QUOTE
I was looking around today for some new indie artists on myspace.com when I stumbled upon a group called, “Harry and the Potters.” I instantly chuckled, looked at the picture, and saw what I assumed was a band member dressed in tradition Hogwarts attire. I almost played it off as just a joke band but then thought back to my drawing of Stalling Dawn as Harry Potter and decided it was fate I click on that link. Now, I may be the only one who did not know this previously but from checking out the band I learned of an entirely new genre: wizard rock.
After further spelunking through the mysterious, and sometimes socially-disturbing, niches of wizard rock, I stumbled across a myriad of wizard rock bands; some were legitimate bands who had just taken the world of Harry Potter on as their lyrical muse, others were fans singing comedic songs about their favorite characters, and others were, for lack of a better word, sad. Since I knew nothing about this mysterious world, I felt it was my duty to help expose any interesting new genre to the world. So I’ve created this: The Sex-Wizard-Rock-Tournament (sex=six; geesh…)
The rules for the Sex-Wizard-Rock-Tournament, from now on known as the SWRT, will be as follows. I have reviewed 13 different bands, and not disqualified 7 of them. The reasons for disqualification range from based too much on comedy all the way to “I’m not listening to that again.” If you’d really like to know the reason why you were disqualified from the tournament feel free to comment on this post asking why and I will post the review I have for you. For the lucky remaining 7 wizards, I will choose what I feel is the best single song I they have and review it amongst the other 6 wizards. I’ll choose the best overall song and give it a rating for the site, also crowning them Sex-Wizard-Rock-Tournament Champion; I will also sketch a crude drawing of your band battling some mythological beast or whatnot.
Ok, let’s get started.
First off we have what I believe to be the original kings of wizard rock: Harry and the Potters. I’ve chosen their song, “Save Ginny Weasley”, as my first song to enter into the song. This is one of the wizard rock bands that seem to stay pretty literal to what I know about the books; I’ve only seen the movies but everything sounds pretty correct. I’m mostly comparing this to other bands I reviewed like “The Tri-Wizard Champions” who seemed to just go crazy with their hip/hop inspired Potterisms. The song is a lot like Weezer during the Blue Album saga, which is by no means a bad thing. It is a very simple song and I could see fans of the Harry Potter world enjoying a chance to hear their favorite books impressively translated to song.
Up next we have Draco and The Malfoys (can you say, “copycats”.) The song I chose for Draco and The Malfoys is “My Dad is Rich.” This song is about Draco Malfoy telling Harry Potter that his dad is rich and Harry’s is dead. The arrangement of the song reminds me of NOFX a la “Pump of the Valium.” It is a very catchy song; the lyrics are clever and very fitting to the motif they are going for. The main thing this song has going against it is it clocks in at a whopping 1 minute and 28 seconds. Of course as I said earlier, you can’t hold length against punk bands, so they get to slide on that one.
The Whomping Willows’ song “Crawl Through My Treehole Baby” is the first of two “metal” wizard-rock songs I’ll be reviewing today. This song… creeps me out. Death metal and Black metal are creepy enough when they are only talking about Vikings and Demons violating nymphs and virgins, let alone a personification of a tree using a siren’s song to lure in some unnamed soul to pleasure it. It is interesting to say the least, but it wouldn’t grace any playlist I create in the future. What scares me the most about the song though is that I see a definite niche for this Dark-wizard-rock. If left unchecked Gothic-Vampire-Metal will be no more and “Crawl Through My Treehole Baby” will be playing in the room of every confused 16 year old boy or girl adorned in black trying to craft a wand out of what seems to have been at one time a chair leg.
The twin brother of The Whomping Willows is The Sectumsempras. The Sectumsempras’ song “Hate Remains” though is a much better song than their brothers. This song reminds me of every song from the “Dracula 2000” Soundtrack. For those of you Harry Potter fans who are fans of Electronica, Industrial, or Gothic rock, we may have found something that you could really get into. The lyrics though follow the Industrial standard of being so enigmatic that I couldn’t tell you if this is about goat loving, or Harry Potter. Since they have a name like “The Sectumsempras” I’ll take their word for it.
For the Remus Lupins, I chose their song the “The Ballad of Neville and Luna.” The song starts off very soft, with the lead singer singing as if he has something deeply emotional to tell us but then the song quickly grows in tempo and his voice changes. I do not know enough about Harry Potter to say what this song is about but it seems someone is singing about their love for someone else. It’s a quick and easy listen; it is also produced and arranged very well. I think the song could have been even better though had the nature of the song stayed with in the realm it exposed within the first 35 seconds rather than the latter minute and a half. Not to say it is a bad song but rather it had a brief potential that I would have liked to have seen pursued.
The last band of the SWRT is “The Hermoine Crookshanks Experience.” Their song “Krum’s song” showcases a young female lead vocalist with the vocal chords of an angel. The song though would benefit from a more complicated guitar part and a bass/drum combo would make this an excellent song. I had a lot of trouble reviewing this song because it tore me in two completely different directions. The vocalist has a lot of potential if paired with the right accompaniment.
So all in all, wizard rock impressed me. No it isn’t something I would listen to on an every day basis but that is just a person preference. I can see a distinct niche for some of these bands and if produced and marketed right could get some exposure. It is a wonderful idea of taking an already established fan base and appealing to them through song. Looking at just individual songs, and my overall opinion of them, the winner of the Sex-Wizard-Rock-Tournament is Draco and the Malfoys with their song, “My Dad is Rich.” Congrats to the winners and to all that made it into the SWRT; if there are any websites of yours that you would like people directed to feel free to email me at requests@musicsquared.com. And don’t be fooled by the rating, 2.5 is an impressive rating for a local band.
