This week I am teetering closer and closer to my first nervous breakdown. I am knee deep in graduate school work, we have an uninvited “mouseguest” problem, and my little boy bounces off the walls until midnight every night. My sleep is messed up, I’m out of shape, unmotivated, and out of sorts. The realization of my problems came to a head last night when I hazily sat through 1/4th of the movie “You’ve Got Mail” with my girlfriend and was actually getting into the storyline. My cure-all for this is time traveling in my mind back to the glorious mid-90s. The band joining me on this journey is the much misunderstood band The Goo Goo Dolls.    

Yes, I said The Goo Goo Dolls, the band that now rule soft rock and mellow rock and Smirnoff Ice rock radio stations. Before you call the indie rock snob police on me and an army of guys in Buddy Holly glasses and thrift shop clothes come and hang me on a cross, let me explain. I was introduced to them in 1993 by my cousin Kevin, who is still batting 1.000 on telling me about good bands. I bought their CD “Superstar Carwash” and to this day, it is still one of my favorites. It was basically locked in my five disc changer with the Lemonheads “C’mon Feel the Lemonheads”, Buffalo Tom’s “Big Red Letter Day”, Dinosaur Jr’s “Where You Been”, and Pavement’s “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain” my senior year of high school and through my freshman year of college. Then came 1995, when America was still at odds over the hotly debated topic of which song was better- 95 South’s “Whoot! There it is!” or Tag Team’s “Whoomp! There it is!” The Goos put out “A Boy Named Goo” and that CD alone spawned a million memories for me. One thing about college and youth that I miss is listening to music with friends, for me it’s truly like breaking bread with someone. I can vividly remember my friend Kevin putting on “Ain’t That Unusual” in his dorm, and me, him and our buddy Johnny jumping around, chugging beer, air guitaring, and pumping our fists. I can remember my friend Mike driving me home hungover from the shore with that CD on one side of a cassette tape, and Buffalo Tom’s “Sleepy Eyed” on the other side. (For those who know me, I can go on and on!)

My roommate at the time didn’t have the same taste in alternative/modern rock that I did. He was more into “I smoke pot, and want everyone to know I smoke pot music”. Bands like Phish, Blues Traveler and Rusted Root, all very popular with the pot smokers of 1995. I was much more into the music of Generation X, the “slacker/cynical/why bother” mantra of which I still abide by. But then the Goo Goo Dolls, and a bunch of other bands I liked, started to get very popular. In  my marketing class, I learned that I would be known as an “innovator” or “early adopter” because I was ahead of the curve with knowing about some bands before they found fame. (My parents also read this blog, and I want them to think that I actually learned something in college) The funny thing is, the bands I liked got popular on what I think were some of their worst songs. Barenaked Ladies hit it on “Old Apartment” and even more on “One Week”, Ben Folds hit it big on “Brick”, which was so utterly depressing compared to his normal fun, upbeat music. And The Goo Goo Dolls got a ton of radio play from “Name” which is a good song, but pretty sappy and nowhere near as rocking as their songs that I love. From there, they put out “Iris” and that propelled them into selling millions of records and abandoning their old sound.

So should I crucify these guys? No way. Music fans can be so hard on artists that find success or do things to increase success. Isn’t that basically what everyone who starts a band hopes for? (That, and getting laid I guess) As for artistic integrity – fuck that. They found a recipe for success and went with it. Who am I to judge? I’ve rarely ever felt good about anything I have done in the corporate world and was only making 30k a year. And now my job is basically chasing after guidance counselors and eighteen year old kids to complete their college applications. But it pays my bills (barely) and feeds my son (luckily he doesn’t eat much). It is certainly much easier to believe in things when you don’t have a family to feed. I would sell my soul to the devil and Ryan Seacrest right now if it meant that my son Jack would never have any worries in his life!  

So, unlike some of my music snob compadres, I still dig The Goo Goo Dolls and don’t hold anything against them. These guys are from Buffalo, New York, which is a tough area. All you can do there is freeze your ass off and eat buffalo wings. (50% of that sounds pretty awesome to me.) Paul Westerberg of the Replacements wrote a song for these guys called “We Are the Normal”. Mr Westerberg is a few rungs below God in my book, so if he doesn’t have a problem with them, neither do I.  

Last week, on a trip to Walmart to buy diapers, which by the way is the highlight of my week anymore, I put on the Goos and rocked out. When I jumped out of the car to run in, my girlfriend promptly turned it off. But she went to college in the 2000’s, she just doesn’t understand. But then on Saturday, in a comical ironic twist, I walked into South Jersey Pretzel and Water Ice Company for a bag of piping hot soft pretzels, and the Goo’s cover of “Give a Little Bit” was playing over the radio. Hearing that almost made me want to retract my entire statement and defense of the Goo Goo Dolls!

But anytime I want a one way Delorean ride back to 1995, where I fall hopelessly in love with a different girl every few weeks, and am reminded of Sega Genesis, mildly warm Milwaukee’s Best beers, flannel shirts, and light blue jeans, I put on the Goo Goo Dolls, and remember the good times.