Welcome to this week’s Wrock Wrap Up! Don’t forget to keep us updated on your Wrock news!

General

The Blibbering Humdingers were interviewed by The Charlotte Geeks  last week. If you’re interested in Scott’s thoughts about Wizards vs. Aliens, this article is right up your alley!

Ravenrock put up a number of photos from the recent “Wrock and Love” festival in Sweden. They also announced the release of their upcoming album, tentatively due June 6.

Although they’re not technically a new band, “‘ow ‘orrible, ‘arry” is now listed on the Bands list here. Check out their singles on their Bandcamp page.

Albums

Slytherin Soundtrack has released a new 7 song EP called “Year Seven“, which you can download for free from their Bandcamp page.

Songs

The Deathsticks – “Bucktooth Girl”

Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAFL1GfISf8

May 2007 was a momentous time – wizard rock was growing quickly, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was 2 months away from being published, as was the release of the Order of the Phoenix movie. That summer and fall would see an explosion in new wrock bands, and the launching of an all wizard rock con, the glorious Wrockstock! And it was Phoenix Rising that gave Abby Hupp the idea to hold a con just for wizard rock bands and fans.

Oh, and MTV was there too.

Here’s some videos from the fans and bands that attended and played at Phoenix Rising. If you were there, give us some of your favorite memories in the comments below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb4TeRiAkw4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fC7JhQgnKcc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls8GaZ5Kh7w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-DAPGRNyxE

Hey West Coast wizards! Harry and the Potters are on their way out to spread some awesome music and wizard love with you on their way to LeakyCon.

Anyone who’s seen Harry and the Potters live know how amazing their shows are, and if you haven’t seen them… what are you waiting for???

Here’s a list of their dates and info, which we got  from their Tumblr page. Please visit it for more information on the shows and venues.

June 1 | Denver, CO  | Denver Comic Con | Rock Comic Con |  with Kirby Krackle, H2Awesome!, and the Doubleclicks | 10pm | Tickets

June 3 | Windsor, CO |  Clearview Library District | 720 3rd Street | 6pm | ALL AGES  | Free | special acoustic sing-a-long set

June 15 | Seattle, WA | Vera Project | $11 | 7:30pm | ALL AGES | tix

June 16 | Portland, OR | Gathering of the Goof Punx | ALL AGES

June 17 | Olympia, WA | Northern | 414 1/2 Legion Way | ALL AGES | Time TBA

June 19 | Reno, NV | Holland | 140 Vesta St | ALL AGES | Time TBA

June 20 | Bay Area | TBA 

June 21 | So Cal | TBA 

June 22 | Phoenix, AZ | Burton Barr Central Library | 1221 N Central Ave | 6pm | Free | ALL AGES

June 23 | Tucson, AZ | Hotel Congress | 311 E Congress St. | FREE | 1pm wizard events … 4pm rock show | ALL AGES

June 24 | So Cal | TBA 

June 25 | San Francisco, CA | Brick & Mortar Music Hall | 1710 Mission Street | with James Rabbit | $10 | EARLY SHOW 5pm doors finished by 8pm | All Ages

June 28 | Portland, OR  | LeakyCon

August 8 – 11 | London, UK  | LeakyCon

MORE UK DATES TBA

How do you like to purchase your wizard rock music – on a physical CD, or as a digital download?

A lot of people like the instant gratification of a download, and bands like the lower costs they incur to get their music out to everyone. On the other hand, a good number of listeners like having a CD to hold, cover art to check out, liner notes to read, etc. and some bands have had some really great packaging in the past.

So let’s hear it! What’s your preferred way to get wizard rock – on CD, or as a download?

Welcome to this week’s Wrock Wrap Up! Don’t forget to keep us updated on your Wrock news!

General

Check out this past week’s episode of Side B Radio, which featured plenty of wizard rock and other geeky fandom music. Alex Carpenter and Kirstyn Hippe were interviewed as well, making the show a great listen!

Albums

Gadding With Ghouls has released a free 5 song sampler on their Bandcamp page, called “Servings From the Hopping Pot”. The free EP includes songs from their first album, as well as a few tracks from their upcoming new release.

Videos

Last week’s Wrock and Love 2013 festival in Sweden featured a big jam on a cover tune from some band you probably have never heard of.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkcsstTj2iA

I know I am a day late, but I seriously have nothing guys. All of the pictures in the feed are outdated, and I am still giving those who attended MISTI-Con some time to get their pictures up.

Please, send in any Wizard Rock photos to the Wizrocklopedia Flickr Feed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtcCChBiupM

For more of their music, you should definitely go visit their Bandcamp page! If you caught their set at MISTI-Con, leave us some feedback in the comments below.

