Published May 4, 2010 06:05 AM

With the release of their new album set for this summer, the Goo Goo Dolls [ tickets ] are hoping to spread the word virally. The Buffalo-bred band got a glimpse at the effect of sites like UStream and YouTube--as well as traditional TV--when it played Detroit on New Year's Eve.

"It was so weird. We played this show for NBC where we had ice skaters come out," bassist/vocalist Robby Takac told LiveDaily. "We played in this hockey rink. We played all these singles and new songs and ice skaters came out and skated. It was on Christmas Day, so a lot of people saw it. There are so many people just sitting at home with a bunch of relatives that they have nothing to say. Ice skating works in a room full of family. Anyway, a lot of people recorded it and put it up on YouTube. We did a gig on New Year's Eve in Detroit and we walked out and started to play the song and the entire crowd was singing along. I thought, 'Holy cow, we haven't released this yet. We played it live on TV once.' I got to see how powerful that was firsthand."

The Goo Goo Dolls even relied on UStream to advance the tour by previewing the album "Something for the Rest of Us." On the day of the interview, the Goo Goo Dolls' crew was being filmed for the site.

"I'm standing right now watching our crew setting up," Takac said. "It's just a bunch of roadies running around, basically. We'll leave the camera on. The UStream thing's pretty wild. We were just in with [producer] Butch Vig the other day. We did six hours of work, and we had thousands and thousands of viewers. We really don't release much audio, but it's exciting to get people involved in the process. I think things like UStream that are available that are free--these are the things that are going to offset the fact that people aren't buying records as much. It used to cost a lot of money to reach out to fans like that. I think the entire complexion of how [you have] relationships with your fans is really changing and becoming much more direct. The record companies and the publicists aren't necessarily the moderator anymore. You can reach out right to the fans. It's cool."

Vig was one of a handful of producers who worked on "Something for the Rest of Us." He was joined by knob-turners Tim Palmer, Rob Cavallo and the Goo Goo Dolls' live-sound man Paul Hager.

"There were a lot of people involved," Takac said. "It's been, like, a two-year process. It's been a crazy ride. We did our last record with Glen Ballard. You tend to hand the record over to a guy like that and let him make the record for you. We made the record before that with Rob Cavallo and before that with Rob Cavallo. We always had someone guiding our record.

"With this record--and the people we used--we had a lot more input as to what the record ended up sounding like."

Takac explained "Something for the Rest of Us" was a band effort, involving vocalist/guitarist John Rzeznik, drummer Mike Malinin and even touring rhythm guitarist/mandolin player Brad Fernquist.

"[Fernquist] did the entire record with us," Takac said. "That was the first time we've ever had anything like that before--somebody else's opinion. It was nice to have someone within our group be able to speak that language of music that John and I never learned in 25 years. We came from the garage. We didn't come from a [music school]. It was nice for someone to be a translator between producers and mixers. We didn't speak that language very well ourselves."

Currently, the Goo Goo Dolls are on a theater tour, and will hit amphitheaters this summer. The jaunt doubles as a fundraiser for USA Harvest, collecting food for local food banks. Fans will hear a healthy chunk of "Something for the Rest of Us" on the road.

"We have five songs worked out for the tour right now, then we'll switch them out," Takac said. "Once we get in there, we can get the vibe going on YouTube. We're going to start putting out songs one by one. That's what this tour's all about. We've been away for a little while. We just want to get out there and start getting the word out there until it's time to drop the record."

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