Naming a band, much like naming a child, can be a tricky business. The moniker should be memorable. It should be intriguing but not inscrutable. It should be short, punchy and roll off the tongue. Ideally, it does not cause embarrassment or confusion.
By these measures, the bands Goose and Geese succeed in all but the last category. Switch a pair of O’s for E’s and their names are interchangeable. Get your singular and plural mixed up and you’re referring to one bird instead of a gaggle. Each group demands that you be a music fan and a grammarian.
To make things more confusing, both bands recently released albums and are currently on tour, which means both are doing interviews with various outlets that have to be careful not to mix things up.
Last month, Geese, a quartet from Brooklyn, released its third studio album, “Getting Killed,” which has been praised as one of the best records of the year. In August, Goose, a quartet from Wilton, Conn., dropped its fifth studio album (and second this year), “Chain Yer Dragon.”
Rather logically, Goose came before Geese — the former formed in 2014, while the latter got together in 2016. Both bands have music-school ties (Goose to Berklee College of Music in Boston; Geese to Brooklyn’s Park Slope Rock School). Neither should be confused with the Atlanta nu-metal band Silly Goose.
As Rolling Stone put it, “Though these two outfits couldn’t be further from each other in sound and style, they’ve been inevitably conjoined by name.”
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The post Goose Is a Jam Band. Geese Is Indie Rock. They Both Have New Albums. appeared first on New York Times.
