article from the November issue of Hit Parader
by Rob Andrews

  One of the best features of the mid-90's hard rock scene is that there
often seems to be room for everyone and everything within the form's musical
confines.  Most of us can recall a time not that long ago when unless you
wore skin-tight black leather pants, fouffed your hair out-to-here and sang
three-chord opuses about fast cars and faster women, you were viewed as a
comercial liability by the major labels.  The members of the Goo Goo Dolls
not only remember that era - they lived through it.  Since their formation in
1986, this Buffalo, New York threesome have often been forced to deal with a
world where their hard-edged hook-laden sound and their non-pretty boy looks
just never seemed to fit in.
  For years they stood on the outside looking in, creating a reputation as
one of the best, most listenable and most entertaining hard rock bands to be
found anywhere - yet the image conscious labels just wouldn't bite.  Year
after year guitarist/vocalist Johnny Rzeznik, bassist/vocalist Robby Takac
and drummer George battled to beat the odds, releasing album after album on
small indie labels and waiting for their often promised "big break" to
happen.  Finally, opportunity came a'knockin' at their door in 1991 when
their indie label, Metal Blade, signed a distribution deal with humongous
Warner Bros. Records, which promptly released the group's third album, Hold
Me Up.  They followed up that effort with their critically acclaimed 1993
release, Superstar Car Wash.  But it wasn't until now, with the appearance of
the band's latest album, A Boy Named Goo, that it appears as if all the good
things long predicted for the Goo Goo Dolls are about to reach fruition.
  "Ilook at our career as having three stages," Rzeznik said.  "Drunk, hung
over and sober.  I wouldn't exactly say we're in our sober phase right now,
but we are dead serious about making the best music we can.  We've had to
overcome a lot to get here, so we're more or less determined to make the most
of it."
  Anyone who has been lucky enough to catch a taste of A Boy Named Goo (or
any of the band's earlier albums, for that matter) knows that perhaps the
only word that captures the spirit of the Goo Goo Dolls music is
"infectious".  This is music that virtually demands that you tap your feet,
pump your fist or just jump in place as the group's powerful yet appealing
riffs and melodies pour out of songs like Long Way Down, Eyes Wide Open, and
the disc's debut single and video, Only One.  There may be heavier, hipper,
hotter bands around than this upstate New York threesome, but it quickly
becomes apparent that they can out rock, out write and out perform just about
everyone from Green Day to Faith No More.  What we've got here is an honest
to goodness rock and roll band that proudly defies easy classification and
disposable identities.  They've been called everything from "hardcore pop" to
"melodic punk", but for the Goo Goo Dolls, the only thing that matters is the
music itself.
  "On this album I think for the first time we've really come forward with
who we are musically," Rzeznik said.  "This is what we sound like to
ourselves when we get together and play.  There was noeffort to 'fit in' or
try to make something that people would respond to.  This is just an honest
album filled with songs we like a whole lot."
  Now the job for the Goo Goo Dolls becomes one of getting out there and
promoting their latest effort.  Already the band has toured America with the
likes of Soul Asylum and head-lined their own road jaunt of Europe.  But they
know that this may well be their big chance to make it - and their not gonna
blow it, if they have any say in the matter.  Having poured their hearts and
souls into A Boy Named Goo, the band now expects to return to the road for an
extensive tour itinerary that should keep them busy right through the end of
the year.  By that time, with any luck, they just might find themselves being
rock's Next Big Thing.
  "We've learned a lot from making our earlier album and from touring all
over the world," Rzeznik explained.  "That's why for maybe the first time in
our lives we feel totally ready for whatever might come our way in the months
ahead.  But whatever happens, we're lookin' forward to it."