I am not here to review the new record by the band Geese, titled GETTING KILLED, but at many points during this written piece I will talk about just how much I like this record. If you want to read reviews, you can check some of those out at this link. But let’s get back to what I said in the first sentence: I like this record very much. I tend to mostly dabble in listening to a lot of rock music, and I would clearly put all of Geese’s output so far in that category. This gives me a natural leaning towards liking this album, but there’s something more to it the more I listen to this album. Over the past year or so, I’ve started to get more and more pulled towards the music of Geese. I saw them live in the Summer of 2024 when I attended a King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard concert in Portland, ME. I didn’t know anything about them, but I was struck at that show at the quality of their songs. For me, it always starts with a good song. Good vibes and good rhythms will catch me, but the song has to be in the music for there to be a further connection. I noticed that they had the songs, but as I get older I forget things and I must admit I forgot about them until early 2025. It wasn’t until I came across their song “I See Myself” from their also very excellent record 3D COUNTRY that I really took a dive into the band. The song hit me in all the right places: a great song at the core with great performances, arrangement, and just enough little bits from each musician that makes the song move and groove. I was very happy to find Geese in 2025.

It’s not a review, but I’ll just say it once again that GETTING KILLED by Geese is a great record. Eleven wonderful, interesting, and unique songs. Great performances that show each band member really listening to each other. Awesome production that really allows the rhythm section to shine.

The real reason I am here is to talk about why I feel so strongly about this band and specifically their latest release: it’s because it is real. I sound old fucking man here but listen it just really feels like the world that we all live in is getting more and more drowned in technology, automation, and that creativity feels like it’s drying up. There are so many shows that I go see nowadays where, while they’re enjoyable in their own way, are always supported by backing tracks. I’m fine with some automation during live performances, but some of these shows feel like nothing more than the record playing with some minor live augmentation. The records that are being put out also just don’t sound like they used to and that’s because they’re squished, compressed, and fed through an algorithm that’ makes them all kind of sound similar. I know, I know, I know: I am doing major broad strokes here with my thoughts, but I’m just gonna go with it. In a world that just doesn’t feel that real to me, Geese feels like a very real thing. Their songwriting feels familiar to me, but it has something else new that I just can’t put my finger on. It feels very adventurous, and because of that sense of adventure it feels like a very real piece of art made by very real human beings. I love having that feeling come from music, and it isn’t something that comes along that often. The first time it happened for me was with Weezer between 1994 and 2001-ish. The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Queens of the Stone Age, and Arctic Monkeys all shared those moments, and Geese now gets to be in that category for me: something real, something that I can call upon to fill my soul with a unique happiness that works well for me.

I hope everyone reading this is doing well. I don’t write on this platform much anymore, and I try to stay away from the internet as much as possible these days in order to enjoy every day that I get being with my family. Life is really amazing these days, and I enjoy being a Dad to Aero & Finn every single day. I always though that while I was in libraries that I excelled the most at being a Teen Librarian, and now the work I am doing as a Dad to Finn (16) and Aero (13) feels like the ultimate Teen Librarian job out there and only I will ever get to have this job. Life is great, and I wish you happiness and love in your life. Thank you for reading and for being a part of my life all of these years, through my time in libraries and beyond and even longer!

The leaves have begun changing colors here in the state of Maine as I write this, and every time I drive up and down I-95 over the past week I see more and more of the leaves falling. Life is changing once again and that’s cool because this is how it is always supposed to be: change is always supposed to happen and we’re always gonna move and grow with it. This fall we’ll be listening to lots of Geese at my home. I hope you have something that fills your soul the way that Geese’s music does for me. It’s a good thing to have this in the Fall.

Be well!