{"id":3070,"date":"2011-08-03T15:17:28","date_gmt":"2011-08-03T22:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3070"},"modified":"2011-08-03T15:17:28","modified_gmt":"2011-08-03T22:17:28","slug":"goo-goo-dolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/goo-goo-dolls\/","title":{"rendered":"GOO GOO DOLLS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

GOO GOO DOLLS<\/h1>\n

Seeking inspiration from without as well as within<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Past Goo Goo Dolls hits\u2014\u201cName,\u201d \u201cSlide\u201d and \u201cLet Love In,\u201d to name a few\u2014have been deeply introspective. For the band\u2019s latest album, Something for the Rest of Us<\/em>, frontman and principal songwriter Johnny Rzeznik wanted to look outside\u00a0himself. A beautiful ballad, \u201cNotbroken,\u201d\u00a0paved the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat song was based on conversations I had with a woman whose husband was injured in the Iraq war,\u201d says Rzeznik, taking a break from a video shoot in Los Angeles. \u201cHer husband didn\u2019t want to come home because he felt he would no longer be loved. He had been disabled and she was losing him to his wounds. I wrote the song as a love letter from her to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several songs on the record address similar themes. Sonically, however, the\u00a0disc holds firm to the guitar-centric pop\u00a0rock that has come to be the Dolls\u2019 trademark during their 24 years together. Recording was divided between L.A. and the group\u2019s hometown studio in Buffalo, N.Y. Prior to the sessions, Rzeznik stocked the facility with some of the same gear used on\u00a0classic albums by the prog-rock band\u00a0Yes, whose work he\u2019s long admired.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sounds on the album were concocted mostly by me and Brad Fernquist, our\u00a0touring guitarist,\u201d he says. \u201cWe went out and got a bunch of vintage amps and a\u00a0bucket-load of old stomp boxes. We wanted to create unusual sounds by merging those things with modern technology.\u201d Among the album\u2019s other tracks are \u201cSweetest Lie,\u201d which harks back to the band\u2019s garage-rock days, and the languid ballad\u00a0\u201cNightmares and Dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album\u2019s sonic density brings to mind Phil Spector\u2019s famous \u201cwall of sound\u201d production style, albeit with guitars at its core. \u201cWe recorded a lot of guitars, but each one is doing its own thing,\u201d Rzeznik explains. \u201cWe didn\u2019t do a lot of doubling of the guitars. We would get one part and move on to the next, gradually creating a sonic mosaic. The guitars sound like a big wall of sound, but if you listen closely you can hear lots of little things going on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rzeznik isn\u2019t concerned if the new disc\u00a0doesn\u2019t spawn a flurry of hits in the manner of past Goo Goo Dolls albums. \u201cPeople tell us if we want to get on radio, we have to compete with people like Lady Gaga,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018What are you talking about?\u2019 Things change quickly, especially in the music business. I\u2019m enjoying the time I have now. The rest is out of my hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Russell Hall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GOO GOO DOLLS Seeking inspiration from without as well as within Past Goo Goo Dolls hits\u2014\u201cName,\u201d \u201cSlide\u201d and \u201cLet Love In,\u201d to name a few\u2014have been deeply introspective. For the band\u2019s latest album, Something for the Rest of Us, frontman and principal songwriter Johnny Rzeznik wanted to look outside\u00a0himself. A beautiful ballad, \u201cNotbroken,\u201d\u00a0paved the way. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[2288,623,10156],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3070"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3072,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3070\/revisions\/3072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}