Written by: Kai Eldridge, Music Discovery Editor, OnesToWatch | Last updated: July 14, 2026
Why Geese Stood Out to OnesToWatch
- OnesToWatch selected Geese for its 2026 Top 30 Artists To Watch list based on live-performance power and artistic authenticity, not streaming stats.
- The Brooklyn quartet formed in 2016 and built a wide-ranging sound that blends post-punk, psychedelic rock, soul, and funk across albums like Projector, 3D Country, and Getting Killed.
- After the OnesToWatch selection, Geese hit major milestones including SNL appearances, a buzzy Coachella set, and a headline slot at Forest Hills Stadium on their largest North American tour.
- The band’s 2025 album Getting Killed earned widespread critical acclaim, topping year-end lists from The New Yorker and Stereogum with a Metacritic score of 89/100.
- Discover more rising artists like Geese on OnesToWatch.
From Brooklyn Basement to Breakout Band
OnesToWatch internal artist notes trace Geese back to 2016, when a group of high school friends started playing together in Brooklyn, New York. The band, consisting of vocalist Cameron Winter, guitarist Emily Green, bassist Dominic DiGesu, and drummer Max Bassin, rehearsed and recorded in the basement of Bassin’s family home in Fort Greene. The name Geese came from the plural of Emily Green’s nickname, “Goose.”
Those early basement sessions produced a sound that pulled from an unusually wide range of influences. The band has cited Television, Radiohead, The Strokes, The Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and Funkadelic as key reference points, while critics have compared their work to Television, Parquet Courts, LCD Soundsystem, Black Midi, and Deerhoof. That breadth of influence, spanning art rock, post-punk, psychedelic rock, no wave, soul, and funk, shaped OnesToWatch’s early interest in Geese as a genuinely counter-trending act. This eclectic sound, developed in their basement rehearsal space, soon began attracting attention beyond Brooklyn.
After high school, the band received demo interest from labels including 4AD, Fat Possum, and Sub Pop, prompting four of the five members to defer college and continue as a band. Guitarist Foster Hudson later left to pursue academics, leaving the quartet that now records and tours.
Career Breakthroughs and OnesToWatch’s Early Bet
OnesToWatch followed its standard coverage path with Geese, starting with playlist inclusion, then a 2023 artist feature, and finally a 2026 Top 30 placement after the September 2025 release of Getting Killed. The editorial team noted that frontman Cameron Winter’s solo album Heavy Metal (2024) helped prepare listeners for the band’s more abrasive fourth record. That read was later confirmed by Partisan co-founder Tim Putnam, who said the success of Heavy Metal “primed the pump” and that “one fed into the other.”
External validation of OnesToWatch arrived quickly. Geese appeared as musical guest on Saturday Night Live in January 2026, performing “Au Pays du Cocaïne” and “Trinidad.” They delivered one of the buzziest sets at Coachella in April 2026, and played Governors Ball in June 2026. Each of these appearances came after the 2026 Top 30 selection and confirmed the editorial team’s early sense of the band’s headline potential.
How Geese’s Sound Evolved Across Albums
OnesToWatch described Geese’s music in its 2026 Top 30 write-up as “avant-garde yet warm, unstuck from time or passing trends.” That description fits all three of the band’s publicly promoted studio albums and helps explain why their sonic shifts matter so much on stage.
The 2021 debut Projector, recorded largely in Max Bassin’s basement, introduced jagged guitars, shifting song structures, and Cameron Winter’s theatrical vocals under a post-punk banner. The 2023 follow-up 3D Country pushed the band toward a rootsy, jam-heavy southern-rock swagger, which expanded their live audience and shifted critical conversation. Getting Killed (2025) then took a sharper, more experimental turn, with producer Kenny Beats combining the melancholy of Winter’s solo work with punk urgency and a loose, live-in-studio feel.
The critical response to Getting Killed backed up OnesToWatch editors. The album earned a Metacritic score of 89/100 and landed at number one on 2025 year-end lists from both The New Yorker and Stereogum. Pitchfork critic Sam Sodomsky awarded it “Best New Music” status and called it Geese’s “strangest and strongest work.”
Key Releases, Guest Features, and Live Highlights
Getting Killed arrived September 26, 2025, via Partisan Records and Play It Again Sam. It followed the singles “Taxes” (July 8, 2025), “Trinidad,” and “100 Horses” (August 26, 2025) and featured contributions from JPEGMafia, trombonist Nick Lee, and violinist Aaron Paris. Nick Cave praised “Trinidad,” writing, “When the band kicks into the chorus, I mean, my God, those drums, and Cameron Winter screams, again and again, ‘There’s a bomb in my car!,’ all worry is laid to waste.”
Live at Third Man Records, recorded June 11, 2025, at the Blue Room in Nashville using a direct-to-acetate format, came out February 27, 2026, on Partisan/Third Man Records. The album captures six songs from Getting Killed alongside “Space Race” from the 4D Country EP and the previously unreleased “I Will Let You Down.” This live document aligns with OnesToWatch’s focus on performance footage as a key discovery tool.
