Magnapop brings road tour to Classic City

Athens Daily News & Athens Banner-Herald
by Lya Wodraska
July 5, 1996

BOSTON - Warmup band tripl3fastaction has just left the stage and, thanks to the Paradise Club's tight schedule, Magnapop has barely an hour to convince the bar patrons to buy its CD, wear its t-shirts and so forth.

It doesn't take nearly that long. By the set's third song, the hot single "Open The Door" off the band's latest, "Rubbing Doesn't Help," the crowd is right where singer Linda Hopper wants them - up front and grooving to the beat set forth by drummer Mark Posgay, bassist Shannon Mulvaney and guitarist Ruthie Morris.

An hour and two encores later, Magnapop finally calls it a night, leaving a club full of satisfied fans behind. It's a familiar scene for the band, whose newest effort is being well-received by fans, the music industry and the band itself.

"We love playing this material live," Hopper says. "The most exciting thing about this tour right now is radio. We do 'Open The Door,' and the crowd goes crazy, they've heard it on the radio. Before, we'd occasionally get that with 'Slowly, Slowly,' (off 1994's "Hot Boxing," produced by Bob Mould) but people are really catching on with this single. It's a great feeling."

And a feeling the Athens-born band should get used to.

Magnapop's second full-length album for Priority Records, "Rubbing Doesn't Help" showcases the band at its best. It's a looser album than "Hot Boxing" with Hopper more than ever in control of her voice and Morris stepping into the spotlight more herself - including taking the role of vocalist on "Hold You Down."

The band has, for the most part relocated to Los Angeles, and "Rubbing Doesn't Help" was produced by the City of Angels' Geza X, who Hopper readily admits to fighting with on a regular basis.

"But it was a good fight," Hopper says with a certain glee. "This CD was such a personal thing for me because in the past, people thought that the best thing for my voice was to multi-track it. I didn't want that, I wanted to go with more of an honest sound.

"Don't get me wrong, we've always been totally happy with our past records and working with Michael Stipe (who helped produce Magnapop's debut effort) and Bob Mould was a tremendous experience. But we really knew what we wanted to achieve with this one."

Hopper has taken on a new focus with this latest release. Part of that came from the bit of downtime the band had in 1994 after Magnapop finished touring with Sugar.

"I went back to Athens, Ruthie took off with her friends, and I just felt this sense of lack of purpose. The lack of a life really wore down on me. Something felt really wrong.

"I remember being in this state of depression and seeing one of those Oprah-type shows where they had some bands of past and present. They had some members of the Bangles on there and they were talking about how you should enjoy the amount of success that you get or being in that moment because there will come a time when you won't have that at all. You should just enjoy it."

That lesson was exemplified in the death of Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide in April of '94. Hopper first heard Nirvana when Morris brought the single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" home one day.

"When we played it, people didn't think it was going to be big because it was so rough, but I knew it was going to be huge. There was this certain magic. Then, in that summer after he died, there was this sort of incredible feeling. He had all this money and fame in the world, but it didn't matter because he wasn't happy with himself. It was too hard of a lesson to learn."

Nevertheless, it was a lesson Hopper has taken to heart. And it's clear, from watching her and her bandmates on stage, they are enjoying themselves.

With the exception of a short break here and there, the band has been recording or touring for six years straight. Because of the hectic schedule, Magnapop didn't have a chance to test the songs for "Rubbing Doesn't Help" live. Instead, they've had to hone the songs on the current tour.

"It was kind of backward from what we normally do," Hopper says. "It's like we missed a step. But we've really started to click lately."

The only problem thus far came in Detroit when Mulvaney, who doesn't exactly stand still while he's playing, pulled a shoulder muscle, which forced the band to cancel a show in Cleveland.

No fear for Athens fans though, Mulvaney and Co. are rocking once again.

"We're having so much fun with these songs," Hopper says. "We're really happy with this tour."