With the fantastic success of this past weekend’s MISTI-Con up in New Hampshire, we all wanted to know:

What Harry Potter or wizard rock con are you most looking forward to this year?

There are also a few tours coming up this summer, but for this week’s Question Tuesday, let’s hear about the cons. You know, the ones you’re planning to fly out to, spend some sleepless nights hanging with your friends, and losing your voices while screaming your heart out during the wrock concerts to.

Oh, and if you have pictures from MISTI, please be sure to add them to our Flickr feed so Camie can share them on our Creevey Thursdays!

Welcome to this week’s Wrock Wrap Up! Don’t forget to keep us updated on your Wrock news!

General

Fans have just 6 more days left to contribute to the Go West, Young Wizards Kickstarter to help Tonks and the Aurors, Justin Finch-Fletchley, and Kirstyn Hippe on their upcoming summer tour.

Wizard rock fan Rosalyn has a survey for wizard rockers to take if they’d like to help her out with her Ethnomusicology class (which is based on the study of music of other cultures). It’s a short questionnaire, so please take a look if you’re interested in contributing.

The Sectumsempra Band have changed their name again, and are now known as Bathroom Laceration. Due to the name change, they’ve also changed the URL of their Soundcloud page where you can download 5 of their songs. Highly recommended if you’re a fan of early 80′s skate punk music.

Site News

We now have a Wizrocklopedia Tumblr page set up, thanks to Laura! Those of you who like Tumblr for reading and sharing news can follow us there for all the latest wizard rock links and info.

Albums

Ravenrock is hard at work on a new album, which should be available in the coming months. For now, you can purchase their first single “This Is The End” on their Bandcamp page.

Hey guys! MISTI-Con is upon us!

I know today is the start of the con, but I would love to see a huge influx of wizard rock photos from this weekend make it into the Wizrocklopedia Flickr Feed. As said before, all Creevey Thursday photo selections come from the submissions to that feed.

I hope everyone at the con has an awesome time!

It’s no secret that MySpace helped fuel the wizard rock explosion. In fact, I don’t think there are many wizard rock fans that can claim they DIDN’T spend at least a few sleepless nights constantly adding bands as friends and downloading new music when they first discovered wizard rock through MySpace. This is especially true for people who discovered wrock between 2006-2010.

In 2013, however, MySpace has gone the way of the dinosaur. It may be popular in some small areas, but as a social platform it’s been replaced by Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, you name it. And it was truly the social aspect of MySpace that helped spread the word of wizard rock, and led to the formation of so many bands.

Up until mid-2008 or so, users could easily download the songs that bands uploaded to MySpace. Instead of having to sit at a PC with MySpace open and streaming, fans could simply download songs to their heart’s content, and in a few days have a giant wrock playlist that they could take with them wherever they went.  Once MySpace eliminated that feature, fans could still get mp3s by purchasing them through outlets like iTunes, or by purchasing CDs from the bands directly. Some bands still opted to release their music freely by uploading it to file sharing sites, and placing the links on their MySpace pages.

MySpace is now undergoing another reinvention. It’s been sold off a few times, each time for a lesser price than its last sale. It’s current owners are really pushing hard for MySpace to once again be a destination for music fans, and looking to focus just on giving bands an outlet to reach new fans.

A huge looming issue is the potential removal of inactive pages on MySpace. Users can currently choose to log into either the old interface (which is incredibly bloated and slow), or the new interface. There are concerns from a number of places about what will happen when MySpace finally converts to the new interface on a full time basis – reports are already surfacing that users converting their profiles to the new MySpace are losing their old content, and some theorize that users may need to create an entirely new profile on the new system, losing their old profile entirely.

So, why is this an issue?

What if once MySpace completes it’s conversion to the “new” MySpace, it deletes old profiles or content? Maybe it’s done to pages that haven’t had a login in X amount of time, maybe it’s done when they send out a mass message telling users they have a certain timeframe to convert their own profiles over or risk losing them. Maybe MySpace will force everyone to create a brand new profile, and re-upload everything they had on their old profile.

With any of the above scenarios, there exists a pretty big risk that literally hundreds of wizard rock bands could lose their profiles, and would pull thousands of wizard rock songs offline, never to be heard again. Newer wrock fans would be robbed of the experience of hearing so many great diverse bands.

Is this going to happen? It would be a shame for wizard rock fans to suddenly lose access to countless great songs, and for bands that may be defunct to disappear as if they never existed. Some of those bands may not check their “band” email anymore, or even have access to it, or perhaps they long ago forgot their MySpace account credentials and have no plans to ever try and get them back. So if MySpace decides to remove old content for any reason, it’s very possible that all that wizard rock could disappear.

