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Shannon
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Adaptation wired into Goo Goo Dolls / article
« on: Mar 9th, 2007, 12:29pm » |
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Adaptation wired into Goo Goo Dolls
TOM CONWAY
Tribune Correspondent
The Goo Goo Dolls formed in 1986 in Buffalo, N.Y., originally under the name the Sex Maggots, befitting the bratty, punk-influenced sound the band had at the time.
At the request of a local club owner, however, the band picked a new name, chosen from an ad in True Detective magazine, and then refined and mainstreamed its music enough to become one of the most popular alternative rock bands of the last half of the '90s, with such No. 1 hits as "Name," "Iris" and "Slide."
After more than two decades together, the Goo Goo Dolls are still going strong, while contemporaries such as Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins and The Replacements, the band they are most often compared to, have split up for one reason or another. Last year, the group released its eighth studio album, "Let Love In," which produced top 10 hits on Adult Contemporary radio with "Better Days," "Stay With You" and the title track.
"We have been pretty lucky," Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac says by phone from a tour stop in San Antonio. "Honest to God, every day I wake up and knock on something wood. I can't believe it half of the time."
More than luck has kept the band persevering through cruel critics, exhausting tour schedules and, at times, an indifferent music industry. The band members -- Takac, singer/guitarist Johnny Rzeznik and drummer Mike Malinin -- are determined to keep improving musically with each album.
"We have really tried to convince ourselves that we have made some kind of jump from record to record," Takac says. "We try really hard to make sure that happens. I think that we have been pretty successful doing that pretty much every time."
It had been four years since the Goo Goo Dolls had released their last album, "Gutterflower," when they entered the studio to record "Let Love In," determined to shake things up. They left the sunny climate of their homes in Los Angeles to work on the record in Buffalo, their birthplace. They also enlisted the production talents of Glen Ballard (Aerosmith, Alanis Morrisette) instead of Rob Cavallo, their producer for the last 10 years.
"It started to seem as though perhaps we needed a change of pace, which is why we changed stuff up so drastically on this record," Takac says. "I think we felt this fear that perhaps we were repeating ourselves. We were sort of self-censoring ourselves by committee into sort of sounding a little bit more similar to some things that we had done."
Ballard encouraged the band members to try new and different things with their songwriting and playing.
"He is a chameleon of sorts," Takac says. "He would go in and just sort of extract the vibe and the ideas from situations. I think that was something we had to learn, that (the studio) was the place to make mistakes and to try things that maybe aren't going to work."
Takac says the music industry has changed considerably since the group began. With CD sales declining every year and more listeners getting their music online, the group has had to adapt to a new way of getting their music out to their fans.
"When the music industry collapsed, as it did a few years ago, we really had to find another standard to work from," Takac says. "The year 'Dizzy Up the Girl' (199 came out, there were like 35 records that had sold 3 million or more copies. The year 'Gutterflower' (2002) came out, there were two. There was a new standard."
Takac says he has noticed the music industry has been slow to keep up with all of the changes in how listeners get their music content in this age.
"I think there is a traditional way of going about things that a lot of people can't seem to break," he says. "The standard equation doesn't work anymore. There are an awful lot of people who are out there right now trying to figure it out, and it seems like it is the kids that are winning right now. I think that is what Myspace did. All of those Internet outlets gave people an opportunity to actually go out there and discover bands for themselves, instead of being force-fed them."
Takac attributes the Goo Goo Doll's continued success to the fact that they have been willing to adjust to the current music environment when necessary.
"John and I started doing this when we were kids," he says. "Some of those little hurdles and obstacles that would have destroyed a band that was a little less rooted were things that we were able to ride through because we had experienced so much prior to that. I don't know, man. All I know is I am glad it is happening."
http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070309/Ent0 5/703090469/-1/ENT/CAT=Ent05
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DWG
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Re: Adaptation wired into Goo Goo Dolls / article
« Reply #1 on: Mar 9th, 2007, 1:10pm » |
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Something about the title of this one sounds so...robotic.
"We are the Borg...you will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."
(and I, by the way, am the "anti-Myspace".  )
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| « Last Edit: Mar 9th, 2007, 1:11pm by Dances_with_Goo » |
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ChickenCookie
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Re: Adaptation wired into Goo Goo Dolls / article
« Reply #2 on: Mar 9th, 2007, 1:40pm » |
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on Mar 9th, 2007, 1:10pm, DWG wrote:| (and I, by the way, am the "anti-Myspace". ) |
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Ditto. But I guess that's because we're so damn old. 
