Harry and the Potters

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Harry and the Potters
Harry and the Potters (2011)
Harry and the Potters (2011)
General information
origin Norwood , Massachusetts
United States
Genre (s) Wizard Rock
founding 2002
Current occupation
Vocals, guitar
 Joe DeGeorge
Vocals, guitar
 Paul DeGeorge

Harry and the Potters is an American wizard rock band from Massachusetts that was formed in 2002.

story

Harry and the Potters was founded in 2002 by the two brothers Joe and Paul DeGeorge. The latter received a tip from a friend in 1999 to read through the first Harry Potter volume , but only got hold of it a year later when his then 12-year-old younger brother Joe got the book from his aunt for Christmas. He himself was particularly interested in how the work managed to turn thousands of children into avid readers. When he started reading it, he couldn't get away from the book. He immediately recognized parallels between Harry Potter's anti-authoritarian attitude and the attitude of his rock & roll role models such as Bruce Springsteen or Fugazi , whereupon the idea of having the character of Harry Potter appear as a rock singer was born. Joe, who is now in high school , kept holding concerts in his parents' garage some time later . When one of the bands canceled at short notice, he wanted to hold the gig anyway. He and his brother, who was going to college , then wrote half a dozen songs in an hour, put on old graduation gowns and ties and then recited these titles, both of which embodied the character of Harry Potter, but at different ages (school year 4 and 4). 7). When this improvised performance turned into a full-fledged music project, the artists were initially still technically limited, and the songs had to be able to be performed in a small group. Only later did they write titles that also included audience interaction and allowed a wider range of musical influences. This was followed by 3 studio and one live album as well as several EPs and compilations before the band fell silent in the early 2010s . In 2019, after 13 years, the fourth studio album Lumos was released with the first new music since the beginning of the 2010s. It is a concept album about the seventh Harry Potter volume. The two members confirmed that the long break was partly due to the fact that they lived in different parts of the country and that it was difficult to work on songs together. In addition to their music, the band called together with comedian Andrew Slack organization The Harry Potter Alliance to life, which campaigns for activism among fans and among other things, for the establishment of libraries and using Fairtrade - Chocolate responsible for licensed Harry Potter confectionery draws. They also own the Eskimo Laboratories record label .

style

Harry and the Potters can be musically assigned to Wizard Rock , a subgenre of rock music whose lyrical content is built around the Harry Potter franchise. The group relies on a characteristic do-it-yourself sound and rough, mostly unprocessed lo-fi guitar music that corresponds to the aesthetics of indie rock and punk rock . She has been compared by the music press to They Might Be Giants , among others , which she names as a role model alongside Atom and His Package . The band describes their vision as "if Harry Potter had a dingy punk rock band". In terms of content, the music texts are not only played out in the Harry Potter universe, but are also written from the protagonist's point of view, which means that other characters, spells and potions and events from the novels are mentioned almost continuously. According to Polygon, the group would represent a pre- YouTube era when fandom was still fan-driven and you had to follow individual artists on forums and on MySpace to get the best possible Harry Potter content. What is unusual about the band is also their live performances, as the group mainly plays in libraries . According to the cinematic representation of the eponymous novel character, the musicians wear glasses with circular lenses and a red and yellow striped tie .

effect

Harry and the Potters are considered the founders and most important representatives of the wizard-rock genre that in the 2000s years in the wake of Harry - Potter - fandom came up and within which since its own sub-subculture build could. Later representatives of this style, such as Draco and the Malfoys, Tonks and the Aurors or The Remus Lupins, showed themselves to be strongly influenced by the group and made their musical and content-related characteristics, such as their unpolished, rough indie sound or the writing of lyrics from the point of view of the characters who gave their names to the respective band, to the standard of the genre. Musicians like Lauren Fairweather or The Lovegoods adopted the sound of the music, but lyrically focused on themes that are either generally located within the Potter universe or sing about fandom itself. The music style reached its peak towards the end of the popularity of the social network MySpace . At that time there were around a thousand performers who published Wizard Rock.

There was also a reception outside the fan community of the Harry Potter series. In 2007, JK Rowling was positive about the band, calling it "incredible, flattering, and uplifting" for people to launch such a project on their character's behalf. In addition, Polygon , Rolling Stone , Steamboat Pilot & Today and Nerdist, among others , presented the music group with articles at the end of the 2010s , in which they retrospectively published on occasions such as the twentieth anniversary of the first Harry Potter book or the release of their comeback album Lumos The band's career and influence on Wizard Rock.

Discography

Studio albums

  • 2003: Harry and the Potters
  • 2004: Voldemort Can't Stop the Rock!
  • 2006: Harry and the Potters and the Power of Love
  • 2019: Lumos

Live albums

  • 2011: Live at the New York Public Library

Compilation albums

  • 2009: Priori Incantatem

Sampler

  • 2005: A Magical Christmas of Magic

EPs

  • 2006: Scarred for Life
  • 2006: Harry and the Potters / The Zambonis (split EP with The Zambonis )
  • 2007: The Enchanted Ceiling
  • 2008: In the Cupboard

Singles

  • 2019: The Harry Potter Boogie

Web links

Commons : Harry and the Potters  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Polygon Article. Retrieved December 4, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Rolling Stone Article. Retrieved December 4, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Nerdist Article. Retrieved December 4, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Steamboat Pilot & Today Article. Retrieved December 4, 2020 .
  5. ↑ The Harry Potter Alliance: What We Do. Accessed December 4, 2020 .
  6. ↑ discography. Retrieved December 4, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Polygon Article. Retrieved December 4, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Rolling Stone Article. Retrieved December 4, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Nerdist Article. Retrieved December 4, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Steamboat Pilot & Today Article. Retrieved December 4, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Polygon Article. Retrieved December 4, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Rolling Stone Article. Retrieved December 4, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Nerdist Article. Retrieved December 4, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Steamboat Pilot & Today Article. Retrieved December 4, 2020 .