A blog which reviews wizard rock albums has just been started, Wizard Rock Review. The woman writing it is here on Twitter. Friend wrockreview_feed at Dreamwidth or wrockreview at Livejournal to follow along. It just started at the end of July. Reviewed so far: The Whomping Willows, The Remus Lupins, and now she's starting on Draco and the Malfoys.

Love and smooches to Matt of The Whomping Willows. With the recent announcement from JK Rowling that Albus Dumbledore is, in fact, gay, Matt wrote in a recent blog post, "I think the bottom line is that Dumbledore’s sexuality is just a part of his personal being. It’s obviously significant in how he dealt with Grindelwald, but it doesn’t necessarily have any bearing in how he dealt with Harry, Snape, Remus, Draco, Hermione, Hagrid, or anyone else. If we want to spend time analyzing Rowling’s political and social intent — well, she’s confirmed that one of her goals with HP is to promote tolerance." Read the rest here.

A few days later he followed up with another blog in response to fans being angered over this information. He says, "If you believe that Dumbledore’s being gay would lead him to think about/desire/pursue a sexual relationship with Harry during Harry’s years at Hogwarts, then I seriously don’t want you to support my band. I don’t want your money. I don’t want your myspace plays or page hits. I don’t want anything to do with you until you clean up your act . . . Also, I figure this is a great time to announce that the next Wizards and Muggles Rock For Social Justice CD will benefit both the Harry Potter Alliance AND Marriage Equality Rhode Island." More of the entry can be found here.

Rock on, Matt.

I've had a LOT of people asking lately, so . . . here's a quick intro to Wizard Rock.

General information can be found at these sites:

1. Wizrocklopedia.com (syndicated at wizrocklopedia)

Here's the list of Wizard Rock bands (all hyperlinked to their various webpages) at wizrocklopedia

Here's wizrocklopedia's Beginner's Guide to Wizard Rock.

2. wizardrock.org (syndicated at wizardrock_org)

I keep an eye on these two sites because they'll announce which bands have released new downloads or CDs and I can check them out.

There are several podcasts that follow the wizard rock scene, although I haven't checked them out myself: WRock Club (which is put out by Wizrocklopedia), WZRD (your Wizard Rock station), The Podcast of Awesome, and Alley Cast. You can subscribe at iTunes.

I certainly don't download everything--there are a lot of bands that are really REALLY bad. But there are enough that are good--even excellent--that I keep an eye out. If you were interested in checking out the Wizard Rock scene, and want to start a modest little Wizard Rock playlist without spending a lot of money, ( here's what I'd suggest to give you a sample of a number of bands and songs that I enjoy )

That's it! I'd say my favorites right now are Oliver Boyd & The Remembralls, Ministry of Magic, Harry and the Potters (particularly their later stuff), Draco and the Malfoys, the Remus Lupins and the Whomping Willows. Tell me if you find anything you like (esp. "End of an Era.")