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Shannon
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Dolls' New Album Marks 20th Anniversary
« on: Jul 13th, 2006, 10:00am » |
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http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_461605.html
Dolls' new album marks 20th anniversary
By Regis Behe
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, July 13, 2006
A 20th birthday is a rite of passage. A 20th anniversary, whether it's of a high school graduation or a wedding, marks a significant passage of time. But 20 years together in a rock band is a rare achievement.
The Goo Goo Dolls, who perform Saturday with the Counting Crows at the Post-Gazette Pavilion, pass that milepost this year without fanfare or overblown gestures. They mark it, after a short period during which bassist Robbie Takac and singer and guitarist John Rzeznik worked on other projects, with a new album, "Let Love In," and a newfound appreciation for the band.
"We looked at each other and said, 'Oh my God, we have great day jobs,'" Takac says. "All this other stuff is great, but there's something about what we do, man, and let's enjoy it. And that was always really hard for us to say. So we looked at each other and said it's time for us now to make a record that we feel is free and open and new. We knew it was going be 20 years; we didn't want to make that huge a deal of it. We're not doing the '20 Year Tour,' but we knew it was coming up, and we felt like it was time to interject something into this that was different."
That difference came not via any technical or musical innovations, but through a change of location. Instead of recording in Los Angeles, where Takac and Rzeznik live, they took a batch of songs to Buffalo, N.Y., and set up shop in an old Masonic Hall with drummer Mike Malinin.
Takac says the people who would have been part of the recording process in L.A. would have been "concerned with us the next 16 weeks of our lives, and that's about it. To us, that didn't seem like a great atmosphere to be making decisions as to what we were going to be talking about, or what sort of vibe we were going to go for musically on the record. I think a lot of the ideas we came up with here were sorted out in Buffalo in an atmosphere where we sort of could feel there were people who knew what we were about and cared a little bit more about us than the next 16 weeks of our lives. We needed that opinion."
Takac realizes that some fans might have expected another "Jed," the 1989 Goo Goo Dolls release that combined punk and power pop, because it was recorded in Buffalo. Instead "Let Love In" is a refinement of the successful formula that yielded hits such as "Iris," "Name" and "Black Balloon." It is a bit harder, more in the vein of "Big Machine," arguably the band's best rock song from the 2002 album "Gutterflower." Notable are Takac's "Listen" and "Strange Love," the songs where the Goo Goo Dolls' punk roots are most evident.
The title -- which Takac jokes was chosen from a list that includes "Kingdom of Satan" and "Foreigner IV" -- was taken from a song that typifies not only the tone of the recording sessions, but the band's personal outlook. Takac notes the isolaton he senses in the country, the lack of personal contact that is fostered by spending time online, in cars and in offices, and how a day can be spent at work with little or no human contact.
"As we were looking at our lives and the record and the world and everything else that was going on at the time, the sentiment that we felt we wanted to portray was in a sense, we've identified the problems," Takac says. "Now, even if we don't have a solution, let's try at least give the air of optimism that we will find one. ... It's a very isolated situation we've been put in, and unfortunately, whether you think it's rightfully so or not, it's a culture of fear we're living in. What we started to feel as people is without the ability to let other people into your life, your orbit, nothing's going to get solved. Happiness is not easily found when you're by yourself. That was the concept of picking that title. We just wanted a more hopeful air about our lives and situations."
Pittsburgh keyboardist joins tour
When former Pittsburgher Korel Tunador auditioned as a guitarist for the Goo Goo Dolls touring band, he didn't wow the band with technical wizardry or amazing guitar licks.
"He came in and he wasn't amazing, but he played with us really well," bassist Robbie Takac says. "We thought we should have him back and do another rehearsal."
Unfortunately for Tunador, who played in Crisis Car and received a creative achievement/emerging artist award from the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust in 2001, another guitarist was selected. But Tunador's musicianship in general was so impressive he was hired as a keyboard player.
"But without even trying him out on keyboards," Takac says. "We remembered he said he could play keyboards, and that's just the kind of guy he is. When he played with us, we were like, 'wow, this guy can really play.' He can feel the way you play, which is so unbelievably valuable to a band."
Regis Behe can be reached at [email protected] or (412)320-7990.
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| « Last Edit: Jul 13th, 2006, 10:01am by Shannon » |
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carlyn
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Re: Dolls' New Album Marks 20th Anniversary
« Reply #1 on: Jul 13th, 2006, 7:57pm » |
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I read in an old article once that the name Foreigner IV was also on the list of named for Dizzy up The Girl. I wonder if they'll actually name one of their albums that someday.... 
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