In recent months, lots of rockers from past generations have discovered Geese, the young rock band of the moment. Lots of people who are not rockers from past generations have also discovered Geese, but that’s not what I’m talking about here. Just in the past few weeks, we’ve seen enthusiastic Geese endorsements from legends like Patti Smith, Nick Cave, and Mr. Met. Now, the world gets to see the exact moment that Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan learns about Geese, and his immediate takeaway is this: They should fight Goose.
Billy Corgan is the latest guest on the latest edition of Jack Coyne’s YouTube series Track Star*. That’s a good show. It’s a frequent stop for me when I’m looking at YouTube because I can’t sleep, something that happens more often than I’d like. Basically, Coyne plays a bunch of songs for famous people and sees if they can name the songs, and then they talk about those songs for a while. The Corgan episode is a banger. It’s so good. Corgan can really talk, and he has a good time on this one.
In the opening seconds of Billy Corgan’s Track Star* episode, he introduces himself as “William Patrick Corgan, raconteur, musician, artist, café owner, and wrestling impresario. Also, he says he listens to “mostly old country music.” Right away, you know you’re in for a ride. Corgan seems preemptively annoyed that Coyne is going to try to stump him, but that’s not what happens. Instead, Coyne brings up a bunch of songs from eras and movements that Corgan loves talking about, and Corgan goes in. He holds forth on classic rock: Kiss, the Cars, John Lennon, Mott The Hoople, Rush. He talks about Billy Sherrill, the master of countrypolitan production. He discusses Joy Division and Howlin’ Wolf and Albert Ayer. He doesn’t know Geese, though.
Toward the end of the episode, Billy Corgan mentions that Smashing Pumpkins’ live audience seemed to suddenly get a whole lot younger overnight, and I’ve definitely noticed a surging ’90s rock fascination among very young people. Corgan predicts that there’s a rock resurgence coming, that we just need to find one band that can break everything open. So Coyne plays Corgan some Geese, putting forth the idea that Geese could be that band. After hearing a few seconds of “Au Pays du Cocaine,” Billy Corgan does not appear to be fully convinced.
I would sincerely advise you to watch the whole Track Star* video, but you might have some stuff going on, I get it, I’ll summarize. Here’s what happens. Corgan says that there’s “almost, like, a little bit of a Springsteen thing going on there.” Upon learning the name of the band, Corgan says, “Geese? Not Goose.” Coyne informs Corgan that there is also a band called Goose, and Corgan gets stuck on that. The wrestling impresario comes out: “That should be, like, they should have a fight… It should be Goose vs. Geese, and winner take all.” Watch the interview below; the Geese talk starts around the 21:50 mark.
A Geese/Goose War Games match seems unlikely, but the two bands did play the same festival on the same day earlier this year.
