Silly Goose

Silly Goose are a rap-rock three-piece who play it as a full band, with a rapped lead vocal riding live riffs rather than loops. The sound leans hard on nu-metal: downtuned guitar, drums that swing between bounce and blast, and hooks built to be shouted back rather than admired. Rage Against The Machine, Limp Bizkit and Hed PE sit audibly in the lineage, but the writing is looser and funnier than any of them, happy to be ridiculous before it turns heavy.

They came up through the EP The Goose Is Out Of The Bag and the album The Streets Heard It First, building a following on constant touring and on performances staged in places bands do not usually play, from subway cars to fast food counters. Keys To The City followed, and with it a sharper edge: newer songs take aim at how venues pay the acts they book and at the state of the roads and services around them.

The live show is the reason the band exists. Songs are constructed for crowd participation, with call-and-response hooks and sudden drops into half-time, and their reputation rests on how physically they play them. Working as a band rather than over backing tracks gives the set its unpredictability, and the heavier material lands harder in a room than it does on record. It suits anyone raised on rap-rock who wants that energy from a group still small enough to reach.