No Filler Music Podcast - Bigger Than Radio: Guster's Keep It Together

Episode Date: June 17, 2026

In an era where radio and MTV was still relevant and Bandcamp and Spotify were right around the corner, Guster's Keep It Together proved the group had much more to say beyond their typical 2 guitarists and a percussionist gimmick. From banjos to flugelhorns to the "frightening double-necked string instrument" played by none other than Ben Kweller this album truly runs the gamut from folk to psychedelic rock. For a band that talked a lot about getting "their break" on the radio, Keep It Together proved their music had something much more profound to say than the dime a dozen pop singles of the era. Tracklist Guster - Homecoming King Guster - Keep It Together Guster - Come Downstairs And Say Hello Guster - Red Oyster Cult Guster - I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast Network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Hi, I'm Mike Judge. And you're listening to the Pantheon Network. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. Welcome to No Filet.

My report is on Guster's new album, Keep It Together. Custer's New Album is called Keep It Together. Custer's New Album Keep It Together features the song, Amster. Amsterdam. I recommend Gussar's New album Keep It Together because it is very good. The end. Peter, did you actually listen to the album? Yeah.

Are you lying, Peter? No. Welcome to No, Filler. My name is Travis. And we're talking about Guster today and their 2003 record Keep It Together. And hey, you've got your brother Quentin with you as always. Yeah, I was going to get to you in a second. I got Quentin, of course, and then we got Mitchell back with us.

That's right. If it's the music from the early odds or the 90s, we're probably going to be doing it together because we've listened to it together as it came out. Yeah. And we kept it together all these years. And yeah, Q. We've kept it together all this years, just like you said. That's right.

Well, it... Just like you said. There was some long strands of almost falling apart, but they held tight for sure when they needed to. That's back together. Amen, brother. Amen. So, I mean, I don't know about you guys, but I can remember the last time I saw. I don't think I've ever seen a commercial for an album before.

No. The whole vibe is cool. Is that European or something? And like, but it's obviously an American classroom. Like... I mean, it's posted. on the Guster, the official Guster like YouTube channel, and they're almost, the way they describe it, they're confused that it even exists. They're like, what?

Well, this is an audio medium, my friend, so you might want to explain what we're talking about. That's true. So, yeah, obviously, so what you heard there that clip was a, it was a little 30-second TV spot for that promoting the record and saying when it was coming out, which is crazy. because I mean, maybe this is, you know, this was the time when, when music was all over TV, right, with MTV and stuff. I guess I could see that maybe playing on VH1 or MTV or something is a quick commercial between, you know, flavor Flav's wife search or whatever the hell it was called. Life swap with Flavor Flavid. Dude, it was called Flavor of Love. Flavor of Life Swap.

Well, this was 2003, so what? Yeah, CDs were still booming. Well, this is when every band had a MySpace page, right? And that's where you would go to listen to their music. Can you remember those times? And I remember these guys MySpace page. I think I probably followed it. And I may have even put one of their songs on my –

Because remember you could, like, add songs to your little player and stuff. You had like a player. You could get it to where a song would start playing automatically as soon as someone hit your MySpace page. Yeah, it was usually only one. I don't remember how people did more than that. Yeah. It was very, very, you know, set the motif.

Or if something happened in your life, you know, you would change it. And it was, did you hear the, he changed it to some very emo track? Something bad happened. I would pick a song and hoping that my crush would be paying attention to the lyrics. You know what I'm saying? Maybe you weren't brave enough to say your own. Right. So, right, but they'll read between the lines and come running over.

On AOLN's to Messenger, dude. Your away message on AIM, dude. Oh, so many times. So many. I changed that so many times in your profile. You had a profile. Remember, you can put all kinds of shit in there. Yeah.

You can scroll through it. You know, your walls on a wall. I would always put lyrics. Oh, me every time. Cryptic lyrics. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't even quote the band. The brain of a 14-year-old. Yeah, it was like taking back Sunday lines or Ralph Wiggum lines.

That was it. Oh, and so, okay. So let me, let's talk about this man for a little bit here. Obviously, that's what we're doing. So this is their fourth record. and I didn't realize this about them, but up until this point, the band was just the lead singer, another guitar player who did backing vocals, and a percussionist, meaning like he didn't actually sit behind a real, like an actual drum kit. It was bongos and congas and stuff like that. And you'll hear some of that on this record.

Like he still did that, but like he actually brought an actual drum kit into this record because they wanted to be different for this one and change things up. But that's crazy. They didn't even have a bass player. Well, did you guys ever go back and listen to their previous albums before this one? No. No, I've skimmed here in there. I mean, it's just not. There is something very, very unique and special about this record.

It's almost like they captured lightning in a bottle or something like that. Well, I'm going to say I probably haven't listened to this album in 15 years, maybe longer. I know, dude. Seriously, it's all going to come back to me as soon as I hear these other songs, but all I can remember is Amsterdam. Yeah. I tried to avoid looking even at Spotify. I couldn't resist, but I didn't listen to any boys. But yeah, what about satellite quitting?

