Fire All Your Guns At Once
Magnapop
Side One Records
Former Georgians Ruthie Morris and Linda Hopper took their bass player Shannon Mulvaney and their band Magnapop to Los Angeles recently. They have gone through several drummers since David McNair left the band, including Joel Suttles of Mercyland, Josh Freese, and most recently added Mark Posgay for the tour taking them to the 40 Watt this Saturday.
As a sneak preview of the forth-coming full-length CD entitled Rubbing Doesn't Help, Magnapop has released a limited edition seven-inch purple vinyl four-song EP entitled Fire All Your Guns At Once that gives a good indication of what's yet to come with the Geza X produced release. This little platter is being printed on the stateside imprint of the L.A. based Side One label.
'Hold You Down' lets Ruthie sing alone for the first time I remember. This bitter, vindictive song rips the ropes of any relationship but still rocks in an acceptable manner.
Hopper steps back up to vocal duties on the other three cuts of the record, including the opening invitational song 'Come On Inside'. The former Athens/Atlanta band delivers another irresistible pop ditty here as well. The counter melodies of Hopper and Morris mesh as perfect as usual to anyone that has appreciated their live shows or either of their previous releases.
The flip-side features a pair of songs sampling sides of Magnapop seldom shown before. 'Voice Without A Sound' displays Hopper at her most ferocious, snarling one key obscenity that almost ensures radio will run away scared from this cut at least. That's too bad, because it is an otherwise fine song to add to any radio station's play list. The final song 'Down On Me' is, however, a radio-friendly acoustic ballad which may open doors for the albums more adventurous songs.
by Dan Matthews
(Many thanks to Scott "Spyder" Lynch for his Web-surfing cyber research on Magnapop in assistance to this review.)