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Goo Goo Dolls >> Goo Goo Dolls >> GGDs get 'more topical' on upcoming LP - article
(Message started by: Shannon on Apr 29th, 2010, 11:55pm)

Title: GGDs get 'more topical' on upcoming LP - article
Post by Shannon on Apr 29th, 2010, 11:55pm
Goo Goo Dolls get 'more topical' on upcoming LP

Published
by
Dave Paulson
on April 29, 2010

http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/files/2010/04/Goo-Goo-Dolls.gif


Goo Goo Dolls

Johnny Rzeznik probably made a few fans worried about the state of his band, Goo Goo Dolls, with a recent tweet.

�What do you do when someone asks you to commit artistic suicide?� he asked his followers on Twitter. �Tell them to (buzz) off and go on tour!�

He wasn�t referring to himself, but an unnamed artist friend who�d been butting heads with his record label. Rzeznik advised him to forget about selling records and hit the road. It�s a decision he�s been fortunate enough to not have to make.

�We�ve been lucky enough to be on the radio pretty consistently for the last 15 years in one form or another,� says the singer, whose band stops at the Ryman Auditorium on Sunday, May 2.

The band has enjoyed a string of hits over the course of their 24-year-career, including �Name,� �Slide� and �Iris.� The latter would likely be considered their signature tune: The starry-eyed, string-laden ballad transformed the Goo Goo Dolls from scruffy Replacements-esque rockers (once signed to Metal Blade Records) to sensitive mainstays of soft-rock radio.

The band has evolved enough over two and a half decades that Rzeznik had to draw the line at a few acoustic shows: He refused to take any requests to perform songs from their first two albums.

�Going back to our first couple of records, we were just messing around really,� he says. �I�m 44 years old. I feel kind of silly playing the really early material.�

New methods

The band wasn�t fooling around so much on their recently finished record, Something For the Rest of Us, due out later this year. Rzeznik says it gets �a little more topical than earlier albums.�

�It�s dealing with the uncertainty of living in a country where we�re fighting a few wars that don�t seem like they�re going to end, and a bad economy as a result of that. It�s thinking about the emotional impact that they have on people.�

One of Rzeznik�s favorite tracks is a song called �Not Broken,� which he wrote as �a letter to someone for someone else.�

�It was based on this communication I had with a woman whose husband was injured in Iraq and was having a hard time readjusting to his life,� he says. �I just wanted to speak her piece for her, to him.�

The band employed new musical methods on Something as well. Rzeznik wrote the basis for many of the songs on piano.

�I don�t play the piano,� he says with a laugh. �At least not very well. It�s just such a different way of thinking, looking at a piano and going, �Oh my God. This note works with this note.� It�s kind of fun, feeling your way around in the dark. . . . A lot of the songs, that was a big challenge, not sticking in your comfort zone.�

An honest reflection

While fans wait for Something�s release, Rzeznik says the album has put the band in a good creative position for the future � and that future may include recording in Nashville. They re-cut one of the album�s tracks during a day off in Nashville, and Rzeznik says he�d love to record at Blackbird Studios at some point.

�The band is pushing itself further than we ever have before. I think (the album is) a good statement for where we are in our lives and the time that we�re in. I think it definitely speaks for a very uncertain time. It�s just an honest reflection of where I�m at and where I feel like the world is right now.�

http://blogs.tennessean.com/tunein/2010/04/29/goo-goo-dolls-get-more-topical-on-upcoming-lp/



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