This isn't off the same record we're discussing today. But is that name? Yeah, I know satellite. Well, you know that big hit. So, yeah, I've heard some of their stuff too because I had to look that up, trap and see. But I never, even at the time, that might have come out after. But I never followed with them. And they disappeared in my mind until we brought them up the end of the last time we

recorded together. And it was like, wow, we could do them. So, I mean, I've kind of kept them in my life here and there. Like my, yeah, my wife and I connected on this band. Like it was one of the bands that we both knew. So we went and saw them in 2010, I guess. So that was almost 10 years after this album came out, almost. Yeah.

So I saw them for the, I think it was for the satellite tour, that album potentially. But anyway. And yeah, he, the drummer, he was banging on bongos and stuff like a madman. So he still does that. But, you know, he would get by in the kit, too. He would say that his hands would be jacked up, like blisters and, like, all sorts of stuff. Because that's all he did. He didn't even do it.

Like, he bare hands, man. Touring that way is hard. Every night, every other night. Yeah. And these guys toured, like crazy. So reading some early interviews, it seemed like they were very, very focused on trying to make it big. I mean, which, you know, obviously that's kind of what you did back then. but they were obsessed with getting on their radio and like in a breaking through and so like that.

Well, that explains the television. Weird. Yeah. So maybe their label was trying. Well, maybe they were also pushing their record label to do even more. They were trying. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, I'm going to say a quote here from Brian.

And Brian is the, he's the drummer, percussionist. He said, a couple tracks on our new album, Sound Radio Ready, but a lot of tracks flex more creative muscles. I think Lost and Gone Forever, which is the record that came up before this one, was an album where all the songs were undeniably radio-friendly. This time around, we've taken a more experimental approach, which, you'll definitely hear that. But yeah, they were, like, leisure-focused on trying to break through. And, like, you could tell that by the time they got to this record, they were almost kind of, like, resigned to, like, maybe it's not going to happen, but, you know, they were starting to amass like a following.

But yeah, they just, they never really broke through in the way that they wanted to. But God damn, is this a good record, man. And I'm kind of glad that they're like, you know, let's just, let's experiment and do some, some different crazy stuff on this record. Because, like, I don't think this record would be what it is if they were just, you know, all they wanted to do was write a radio-friendly album. You know what I mean? Because there's some tracks on here that take. Well, it's very well polished. They sound, they sound like clean cut.

and professional. You're saying there wasn't a lot of, like, actual drum kit on a, that makes sense because they sound softer and, like, foreign in a lot of ways or exotic, but they still sound clean and like almost, not like, not, this isn't the wrong way, but it's like contemporary yacht rock. Like it was not, it wouldn't surprise me if you heard, like, the dad, like a good dad with good taste when this was come out, like playing it, like, and, you know, he's mowing the lawn or something because he wants something, like, different.

But that's not, that's like a type of indie that is, different. I'm looking at these dudes. They don't look exactly like all this about like progressive, like recording or whatever, but they look pretty cool too. Like real cool. Like I probably should have followed him, kept up with them. Seen them live, Trave like you did. Yeah, they put on a killer show. That's one of the reasons that they kind of started to get a, yeah, to get a following is because they were known for putting on these really amazing shows. So let me name the roster and then we'll play our first track.

So Ryan Miller is the main vocalist. And on this record, He played bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, and mellotron. Adam Gardner, vocals, guitar, banjo and piano, and then Brian Rosen, Rosenworsel, German, probably. drums, percussion, bongos, keyboards, guitar, backing vocals. And then, dude, do you look at the guest musicians list for this record? You've got, I'm not going to name all of them, but you've got a cello. You've got Woodwind. You've got a trumpet.

You've got a Jews harp. Somebody plays. You got a flubel horn. And so like just all over the place, man, with what they brought to this album. And like, yeah, you can freaking hear it for sure. All right, Q. I'm sorry. You said, Jews.

I believe it's just a mouth harp, Q. It's that one that you keep purse in your mouth and you hit it with your thumb or fingers. Like, why doesn't it matter who's. That's another name for it. Whose harp it was? What are you going for me? I don't want to expand. I probably called that, but I have a theory.

All right. So mouth harp, Q, they're happy. He's playing the mouth harp. Not some random juice harp. Okay. Apparently, you can also call it a juice harp, like apple juice. Bro, stop. A little like, yeah.

Yeah. Okay. All right. So here we go. I don't play the first track. So we're going to skip down and we're going to focus on like the back half of this record for sure. The first, like there's two singles, careful in Amsterdam. Those two are early on in the record.

We're going to jump down into track four. Here we go. The song is called. I'm sorry. track five in case you care about that comes up. Yeah. Here we go. So this song is called Homecoming King.

