expand the palette with chiming guitars, keyboards and harmonies.
The expanded instrumentation has given Guster many more options in determining what arrangements best serve the songs.
“It was like this whole world opened up for us from the writing perspective,” Miller says. “Finally, we didn’t have to rely on strumming on the acoustic guitars for energy. We could get energy from a big distorted guitar or from a piano line or a horn section, or from a great grooving drum beat. I don’t think feel was important to us before Keep It Together.”