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Topic: GGDs Know What's In A Name, A Vibe (Read 595 times) |
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JohnnysValentine
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GGDs Know What's In A Name, A Vibe
« on: Sep 7th, 2006, 9:39am » |
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Goo Goo Dolls know what's in a name, a vibe
Web Posted: 09/06/2006 08:38 PM CDT
David Glessner
Special to the Express-News
Even when the shoes fit, Robby Takac refuses to wear them.
"I split my big toe right up the middle yesterday," says the barefooted 41-year-old Goo Goo Dolls bassist/vocalist. "I'm looking at it right now. Somebody put a fan onstage where there normally wasn't one and I came ripping around the corner and split my toe open on it. I've cut myself and hurt myself over the years, but I'm more superstitious than I am afraid. I've been doing this for 20 years."
advertisement
Counting Crows/ Goo Goo Dolls
Where: Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, 16765 Lookout Road, Selma
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Tickets: $15-$67.50 at Ticketmaster outlets
For openers: Eliot Morris
Etc.: The Goo Goo Dolls are asking for canned food donations for the USA Harvest foundation
Fan's dream: on the bus with Goo Goos
They say you always remember your first, and in the context of music journalism/fandom that means a seat on a favorite band's tour bus.
In 1995 outside a Houston dive, Iggy's Ice House, the unknown Goo Goo Dolls were passing around a Houston Press interview I had conducted with singer Johnny Rzeznik like it was the Super Bowl trophy. Appreciative and victorious, the giddy Goos marveled at the full-page press coverage as bassist Robby Takac raved about Ace Frehley's 1977 solo album and Rzeznik strummed an acoustic guitar.
As Shiner Bocks welcomed the Buffalo boys to Texas, no one onboard could have imagined that six months later, the band that won my loyalty with the scrappy punk albums "Jed," "Hold Me Up" and the must-have "Superstar Car Wash" would land on top of the world with the album "A Boy Named Goo" and its breakthrough single, "Name."
— David Glessner
On the Web
• Goo Goo Dolls official site
• U.S.A. Harvest Food for the Hungery
• Pez.com
• Counting Crows official site
Curious rituals notwithstanding, Takac gets back on his feet tonight when the Goo Goo Dolls take the stage at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater to deliver pop-rock mega-hits such as "Iris," "Name," "Slide," "Black Balloon" and "Here Is Gone." Takac is joined by vocalist/guitarist Johnny Rzeznik and drummer Mike Malinin as they promote the band's eighth album, "Let Love In." Counting Crows tops the bill.
"When we recorded our last record, 'Gutterflower,' the process had begun and then Sept. 11 happened," Takac says. "We were in the middle of writing lyrics and putting the record together, and all of a sudden the world went haywire. Quite honestly, (the record) didn't seem all that important. ... We finished the record, but the tone is so confused and so dark and so telltale of the times."
By contrast, Takac says, "Let Love In" shimmers with hope and humanity. It's an overall vibe that lent itself nicely to the included reworking of Supertramp's 1977 hit, "Give a Little Bit."
"I think this record has a much more cautiously optimistic tone," Takac says. "At some point, all the antibacterial soap and fake MySpace friends and everything else that keeps you separate from real human beings ... you've got to let go of some of that and let some people into your life. It's, like, you can't trust anybody, but you've got to trust somebody, ya know?"
Formed in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1986, the oddly named Goo Goo Dolls actually upgraded their moniker from the doomed-to-fail name Sex Maggots. In hindsight, the goofy Goo Goo redo may have been a stroke of misguided genius.
"We always hated the name, but I try not to question it too much because people remember it," Takac admits while citing other odd band names. "Smashing Pumpkins is a cool name. Nine Inch Nails is a cool name."
Renamed, but going nowhere fast while emulating ragtag rockers like the Replacements, the Clash and Husker Du, the Dolls were more barroom brawl than prom-night power ballad. All that changed in 1995 as Takac slowly relinquished lead vocal duties to Rzeznik and an acoustic ballad named "Name" skyrocketed the band to superstardom.
As the world learned the Dolls' "Name," a followup ballad, "Iris," from the "City of Angels" soundtrack and the subsequent, multiplatinum album, "Dizzy Up the Girl," became an even bigger blockbuster when it spent a record 18 weeks near the top of the charts in 1998. The Dolls knew there was no turning back to the scrappy sounds of early albums such as "Jed," "Hold Me Up" and the excellent punk-meets-polish of "Superstar Car Wash."
"Honest to God, I can tell you the exact moment," Takac says of the band's turning point. "John will tell you the same thing. If we were on different continents and you asked us this question completely independently of each other, we would answer the same way. We were doing the 'City of Angels' ('Iris') and we had hashed it out as a three piece. Then we walked into the studio to record it and there was a full (freaking) orchestra set up. We looked around the room and said, 'What is going on?' John looked at me and said, 'Rob, there's no going back.'"
"It wasn't a feeling of disappointment," Takac said. "It was more like, 'Wow, we can do anything we want now.' At that moment, it was a very freeing thing for us. I'd love for all the Soul Asylum fans to still dig us, but we've got things to do and places to go and worlds to conquer."
San Antonio Express-News publish date Sept. 8, 2006
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Shannon
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Re: GGDs Know What's In A Name, A Vibe
« Reply #1 on: Sep 7th, 2006, 12:48pm » |
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Thanks for posting this. Cool article.
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