It’s a quick, wild ride on both sides of wax, full of chaotic energy and gorgeous arrangements that are impressive for a band that’s just on their second outing. It’s a shame that an album like Pom Poko’s CHEATER isn’t getting the attention it deserves, but its January 15 th release date doomed it to fall into oblivion. įavorite tracks: “Danger Baby,” “Like a Lady,” “Andy Goes to School,” “Looks.”Īs 2021 comes to a close, many records from the beginning of this year are nowhere to be seen on end-of-the-year lists. In our haste for the next buzz band we forgot that a goose takes two years to reach maturity. The music blog hype machine is misguided at best. Geese can grow into something worthy of significance outside of discussions on the impact of New York rock legends, but much like that of the Big Apple’s psychoactive wonders of choice throughout the years, the highs on PROJECTOR are bound by the mediocrity of its morning-after sobriety. There’s a distinct style to explore here, but the record pays homage more than it innovates. Influences aside, Geese are not a glorified emulation. PROJECTOR is undoubtedly an ambitious debut album. Moments like these make my ambivalence towards the LP sting that much more. Dreamy guitars linger on subtle vocal harmonies, before the tom-happy drummer spirals the track towards a triumphant close. The stale electronic innards do show signs of personality on “Projector,” a song that does much more with noticeably less noise. “Low Era” repeats the slightest variations in arpeggios for an entire quarter of the track. As if bolted to the carpeted stage, too often nothing builds of Geese’s grooves when they submerge into their long-winded jams. We’ve entered the streaming algorithm uncanny valley-CBGBs was converted into a John Varvatos retail space after all, being left with Post-Punk Paulie’s animatronic house band shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise. The group’s influences eerily triangulate my taste in music, but I haven’t been able to escape the contrived, Alt Nation feeling of it all. Geese’s more labored explorations of romantic minutiae could be forgiven if their vocals didn’t sound like Tom Verlaine trying a little too hard to inflect. While at their most enigmatic here, Winter’s lyrics ooze with charisma and ease, a feat achieved at varying levels of success throughout the rest of the LP. To emphasize the daunting need for continual growth, the leadman cleverly characterizes himself as his own son, an ever-evolving embodiment of “What seen” and “Who known.” The riff-centered “Fantasies / Survival” inspires similar confidence with its anthemic vocals and gradual progression into jam-band insanity. Dueling guitars float in and out of dissonance behind lead singer Cameron Winter’s impassioned tale of heartbreak and subsequent self-interrogation.
“Rain Dance” does more to build anticipation for the remaining tracks than Stereogum’s “Band to Watch” feature did for the group itself. It’s just hard not to adjust your judgments accordingly.īrilliance flashes throughout PROJECTOR. With entire discographies at their fingertips, a sound that channels the Talking Heads, The Strokes, and the hipster bar milieu is a natural conclusion. The Brooklyn-based high school shredders toy with disjointed melodies and oblique lyricism in a concoction that is unmistakably present-day, but fail to meaningfully innovate the high points of their influences. Geese bear a similar aesthetic, but nowhere near the same ingenuity. 2000s New York indie, the ethos of its late-’70s source material, and its ghost are where they should be: infused into the musk of our snug leather jackets. James Murphy and Julian Casablancas aren’t commanding their army of the dead. It’s this weeks music roundup, looking back at an under-discussed gem from earlier in the year in Pom Poko’s CHEATER and an over-discussed post-punk debut in Geese’s PROJECTOR!įavorite Tracks: “Rain Dance,” “Fantasies / Survival,” “Projector,” “Exploding House”
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