You're going to wave to him myself from 20-some odd five years ago. Yeah, right. Man, time is a flat circle and it's stamped on some vinyl. So I think it's funny. This is about some has-been, right? He goes back to his hometown and expects a freaking parade or something. It's funny because they, so this makes total sense too. So they toured with Matchbox 20.

They toured with Semi-Sonic. They toured with John Mayer, which makes sense, right? That kind of music. But, like, I just think it's funny because John Mayer has that the song we all know, or at least, you know, that you think of no such thing, right? That first big hit that he had. It's kind of about the same thing. Remember that?

He's like, I want to run through the halls of my high school, blah, blah, blah. Scream at some I in the line. Holy shit, because you had to remind me there with that lyrics. He got me there. Yes. Because I was going to say, your body's a Wonderland. Maybe that one I remember being huge, too. That was way more of like a valid quote unquote.

But yeah, that one, yeah, dude, yes, definitely. He's like, I just can't wait until my 10-year reunion. I'm going to bust down the double doors, blah, blah, blah. I remember that show. I mean, this guy shouts out the year, right? Like 94, so that's- Yeah. 94, yeah.

But yeah, this song, I mean, it's got a surprising amount of, like, like, rock sensibilities to it. Like, the way he's screaming those lyrics and stuff. Like, these guys are soft rock if you want to, if you want to, like, put them under, I'm trying to think about this. Yes, that's kind of what I meant by Yacht Rock earlier, man. Yeah, not like we're a party and dancing and stuff, but like, yeah, it's not going to like, the neighbors probably aren't going to get called, you know, because it's too loud, because you probably

won't go that loud, you know? But that's the thing. You'll hear with the other picks I got. They have a range, man. They have a range. And that's kind of what they're saying. But yeah, so again, dude, every interview that I could find, they're complaining. And I, I'm not trying to knock him.

They're literally complaining about confused why they haven't made it big yet. Here's another, this is not a quote from one of them, but this is another, this could explain things a little bit here, but this is kind of funny. This is the interviewer. I don't remember the dude's name. In Guster's case, bad timing is the reason why the band had yet to spark any national radio or MTV airplay, Miller said, which is the lead singer. Despite a commercial sound, quote unquote, the band hasn't been able to break into an alternative radio land. that only a year ago was playing similar-styled pop bands like Semi-Sonic and Matchbox 20. These days, the alternative airwaves are dominated by dark, creepy, heavy bands like limp biscuit,

corn, and nine-inch nails. I knew where it was going, dude. Creed. So, new metal is the reason why they didn't make it big. I mean, sure, if you want to say that. But, I mean, it's funny. It's kind of true, though. Well, they have a very, I mean, while they have a broad appeal when I listen to it,

it is unique, too. And it's kind of like, they're not going jam band with like the Congo vibe and the xylophones and the weird keys I'm hearing and trumpets. And they're not going that. They're not leaning into that because the songs are tight and quick and smart. And the source material is more emotional and heartfelt, introspective from what I remember, right? So, yeah, they should have been on the radio, but it was almost too good for the radio in a way. Do you guys remember where you, where did we first hear Amsterdam?

I think they had made, they did a few night show appearances. So we may have seen them playing Amsterdam on Conan or something. Couldn't even that. Maybe S&L, maybe they were an S&L guest or something. Maybe, maybe. No, that's a good call, I have. It could have been Conan. We were super into Conan and he played a lot of good stuff.

He had a lot of good musical guests. Side track there, quick side track. I just went down a rabbit hole. He had the white stripes for a week straight when the record was Seven Nation Army's on. I remember that. Incredible. A different song every night. Yeah.

They were the house. I think I'm pretty sure we saw Spoon for the first time. Like we were, I think Conan introduced us to Spoon. Yes. Yes. He was, I remember them playing back to the life. It was, uh, the way we get by. It was the song.

Yes, it was way to get by. Yeah, dude. Unbelievable, dude. I'm pretty sure I remember seeing Interpol on Conan. Totally. It's amazing. He's a man. He still is the man.

Yeah, dude. Dude, I saw a clip. Him and Jimmy Kimmel were playing. Seven Nation Army on stage recently. Sweet. And Conan's got like a white shirt and red pants on. I don't know what it was for. It was probably for Stephen Colbert's last show.

The late could be. That might have been it. Because they were all there, all the other guys. Jimmy Fallon was there. Yeah, Seth Myers. Seth Myers is great. Was Jimmy Fallon like not there? Because that guy's a fucking idiot.

He's a clapping. He's a wind-up clapping monkey with symbols, dude. Because he's part of the late night, you know. I didn't watch that. I just saw a picture of them all like together. That's a good call, right? We probably saw them on a late night show. Yeah, I bet you that's what it was.

All right, let's go to the next track here. So I think Q is the one you said, you remember. And then, yeah, and then I got a couple of choice songs, dude, in the middle, and then we'll close with another. These are all fucking killer, man. All right, so here we go. I'll kill a no-filler. Yeah, this is, and you want to talk about a no-filler record.

