At 14, Guster Tries to Modernize

“Myspace—it’s the future,” says Guster drummer Brian Rosenworcel. It’s a strange prospect for a band whose past consisted of selling demo tapes out of guitar cases during sidewalk performances in Harvard Square. Fourteen years since Guster’s inception, Rosenworcel and bandmates Ryan Miller, Adam Gardner, and Joe Pisapia are still making music. They’ve lost the demos and gone digital, trading sidewalks for stadiums as the music industry has forced them to evolve.

In an effort to thank the fans that saw them through the transition from Tufts University freshmen to hometown heroes, Guster embarked on a citywide tour of Boston last Friday, presenting a series of free performances. Perhaps the most exciting of these appearances took place in the Boston Museum of Science’s Charles Hayden Planetarium and included a multimedia spectacle in the vein of a vintage laser Pink Floyd show.

The planetarium was an appropriate venue given the title of the band’s new album, “Ganging Up on the Sun,” which features the single “Satellite.” Having vacillated between the mellow late-’90s rock of Third Eye Blind and Dashboard Confessional and the New England pseudo-funk of college jam bands such as Dispatch and O.A.R., Guster claim to present a more definitive sound with their latest offering, despite the admittedly unoriginal title of “Satellite.”

“Elliott Smith has a ‘Satellite,’” says Rosenworcel. “Dave Matthews has a ‘Satellite.’ Lou Reed has a ‘Satellite.’ We thought about that. We tried to change the lyric but we came back to it because that was the lyric that the song just kind of wanted to have. Satellite’s a better title than, ‘You’re my satellite.’”

Recycled title notwithstanding, Gardner and Rosenworcel agree on the overall quality of both the song and the album.

“This record is the closest we got to what our music is versus what we listen to,” says Gardner. “Our influences are a little more apparent on this album and a lot of that is opening up our instrumentation to more than just acoustic guitars.”

Gardner is referring to multi-instrumentalist and new band member Joe Pisapia, who joined the band for “Ganging Up on the Sun.” Beyond contributing musically, Pisapia also provided production know-how that came in handy when Guster made the decision to independently record their album, following a rising industry trend.

“Everyone can and is recording their albums in their bedrooms now, which is amazing, but it kind of makes everyone more of a producer than they would otherwise be,” says Rosenworcel.

Such an intimate recording situation has its downsides however, as Rosenworcel is quick to point out.

“Everyone gets in each other’s shit,” he says. “Too many chefs kind of thing.”

The band’s experience recording “Ganging Up on the Sun” was documented by episodes of “Joe’s Place,” a ten-minute reality sitcom starring the band and made available on the Internet. In addition to “Joe’s Place,” Guster’s website provides a multitude of media-savvy features including podcasts, a tour blog, and several music videos. This virtual accessibility suggests the growing power of the Internet over the music industry.

“I think a lot of bands are using it that way, some bands aren’t,” Rosenworcel says. “I know Beck had a quote saying that he misses the days when your favorite rock stars were things you didn’t know that much about. So I can appreciate that, but it’s not what we do. It’s not for us.”

Promotion methods have also radically changed since the band’s earlier days. Last Friday’s performances were sponsored by local radio stations and the band’s free evening sets at First Act Guitar Studio in Boston were recorded. Audience members who purchased “Ganging up the Sun” were given exclusive digital download cards enabling them to access the recordings online.

Promotion can also pay off. “Satellite” is featured in the forthcoming sci-fi movie, “Martian Child.” The song “I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today,” appears on the “Wedding Crashers” soundtrack and the band released “Ramona” to fan Jeff Garlin (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) for his movie, “I Want Someone to Eat Cheese With.”

“Any time someone wants to put us in their movie we’re all for it. I love the idea of soundtracks.”

Rosenworcel objects to the common criticism that lending music to a commercial project always means selling out.

“Are you kidding? Any musician who can find sources of income these days is welcome to pursue that,” he says.

“I think that selling out is if you’re cashing in against your own principles,” says Gardner. “But being in a movie that’s funny about crashing weddings? We were psyched about that movie!”

Guster’s spring tour will take them through some familiar territory, re-charting the band’s original path before the days of Myspace and movie deals.

“It’s going to be colleges,” says Rosenworcel of the tour. “We’ll play theaters and gyms at colleges, and outdoor spring flings. We always like that. We play a lot of wiffle ball on campuses and do keg stands at parties.”