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HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM, “IMPERFECT CIRCLE.”

HOOTIE & THE BLOWFISH ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM, “IMPERFECT CIRCLE.”
Artist
Hootie & the Blowfish

Hootie & the Blowfish just announced the release date of their new album, Imperfect Circle. The collection will be released November 1st on Capitol Nashville. Their last studio album, Looking for Lucky, was released August 9th, 2005 with a live album, Live in Charleston, coming one year later (August 8th, 2006). The band – comprised of Darius Rucker, Mark Bryan, Dean Felber and Jim “Soni” Sonefeld – were huge fans of R.E.M, considered to be the first alternative rock band on record. Hootie & the Blowfish based the title of their new album on one of their favorite R.E.M. songs.

“We were sitting around before going into the studio and talking about album names and stuff and of course REM came up because they’re such an important band to us,” says Darius. “‘Perfect Circle’ is an REM song that we all love a lot (“One of the best”), and I said, ‘Perfect Circle,’ and then we thought Imperfect Circle was a better name, because just looking at us, our career, it’s the 25th anniversary of Cracked Rear View, but we’ve been playing together 30-something years and for us to be here, to be doing this tour and to be making a record, it just seems like Imperfect Circle was perfect.”

The title has some similarities to the band’s 21-times platinum debut album, Cracked Rear View. “Imperfect Circle kinda has the same ring to it as Cracked Rear View, where it’s like you’re looking back and you realize nobody’s journey is perfect, but here we are,” says Hootie member Mark Bryan. “We’re all still here, and I think a lot of people can relate to that.”

The process of coming up with a title has always been a lot of fun for the group. “As usual, the process of finding the right names is always the most fun for us,” says Soni. “We sat around the studio – and we knew this is how it would be – for six months throwing out names that are utter, just dumb, funny, perverse or whatever, and that’s part of the fun we’ve always had is naming albums, giving album titles that really aren’t going to be the album title.”

Hootie & the Blowfish are currently on their Group Therapy Tour with Barenaked Ladies with dates tonight (August 8th) in Columbia, Maryland, Friday (August 9th) in Canandaigua, New York and a two-night stand at Madison Square Garden Saturday (August 10th) and Sunday (August 11th) in New York City.

Audio / Mark Bryan and Jim “Soni” Sonefeld from Hootie & the Blowfish talk about the title of their new album, Imperfect Circle.

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Hootie & the Blowfish (Mark Soni-album title) OC: (Mark) …only chance. :52
MARK: “Imperfect Circle kinda has the same ring to it as Cracked Rear View, where it’s like you’re looking back and you realize nobody’s journey is perfect, but here we are. We’re all still here, and I think a lot of people can relate to that.” SONI: “And as usual, the process of finding the right names is always the most fun for us. We sat around the studio – and we knew this is how it would be – for six months throwing out names that are utter, just dumb, funny, perverse or whatever, and that’s part of the fun we’ve always had is naming albums, giving album titles that really aren’t going to be the album title.” DEAN: “Never anything until the last day.” (EVERYONE LAUGHS) MARK: “Yeah. If you really want the album to be titled something, don’t tell anybody until the last day. That’s your safest bet…you wait until the last minute. That’s your only chance.”

Audio / Darius Rucker of Hootie & the Blowfish talks about how the band came up with the album title, Imperfect Circle.

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Hootie & the Blowfish (Darius-album title) OC: (Soni) …is perfect.
“It seems like when it’s getting titles for our records, we are always last minute when the label’s saying if you don’t give us the title to your record, we’re not gonna put it out, so get one. (laughs) And it was true to this, and we were sitting around before going into the studio and talking about album names and stuff and of course REM came up because they’re such an important band to us. ‘Perfect Circle’ is an REM song that we all love a lot (“One of the best”), and I said, ‘Perfect Circle,’ and then we thought Imperfect Circle was a better name, because just looking at us, our career, it’s the 25th anniversary of Cracked Rear View, but we’ve been playing together 30-something years and for us to be here, to be doing this tour and to be making a record, it just seems like Imperfect Circle was perfect.” SONI: “Nice. Imperfect Circle is perfect!”

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