This is truly one of those records. All right, here we go. This is the title track, so here is Keep It Together. When we are sure, it was clear. I'd take more of the banjo, please. Oh, yeah. I love that. Snuck it in, dude.

Yeah, it's not going to. Nice and quick. What do you think he's singing about? This is two years after 9-11, dude. I was trying to think. Right. And apparently, apparently a lot of these songs are written in 2001. So, I mean, I guess late September is when, obviously, when the towers went down.

But, like, you know, they are talking about something about, like, yeah, right here, can we rise? Can we get along all right? Can we miss the storm that sucks the whole world in? That could be Iraq. Circle in the drain, I think, maybe it might be in the rain. Oh, we're in the storm right now, dude. We're, yeah.

I mean, we're... Keep together. Keep together. We're in it. Yeah, we have to keep it together. And while that song, there's like a tinge of, like, preachiness to it, but it's intentional, right? Like, the guy's talking about something poignant to himself.

I mean, listen to this. We declared a national holiday, a chance to build it from the ground. National holiday. I'm trying to think if we, were there any national holidays declared after 9-11? I mean, 9-11 would be one. I don't know if it's like technically a day off for like federal employees or something like this. I don't think we've ever had it off in like school systems and whatnot, but it's certainly observed. If it's a take on that, it's a positive one, which is nice. Instead of like a reactive one, you know, if you're not with us, you're against this kind of take, right? This is much more. there's opportunity to start again and stay together and unify. Yeah, so here's the genius.com annotation here. It just kind of talks about what the song's about, so it's not really telling me anything new here. But it says, the song tells a story of a sea battle, shipwreck, failed rescue, and the survivors founding a new colony. However, the verses tell the story in reverse order. But it's apparently about, I guess, yeah, starting fresh after some claim.

Yeah, like an archetype of, an archetype of like exploring and maybe America could be the, what they're hinting at here or something. More like the village inside of America. We have to help each other. All right. Let's move on to the freaking, the main entree, dude. The meat. The meat. So tracks 9 and 10.

are standouts, dude. And that's where we're about to play. I'm going to split this next track into two parts because it splits perfectly. There's a perfect middle point. And this song, this song is incredible, dude. It's incredible. When I said lightning in a bottle, this is the song I was talking about. I was like, this song is amazing.

So here's another quote here. I'm guessing that this is probably the lead singer who said this. We tried to get every song to speak in a different way. and I think we really tried to set out to make a record that would grow and you'd hear something new each time you hear it. And I think that's freaking... It's pretty awesome. I agree with that.

I'm turning my volume up and I'm hearing, you know, like triangles being hit or some kind of chimes being played. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Because you do. You pick up on things here and there. I mean, this happened just now for me. Like I heard there was like some female vocalists in the background that I had never heard before until just now.

I miss that. I miss that. Maybe it was, yeah. Yeah, listen to this, man. Because this is us right now. I don't think 20 years from now, if you listen to the four records that we made, so they'd made four up to this one, I think keep it together will sort of be the one that sounds the most classic. Yep. They are right about that.

All right. So here we go. Again, this is one of my favorite songs on the record. This is the one I always remember. We're going to split this into two tracks. So here you go. This song is called Come Downstairs and Say Hello. And that's the intro.

I remember why you faded it out there. Yeah. Yeah, I can't fucking wait. This is, this is an, it's incredible, dude. Oh, man. Yeah, it's a great little, yeah, it puts you there with him in that room. Yeah. He's waking up, seeing the TV on mute, you know.

I got to say, Mitchell, you and I both had our fair share of weed in our time. Did you ever do the? Yeah. Did you ever, uh, you see where I'm what I'm surrounded by? Did you ever mute? Did you ever mute the Wizard of Oz and put on the dark set of the moon and do the whole dark side of Oz? I'm pretty sure we did that I think we did it with when you were hanging with me

and Larry and Yeah Yeah Some other You know ones that Yeah I'm saying her name Mitch I'm saying her name now

It's been long It's been long enough Hey hey yeah Yeah man Nothing but love with that man And uh Giant college vibe Giant early kind of like

alternative Like I'm a white dude With dreadlocks vibes I don't know what I got against white dude With dreadlocks I'm saying I'll stop bringing them up It's because I've always

wanted them probably. So you guys would have had, IHeart video must have had the, so I'm looking at a picture right here of a VHS cover, Dark Side of the Rainbow. Q, we used to rant trauma films from them. Yeah. That was like overly violent and gross movies, like Toxic Adventure, Newcomb High. Dude, it's funny because I've seen a ton of horror films and like trauma films are classified under horror.

I've never seen any of his films, dude. Never, which is funny. Toxic Avengers. Yeah, yeah, that's the big one. the part of the map. Newcomb high. I remember we watched a few times too. Yeah,

Nukem High. Newcomb like. And there's like nuclear, radioactive students. It's pretty fucking sweet. Alamo Draft House would do like drama Tuesdays or something. Hey, rip on them. You know, they don't, you know, there, you have to use your cell phone now in Alamo Draft House.

