Matt attended the New York City Wizard Rock Festival (NYCWRF) in 2008, loved the format, and decided to organize his own event. He had planned to move to the DC area in the fall of 2009, and thought that the area would be a great place to host a wizard rock event. Matt turned to Grace Kendall (of Snidget) for help in organizing the event. Grace had attempted to put together a Wizard Rock even in West Virginia the previous year, so she was excited for the opportunity to work with Matt on this project.

Sonorus is being held at Jammin’ Java, a venue that includes a professional stage and sound system, while still retaining an intimacy perfect for Wizard Rock shows. Matt says that Jammin’ Java “is an institution in the DC area, and we are still amazed that we have the opportunity to host Sonorus there.” Jammin’ Java also serves food, and has a full bar, which will be available to Sonorus attendees. The event will start at 11:30am, with performances lasting until 7:45pm. Never fear, though! There are lots of places to hang out after the show, and you can be sure that there will be partying long after the last band leaves the stage.

When choosing bands to perform at the event, Matt and Grace tried to create as diverse a group as possible, to make the event truly unique. They wanted to showcase long-time fan favorites, like The Whomping Willows, newer headliners, like Swish and Flick, and up-and-coming but less exposed bands, such as Standing In Line. In addition to East Coast-based touring bands, Grace and Matt also wanted to showcase some local talent, so they invited The Dumbledore’s Army Band to play, and Grace will be taking the stage as Snidget. With this wide range of bands, Sonorus is sure to please everyone in attendance.

Matt and Grace are aware that Wizard Rock can sometimes be an expensive habit, and that not every fan can afford to go to a con to see their favorite Wizard Rock band. Matt says that he wanted Sonorous “to show wrock fans that you can have a great time, see a TON of bands, and get the feel of a con without having to pay con prices.” Graces says that one of their main priorities was to keep to cost low so that people could afford to travel to the event, and also to ensure that any profit made goes directly back to the bands. With tickets priced at just $20, I’d say they definitely accomplished that goal.

One of the other goals behind the event is to help establish a Wizard Rock scene in the Virginia/DC area. Grace says that “Occasionally touring bands will stop by the area and a nice crowd will show up, but we don’t have anything like the cohesive communities that NC and NY have.” Matt echoes this opinion: “I really want to show that the DC area has something special to offer for wizard rock. Getting here is much more convenient than people might realize. It’s served well by bus, train, and air, and it’s a natural meeting place for a lot of other big Potter areas like NYC, Philly, North Carolina, and Pittsburgh.” Grace is hoping that Sonorus will be a step towards solidifying a community of local fans, as well and bringing in people from other areas of the country who may never have considered the area as a hub for Wizard Rock.

While there is no established theme for the event, Matt says that costumes are encouraged, “but the key is sing along, hear old favorites, makes some new favorites, meet new people, and just have a good time.”

You can buy tickets to the event through Jammin’ Java.

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As a middle school orchestra teacher myself, this program hits really close to home. I have seen music programs in my district get their budgets cut, and I have seen teachers lose their jobs because their administration decided that music wasn’t a priority. This not only affects the teacher, but it also deprives the students of a well-rounded education.

Little Kids Rock was founded in the Bay Area of San Francisco by David Wish, a former elementary school teacher. Wish was dissatisfied with his school’s lack of funding for music education and decided to take action: he started offering after-school guitar classes to interested students. When his classes became more popular than he could have imagined, he decided to expand his program on the national level.

The program attracted interest from legendary blues musicians John Lee Hooker and BB King, who gave Little Kids Rock its initial support. With their help, Little Kids Rock transformed from a program with a handful of students to a nationally-recognized non-profit organization that has helped thousands of students across the country.

Little Kids Rock now has locations in over 20 cities across the nation, and counts Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon, BB King, Ziggy Marley and Slash as its Honorary Board Members.

Little Kids Rock trains public school music teachers during a two-day workshop. After training teachers in the unique Little Kids Rock curriculum, the teachers are then free to run the program at their school, either within the core curriculum (during the school day) or in an after-school program. Because the instruments are donated free of charge, there is absolutely no cost to the school. In addition to providing curriculum and instruments to schools, Little Kids Rock also provides free resources, such as curriculum available through iTunes U and YouTube.

Even though the program continues to thrive, they can always use your support. Whether you are a wizard rocker who is also a public school teacher (I’m looking at you, Bryce Cone!) or a fan who has some experience with arts administration, there are a number of ways you can get involved with Little Kids Rock. You can sign up to receive newsletters here, or make a tax-deductible monetary donation here.

For even more information on this amazing program, have a look at their PDF press kit.