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Christina
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Re: Adaptation wired into Goo Goo Dolls / article
« Reply #3 on: Mar 9th, 2007, 3:22pm » |
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on Mar 9th, 2007, 1:40pm, ChickenCookie wrote:
Ditto. But I guess that's because we're so damn old. |
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Oh, I'm the-anti-myspace too. 
"I'm old!" continues to be an invalid excuse for... just about everything.
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"i have never wanted something so badly as having people just show up at ggd concerts dressed as presidential fruit"
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carlyn
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Re: Adaptation wired into Goo Goo Dolls / article
« Reply #4 on: Mar 9th, 2007, 4:04pm » |
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on Mar 9th, 2007, 3:22pm, Pondering My Fate wrote:
Oh, I'm the-anti-myspace too.
"I'm old!" continues to be an invalid excuse for... just about everything. |
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I'm anti-myspace, too and I'm not old. So yes, "I'm old" is an invalid excuse.
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nmf016
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Re: Adaptation wired into Goo Goo Dolls / article
« Reply #5 on: Mar 9th, 2007, 10:52pm » |
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Too many things to rant about, so I'm just gonna ask questions.
Anyone ever wonder about the album the Goos threw out prior to LLI?
Anyone want to kidnap Glen Ballard with me so he can't work on the next album? (JOKE, internet police. If Glen Ballard disappears next week, I'm really not responsible even though it is my Spring Break and I really don't have anything better to do than kidnap Glen Ballard)
Anyone know why MySpace is so buggy and awful and why people like it so much?
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DWG
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Re: Adaptation wired into Goo Goo Dolls / article
« Reply #6 on: Mar 9th, 2007, 11:06pm » |
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on Mar 9th, 2007, 10:52pm, the redo wrote:Too many things to rant about, so I'm just gonna ask questions.
Anyone ever wonder about the album the Goos threw out prior to LLI?
Anyone want to kidnap Glen Ballard with me so he can't work on the next album? (JOKE, internet police. If Glen Ballard disappears next week, I'm really not responsible even though it is my Spring Break and I really don't have anything better to do than kidnap Glen Ballard)
Anyone know why MySpace is so buggy and awful and why people like it so much? |
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A) The album was stolen by the Secret Government.
B) I can offer my assistance on your Spring Break Project.
C) Myspace is really useful for playing a game of Six Degrees of Separation for tracking down your long-lost friends. Just last night I found one of mine. She is singing backup as one of the Nasty Habits in a Motley Crüe tribute band. For real.
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nmf016
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Re: Adaptation wired into Goo Goo Dolls / article
« Reply #7 on: Mar 9th, 2007, 11:16pm » |
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A) Same secret government that kidnapped the Goos, cloned them, and released their clones to make and promote LLI? This explains SO much!
B) Excellent. Meet me at the you-know-where at approximately you-know-when. Bring a flashlight, a pre-1998 Goo cd of your choice, and three purple shoelaces.
C) I stalk on MySpace a little to see who from my high school class was/is knocked up. The LHS class of 2002 is disturbingly fertile.
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DWG
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Re: Adaptation wired into Goo Goo Dolls / article
« Reply #8 on: Mar 10th, 2007, 5:35pm » |
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on Mar 9th, 2007, 11:16pm, the redo wrote:
B) Excellent. Meet me at the you-know-where at approximately you-know-when. Bring a flashlight, a pre-1998 Goo cd of your choice, and three purple shoelaces.
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B)
1.) I thought it might be more effective to play Let Love In over and over for him on repeat. You will have to provide the cd of course.
2.) A case of Vault energy drink to keep us awake.
3.) Duct tape. You can never go wrong with duct tape.
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zomg
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Re: Adaptation wired into Goo Goo Dolls / article
« Reply #9 on: Mar 10th, 2007, 6:25pm » |
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on Mar 9th, 2007, 3:22pm, Pondering My Fate wrote:
Oh, I'm the-anti-myspace too.
"I'm old!" continues to be an invalid excuse for... just about everything. |
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Me as well. I'm the anti-myspace. 
I'm not old either.
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