To do what? Fuck, Alamo Draft House. To order, Quentin, there's no more paper. They've gone private equity firm or whatever the fuck it's called. I fucking loved. Dude, there was one in Richardson. There was one across the highway from her. Yeah.

Yeah. It's still there. We, dude, we spent, we looked it up once. We spent $400 in one month because we loved, in one month, we spent $400 on Alamo Draft House because we would go and get the specialty drinks and like the booze and like endless popcorn. And they have, so they still have all that stuff like the special menu and all that crap. But yeah, it's lost its heart for sure.

Talk about a big tangent. So yeah, that's a nice break between the two parts, Trow. So that first part, a lot, a very chill, monotone, you mentioned, but still pretty, still pretty, but it kind of lulls you there, right? Yeah, it's kind of like, I mean, he even says like, you know, I turn off the TV. I turn on, yeah, turn on the TV volumes down. It just, to me, it's this guy just sort of like watching this dark side of the rainbow thing. At night, it's quiet.

It sounds like quiet, right? It sounds like it's dark, you know, it's nighttime. You got the TV on, the glow of the TV, you know, and you're getting high probably. watching Dorothy. And thinking about your New Year's resolutions and just getting your shit together. And so you're about to, yeah. Some regrets you have. Exactly.

And so things are about to take a turn for this gentleman. All right. So I'm going to pick it up right where we left off. And yeah, dude, this is the part where we start to freaking sail. We're about to go to the other side of the rainbow or whatever, like they say. Dark side of the gusty. Yeah, exactly. All right, here we go.

So again, this is part two of Come Downstairs and Say Hello. That's a top 50 song for me in my life for sure. Yeah, dude. Yeah, and I haven't heard it in so long. There's just something about it, man. Man, and dude, I mean, you, I know you can relate, Mitch, but how many fucking times have you said those kind of words to yourself? Oh, my God.

Back in the day, brother. Over and over. Dude, until you need to do it. Until it sticks, man. Until it sticks, dude. Absolutely. It's like riding a bike. Maybe you get up, took me a wobbler and I ride a bike.

I mean, listen. Yeah, this is this where you guys are talking about. I look straight ahead. Right. I look straight at what's coming ahead and soon it's going to change in a new direction. Every night as I'm falling asleep, these words repeated in my head. Sure. Like, it'll be different tomorrow.

It'll change. Yeah, it's like you have this. You're 10 foot tall. Yeah, you're 10 foot tall at night. Right. You're 10 foot tall at night. But then once you wake up, man, you're like, back to being that little man, right? Maybe you're weak and the decisions you make, maybe how you treat people and yourself, whatever it is, right?

So I don't know, man. But it's also uplifting. I don't find that to be like he's left me with a very optimistic. Absolutely, yeah. He's telling us, come downstairs and say hello, quit being, I don't know, so by yourself. Aloof. Come downstairs and say hello to everybody at the party, maybe he's at. You know, he's up here getting stone watching, or maybe not.

He's up here to just mope in or being me, it would be in sad, to himself, be mean, whatever, watching this shoutout of dark side of all. Just fucking come downstairs and say hello, man. Yeah, dude. Just come say hello. Be okay. Hey, it's saying, you know, come say hello to the new day or whatever, you know what I mean? Say hello to your fucking life.

As it's passing you by. But he's telling you, every night, as I'm false, he's somebody else says every night. So it's got to do it until it work. Yeah, right, every night. Stuck in the cycle, dude. Let's just talk about the pivot that happens musically. That's what. Yeah.

It's unreal. When the drum, the drum, like, you know, a proper drum beat comes in. It just turns into this, just, just, this classic, like, sort of like rock riff, right? It goes from, like, percussion and bongos to, like,

just a proper beat. Like, what a great guitar riff, draft. It's so fancy. Yeah, it's a classic-ass guitar riff. It's almost like funk. Tell me they played the song, Trave, and you all that. Absolutely, they did. And I remember him banging the shit out of those drums

story. Just smacking a little. I can hear his hands in. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. This is what they brought the fucking house down with, man. Totally.

Yeah. Yeah. And that's the song to do it. And, okay, talk about bringing the house down. This next track, I don't think you guys are prepared for this. Maybe you don't, I hope you don't remember this, but. Hard follow, dude. So good on them for.

That's what I'm saying, man. There's a reason that they played this song on their record right after that one because they're like, let's just keep this freaking fire going in this momentum. This song is about to. I don't think you guys are prepared for this. All right, here we go. So, we're going to go to the very next track. This is going to sound like a whole different band.

Well, the first two did there, bro. Amazing. All these songs so far have, but there's still like a through line. Exactly. All right, get ready, you guys. Get ready for this. All right, here we go. The song was called Red Oyster Colt.