How does this affect us?

Are we, as a whole, responsible for preserving the history of wizard rock?

The idea of curating some sort of wizard rock archive has been around in various forms for a while, but now the importance of it may be a lot higher than it once was. In an ideal world, wizard rock fans would have access to an archive of mp3s from bands that are retired, defunct, etc. and don’t have their music available for sale (via CD, digital stores, etc.). This way, if MySpace does decide to remove old content, the songs are saved and wizard rock fans will still have access to them. Also, it’s a heck of a lot easier to have local files vs. having to stream them from a computer or phone.

Now, while the idea is a great one, the logistics behind it are a lot more complicated. For instance, how does the archive get copies of all of those songs? Ideally it would be from the bands themselves, as the sound quality would be the highest. But that brings another issue into play – if bands haven’t logged into their MySpace in years, and have no other contact information, how can they be reached to ask them about contributing?

Another option would be to rip the streams of the songs from MySpace in order to create an mp3. That option opens up a whole can of worms as far as morals are concerned. Would it be considered “stealing” the songs, if the band didn’t intend for them to be downloaded and never gave their permission for people to create local copies of the songs, even if they were never offered for sale or download? Along those lines, what if someone adds music to the archive that’s still for sale someplace? It’s again not fair for the band to lose money if they’re selling their albums and someone starts giving them away for free.

Storage is also part of the equation. Could one massive archive on someplace like archive.org be set up? The amount of space needed to store all these mp3s would be costly on a paid platform, and if for any reason THAT platform went away, then we’re right back to square one (if not worse).

We wanted to open this discussion up to everyone – both bands and fans of wizard rock. Do you think MySpace could potentially remove hundreds of old defunct wizard rock profiles, and the songs they contain? Should we investigate a way to create an archive of songs from bands that are retired? If so, how would you prefer it be accomplished? Again, there exists the real possibility that bands could not be contacted for either original files or permission to rip a stream of their songs, and that could cut down drastically in the number of songs in the archive. Long time fans may have copies of those songs, but would putting them in an archive without the band’s permission be poor form?

Please leave your thoughts and comments below, we’re very eager to hear your thoughts on this issue, and any potential steps we could take to preserve hundreds (if not thousands) of wizard rock songs for everyone if MySpace does indeed decide to remove old wizard rock band profiles.

I think it’s safe to say that so many of us feel a personal connection to wizard rock, and some bands and songs in particular. So for this week’s Question Tuesday, we’d like to know:

What wizard rock song(s) move you in an emotional way?

I can freely admit that Riddle TM‘s “Look At Me” has always been a personal favorite of mine, and hearing them play it at Wrockstock III was a pretty emotional experience for me. I’ve also been known to get a lump in my throat during the “Dumbledore’s Army forever!” line coming out of the middle section of The Remus Lupins’ “The End“. Oh and I listened to Roonil Wazlib’s “Green Eyes” over 130 times before I was able to make it all the way through with dry eyes.

But enough about me! We’d like to know what wizard rock songs get you right in the gut. Let us know in the comments below!

Welcome to this week’s Wrock Wrap Up! Don’t forget to keep us updated on your Wrock news! (no, seriously, please let us know about any news – be it a new song, an album release, a show, etc. We’ll be happy to write it up for you!)

General

Lauren Fairweather posted a heartfelt letter on her website to thank her fans for all of their support over the years. No Lauren, thank YOU for all of the songs, smiles, videos, and encouragement you’ve given to all of US over the years!

The Witching Hour’s latest podcast “The Limits of Magic” discusses how magic works within the Potterverse, and features 22 wizard rock songs. Be sure to check them out, and subscribe if you haven’t already.

Albums

Slytherin Soundtrack has released a new 10 song album “Magical Beasts and Nice Giants“, which you can download completely free of charge at their Bandcamp page. (Yes we know it was released in April, we’re still playing catch up here!)

Shows

The Nerd Music Spectacular Spectacular Show of a Life Time will be on June 8, 2013 in Springfield, VA. The show will be held from 4pm-10pm at The Agape House, and bands appearing will include:

-The Blibbering Humdingers 
-Hawthorn & Holly
-The District 13 Cowboys
-Witherwings
-Jared TWG (The Wizard Guy)

Other bands may be added to the lineup as well in the coming weeks. For more information about the lineup or how to get there, visit the show’s Facebook event page.

