Goo Goo Dolls News

When he's not dispensing advice as a celebrity judge on Fox TV's "The Next Great American Band," the Goo Goo Dolls' Johnny Rzeznik will be focusing on the band's past -- and its future.

"The Goo Goo Dolls Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 -- The Singles" comes out November 13, featuring 14 chart entries since "Name" gave the band its first Hot 100 berth in 1995. The album includes chart-toppers such as "Iris" and "Slide" as well as "Before It's Too Late (Sam and Mikaela's Theme)" from the "Transformers" film soundtrack. A "Vol. 2" is slated for February with B-sides, rarities, remixes and some new tracks.

By that time, Rzeznik said the Goos should be back in their Buffalo, N.Y., studio working on a follow-up to 2006's "Let Love In," which debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard 200 with 83,000 units, a drop in both rank and sales from their previous effort, 2002's "Gutterflower."

"I'm going into the studio in Buffalo in January and gonna hang out there until the record's done, which will probably be, like, June," Rzeznik told Billboard.com.

He said he has "maybe six or eight (song) ideas floating around in my head," as well as a concrete idea of how he wants the album to sound.

"I want the next record to have a little more of an edge on it," Rzeznik explained. "I don't want the rough edges taken off so much. The band's gonna play live on it more, not so many overdubs. When we were on tour we recorded every single show and we would listen back, and the difference between the band on record and the band live was ... I want it to sound more like we do live. It's a lot more energy. It's a more aggressive sound."

The Goos have one more show scheduled for this year, on New Year's Eve in Las Vegas.

Reuters/Billboard