Section 1: FAQ Facts
Section 2: Guster Internet Resources
Section 3: Basic Guster Information
Section 4: Adam, Brian, and Ryan . . . and the whole Guster family.
Section 5: The Albums
Section 6: Songs and Lyrics
Section 7: Miscellaneous
Section 1: FAQ Facts
1) What is the Guster FAQ?
2) Who maintains the FAQ?
3) How can I make suggestions/corrections/additions to the FAQ?
4) Where can I get the FAQ?
Section 2: Guster Internet Resources
1) Is there an official Guster homepage?
2) Is there an IRC channel?
3) Are there any other webpages?
The Guster Zone (http://gusterzone.pair.net), maintained by Rich Sutter, contains sound files and a news archive.
The Guster Gate (http://guster.978.org/guster) contains lots of tabs, sound files, and links.
Guster Home (http://www2.bc.edu/~terryju/gusterhome.html) is a great-looking, well-organized site with lots of links and some great information.
The Mezzanine (http://students.engineering.vill.edu/cmoyer02/) has become every Guster fan's source for live MP3s. Many other things there worth checking out as well.
The site seems to be down for the summer, but I assume Chris will put it back up in the fall when he's back at school.
Several other fan pages are listed in the links section of www.guster.com.
4) What's the deal with the newsgroup? Is there anything I should know?
5) What's the fan2fan? How do I subscribe? More importantly, how do I *un*subscribe?
Section 3: Basic Guster Information
1) Who is Guster?
2) How did they get together?
3) Where did they get the name Guster?
It stuck.
4) Where did those space helmet things come from?
5) What kind of music do they play?
6) What other bands are they like?
Granian (www.granian.com)
Three-man outfit from New Jersey. They play acoustic rock with guitar, bass, and kit.
Vertical Horizon (www.verticalhorizon.com)
Dave Matthews Band (www.dmband.com)
Eddie From Ohio (www.efohio.com)
Push Stars (www.pushstars.com)
Jump, Little Children (www.jumplittlechildren.com)
Jackopierce
Dispatch (www.dispatchmusic.com)
7) Where is the band currently touring?
Guster Dot Com: http://www.guster.com
Pollstar: http://www.pollstar.com
You can also call the Guster Calendar Line at (617) 742-4295.
8) Why are they always playing age-restricted venues that I can't get into?
For an excellent explanation of why clubs have age restrictions, see:
9) What is the band's taping policy?
From Michael "Pasty" Corcoran, Guster's current road manager and everyone's favorite Villanova alumnus:
Pasty had this to add in an e-mail to the fan2fan dated 11/9/99:
10) Does anyone have a tape of the Halloween show from '98?
Some tips from seasoned Guster traders:
For an awesome explanation of exactly how to get started trading, see the Phish.Net's taping page:
*I'm fully aware that the band didn't play a Halloween show in '98. That's why I picked it :).
11) I want to book them! What do I do?
Guster has changed booking agencies since the last FAQ update. They are no longer represented by the Progressive Global Agency. Their new agency is Creative Artists and their particular rep is Scott Clayton. He can be reached at (615) 383-8787.
12) I ordered a t-shirt like a month ago and haven't gotten anything yet. What's the deal?
13) Who the hell are Sweet Maynard and the Sassy Sailors?
14) I saw an autographed CD for sale on E-bay . . . is it worth bidding on?
15) Dude, they should totally play something old-skool on Letterman. Wouldn't it be an awesome idea to e-mail Brian/the office and tell them that?
Section 4: Adam, Ryan, Brian . . . and the whole Guster family
1) Which one's which?
2) Where are they from?
3) Does [insert band member's name here] have a girlfriend?
4) Who's Pasty?
The text from the liner of The Pasty Tapes:
"We first met Michael 'Pasty' Corcoran in 1995 at a small club in New York City. A skinny 18-year-old Guster Rep and nervous freshman at Villanova University, Michael had embraced the Guster-given name we blindly threw on his rep badge. He approached us, fair hair and ghostly skin glistening under the hot Wetlands lights and said, 'I'm Pasty.'
5) Julie?