That was sick. I see there that there's still a little bit left to play on that track. Man, that was very, very, very, like, zombies. Beatles, the Kings, like specifically. Yeah. I'm thinking of like a very specific Kings era. Yeah. Or like the Beatles or fucking Beach Boys.

Fuck, man. I mean. Yes, man. And that's the thing. Their harmonies, that's something they've been consistent on since the founding of the band. That's what they were all about. Like two guitarists harmonizing together with a dude in the back play. The romance voice is unique.

It's soft. It's kind of higher in the registry. I don't know if that's right adjectives. Yeah, it's sweet, man. It's not, you know, you think rock, you think maybe aggressive usually. Not necessarily, right? but of this period, no doubt with that shot fired at new metal there from that one review you read, right?

It's going to be hard to fill the space with like, but I'm glad we caught wind of it, man, because we were ripe, we were ripe ears for a shit like corn and, you know, POD, shit like that. I forgot about that band, dude. Yeah, this came through, right? This came through. I mean, I'm not, you know, there's, Rage Against Machine is just a few steps away, and I fucking love that band.

So I'm not riding off new metal in a sweeping gesture. Right. But this is way more complex, dude. Just fucking incredible. Yeah. I mean, it just shows you how accomplished these guys are as songwriters and stuff. Dude, the lyrics, Travis. I wasn't listening to making these connections when I was a boy listening to this.

Dents. Tongue and cheek almost. It's just, I mean, it's just right there in the open. Take a drink of this fucking Kool-Aid. Dude, you're not going to. I never, I never caught that, man. But yeah, red or something. I think you're spot on with that.

Just a few drops away. Which is funny because cult leaders could. literally say that and they wouldn't understand what, like, you're going to fucking die if you drink this. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, no, you're going to put on your Nikes, right?

You're taking a trip on the, you're catching the fucking comet or whatever. Yeah, that was great, dude. That was fucking awesome. My favorite one he played so far. Even better than coming downstairs and say hello for me because it's more a tight ditty. It's just a straight, I mean. Solid rock truck. Dude, one two punch there with Otis Travis.

Holy shit. Exactly, man. Exactly. And I still got one more to go. Yeah, that was sick. Exactly. And one after the next on the record, I mean, amazing. You're selling it short by calling it something like early kinks or like monkeys.

Like, I'm not trying to throw a dig at them because it's... Sure, sure, sure. And the heavy drums and the lyrical content make me think a little more like self-aware, dark. Yeah. Right? You're never going to change the world. That's like hard. They wanted to change the world when they were coming out, right?

Like, I don't think they had that kind of take, yeah, apathetic take. It's interesting, man. So listen to this, guys. I got two quotes to say before we play the last one. So because you just say that, a little bit darker, right? Back then, this is when he said it at least, we had two versions of the record. The first version we finished last year didn't have Amsterdam, careful, keep it together, or homecoming king. We came back and the record seemed a little dark to us, and there was, there wasn't some of that sort of quintessential gust or sound,

as those songs kind of bring them more poppy and more immediate song. I'm telling you, you guys, these were so, they were so obsessed with trying to get radio play. They're like, we got to add some more poppy songs in here. But, like, this record would have been, because what's funny is, careful Amsterdam, keep it together, Homecoming King. Those are like the poppy, upbeat, more traditional songs. Keep it together with this super positive message. Yeah, same was Homecoming King. So it's just so funny to me.

They're like, guys, we got to pop this up a little bit. We got a radio-friendly and update. They're like, how are we going to play, come downstairs and say, hello? We can't play this on the radio. The first minute of the song is to, they'll change the channel, Johnson. That'd be funny if that was the reason why they didn't have success because they were two in their hand about it. Because this record is all over the place, which I like.

I like that it's all over the place. But maybe that's the problem is that it didn't, they were trying to climb. It could have been. Yeah. Let me say this next part too. We never started off as being minimalists saying we're just going to do guitars and bongos. As we sort of progressed musically, we felt real limited to this sort of basically, it was like someone saying, here is your canvas.

and you have green and blue to paint with. We've spent a lot of time painting with green and blue, and after we made our last record, we sat down to write and we were like, what if we want to start with the baseline? What if Brian wants to play a drum kit? What if we want to play keyboards here? So there have never been rules that were designed by anybody else. I mean, we don't have any rules on how we can play our records and what we can do live.

So it's sort of an evolution creatively on how we wanted to express ourselves. So they're just tired of making the same type of songs. And that's why you get a record like this, because you're like, let's just try, let's try everything. Let's make a song that sounds like, you know, the kinks or whatever. Yeah, they went deep in. They jumped in. They wanted it all.

Let's sing about freaking the Yellowberg Road and stuff. Yeah, they did everything. And they went so far in the other direction. And that's what makes this record amazing to me. It's just how varied it is. And like, so I'm glad they did that. But I think it's kind of funny. They're like, guys, this song, this record's too dark.

