Two weeks ago today I went to the Crystal Ballroom in Portland to see Guster play. The Band is on tour to promote their new album, the eagerly awaited, much anticipated, and first in five years, Easy Wonderful.
Guster played a lot of their old material, which was great since I hadn't listened to the new album yet, and it really brought me back to when I first started listening to them. Guster became a regular listen back in high school - friends burned a few albums and I procured others through legally dubious methods. Guster's concert led me to ponder the amount of time I've spent listening to a band I've never supported with so much as a dime. Being the analyst/number cruncher that I am, I decided to dive into the numbers my ipod would provide and came up with some interesting, if not disgusting, stats (as of today, 2/2/11).
- Of my Top 100 playlist, Guster accounts for 36 songs.
- Top song played: Satellite from Guster's Ganging Up On The Sun album; played 91 times for a total of roughly seven hours of listening.
- Total play count of the 84 Guster songs on ipod: 3601
- Total time spent listening to Guster on ipod:
- In minutes: 14,710.32
- In hours: 245.1719
- In days: 10.2155
- Guster songs (84) account for 2.16% of all songs on my ipod (3878)
- Total length of all Guster songs on ipod (338.47 mins) account for 2.16% of total length of all songs on ipod (15639.55 mins)
- Guster play time (10.22 days) accounts for 11.47% of total ipod play time (89.03 days)
Determined to settle up with Guster, I googled my way to their official website (guster.com...real tough) to examine their fine wares. Shirts. Bands always make a killing on those overpriced symbols of fandom...or so I thought. Come to find out, Guster is selling shirts as low as $6. Six measly bucks?! I've seen bands sell shirts for upwards of $18 to $24. Ignoring the fact that the band was probably losing money on the shirt I was buying and that this purchase really doesn't make up for my previous pirate discretions, I decided on this shirt. I can now claim to have supported Guster as a band and a business while slightly easing my sickened soul. My guilty Guster pleasure has received my patronage.
Follow Guster on their twitter: @guster
xoxo,
ShavedGolf
why not finally buy the music you have been enjoying for so long?
ReplyDeleteif your blog was cooler it would look like this.
ReplyDeleteI'm tired of Guster being referred to as a guilty pleasure band. They make good pop music. They're good to their fans. They've been mislabeled by the media now for almost ten years as an O.A.R, Dispatch, Dave Matthews kind of band, but they outgrew that sound four CDs ago! They're just not douchey douche heads who make a big deal about the misrepresentation.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, you like Guster. You don't have to apologize to me or to anybody else.
I appreciate the sentiment and the humorous self-analysis, but after that introspection, your follow-through was disappointing. The music is all available on iTunes or Amazon. (Heck, Amazon has a coupon at the moment for 2 free MP3s. Use it for two Guster songs and THEY'LL pay Guster.) Or, if you prefer physical media, buy CDs from the Guster website. Some of the older ones are a measly $10. Buy the new album for $13 and get 3 bonus songs. As you should know, their music's a bargain considering how much enjoyment we get from it.
ReplyDeleteThis persuaded me to check out my own collection of guster music. Biggest guilty of pleasures of all: guster does spanish christmas in the form of Dondé Esta Santa Claus......and Brian's attempt at singing Total Eclipse of the Heart. classics.
ReplyDelete