6) Dalton?
7) Bill Parcels?
8) Who are all those other official-looking people at Guster shows?*
Because Guster's crew lineup has changed a few times since the last update and I have been in Europe and unable to see *any* of the fall tour, this section will be updated when I receive new information from Brian. This still stands from the last version, though I promise I'll e-mail Brian and see if I can get the info from him.
Section 5: The Albums
1) What albums does Guster have out?
1) What is the Guster FAQ?
2) Who maintains the FAQ?
3) How can I make suggestions/additions/corrections to the FAQ?
4) Where can I get the FAQ?
1) Is there an official Guster homepage?
2) Is there an IRC channel?
3) Are there any other webpages?
4) What's the deal with the newsgroup? Is there anything I should know?
5) What's the fan2fan? How do I subscribe? More importantly, how do I *un*subscribe?
6) Does Guster distribute their music electronically (MP3, etc.) ?
1) Who is Guster?
2) How did they get together?
3) Where did they get the name Guster?
4) Where did they get those space helmets?
5) What kind of music do they play?
6) What other bands are they like?
7) Where is the band currently touring?
8) Why do they always play age-restricted venues that I can't get into?
9) What is the band's taping policy?
10) Does anyone have a tape of the Halloween show from last year?
11) I want to book them! What do I do?
12) I ordered a t-shirt a month ago and haven't gotten anything yet. What's up?
13) Who the hell are Sweet Maynard and the Sassy Sailors?
14) I saw an autographed CD for sale on E-bay . . . is it worth bidding on?
15) Dude, they should totally play something old-skool on Letterman. Wouldn't it be an awesome idea if everyone e-mailed Brian and/or the office to tell them that?
1) Which one's which?
2) Where are they from?
3) Does [insert band member name here] have a girlfriend?
4) Who's Pasty?
5) Dalton?
6) Julie?*
7) Bill Parcels?
8) Who are all those other official-looking people I see at shows?*
1) What albums does Guster have out?
2) Why can't I find the albums in stores?
3) Does the band ever put out singles?
4) Are they on any compilations?
5) Do they ever make videos?
6) What does Goldfly mean?
7) When is there going to be a new album?*
8) Why is Soleil Moon Frye (better known as Punky Brewster) thanked in the Parachute liner notes?
1) Who's the lead singer?
2) How come Brian never gets to sing?
3) Who writes the songs?
4) Where can I find lyrics?
5) Where can I find guitar tablature?
6) Where can I find sound clips?
7) What is that I hear in the background of "Getting Even"?
1) What's a rep? How do I become one?
2) What bands has Guster toured with?
3) Wow. You're the FAQ Keeper. You must be really good friends with the band. Can you get me backstage?
4) This Saturday I'm going to my first Guster show and don't want to look like a complete wank. Is there anything I should know?
This FAQ is intended to not only be a primer for newcomers to Guster, but also to be a general glossing of some basic Guster information. The FAQ will be posted to the newsgroup and fan2fan occassionally, and can always be found at http://gusterfaq.978.org (thanks Kenta!).
I do! I'm Kate Leahy, recent college graduate, soon-to-be Jesuit Volunteer, future Notre Dame Law School student, and Guster Fan and Rep. The creator was Louis Esparza, erstwhile Tufts student and Guster Fan.
E-mail me at kleahy@loyola.edu -- though this e-mail address will likely stop working in the near future.
Well, it'll be posted to the newsgroup and fan2fan once a month, and occupies the website listed above.
Yessiree Bob. It can be found at http://www.guster.com. It's a wealth of useful information :).
A private channel has been established. This is not the old G-rated channel that Brian got kicked off of all those times. It can be accessed through the link on Guster Dot Com or through an IRC client with the server irc.bandchat.org and the channel #guster.
There are several fan pages in existence.
The newsgroup was created in late September, 1999. It's suggested that people new to the newsgroup do a bit of lurking before beginning to post. There are a few etiquette things that have been suggested as well:
The fan2fan is an electronic mailing list with about 2000 subscribers. By sending an e-mail to the list address, one can reach all 2000 or so of those subscribers. You can subscribe by clicking the "Contact" link on Guster Dot Com and following the instructions on the page. You unsubscribe the same way.