Dude, I could see that song just now being covered by a heavier act, screaming the lyrics and it would get me in a moss pit. It would give me going in the mosh pit. You change up some of the stuff. Give me a little guitar solo in there, man, and that's a heavy act. 100%. But yeah, dude. Especially what they're singing about, dude.

Dude, those whistles, man. Whoever decided, let's add some whistling to this song. Incredible, dude. It's turning, man. All right, I got one more track for us here. Yeah, I could have ended on possibly the highest of highs. But this song is also incredible, man. So I think this is a good way to close us out.

So here we go You need something after the steak, bro Yeah, this is a pallet clincher All right, so this is the very next track on the record This song is called Long Way Down I mean Mitch, you're crushing it in the chat dude with how you're describing them College Cowboy sound

I mean, it's like an urban cowboy It's like Campfire sound, he's strumming into the song Just barely It's not like twinging But that's very No Folky, not folky, country. I mean, it's country.

Maricana, basking away, bro. I think Americana is a great way to describe it, man. But it's very unique for Americana soundbos. I'll tell you that right now, because there ain't a lot of Americana songs of Bongoes. Yeah, yeah. I don't know how I just, why I just turned like Italian gangster,

like defending. I'm telling you right now, right? The bongos are coming. They're fucking throwing me for a curveball, bro. Yeah. Well, that's what made them so different, did. At the start of the episode, when you said they didn't have a proper,

proper makes it sound like I'm like I'm like a dig but like just a complete drum kit in the rock sense dude that was like yeah explain so much like why it sounded like so unique to me even when I was a boy yeah and it definitely explains why it sounds unique to me now no because we're not used to it yeah no and it still there's nothing like it really who does that besides like jam bands no where they're just noodling around half the time and you can get that sound from you know a cover act or a particular cover act in any fucking college town or like in a hippie-esque, I could go to Manitou Springs nearby. If anybody knows that town, well, then you're going to know where I live,

which is kind of fucking shitty, but whatever. Not really. Come see me. And here's some bongo-y stuff and noodling on a guitar that's too loud. This is different, bro. It's different. But it's still there, too. Like, I can see a dude passing me a joint to this song.

Or not. I can see a guy wanting to buy me a Mikkelow Ultra to this song. It's just like the most like yuppie beer. Totally. Right, man. But yeah, it's funny because, like, I think this makes total sense. Here's another quote from this is an interviewer with Glyde magazine. So this is the interviewer's question to the looking singer.

He goes, starting a band with two acoustic guitarists and a percussionist is typically associated with a rustic sound, more coffee house and small club environment. Coffee house nailed it, dude. Guarantee you they were selling this at the counter at Starbucks in 2003. And that golden era of Starbucks, right? Q and before it became this horrible machine that eats itself now, right? Coffee House is so on point, dude. That sounds bad, but it's not. I was going to say, you know, I'm not too far from Seattle living down here in Olympia.

I've lived up here long enough. You're in the mecca for that. We hate Starbucks. And Seattle is where it started. Well, dude, Starbucks is just gone. It's just degraded over time for sure. Store number nine hated store number 10 before there was store number 900 and fucking a thousand or whatever, you know, it's always going to be that way, but I get that too,

Quinn. You can get better coffee at the little coffee stands down the road. You can get way better coffee. No doubt. Make that shit yourself, man. So basically, the interviewer was asking me, like, did you ever think that you guys would graduate beyond that coffee house sound? And he goes, well, I mean, he's like, those are just the instruments that we played

when we met each other in college. That's why we did it. That was it. Like, they met each other in college. Yeah, they met in college. And how many times did we send college tonight, dude? Those are formative years, too. And if you're successful, and I like it a lot, dude.

And it's going to have me revisiting the album for sure. Like I said, the next time I'm doing some kind of mill prep that's a little bit longer. And I can have the time to stop and appreciate. There are so many tracks that I didn't play, man. And they're all good. They're all good, man. Yeah, dude. I know.

And the names are all ringing a bell. It's like ticking off old, old hints from my youth. It's wild how that works. Like, you're hovering over Jesus on the radio right now. Oh, Jeff, did you see that there's a. alternate version of this record? I hope I'm not still in your thunder here. It's called the Miostro or the Meowstro

sings. Gustor's keeping it together. You saw that, right? Okay. Sorry if I stole your thunder there about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, I did. I mean, I'm sorry. Come again? Come again? Come again? The record of itself is beautiful. The hummingbird, right? Normally it's a hummingbird, Quinn. Normally it's a beautiful

hummingbird. He's keeping it together, but he's fluttering about, right? But he's keeping it together. But he's got to move to it. And the band's name, Guster, good name, solid, one name. positive sounding. Right. You know, I dig it. Yeah.

Great. The album art's a little bit, kind of blah, cliparty. Yeah, look at that. So I guess there's an alternate version of this whole record, Travis. Now we're looking at the cover, and it's the cat that's caught the hummingbird. Like, it looks like a striped cat has caught the hummingbird. Yeah, the story behind this is that it features all but one of the tracks from Keep It Together with the vocals replaced by simulated cat meows.