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When you are in a band that revolves around a dead character who only pops into the story every so often, it can be difficult to find material to craft songs around. Lauren Fairweather and Nina Jankowicz were running into this very problem when Paul DeGeorge asked them to do an EP for this year’s club. They decided that this was the perfect opportunity to test out an idea they had discussed during recording sessions for What About Myrtle? in the summer of 2008. They were going to write an entirely a cappella CD. As members of a capella groups at their respective colleges, they have witnessed first-hand what is possible when only voices are used to create music.

With Bathroom Acoustics, the girls set out to create something entirely different than their usual sound. Lauren says that, while they’ve seen success and been known as “that wizard rock band with the two girls singing harmonies with a piano,” they wanted to see what would happen if they removed the piano, and all other instruments, from the equation.

Nina and Lauren were under a time crunch recording this EP: they were returning from a tour with Justin Finch-Fletchley and The Whomping Willows and had less than two weeks to finish the EP before their deadline. Their writing process was extremely different than it was on their other 2 releases. If they hadn’t felt this pressure, Bathroom Acoustics might have followed a process not unlike their other releases: Lauren could write some lyrics, Nina could arrange a melody into various a cappella parts, and they would have recorded it at their leisure. Nina says, “everything kind of happened at once with this EP,” and they were forced to redefine their methods. They did everything literally at the same time: Lauren wrote lyrics, Nina arranged vocal parts, they worked together on the melody to give a clearer structure to the song, and they went back and forth between melody and lyrics until the chords underneath the vocals were complete.

Lauren says that the most difficult part about recording anything this way was that they were “scribbling the words down and almost immediately recording them without getting a chance to memorize and perfect the material. Usually, that isn’t terribly difficult because we only have to remember one or two parts.” This time around, they had more to concern themselves with because they used their voices to create all the accompaniment parts. Lauren says, “Hearing how great it sounded as we added each part to the mix made it worth the headache.”

The EP itself is a triumph of will and determination. The songs are expertly crafted and recorded. The girls were kind enough to send me the entire EP to listen to in preparation for this article, so here is a little preview for those of you who haven’t gotten your EP club shipment yet.

(Wait, you’re not a member of the EP of the Month club yet? What are you waiting for? Go sign up!)

The title track, “Bathroom Acoustics,” opens with an ascending chord, and continues into a doo-wop vocal accompaniment underneath the melody line. This is also the only track that uses more than just voices. Even so, the additional percussion “instruments” are not ones you’d expect: a toothbrush, faucet, hair dryer, pipes, gargling, and a toilet flush. These “instruments” are featured prominently in an all-percussion section that leads into the final chorus. The girls had help with this section, recruiting their drummer, Justin Bulava, and Nina’s boyfriend, Mike Stein. While not entirely from Myrtle’s point of view, the song does include some elements of the bathroom-dwelling ghost:
Maybe it was magic, could have been a spell
Cuz I don’t know how else I could be singing so well
It’s the bathroom acoustics, pimping out my voice
They make me sound so good that I have to rejoice
Cuz those bathroom acoustics made a singer out of me
Now Britain’s Got Talent’s gonna put me on TV
My favorite part of the song is the charming little giggle at the end.

The next track, “Lonely Myrtle,” expresses Myrtle’s distress at not being invited to a Deathday Party. The vocal accompaniment is sad and haunting, and it allows the melody to be showcased easily.
They shouldn’t call me Moaning Myrtle
Cuz no one’s around to moan to
At the end of the day, when everyone’s gone away
I’m just Lonely Myrtle
Myrtle ponders the idea of throwing her own Deathday Party before she resigns herself to the fact that no one would show up.
If you weren’t there, then I wouldn’t blame you
But it’s still my party and I’ll cry if I want to

“Glasses” is the shortest song on the EP, clocking in at just 20 seconds. The accompaniment is upbeat and perpetually driving forward, giving off an excited energy, which is also expressed in the lyrics.
Today I got a new pair of glasses
Today I got a new pair of glasses
They really look cool
I will wear them to school

“Kill Me Again” is probably my favorite song from this EP. The beat-box-style accompaniment in this song is fiercely detailed, and Lauren gets a chance to flex her hip-hop muscles:
I may not be hip, and I ain’t got no bling
But you know on the dance floor I can shake my thang
So take off that shirt, boy, it looks so itchy
Cuz every Dark Wizard needs a hot little witchy
The girls are joined by their friend Zack McKenna, who also did some additional vocals on What About Myrtle? Zack lends his voice to the part of Tom Riddle in this song:
Don’t give me this petty frustration
My one true soul mate is world domination
After a final chorus asking, “Tom Riddle, please, won’t you kill me again?” the song ends with a challenging, “WHAT?”