Videos

A large number of new original wizard rock songs can now be found on YouTube thanks to the upcoming LeakyStars contest. Artists releasing songs include:

Anna Stephenson “The Owl Song”
Leila “Love Songs for Wizards”
Michael Crowley “I Am A Wizard”
Linda Gatt “LeakyCon (This Is Me)”

Thanks to Steph from Tonks and the Aurors for the tip on these videos! These are just a few of the many videos that were released this week, so if you also have a video for LeakyStars 2013 leave a link in the comments so we can all go check it out!

In a surprise video yesterday, Matt launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund the “new” Whomping Willows album. We say “new” because according to Matt, the album is actually an unreleased album that the Whomping Willow recorded in 1975, which Potter fans will immediately recognize as the Mauraders Era at Hogwarts.

At this point, Matt simply doesn’t have the proper equipment to play back and restore the songs on the 1975 recording. So he has no idea what the songs sound like, although Whompy has shared with Matt that he really loves Belle & Sebastian because they remind him of his favorite bands from the 1970′s. Hmmm, interesting…

Because the new/old Whomping Willows album is being funded by Kickstarter, there’s all sorts of creative and individualized rewards being offered to backers. One lucky backer has the opportunity to take ownership of the guitar Matt used to record the first few Whomping Willows albums with, and has toured the country with. Other backers can receive handwritten lyrics from the album, letters from Matt about the album’s recording, or have Matt record any one cover song of their choice.

One interesting non-musical backer reward is the offer of an original Harry Potter fanfiction written by Matt. When asked about possible subjects, Matt said “If someone’s willing to donate $150 to this very complicated, expensive restoration project, then I will certainly write for them any kind of story their heart desires.” So let your imaginations take flight (in your dad’s flying car) with all sorts of crazy pairings and situations!

Matt’s goal for this new album is to raise $1500 as a baseline, which was reached and surpassed in less than 9 hours! This initial goal allows Matt to release the new Whomping Willows album in a digital format. If he hits $5000, he’ll book an album release tour (nice!), and has even more goals in mind.

If you’d like to pre-order and back the new Whomping Willows album, visit his Kickstarter and be sure to follow him on Twitter as he provides everyone with updates on his fundraising goals.

The Blibbering Humdingers have reached 90% of their fundraising goal to get to LeakyCon London! The cool thing about this is that they did it through their own website, and not through kickstarter! In an update earlier today, they mention that while the campaign has officially ended, they will still be accepting contributions. So go over and help them reach their 100%.

What wizard rock band would you like to see make a comeback?

In the interest of having some great discussion in the comments section, let’s actually stretch that question out to TWO bands. This way, we don’t have a whole line of comments that all just say THE MUDBLOODS.

So let’s hear it! What two defunct/retired/disappeared wizard rock bands would you love to hear new music from and/or see perform live??

MISTI-Con is a joint effort between The Group That Shall Not Be Named (HP-NYC), Ray “The Dark Lord Bartender” Smith (how sweet of a nickname is that?), and The Margate Hotel in Laconia, NH. MISTI-Con itself stands for “Ministry Interdepartmental Service Training Institute,” and this helps represent their “in-character” theme for the weekend. Essentially, the Ministry is holding the convention as a training grounds for new employees after the Second Wizarding War. Much of the programming reinforces this theme, and includes additional elements to make the con-goers feel like an active part of the storyline.

The intimate event is limited to 500 attendees, in order to ensure that each fan feels like an integral part of the convention. MISTI-Con was also supported by a Kickstarter campaign, which, at the end of its run, was over 300% funded! That’s fandom power for you.

The Margate was the host for Aeternitas 2011, which meant they were already somewhat familiar with wizarding events. Logistics chair Jon Rosenthal approached some members of HP-MA, who co-sponsored Aeternitas, and asked if he could approach the Margate to host MISTI-Con, and was glad to receive their blessing. The Margate is situated on the shores Lake Winnipesaukee, which I’m sure you can imagine as the Black Lake. Just keep an eye out for the Giant Squid.

Programming at MISTI-Con runs the (Wizen)gamut: with everything from cosplay workshops to literary readings to live podcasting to HP Family Feud, there is something for every fan in attendance. Cassandra Johnstone, Co-Head Organizer and Programming Coordinator, says that the presenters they chose “are all particularly original in their ideas and are very enthusiastic individuals. We chose programs that would interest all different types of attendees; from athletic workshops to academic discussions about Hogwarts sorting, there will be something for any sort of fan at MISTI.”