Click [here] for a section on fan2fan nettiquette.
Guster is a Boston-area-based trio comprised of Adam Gardner (vocals, guitar and cool shaky thing), Ryan Miller (vocals, guitar and occassionally piano), and Brian Rosenworcel (percussion and rare vocals).
Well, as legend (or an interview) would have it, the three met on a bus tour of the Tufts University campus during their freshman orientation. The conversation strayed to music and ended with an agreement to get together and jam. When agreement couldn't be reached on what covers to play, they started writing songs and then playing open mic nights and scheduled shows on Tufts' campus and at various Somerville and Cambridge locations. Ryan claims that no one else liked them, and so no one wanted to join the band until after they started playing gigs and had recorded an album; and by that time, he says, they didn't need anyone else. Adam says that about halfway through Tufts, they decided to pursue music as a serious career for two reasons: none of them were particularly interested in having real jobs, and they were all pretty much failing. After graduating from Tufts (Brian and Adam with honors), the guys continued to live together up until the summer of 1999, when Ryan says that he got sick of telling Brian to get his pubic hairs off of the toilet seat and they decided that they could finally afford to get their own places. [1]
Well, Guster was originally called Gus, and the first few copies of Parachute have that name on them. There are about ten dozen different stories about where they got Gus, including that it was the name of Ryan's freshman roommate Evan's dad. The important thing is that they soon discovered that about ten dozen other bands were called Gus too. Popular myth (or just Brian) would have it that that in the midst of their struggle with what to rename themselves, Brian's friend Rit Zbikowski was leaving for Japan to teach English. As he walked out the door to go to the airport, he called out "Guster!"
Yet again, Rit.
Guster's music is difficult to define, but relatively easy to describe. It's wuss rock built around soaring harmonies, inventive guitar riffs, and infectous hand-percussion beats, all of which make for a unique and amazing musical experience. Their live shows are where they shine, deftly playing hysterical covers, improving songs at the drop of a hat, and adding special energy to their own catalog.
Any Guster fan will tell you that Guster is like no on else; there do seem to be a few bands, though, that many Guster fans like.
A Boston-based band with great harmonies and an acoustic-rock type sound.
Umm, if you don't know who these guys are, I suggest you join the rest of us in life on this planet :).
Think Guster in ten years with a kick-ass female lead. As their motto says: Folkin' excellent.
Guster's best Boston friends and recent touring partners. Rock 'n' roll. Oh yeah.
Guster's eternal touring companions and good friends. An innovative Celtic-and-hard-rock inspired quintet from South Carolina. Check out the Haute Couture archive section for cute pictures of them and Guster and The Nields :).
Now-defunct folky rock band. Lead singer Cary Pierce has gone solo (www.carypierce.com).
Formerly One Fell Swoop, an up-and-coming Boston trio whose music has been described as a folk-funk-rock fusion. They rarely play outside the Boston-NYC corridor, so catch 'em if you can.
Well, the FAQ isn't really designed to be updated often, but here are a few places you can get Guster tour dates:
Always call the club to check on band order, showtimes, and age restrictions, and remember that no Guster show is confirmed until they're on stage . . . stuff happens :).
Well, sometimes them's the breaks. Occassionally, the only suitable club in a city might have an 18 or 21+ age restriction, and the band really doesn't have control of it, so yakking to them about it does no good. You can always suggest a better, all-ages venue to Pasty or contact the club before the show to see if some concession can be made. Guster loves all their fans, under-18 or not.
http://www.fruvous.com/news/faq.html#aa
"The band's official taping/trading policy has always been tape and trade away. It has always played a big part in getting the music out to people all over. However, trading for profit is no good. The only way to combat this kind of thing is letting people know that there are other alternatives. Most of the time these bootleg CD's aren't even that good. There are other ways besides selling - good old-fashioned trading."