The EP ends with “O.W.L.s,” a song about every Hogwarts student‘s favorite standardized test. The song opens with a beat-box-style accompaniment, similar to “Kill Me Again,” underneath a swinging melodic line. The underlying chant-like line throughout the whole song gives it a very lively feel. Myrtle is told that she can’t take the test because, let’s be honest, she’s dead.
Are you kidding?
They won’t let me take my O.W.L.s
I want a tuition refund!

Overall, Bathroom Acoustics is surprising, clever, and ingenious. Each song is extraordinarily unique, and the vocal techniques used to create the different parts of each song are astounding. To my knowledge, Bathroom Acoustics is the only entirely a cappella Wizard Rock CD in existence. Lauren and Nina have achieved something great in creating this EP.

You can listen to “O.W.L.s” and “Bathroom Acoustics” on The Moaning Myrtles’ MySpace page, but the only way to get the full EP is to subscribe to this year’s EP of the Month Club.

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To begin the process of “advertising” for the event, Abby Hupp turned to Jace MacDonald, of Catchlove (who is also performing at the event!) with an idea to create a cartoon featuring the bands that would be performing. The entire process of creating the cartoon took around 5 months. Abby approached Jace in December with the idea, and the cartoon debuted on Wrockstock TV’s YouTube channel in the beginning of May. The first 2 months of the process revolved around getting people on board with the idea, creating the script, and collecting voice overs from the wrockers to be included in the cartoon. The two also worked on development of the characters, and working on backgrounds for the eventual green screen shots.

In March, after collecting the necessary audio parts, Jace set out to start animating. Since he had some character files left over from his “Covah Yr Junk” music video, he had an advantage. For the first step of animation, Jace used a program called ToonBoom, which he was introduced to in a Multimedia class. Jace says that, when animating, he starts his process “with the characters, animating their mouths to match their voice overs, animate their eyes if they look to something,” and then imports the files into another program to add more effects and put the finishing touches on cartoon.

Jace was kind enough to send along some screenshots, so that we can all get a glimpse of his animating process.

This is the first shot that Jace sent to Abby, just to make sure she liked his interpretation of the bus.

Here is the outline of Nina of The Moaning Myrtles in ToonBoom.

Jarrod, of Gred and Forge, eating a taco in ToonBoom. In this screenshot, you can also see the timeline and the different layers Jace used.

After processing most of the animations in ToonBoom, Jace then placed them on green screen backgrounds and imported the files into After Effects, which also allows him to add any special effects that are needed, like the color-changing bus.

Here’s Nina and Lauren in a bathroom, after being edited in After Effects.

Here is a group shot on the green screen.

Here is roughly the same shot as above after being edited in After Effects.

Jace says that even though this particular cartoon did not demand many special effects, other than the color-changing bus, “the possibilities are endless with After Effects.”

After months of planning and preparation, “Get on the Bus to Wrockstock!!!” debuted on YouTube on May 10, 2009, and currently has over 1,000 views.

Wrockstock tickets are currently available, but you must purchase your ticket and reserve your room at the Trout Lodge by October 31st in order to attend this year’s event!

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Wrocking Down Under will feature music from a number of Australian Wizard Rock bands and solo artists, such as Colours in the Cauldron and Snape’s Army. Colours in the Cauldron is made up of Linny, Ecm, and Kirie, who formed their band to have fun playing music together: “We thought, Hey that might be cool, to play music.” They are striving for an original sound, though they don’t deny being influenced by others: “We listen to a lot of wizard rock bands, but we’re not really trying to be like anyone.” This is not the case for Ben, of Snape’s Army. Ben says he was influenced by a lot of Muggle bands, especially Nine Inch Nails, and he says that “the experimential nature of their music was my biggest inspiration.” Like Colours in the Cauldron, Ben started his band to have fun, and keep Harry Potter a part of his life after the seventh book was released. Ben says that he was feeling “extremely sad, as no more books were coming” and was more than happy to contribute a song to Wrocking Down Under. Colours in the Cauldron say that they are extremely excited to be contributing to the compilation, and they hope that it will bring more awareness to the Wizard Rock community in Australia, and hopefully people will realize that they are “not just scary people with funny accents.”

At the moment, the Wizard Rock scene in Australia is small. Ben, of Snape’s Army, occasionally performs in Sydney, while Colours in the Cauldron is anticipating their first show in Victoria soon, where they predict that the crowds “will be kinda small considering know one really knows about it here.” Alex, from The Wizarding World, admits that an Australian Wizard Rock Tour was “never really going to go ahead, it was just a glorified possibility.” Ben has a more drastic outlook on the future of Wizard Rock: “With no more books coming, WRock can only decline from here on out.” This perspective might be shared by some other musicians in our world’s smallest continent, but hopefully one day soon, we will all be wrocking Down Under.

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