Band: Draco and the Malfoys
Song: My Dad Is Rich
After further spelunking through the mysterious, and sometimes socially-disturbing, niches of wizard rock, I stumbled across a myriad of wizard rock bands; some were legitimate bands who had just taken the world of Harry Potter on as their lyrical muse, others were fans singing comedic songs about their favorite characters, and others were, for lack of a better word, sad. Since I knew nothing about this mysterious world, I felt it was my duty to help expose any interesting new genre to the world. So I’ve created this: The Sex-Wizard-Rock-Tournament (sex=six; geesh…)
The rules for the Sex-Wizard-Rock-Tournament, from now on known as the SWRT, will be as follows. I have reviewed 13 different bands, and not disqualified 7 of them. The reasons for disqualification range from based too much on comedy all the way to “I’m not listening to that again.” If you’d really like to know the reason why you were disqualified from the tournament feel free to comment on this post asking why and I will post the review I have for you. For the lucky remaining 7 wizards, I will choose what I feel is the best single song I they have and review it amongst the other 6 wizards. I’ll choose the best overall song and give it a rating for the site, also crowning them Sex-Wizard-Rock-Tournament Champion; I will also sketch a crude drawing of your band battling some mythological beast or whatnot.
Ok, let’s get started.
First off we have what I believe to be the original kings of wizard rock: Harry and the Potters. I’ve chosen their song, “Save Ginny Weasley”, as my first song to enter into the song. This is one of the wizard rock bands that seem to stay pretty literal to what I know about the books; I’ve only seen the movies but everything sounds pretty correct. I’m mostly comparing this to other bands I reviewed like “The Tri-Wizard Champions” who seemed to just go crazy with their hip/hop inspired Potterisms. The song is a lot like Weezer during the Blue Album saga, which is by no means a bad thing. It is a very simple song and I could see fans of the Harry Potter world enjoying a chance to hear their favorite books impressively translated to song.
Up next we have Draco and The Malfoys (can you say, “copycats”.) The song I chose for Draco and The Malfoys is “My Dad is Rich.” This song is about Draco Malfoy telling Harry Potter that his dad is rich and Harry’s is dead. The arrangement of the song reminds me of NOFX a la “Pump of the Valium.” It is a very catchy song; the lyrics are clever and very fitting to the motif they are going for. The main thing this song has going against it is it clocks in at a whopping 1 minute and 28 seconds. Of course as I said earlier, you can’t hold length against punk bands, so they get to slide on that one.
The Whomping Willows’ song “Crawl Through My Treehole Baby” is the first of two “metal” wizard-rock songs I’ll be reviewing today. This song… creeps me out. Death metal and Black metal are creepy enough when they are only talking about Vikings and Demons violating nymphs and virgins, let alone a personification of a tree using a siren’s song to lure in some unnamed soul to pleasure it. It is interesting to say the least, but it wouldn’t grace any playlist I create in the future. What scares me the most about the song though is that I see a definite niche for this Dark-wizard-rock. If left unchecked Gothic-Vampire-Metal will be no more and “Crawl Through My Treehole Baby” will be playing in the room of every confused 16 year old boy or girl adorned in black trying to craft a wand out of what seems to have been at one time a chair leg.
The twin brother of The Whomping Willows is The Sectumsempras. The Sectumsempras’ song “Hate Remains” though is a much better song than their brothers. This song reminds me of every song from the “Dracula 2000” Soundtrack. For those of you Harry Potter fans who are fans of Electronica, Industrial, or Gothic rock, we may have found something that you could really get into. The lyrics though follow the Industrial standard of being so enigmatic that I couldn’t tell you if this is about goat loving, or Harry Potter. Since they have a name like “The Sectumsempras” I’ll take their word for it.
For the Remus Lupins, I chose their song the “The Ballad of Neville and Luna.” The song starts off very soft, with the lead singer singing as if he has something deeply emotional to tell us but then the song quickly grows in tempo and his voice changes. I do not know enough about Harry Potter to say what this song is about but it seems someone is singing about their love for someone else. It’s a quick and easy listen; it is also produced and arranged very well. I think the song could have been even better though had the nature of the song stayed with in the realm it exposed within the first 35 seconds rather than the latter minute and a half. Not to say it is a bad song but rather it had a brief potential that I would have liked to have seen pursued.
The last band of the SWRT is “The Hermoine Crookshanks Experience.” Their song “Krum’s song” showcases a young female lead vocalist with the vocal chords of an angel. The song though would benefit from a more complicated guitar part and a bass/drum combo would make this an excellent song. I had a lot of trouble reviewing this song because it tore me in two completely different directions. The vocalist has a lot of potential if paired with the right accompaniment.
So all in all, wizard rock impressed me. No it isn’t something I would listen to on an every day basis but that is just a person preference. I can see a distinct niche for some of these bands and if produced and marketed right could get some exposure. It is a wonderful idea of taking an already established fan base and appealing to them through song. Looking at just individual songs, and my overall opinion of them, the winner of the Sex-Wizard-Rock-Tournament is Draco and the Malfoys with their song, “My Dad is Rich.” Congrats to the winners and to all that made it into the SWRT; if there are any websites of yours that you would like people directed to feel free to email me at requests@musicsquared.com. And don’t be fooled by the rating, 2.5 is an impressive rating for a local band.
Band: Draco and the Malfoys
Song: My Dad Is Rich
From here
Hm. Can't say I actually like Draco and the Malforys, or that song in particular. It was on my ipod at one point, but it got old. In fact, I think the only one still on m ipod is "Stick it to Dolores" by Harry and the Potters, because OH MY GOD YOU LOOK LIKE A FROG is just too amusing.