"For many years, the band has allowed soundboard recordings of the live shows...many of these from pooey sounding feeds. This current tour, we have been trying out a new policy of "audience" only taping. This is not because the band is getting "too huge" for board tapes, or because they are worried about the overwhelming number of bootlegs flooding the black market. Quite simply it has to do with quality. The soundboard tapes of this band as many of you know for the most part do not sound like Guster. Board feeds do not, and cannot accurately represent the sound of Bri's drums. But, each and every venue has been forewarned about the openness of our taping policy. there will ALWAYS be a set of mics, or someone's deck to plug into. no one will ever not be able to tape a Guster show if they bring their decks. I run mics for every show, and they sound pretty good...better than a lot of board feeds. This is the same band."
Um, I don't know. The best place to find that out would be to check out www.tapetrader.com and go to their Guster section. Check out a few tape lists and see if you find what you're looking for.
http://www.phish.net/PhishFAQ/tape-qs.html
**DO NOT call/e-mail the band/office begging to book them at your school/favorite club/bar mitzvah!**
Welcome to the world of shipping. The Guster office is almost *always* efficient, but there are glitches in every well-oiled machine. You should always allow about 2 weeks for orders to be processed (though they're usually *way* faster than that). If you're really worried about your stuff, call the Guster Merchandise Line at (617) 497-7777 and bitch 'em out. Or you can send a nasty e-mail to the Gusterns and pay them to beat each other up. Actually, they're all really nice and will certainly be very very helpful. Please note also that overnight shipping is no longer an option, and that website orders are no longer payable by online check.
They're a Guster cover band that occassionally plays shows in Boston and New York.
Okay. Here's the deal:
Go to a show. Buy a CD. Hang around afterward, and the band will sign it. They'll sign whatever you want. If you absolutely can't get to a show and are desparate for an autograph, call the office, explain your predicament, and someone there can probably work something out. But please - don't let E-bay gouge you. The band has been known to take offense to people selling their stuff by auction, especially if it's something you can still buy from them. Guster is adamant about ensuring that their merchandise is affordable to everyone. They've gone as far as making deals with their record company and pissing off the Verve Pipe to ensure that their stuff is reasonably priced. So if someone is telling you that an item is rare, ask around before believing it. They're usually just trying to make you think that something anyone can buy is rare.
Um, no. This is a bad idea. In fact, any mass, organized e-mail campaign to the office and/or the band is a bad idea. Both the band and the office get several dozen e-mails a day . . . the band's box has actually been crashed numerous times. Though the band certainly appreciates fan input, issues such as what they should play on Letterman or what song they should release as the next single are rarely even a matter of their decision, much less ours. While you're certainly welcome and encouraged to e-mail the band or the office with praise, questions, and comments, it's just not useful or even very polite to organize a deluge of mail to their addresses.
On stage, Adam stands stage right (on the audience's left), and plays guitar and sings. Ryan stands stage left (on the audience's right) and also plays guitar and sings. Brian is the 360 degrees of percussive hell toward the back of the stage.
Adam grew up in New Jersey, Brian in Connecticut, and Ryan in the Republic of Texas [2].
I dunno. Most people let them have their own personal lives. There are some things that just aren't our business :).
Pasty is the rep name of one Michael Corcoran, one of Guster's first reps and Villanova alumnus. Pasty is now Guster's road manager and the man to talk to if a venue is giving you a problem about bringing taping equipment in. Evidentally he can now also claim the title of lighting technician as he has been not only tour managing, but running the light board lately. Pasty has been forever immortalized on the cover of The Pasty Tapes.
Over the next four years, Michael worked his way up the Guster ladder. He spearheaded bootleg distribution from our website and eventually became responsible for maintaining all of Guster Dot Com. He paid his dues on tour as a roadie, gaining 20 pounds of muscle on The Wicked Long Tour alone. Today Michael manages our band and his distorted image graces the cover of our rep disc."
Julie has taken her leave of the Guster office. An assortment of Gusterns have taken her place. But she still kicks ass. Bodner rules!
Dalton is Guster's business manager. He makes sure they get paid. Important guy. Be nice to him.
Bill Parcels is Guster's official former NFL vocal coach. New York Jets? Bah.
Guster has made three albums