This week’s question isn’t exactly a wizard rock question, but it is Harry Potter related.
Awhile back, Joshua Herdman (Crabbe) made the claim that Deathly Hallows will be split right after Harry, Ron, and Hermione are grabbed by the Snatchers. David Yates has said he had “three or four different ideas” about where the break would be, so it is still uncertain whether Herdman is correct.
Where would you split the movie?
I always thought that the best place would be after they buried Dobby. It’s not during a real cliffhanger, and I’d hate to see Dobby’s death belittled by being at the beginning of part 2. I’m afraid we will all gloss over that part with all the deaths at the end, and I think Dobby deserves better than that.
Wouldn’t it be neat if JK Rowling was a musician that collaborated with a wizard rock band? Wouldn’t it be even neater if she played the accordion? Well fans of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events get just that via Daniel Handler’s participation in the Gothic Archies. (more…)
Five years ago a sweaty dude named Andrew Slack came to one of our shows with an idea would profoundly change the way Harry Potter fans could interact with the magical world created by JK Rowling. No, he wasn’t proposing a theme park. Instead, he wanted to take a cue from the books and create an actual Dumbledore’s Army. He wanted to harness the enthusiasm and dedication of Harry Potter fans everywhere and put it to practical action here in our own world. His idea was to form an Alliance of Harry Potter fans.
I immediately started working with Andrew on his idea for the Harry Potter Alliance. Just as these books had inspired us to start a band and make art, they also inspired us to be better people. They taught us that the powers of love and friendship and courage are enough to overcome seemingly insurmountable evil. Harry and his friends proved that it doesn’t matter how old you are: you can still play a huge role in shaping the world. We hoped to create an organization that would help facilitate and empower Harry Potter fans everywhere, to bring them together, and to help them transfer a little of the magic of Harry’s world into our own.
I’m not actually going to Infinitus, but all the anticipatory buzz is making me very excited for everyone who is!
So, this week I ask: What’s your favorite thing about cons? Getting to see lots of wizard rock? Barely eating/sleeping for 3 days? Falling asleep with your best fandom friends right next to you?
I love getting to see all the different bands at cons because they tend to be extraordinary shows, but nothing beats being surrounded by so much love and friendship for a few days. I’ll miss you all, and you better have an amazing time!
On this week’s Muggle Music Monday, we’re going to take a look at a band who’s been highly influential on the entire wizard rock genre – FUGAZI!
Fugazi was formed in the mid-1980′s by Ian MacKaye, former vocalist of the DC hardcore band Minor Threat. A few years after that influential group disbanded, Ian had worked his way through a couple of other projects before starting what would soon become Fugazi. After some rehearsals and personnel changes, the lineup was solidified with Joe Lally (bass), along with Brendan Canty (drums) and Guy Picciotto (guitar and vocals). Brendan and Guy had previously been bandmates in Rites of Spring, THE band that started the whole “emo” movement (this was back when emo meant wearing your heart on your sleeve and leaving it all onstage, not mascara and Hot Topic).
Together as a band, Fugazi combined elements of many different types of music, much like wizard rock. Although the band’s core was in the indie/punk/hardcore vein, many songs also had distinct reggae, jazz, and fusion elements to them. Fugazi never branded themselves as any specific sort of genre, and that simply worked for them – they were a band that played what they wanted, when they wanted to. We see that element really exemplified in wizard rock, when bands combine styles and even shift from one song to another. (more…)
The HPA is participating in the Chase Challenge on Facebook for a chance to win $250,000. (Details on how to vote are below.)
What causes would you like this money to help, if (when?) the HPA wins?
I know we all have causes near to our heart, but I also believe in timeliness. At the moment, I would love for the HPA to organize something we can do to help with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Note: Okay, so I just wrote out almost this entire post when my page decided to refresh itself and lose everything. So I apologize if some of what you read here is trite, boring, or forced. I swear it sounded great the first time ’round!
You know what I absolutely love about #MuggleMusicMonday? It affords me the opportunity to find new music. I love it! More than that, I get to shamelessly peruse the shared iTunes libraries of coworkers and IM randoms in the office without abandon to talk about their music. I’ll be honest, sometimes it really throws people off and they question my sanity, but they get over it eventually. In any case, a coworker’s shared iTunes library is exactly where I found today’s band: Watchout! There’s Ghosts.
In my perusing, I was naturally drawn to a band with a name like that. Selecting a song at random, the first song from this band that I listened to was not fully characteristic of the band. It is a mellow version of what I have found to be their norm. This song is ‘Remember Me, Oh God, for Good’, the closing track on their album Ghost Town. After listening to more, I quickly found that there is generally a techno/dance/electronica style to their music.
Are any of our readers fans of Ministry of Magic? … I think I heard the fangirls screaming from here. Impressive. Well, the reason I bring it up is because as I was listening to more from Watchout! There’s Ghosts, the more I started to think about how much fans of MoM would be able to appreciate the band. Before things get out of hand, the answer is “No! They are not exactly like MoM.” So please don’t expect that when you check these guys out. But there’s definitely a lot going on.
So, to make it easy, take a listen to one of their songs that stood out to me the most, ‘Don’t Shoot Me Annie Oakley’.
Sorry this Question Tuesday is bit late this week. Without Lost to mark the day, I forgot it was Tuesday!
The other reason I didn’t realize it was Tuesday was because, for most of us, it’s SUMMER! Time tends to run together in the summertime, so I thought talking about our wizard rock plans might help us to keep track of it all.
I started my wizard rock summer with a Nifflers/JFF/Whomping Willows/Myrtles show last week. For the rest of the summer, I am mostly sticking close to home, but I’m lucky to have three shows to go to in the next month, so I won’t feel so bad about missing Infinitus. What are your plans this summer, wizard rock or otherwise?
Also, I am pretty sure that getting to see Jake of The Nifflers play for the first time will be the highlight of summer wizard rock for me. He does a great job playing, and both the crowd and Jake seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. Check out some clips from his show last week!
Tue, Jul 13, 2010
8 Comments