GOO GOO DOLLS Vinyl Records and CDs

Often compared to the Replacements and Cheap Trick, the Goo Goo Dolls' tattered, anthemic beginnings were documented on Metal Blade Records -- home to such other "alt-rockers" as D.R.I., GWAR, and Fates Warning. Perennial headbangers, the Goo Goo's noisy forays embraced the excesses of Sonic Youth and Oh My Gawd!-era Flaming Lips as much as they harnessed the raw Punk energy of the Replacements. The 'Mats references don't really start to make sense until the Goo Goo's fourth and fifth albums, when their songwriting developed past three chords-and-some-noise -- songs eventually included string sections and over-rehearsed dynamics (see Superstar Car Wash). Their sixth album, A Boy Named Goo, offered the mega-hit "Name," a song so sweetly infectious and clean it seemed to deny any previous knowledge of metal. Now comfortably marketed to the 'burbs rather than the seedy, beer soaked parts of town they once ruled, a VH-1 Behind the Music special about the band would probably seem more like an episode of the X-Files than a documentary.