May I just say that I love The Goo Goo Dolls? Of course I can say it. I think my adoration increases with each double-click on their respective mp3 files on my laptop.

I was too young to listen to the band in their punk rock phase, and I probably would have shunned it then, anyway. I started listening to the boys in the 1990s, the glories days of my secondary education, when their song “Name” hit the radio circuit. I’m taken back to middle and high school, playing Civilization II in my room overlooking Salem Road in Cincinnati, Ohio whenever I hear those morose lyrics “Reruns all become our history…”

Oh, those 90s were the days of “I won’t say anything at all/So why don’t you slide?” They were great hooks, more in the addict sense than in the lyrical/poetic sense. I enjoy their newer music even more, though. Their 2006 Let Love In album is responsible for70-80% of the damage done to my car’s sound system, the reason I can no longer have heavy bass without hearing the heart-sinking sound of a blown speaker somewhere in the vicinity.

On a less expensive note, Wikipedia remarks that the original name of the band was to be called Sex Maggots, but was changed when the newspaper couldn’t print it. For the first time ever, I thank God for censorship.