Last but not least, OF COURSE there’s a wizard rock event! Wrock in the Wizengamot will be held on Friday May 10 and will feature such talents as Swish & Flick, Bella and Le Strangers, Hawthorn & Holly, The Blibbering Humdingers, and Diagon Alley. Jon Rosenthal says that they like to focus on “bands that have incredible talent but might not get as much exposure.” I think we can all agree that the bands featured all fall into the category of “incredible talent.” Jon also says that they wanted to “invite bands that didn’t have a chance to play Aeternitas. While there are some overlaps, bands like The Blibbering Humdingers, Hawthorn & Holly and Diagon Alley are playing at The Margate for the first time.”

Also, Matt (The Whomping Willows) and Lauren Fairweather are putting on a special after-hours show! You can see the facebook event here, and you can even challenge them with a special cover request!

You can check out more information about MISTI-Con on their FAQ page (which is extensive and awesome!), or their guide in the Guidebook app!

Full registration package sales close TONIGHT, so if you’re within reasonable travel distance, get yourself to this awesome con!

Wrock and Love, the first ever Swedish wizard rock festival, will be taking place May 10-11 in Växjö, Sweden. With 11 bands over two days, wrock fans are sure to get more than their fill of awesome wizard rock.

The lineup includes:

• Waddiwazi
• Parchment and Quill
• Spader 3
• The Swedish Shortsnouts
• Solitary Snape
• A Magical Love Story
• Underground Pebbles
• Ravenrock
• Lord Lovegood
• RapeSnapeEscape 
• Pussycat Dolores

According to Anna from The Swedish Shortsnouts, the name “Wrock and Love” is a bit of a spoof on a big Swedish muggle music festival called “Peace and Love”.

Fans in Sweden who are interested in attending can get more info from the show’s website. If you plan on attending, be sure to send us your photos and links to your videos so we can post them here for everyone to see!

Welcome to this week’s Wrock Wrap Up! Don’t forget to keep us updated on your Wrock news!

General

Wrockstock is BACK! The Wrockstock crew announced that registration for their upcoming event Wrockstock Reunited has now been opened. Check out the event’s Facebook page for more information.

Is The Whomping Willows planning a new album? Matt’s recent Facebook status on his band page is hinting heavily that he might be.

Songs

Seen and Unforeseen – “King’s Cross” (YouTube)

The Puffskein Experience – “Wit Beyond Measure”

Videos

Kirstyn Hippe posted a video about her upcoming tour with Tonks and the Aurors & Justin Finch-Fletchley

Clare, an Australian musician who sometimes goes by the name “Tonks for the Memories”, uploaded a new video about the Wizrocklopedia, and asked some really good questions about what exactly it means to be a “wizard rock band” in 2013. Give it a watch below, and leave your thoughts in the comments below or on her YouTube page!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej56BDuSFQA

“How the heck are we going to get there????”

After seeing so many successful Kickstarter campaigns run by wizard rock bands to help them fund their tours, the Humdingers decided they could definitely come up with all sorts of great rewards for their potential backers, and started getting everything set up to have wizard rock fans help fund their trip from the US to the UK.

However, a problem quickly arose – Kickstarter didn’t approve their campaign for funding.  Realizing they could essentially do everything for a campaign themselves, Scott and Kirsten immediately set up their own donations and rewards page on their website, along with recording a hilarious overview video, and began spreading word through Facebook and Twitter about their goal to raise $2700 to help send them to London and LeakyCon. 

In addition to offering amazing backer rewards such as personalized songs, hand-sewn Quidditch robes, and a weekend at their house, the Blibbering Humdingers also made all of their releases on their Bandcamp page “pay what you want” to encourage fans not only to donate whatever they wanted to help pay for their airfare, but also to help UK-based fans learn their songs in hopes of getting a big ol’ crowd singalong together at their LeakyCon performance.

“This project isn’t just about raising travel funds,” noted Scott. “We wanted it to be fun for people and help them feel part of it. We’ve been pretty overwhelmed and humbled by people’s generosity so far. And It’s a good feeling to know there are friends who believe in us.”

It would be wonderful if Scott and Kirsten could simply apparate long-distance with their instruments, merch, and kids in tow, or perhaps take a portkey, but the reality is that it’s very expensive for international airfare. The Humdingers hope they’re able to raise enough money to make the trip to London for LeakyCon, and also to hold a show or two for wizard rock fans who aren’t able to make it to the con itself.

The fundraising campaign ends on May 1, so fans who’d like some one-of-a-kind personalized rewards or great music are encouraged to donate soon! Interested fans can pick a reward and donate via their website, purchase albums on a “pay what you want” basis on their Bandcamp site, or buy some unique items from Kirsten’s Etsy store.

UK fans will certainly be in for a treat if the Blibbering Humdingers can make it across the pond, and we wish them luck in their campaign!