The band’s 2026 live run extended well beyond SNL and Coachella. The Guardian’s March 2026 review of their Prospect Building show in Bristol concluded, “Sometimes, just sometimes, the hype is justified.” The Evening Standard called their Eventim Apollo performance “the most exciting gig this reporter has seen in years.”
Discover more artists breaking through on the live circuit on OnesToWatch’s 2026 Top 30 list.
Geese’s Scene, Fans, and Industry Standing
OnesToWatch places Geese within the current independent rock resurgence as a clear example of its mission to champion artists who favor authenticity over commercial radio formulas. Platform data shows that of more than 850 artists covered over ten years, about 1% have moved from small venues to arenas. Geese’s current rise sits inside that rare group.
Both GQ and the BBC have described Geese as “Gen Z’s first great American rock band.” At the Nelsonville Music Festival in June 2026, a large share of the 6,000-capacity crowd were teens and early twenty-somethings in Geese T-shirts, which shows how strongly young listeners have embraced the band. This youth-heavy audience supports the generational label and reinforces OnesToWatch editors’ early belief in the band’s live pull. Partisan Records VP Jeff Bell described their show as “controlled chaos that is speaking to a pretty chaotic world at the moment.”
2026 Tour Cycle and What Comes Next
Geese’s 2026 cycle marks the busiest stretch of their career so far. The Getting Killed Again North American tour launches September 29, 2026, at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. The run includes a headline show at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens on October 2, the largest headline slot of the band’s career, and wraps November 10 at Roadrunner in Boston. Summer festival sets at Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Primavera Sound, and Reading and Leeds lead into the fall dates.
These milestones build on the momentum that OnesToWatch flagged with its 2026 Top 30 selection, which highlighted Geese’s headline potential before the wider industry fully responded. The platform’s human-curated editorial process, rather than an algorithm, centered the band’s live-performance strength and artistic clarity as the key signals of this moment.
See which other acts made OnesToWatch’s 2026 Top Artists To Watch.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is Geese and what kind of music do they make?
Geese is a Brooklyn, New York-based rock band formed in 2016. The band plays art rock, indie rock, and experimental rock that draws from post-punk, classic rock, psychedelic rock, no wave, soul, blues, and funk. Their music is often described as avant-garde yet emotionally direct, with live sets that swing between convulsive rhythmic intensity and shimmering introspection. Critics have compared them to Television, The Velvet Underground, Radiohead, The Strokes, Parquet Courts, and Black Midi, among others.
Where is the Geese band from?
Geese formed in Brooklyn, New York, in 2016. The founding members met while attending schools including Brooklyn Friends School, Little Red School House, and Park Slope Rock School. The band’s earliest rehearsals and recordings took place in the basement of drummer Max Bassin’s family home in Fort Greene. The current touring lineup features Cameron Winter (vocals), Emily Green (guitar), Dominic DiGesu (bass), and Max Bassin (drums), with keyboardist Sam Revaz joining for live shows.
What releases is Geese best known for?
Geese is best known for the 2025 album Getting Killed, released September 26, 2025, via Partisan Records and Play It Again Sam. The album earned a Metacritic score of 89/100 and was named the number-one album of 2025 by both The New Yorker and Stereogum. It followed the singles “Taxes,” “Trinidad,” and “100 Horses.” Earlier albums include Projector (2021) and 3D Country (2023). A live album, Live at Third Man Records, arrived February 27, 2026.
How did Geese first gain attention?
Geese built an early following through DIY shows and online sharing of live performance footage. Frontman Cameron Winter’s 2024 solo album Heavy Metal widened the band’s audience ahead of Getting Killed and was cited by Partisan Records as a key factor in building anticipation for the 2025 record. OnesToWatch’s editorial pipeline, which included playlist placement and a 2023 artist feature, tracked the band’s development before their mainstream breakthrough. The band later earned a spot on OnesToWatch’s 2026 Top 30 Artists To Watch list based on live-performance strength and artistic authenticity.
What are Geese doing in 2026 and where are they performing?
In 2026, Geese are in the middle of their most active touring cycle to date. The Getting Killed Again North American tour starts September 29, 2026, at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium and includes a headline show at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens on October 2, before concluding November 10 at Roadrunner in Boston. Before the fall run, the band performed at Coachella, Governors Ball, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Primavera Sound, and Reading and Leeds. The band has also signed with Weekday Management and holds a worldwide publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Group.
Conclusion: Why Geese Fit the OnesToWatch Mission
Geese formed in a Brooklyn basement in 2016, spent years shaping a sound that resists easy labels, and released Getting Killed in September 2025 to near-universal acclaim. OnesToWatch recognized the band’s trajectory through its human-curated editorial pipeline, seeing the live-performance potential that would soon show up in SNL slots, Coachella sets, and arena-scale touring. The band’s current position, headlining Forest Hills Stadium, winning a BRIT Award for International Group of the Year, and launching a fall North American tour from the Ryman Auditorium, reflects the kind of sustained, performance-driven growth that OnesToWatch aims to identify early.