According to the band, the meows were sung by guitar. or Guster's monitor engineer at the time, Matt. What a legend Matt. Yeah, what a legend Matt for doing. He must have been like, guys, I'm kicking around a whole different, I'm trying to go a whole different route with this album. Let me get, let me know what you guys think. And you just sends him this.

Yeah, yeah. Not even just dry, just dry around the arm. Yeah, without, no warning. Yeah. So listen to this, guys. Got a new mix I want you guys to hear. Uh, guys, yeah. Think of these new vocals I just dropped.

This is a quote from the Wikipedia bitch. These meow mixes. Good God. Following from some fans. and were made available to keep it together purchasers through a link hidden on the album. Dope, dude. So we will be outroing. We will be outtoring out with...

I hope you can get it. I mean, I was going to outro out with something else. No, no, no, no. All right, so what am the ham? Like, what are we doing? Hey, squeeze in the one you were going to outro, trap. Squeeze that one in. I think you would be interested to hear this, dude.

The next track, which is what we're going to outro with, sung by a cat. I don't know something like a man who's acting like a cat. The guy that did an engineer apparently on the record. So, Ben Quiller. Ben Quiller was on this track. What? He's on this track, dude. So, I mean, we can listen to the cat version or I can play the version where you hear

Ben Quiller. No, play the proper version first man. Come on. That's a big name, dude. He's Dallas legend, too. Dallas legend. Yeah, so he appeared on the record. Sweet.

And apparently he played a, a, a. He's listed in the lighter notes for the track called Backyard, which we didn't play, another great song. He played a frightening double-necked stringed instrument. That was his contribution to... What did you just say? That's how they credit it. A frightening double-necked string instrument is what he played on the song, Backyard.

But then he also, he sang guitar, piano, and vocals on this last track here. I hope tomorrow is like today. And then there's a hidden track. So if you waited long enough, you could hear a hidden track. because that's what's cool about CDs back in the day. Yeah, no doubt. You wait long enough and then you'll hear a surprise track. Or it'll scare the fuck out of you when you're asleep and it's playing.

It wakes you up. You're like, what the fuck? Green day? God damn. Yeah, I remember that's what happened with the Kings of Leon record. I didn't know. And it just was playing. That's awesome.

That's what it should be, dude. It just starts playing. You're like, you weren't expecting it. Oh, a proper gift, a proper surprise. It's like, I'm hearing something. I shouldn't be hearing. Yeah. Those were the days, man.

And he liked that number. I think we're going to, we're going to close with that. All right. So that was Keep It Together by Guster came out in 2003. Phenomenal record. Yeah.

And we're going to close with the track that features Ben Quiller, which I think he, didn't he show up on, he was one of your picks for the best. Yeah, he was,

it was a song with Waxahatchee. Yeah, that's right. That's right. It was really cool called Dollar Store. Oh, song, dude. Yeah. Well, this is another great song

that I think has kind of another Beatles lean for sure. So there's even like a, I'll show it to you guys. It's a little bit further into the song, but we'll let it play out. So, yeah, until next time, I don't know what we're going to be doing next. Obviously, we'll have a watch you heard coming. And then Mitchie, you and I were talking yesterday about potentially letting you take the lead on a country-leaning episode. Absolutely. Country rock.

I have to throw that in there. I think it could be an interesting pivot from Guster, since Guster kind of flirted with some... Yeah, it would be a big giant. It would be a huge 180. But, I mean, not that Guster, you know, I mean, there's guitar. The fact that they had a banjo and stuff, it could be actually kind of a nice little slide in. Well, yeah, I mean, we're far away from that kind of flavor. But, yeah, I mean, I can hint at it, man.

The band is called Rattlesnake Milk. They're contemporary. They're touring right now. Rattleston. Yeah, yeah. Great classic name. I mean, like, a classic, like, idea of, like, a corny name in a way. Over the top name, but it's so good.

It comes back to being not so corny to me. Yeah, they're active. They're based out of San Antonio, I think. Austin, San Antonio. They're always doing festivals down there. They're fucking sweet, dude. I believe they're opening for a large act in Red Rocks this summer. I can't remember who, but they've done that a few times, I think.

And, man, they're just cool, dude. They sing about some greasy shit. Nice. They sing about this cool shit. Yeah, we're going to see. It's going to take the pH, Quentin, of the room. I'm going to see what, I'm going to see what happens. happens with Travis's face and, uh, and, and, and, and, and mind. And Quinn, I know you're going

to fucking dig it. I know Travis will too. I'm not even fucking worried about Ralph's Nickley. Oh, I'm sure I'll enjoy it. All right. So here we go. We're going to close that with a song called I hope tomorrow is like today by Gustor featuring Ben Quiller. And that'll do it for us this week. Thanks as always for listening. Until next time, my name's Travis. And I'm Gwen. I'm Mitchell. Y'all take care. The sun