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Music

Not Lost and Not Gone: Some Thoughts on Guster and Their New Video, "Long Night"

Watch the video for "Long Night," off of Guster's new album 'Evermotion.'

When I was in high school, Guster was my favorite band. I'm not sure which came first, but I have two distinct memories of discovering them that were particularly in keeping with the time: I remember browsing through the alternative rock CDs at FYE looking for something I'd never heard of, and I also remember downloading a weird hodgepodge of songs, mostly from Lost and Gone Forever (although it would take me a year or two to contextualize them all—this was before every album's tracklist was on Wikipedia), off of Kazaa. I was way into Guster, especially their album that had just come out, Keep It Together. I played "Amsterdam" and "Homecoming King" and especially "Come Downstairs and Say Hello" on repeat. I eventually realized that I liked the weirder sounds of Lost and Gone Forever songs like "Happier" and "Two Points for Honesty" more. Somewhere out there is an archived LiveJournal post declaring Lost and Gone Forever as my favorite album of all time.

To me, Guster represented something I had never heard before in music. They were rock music, but not like the hard rock and corny nu metal that I heard on the radio. Instead it was soft and approachable and easy to listen to. And to me—someone whose familiarity with music basically extended to video game soundtracks (shouts out to FIFA for including Gorillaz on theirs), "TRL," and the Red Hot Chili Peppers—they also represented this bold new concept of indie rock. A bunch of nerdy-looking guys who went to college together at the venerable Tufts University (which I had also never heard of but sounded impressive) in Boston? That sounded like a scene I could get behind, and, even though they were technically signed to a major label subsidiary, they weren't on the radio, at least not the stations I listened to, or particularly well known, which appealed to my incredibly watered-down but good-intentioned anti-mainstream self-image. And, in fact, Guster did serve as my window into more canonized and approved-as-cool indie rock, as well as more experimental music in general because once I saw myself that way—as a generally indie kind of guy—I began to seek out more music that fit that mold. I found out that in addition to FYE, you could also browse for Guster albums (or, like, Arcade Fire and Death Cab for Cutie) at places like Schoolkids Records and CD Alley. I became better friends with people who introduced me to things like Sonic Youth and Animal Collective.

Today, some of that stuff sounds kind of corny to me (from "Amsterdam," which still mostly holds up as dope indie pop: "Take this bitter pill / Is it easy to swallow?"), but plenty of it feels as raw and emotional and as thoughtful as ever. Guster will never be seen as a cool or particularly groundbreaking band, but they are an emotive, honest one capable of writing tight hooks, painting sharply rendered scenes, and playing with unique instrumental textures. And to me, they will always represent certain things about my life that are, so to speak, lost and gone forever. Guster's next album, Ganging Up On The Sun, came out right after I graduated high school, and, although I had foresworn Kazaa and bought it at CD Alley, I only have one specific memory of listening to it, as I was leaving a friend's house early in the morning after we had gone to play tennis together. She was the kind of person my self-image as indie-leaning Guster fan and music enthusiast led me to: a talented poet and prolific writer and all-around fun and creative person who shared mixtapes with me and introduced me to bands like the Mountain Goats and the Rosebuds. When we went off to college, we were pen pals, the kind with real letters, until she was killed by strangers two years later. Certain things felt a lot darker after that, but Guster has always been a link to that earlier time in high school for me, a reminder of happy memories and happy-go-lucky days, the sunny kind that Keep It Together soundtracks so perfectly.

Anyway, I haven't thought about or listened to Guster much since I decided not to re-hang my Guster poster on my dorm room wall after it fell down early in the second term of my freshman year of college, but, hey, sometimes a new Guster song shows up in your inbox and you realize wow, I haven't listened to Guster much since I decided not to re-hang my Guster poster on my dorm room wall after it fell down early in the second term of my freshman year of college. That song, "Simple Machine," came out earlier this fall, and it was not particularly good. But this song, "Long Night," is actually pretty awesome, transforming Guster from indie pop lightweights into something more like slightly upbeat chamber pop postpunks. It's got a dark edge and a brooding sense of romance to it, with sharp lyrics like "was it always this magnificent? / because it feels so different in the morning light." The video, directed by Drew Lightfoot, is also super cool, using reflective tape and a dark setting at a farm in upstate New York to create a sci-fi-like dream world where two suitably sci-fi characters come together in a tender sci-fi embrace. "Long Night" is off Guster's new album Evermotion, which is out January 13. You should watch the video above and remember things you felt in the past and dwell on things you feel in the present and consider things you might someday feel in the future.

Follow Kyle Kramer on Twitter.