''Keep It Together'' is the fourth studio album by the band
Guster, released in June 2003. The album was recorded from 2001 to 2003 in Bearsville, New York,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in the southeastern end of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Located northwest of downtown Los Angeles, Burbank has a population of 107,337. The city was named after David Burbank, w ...
, and
Shokan, New York. This is the first album by Guster with Brian Rosenworcel on kit drums instead of hand percussion. ''Keep It Together'' went through several working titles, including ''Bitch Magic'', ''
Olympia Dukakis
Olympia Dukakis (June 20, 1931 – May 1, 2021) was an American actress. She performed in more than 130 stage productions, more than 60 films and in 50 television series. Best known as a screen actress, she started her career in theater. Not lon ...
'' and ''Come Downstairs & Say Hello''.
According to the album's liner notes, Joe Pisapia contributed guest vocals on "Jesus on the Radio" and
Ben Kweller
Benjamin Lev Kweller (born June 16, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
A former member of Radish, Kweller has released six solo albums and appeared on several collaborations.
Early life
Ben Kweller was born in Sa ...
did the same on "I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today". Pisapia officially joined the band in 2003.
The track "Red Oyster Cult" refers to the name of the American rock band
Blue Öyster Cult.
A UK re-release included two bonus tracks, "Say That To My Face" and "Starless Heaven".
The record sold 267,000 copies by late 2005, according to Nielsen Soundscan.
Track listing
All music composed by Guster, except where noted.
When the band plays "Jesus on the Radio" live, they often play it "unplugged", without any instruments or microphones plugged in.
"Keep It Together" can be heard at the end of the season 1 ''
The O.C.'' episode, "
The Rescue".
"I Hope Tomorrow Is Like Today" can be heard in the film ''
Wedding Crashers'' and in the ''
Malcolm in the Middle
''Malcolm in the Middle'' is an American family television sitcom created by Linwood Boomer for Fox. The series premiered on January 9, 2000, and ended on May 14, 2006, after seven seasons and 151 episodes.
The series follows a dysfunctional ...
'' episode "Lois' Sister".
Personnel
Guster
*
Ryan Miller
Ryan Dean Miller (born July 17, 1980) is an American former ice hockey goaltender who played 18 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) mostly for the Buffalo Sabres. Miller was drafted 138th overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 1999 NHL E ...
-
vocals
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
,
bass guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
,
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
,
keyboards
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
,
mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...
*
Adam Gardner - vocals, guitar,
banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
,
piano
The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
*Brian Rosenworcel -
drums
A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...
,
percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
,
bongos, keyboards, guitar, backing vocals
Guest musicians
*
Ron Aniello - guitar,
Mellotron
The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...
, banjo
*David Henry -
cello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...
*Jim Hoke - brass, woodwind
*
Ben Kweller
Benjamin Lev Kweller (born June 16, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
A former member of Radish, Kweller has released six solo albums and appeared on several collaborations.
Early life
Ben Kweller was born in Sa ...
- guitar, piano, vocals
*Jacob Lawson -
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
*Randy Leago - brass, woodwind
*Brandon Mason -
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
*Roger Moutenot -
Jew's harp
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
*
Joe Pisapia - banjo, vocals
*Neil Rosengarden -
flugelhorn
The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...
"Backyard" guest musicians
Every guest musician on ''Keep It Together'' was forced to record a take on the song "Backyard". The rule was they could only record one take, and they must have no knowledge of the song before they began recording.
"Backyard"
details at vividgreen.net
* Ron Aniello - additional instruments
*David Henry - upright bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...
*Jim Hoke - harmonica
The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...
*Ben Kweller
Benjamin Lev Kweller (born June 16, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
A former member of Radish, Kweller has released six solo albums and appeared on several collaborations.
Early life
Ben Kweller was born in Sa ...
- "frightening double-necked string instrument"
*Jacob Lawson - additional instruments
*Randy Leago - additional instruments
*Brandon Mason - additional instruments
*Roger Moutenot - Moog synthesizer
The Moog synthesizer is a modular synthesizer developed by the American engineer Robert Moog. Moog debuted it in 1964, and Moog's company R. A. Moog Co. (later known as Moog Music) produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 20 ...
* Joe Pisapia - banjo
*Neil Rosengarden - additional instruments
*Josh Rouse
Josh Rouse (born March 9, 1972) is an American folk/roots pop singer-songwriter. Originally from Nebraska, Rouse began his recording career in Nashville in 1998 and later relocated to Spain. In 2014, Rouse won a Spanish Goya Film Award in the c ...
- backing vocals
Charts
Album - Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
(United States)
Singles - Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
(United States)
See also
* '' The Meowstro Sings – Guster's Keep It Together''
References
{{Authority control
Guster albums
2003 albums
Albums produced by Roger Moutenot
Palm Pictures albums
Reprise Records albums
pt:Keep it Together