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Shannon
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20 years on, band is still Goo Goo ...
« on: Jul 5th, 2006, 8:10pm » |
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20 years on, band is still Goo Goo about the music
By Kevin C. Johnson
POST-DISPATCH POP MUSIC CRITIC
07/06/2006
(Getty Images)
If the Goo Goo Dolls had stuck to its plan, the melodic rock band wouldn't have a new CD, "Let Love In," out now - or a fresh tour with Counting Crows that's coming to UMB Bank Pavilion on Friday. About the time of the album "Guttermouth" (2002), the Goo Goo Dolls seriously considered hanging it up.
"We've considered breaking up maybe 55 times, and that was one of the times," the band's bassist, Robby Takac, said from his Los Angeles home.
At that time, the Goo Goo Dolls, who hail from Buffalo, N.Y., had begun to question the band's purpose.
"We're this very loving, dysfunctional family," Takac says. "That's what happens when you take a bunch of drunken teenagers and, 20 years later, you're part of something that's bigger than yourselves."
So what kept them together, making it possible to record and tour again?
"It was just learning to understand the needs and wants of everyone, and feeling like we're doing something relevant," Takac says. "Even if we're not on the edge, we want to be exciting enough to be considered."
For "Let Love In," Takac, singer Johnny Rzeznik and drummer Mike Malinin made a few key changes. They added two new members, guitarist Brad Fernquist and multi-instrumentalist Korel Turnador. They returned to Buffalo to allow a different perspective to take hold. And they decided not to rely on producer Rob Cavallo, who had been behind most of the band's work, including its 1998 album "Dizzy Up the Girl," featuring "Iris."
"We learned to respect and admire what he did, but we felt after 10 years of working with him it was time to change everything up," he says.
For the new CD, Glen Ballard took over. The first song he recorded with the band was "Better Days," which started out as a Christmas tune but morphed into a Hurricane Katrina anthem that both CNN and Oprah Winfrey embraced.
"Let Love In" is based on the idea that, in a turbulent world, there's still hope, Takac says.
"We're in a society that decided it's as important to have a terror report as it is to have a weather report, and that's really scary," he says. "People have isolated themselves with the Internet and anti-bacterial soap, cutting themselves off from everybody else because it's too dark and dangerous. People have lost that ability to let people influence their lives enough to make life worth it."
Sounds as if the band, which began as a punk trio 20 years ago, is growing up. And Takac says he feels lucky they're still here.
"We came in under the wire," he says. "We weren't part of any big movement. We just did our thing, and that came to work for us."
He has only one regret.
"We would have changed the band's name if we knew we'd be around this long," Takac says. "I'm a 41-year-old Goo Goo Doll now."
Goo Goo Dolls' Robby Takac on ...
His favorite Counting Crows song, "A Long December": "It's one of those songs that made tears well up in my eyes, due to something that was happening in my life at the time. It was an odd time."
What makes Counting Crows the right band to tour with: "Our bands wear our hearts on our sleeves. We're fans of songwriting, and fans of the concept that a band doesn't just have to be one thing."
Whether Goo Goo Dolls and Counting Crows will share the stage at any point: "We'll have to see how we share the bathroom in the hallway first."
Goo Goo Dolls and Counting Crows
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: UMB Bank Pavilion, 14141 Riverport Drive, Maryland Heights
How much: $19.50-$67.50
More info: 314-241-1888
[email protected] 314-340-8191
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/stories.nsf/music/story/9 E46704EC9D71257862571A2005E2BD0?OpenDocument
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DWG
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Re: 20 years on, band is still Goo Goo ...
« Reply #1 on: Jul 5th, 2006, 10:03pm » |
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haha..."Guttermouth"...whooops.
Thanks for posting the article, Shannon!
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