New York’s Goo Goo Dolls may be America’s best-known unknown band. Just ask guitarist/vocalist Johnny Rzeznick. “We have five records, we’re not just ‘Name,'” he said.

The second single off of the band’s 1995 platinum release, A Boy Named Goo, has risen to a steady No. 1 on Billboard’s Modern Rock chart. The modest rotation of “Name” on MTV and alternative radio has helped Goo Goo Dolls break the damn into stardom.

“Radio has really done a lot for us,” Rzeznick said. “MTV doesn’t hurt either.” Goo Goo Dolls hosted MTV’s “120 Minutes” last spring, where they performed their first single “Only One.”

“I wrote ‘Only One’ about a friend of mine who was a big rock star in Buffalo,” Rzeznick explained. “He had a chance to really make it, and he pissed it away. I write a lot of songs for my friends. I’m a writer: I make shit up and write about it.”

“I wrote the songs [on A Boy Named Goo] when I was 28,” he continued. “They are the reflections of a 28-year-old man. I don’t get hung up on the chronicles of writing. I just write what I feel. I just felt like writing ‘Name.'”

Aside from headlining a number of their own dates, Goo Goo Dolls opened for Soul Asylum nationally and took a swing through Europe. The band swept through Ames with London’s Bush and southern California’s No Doubt.

“Playing with the Replacements was great, Soul Asylum was great, everyone has been great,” Rzeznick said. “The tour now has different flavors. No Doubt are the happy-go-lucky band out to have a good time. Bush is more heavy and moody, and we’re somewhere in between. I think we combine for a good show. People enjoy all three bands.

“I’m not all that afraid of a big crowd anymore,” Rzeznick added. “Some nights I’m just not a funny guy. I try not to do the same thing over and over, you know?”

A Boy Named Goo is the follow-up to the critically-acclaimed 1993 release, Superstar Car Wash. Along with bassist/vocalist Robby Takac, the band first emerged in the Buffalo music scene in 1986. Their independent self-titled debut led to a record deal with the Los Angeles indie powerhouse Metal Blade Records.

Goo Goo Dolls released Jed in 1988 and became a major club attraction in the Midwest and on both coasts. Rolling Stone described the album as “thrash-packed pop and well-articulated rage.”

“Obviously, we’re a rock band influenced by the underground music of the 60s, 70s and 80s,” Rzeznick added. “Real alternative is when you’re 14, buying a record when you’ve never heard it. I remember going into record stores and just picking music off the shelf. It was a real adventure.”

“Alternative has lost its meaning,” he continued. “I like modern rock: It separates us from Bon Jovi and Genesis and bands like that. Robby and I think punk rock is by far the stupidest name for music.”

Goo was produced by Lou Giordano (Husker Du, Sugar, Smithereens) with contributions from Rob Cavallo, the creator of Green Day’s Dookie.