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On Washington Street between Pulaski and Lumpkin
12:00-12:05
Welcoming // Bienvenida
12:05-12:20
Opening Ceremony //
Ceremonia de apertura
12:20-12:30 Danza Azteca
12:30-12:40 SalsAthens
12:40-12:50 Aklia Sumaq
12:50-1:00
Estrella la Voz de Veracruz
1:00-1:20 Tonalli
1:20-1:40 Canopy
1:40- 1:50 Aklia Sumaq
1:50-2:05 Andrea DeMarcus
2:05-2:15
Danza Azteca Sr. Sn. Jose
2:15-2:30
Award Ceremony //
Entrega de Premios
2:30-2:50 Incatepec
2:50-3:00 Flor de Jalisco
3:00-3:10 Euzkal
3:10-3:30 Cortez Garza
3:30-3:40 Capoeira
3:40-4:00 Richard Castillo
4:00-4:10 Euzkal
4:10-4:40 Grupo C21
4:40-5:00 Lydia Brambila
5:00-5:30 Lucas Taveres
5:30-5:40 Juan Miguel Perez
5:40-5:50 Colibri
5:50-6:05 Elias
6:05-6:45 Along Time Agogo
6:45-6:55 Colibri
6:55-7:40 La Suegra
7:40-7:50 Andrea Williams
7:50-8:30 Guacamole Band
8:30-9:00
Block Party DJ Kaliente
IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL RIMES OF THE YEAR
DECEMBER 10* 7:30 P.M.
THE CLASSIC CENTER THEATRE
CL H SSIC
ENTERTAINMENT
CALL, CLICK OR STOP BY THE BOX OFFICE
706.357.4444 • ClassicCenter.com • 300 N Thomas Street • Downtown Athens
A Round Sound
MAGNAPOP GOMES FULL CIRCLE WITH NEW LP
By Chad Radford music@flagpole.com
S peaking over the phone, Magnapop’s
Linda Hopper and Ruthie Morris
sound remarkably crisp for our 9
a.m. interview. Oh yeah—they’re in South
Holland, a full six hours ahead of Georgia
time, waiting to soundcheck before the
evening’s show at Bergen op Zoom’s famed
music venue Popmonument.
Magnapop is in Europe playing shows
and preparing for the arrival of the group’s
sixth album, The Circle Is Round, out Sept.
27 via Athens’ HHBTM Records. Belgium,
Holland and the rest of the Benelux region
have been Magnapop’s home away from
home since the early 1990s, when Hopper
passed the group’s Michael Stipe-produced
demo tape along to a pair of Dutch journal
ists at a New Music Seminar.
“A Simple Plan,” are placed alongside “Leo”
and “Pretty Awful,” two unreleased demos
from the group’s 1992 recording session.
“Change Your Hair” is the very first song
Hopper and Morris wrote together, before
they even had a band. “Rip the Wreck”
appeared on the A-side of their first single,
a 7-inch released in 1990, back when the
group was playing and recording under the
name Homemade Sister.
After 30 years of lineup changes,
cross-country moves and long gaps between
activity, the group has been on a slow but
steady roll since 2011, when Mulvaney
approached everyone about reconvening to
play a benefit show for Atlanta’s Criminal
Records. Since then, the original lineup
has settled back into place—this time for
“None of us are good networkers,”
Hopper says. “I had two tapes with me. I
gave one to someone’s dad and the other to
these two guys. After that, we started sell
ing out shows over here, which is really kind
of miraculous.”
Magnapop owes the title of its latest
album to a Dutch journalist who stumbled
over his own words. “We were in Holland
doing an interview, and the journalist was
trying to say that the band has come full
circle, like how we say in America, but he
couldn’t find the right words, and kept mis
translating it,” Morris says. “He said, Ah
yes, so the circle is round!’ And Linda said,
‘Well yes, the circle is round.’ We all kept
laughing about it, and then we ended up
using it for the name of the record.”
Joking aside, Magnapop has come full
circle on its journey from a fledgling indie-
rock band in Atlanta’s Cabbagetown scene
of the early ’90s to a power-pop outfit with
an international legacy.
The Circle Is Round conceptually and liter
ally distills the heavy guitar tones, yearning
rhythms and pop songwriting that span
the group’s lifetime. Its founding mem
bers, singer Hopper and guitarist Morris,
have reunited with their original rhythm
section of bass player Shannon Mulvaney
and drummer David McNair. New songs,
such as the latest single, “Dog on the Door,”
and the album’s most sentimental rocker,
good. “You will never see Magnapop ever
again when it is anything but Linda, Ruthie,
Shannon and David,” Morris says.
In conversation, the chemistry between
Morris and Hopper is seamless.
“All the dumb stuff that gets in the way
with a lot of bands, like personalities and
stuff like that, doesn’t come into play with
us anymore,” says Hopper. “We know how
to anticipate each other. Also, we’re all
better musicians now. We’ve been playing
music for all of these years, and that collec
tive experience has really settled into place
as we bring ourselves back together to play
these songs.”
As such, The Circle Is Round carries
Magnapop’s signature balance of shambolic
rock and nuanced songwriting, reigniting
the yearning drive of the group’s self-ti
tled debut or 1994’s Hotboxing. Some of
the album’s songs were written long ago,
though most are new. Taken as a whole, the
record gives a picture of Magnapop’s iden
tity—past, present and future. ©
WHO: Magnapop, Pylon Reenactment
Society, DJ Team Spud Go
WHERE: Little Kings Shuffle Club
WHEN: Saturday, Sept. 28,9:30 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $5
16 FLAGPOLE.COM | SEPTEMBER 25, 2019