As previously announced a few weeks ago, in order to celebrate this blog’s first birthday with all of our readers, we are proud to release “Melodic Minimalism PART I“, an 18-song collection of very rare and never-heard-before unplugged versions of favorite Goo Goo Dolls classics.
When Temple Of Goo officially started back in April 2022, it was initially conceived as a mere, simple blog were I could share some of the trivia, pictures, and live takes I had collected over the years and recognized as being not quite diffused amongst fans. Every time I would interact with a new fan I had met online or in real life, and would say to them “Hey, have you ever seen this picture of the band?”, or “Hey, did you know that…“, I’d always get the same reaction from them, that is one comprised of surprise and astonishment.
I quickly realized that there was a lot of data fans were not aware of, especially when it came from pre-“Gutterflower” eras. I thought it was a shame, because there definitely were (in my opinion) a myriad of little gems scattered by the band before they really hit it big in the early 2000’s.
I believe there are four generations of Goo Goo Dolls fans:
- The Originals, which had been following the band since its first three albums
- The Discoverers, who fell in love with “Superstar Car Wash” and/or “A Boy Named Goo” and realized this was a talented band with a great future worth following
- The Irisers/Sliders, who were caught by the world-wide success of “Iris” and/or “Slide” and began aggressively buying both the new album and the previous ones
- The Latecomers, who began to look into the band after the latter had already established itself within the mainstream cycles of the music charts (post-“Gutterflower” or post-“Let Love In”)
Personally, I belong to the third category. Being someone who has always shown curiosity about how things were before a band I liked became famous, investigating into the Goo Goo Dolls’ past and collecting material to paint a full picture of how they were has been a little hobby of mine for a while.
Creating Temple Of Goo was, therefore, the natural evolution of such process, whereby I would share with other fans from all over the world what rare trinkets I had gathered along the years.
Those who have been following the blog since the beginning know that it has evolved quite a lot. It has become better organized, filled with interesting content, improved and ameliorated by its readers on a constant basis. This special release is for them, for those who have spent some time reaching out to us to make this place a better home for whoever wanted to focus on the older, less known version(s) of the band. But also, for those who only read our content, and blessed us with those mouse clicks which have slowly helped the blog become bigger, and slingshot it to a wider audience.
A website’s success is always the result of team effort between its creators and its contributors. I have received plenty of emails from readers during the past long, intense year. I thank you all for your insights. Specifically, the Temple Of Goo would have been a pretty desolate place if it weren’t for a few of you who decided to offer some of your precious content and support.
- Sean Hampson, who has provided us with numerous bootlegs (click here for a full listing), rare pictures, and riveting trivia solely focused on the years 1995 and earlier. Sean is an amazing contributor and by far the one who has helped this blog the most. The latter wouldn’t stand as a point of reference amongst Goo Goo Dolls fans if it weren’t for him, nor wouldn’t boast more than 12k views without his marvelous releases
- Bailey, who has provided us with lots of interesting interviews, extremely rare photos, and insightful information. She often reaches out to forward something to add to our posts, to make clarifications about data, or to provide opinions for a better interpretation of events. The Temple Of Goo (hence all of you) has benefited quite a lot from her support
- Javier, who is a recent addition and has been forwarding us several links which were apparently lost in the ether, including rare photos, concerts, and never-heard-before trivia. He is an avid commenter who likes to correct our
fewmany mistakes whenever he can. We have benefited a lot from his extremely detailed and well-referenced emails
There are also others who have contributed to make this home a better home, even if their interactions have been smaller in terms of quantity. With this special release, I want to thank all of you, regardless of the level of interaction you have showed, and I invite you all to continue interacting with the Temple. The only way to make things better is through joint forces of individuals.
Alright, now on to “Melodic Minimalism”. What is it? First and foremost, I need you to read this post which was published a few days ago. Unfortunately, today’s special release was supposed to feature more than 30 songs. Due to the problem I detailed in the aforementioned post, sadly I was forced to cut it in half. Hence the additional title “PART I”. Rest assured, I will publish a second part when (if) I will be able to recoup the lost part. For now, I am offering what I have, which despite the substantial loss, is nevertheless exceptional to say the least.
“Melodic Minimalism” is a collection of extremely rare, never-heard-before unplugged versions of classic Goo Goo Dolls songs. Most of the tunes presented here are pre-“Dizzy Up The Girl”, with a few exceptions. It is not clear in which occasions these live takes were recorded. By listening to them, I get the sense some of them come from the same performance, while the rest were all executed in different avenues/events. As a consequence, I cannot provide a specific year for each song, and simply decided to tag the compilation a 2023 release as a mere reference of the year it first appeared on this blog.
There are some very cool takes in this mix, including:
- Unplugged versions of “Lazy Eye” (!!!!!!) and “Fallin’ Down“
- A very well-executed performance for “I’m Still Here“, sung with palpable passion by John
- A cover of the famous Pink Floyd classic “Wish You Were Here“
- An acoustic take of “What A Scene“, which I consider to be even better than the original song
Furthermore, the compilation ends with “White Trash Wagon“, a 25-second tune in the style of country music which I think is not even a cover, but rather an original song the Goo Goo Dolls wrote specifically for a radio show.
If you’ve made it this far, good job! I once again thank all of you readers for making The Temple Of Goo a great place for both old and new fans of the band.
You can listen to “Melodic Minimalism” below. Download links are available at the end of this post.
PLEASE NOTICE: You will be downloading a total of 17 songs which have been encoded using the .WMA format. This is how I obtained the files, and I decided not to convert them or doctor them in any way in order to preserve their original status. Keep in mind that such format may not be compatible with all the readers out there. One song comes with the standard .MP3 format, and was encoded at 128kbps.
EDIT: The second and last part, “Melodic Minimalism Part II“, was published on September 26th, 2023.
TRACK LISTING:
- Impersonality
- Name
- Fallin’ Down
- Girl Right Next To Me
- We Are The Normal
- Another Second Time Around
- Already There
- Two Days In February
- James Dean
- I’m Still Here
- Wish You Were Here
- Lazy Eye
- Don’t Change
- Jenny 867-5309
- Give A Little Bit
- What A Scene
- Black Balloon
- White Thrash Wagon
Temple of Goo - The rarest Goo Goo Dolls releases, for real Goo fans only 