The Whomping Willows (Blog)

retrieve-arms-from-chest asked: I apologize in advance for this Ask. This has no baring on anything, ever, but I ran "Matthew Maggiacomo" through an anagram generator and came up with "I AM WET, MACHO MAGGOT." With Matt instead of Matthew it comes up with "TO MAGIC TO GAMMA." Uh, yep, that's pretty much the only reason I'm here. Oh! I love When I Was Your Age. (And your other albums, but this is getting long.)

Thanks for the kind words about my new album! Also, if I ever run for public office, “I AM WET, MACHO MAGGOT” will be my campaign slogan.

Anonymous asked: Hi, Matt! I love the new album. Could you give us a little background for the song Oh, Brother?

Thanks! Oh, Brother is a song about my relationship with my brother when we were teenagers. It wasn’t a very good relationship, as my brother suffered from numerous psychological issues and had violent tendencies. Given that my brother passed away about a decade later, it was really challenging to go back and write a song about the worst part of our relationship when he was still alive. That said, I couldn’t write an album about my high school years without including a song about my brother. I won’t get into it much more than that, as it’s obviously very personal. 

I can’t believe it’s been five years since I released Welcome to the House of Awesome! This album is by far my best-selling and most-loved album of all time, so much so that I sometimes find myself wondering why people like it as much as they do. When I insist that Demons at the Helm and Wizard Party Forever!!! are better, people just shake their heads and tell me to stop talking. I guess I can’t argue with the people!

In any case, I AM very proud of how successful this album has become, and I’ve decided to honor its five-year anniversary with an incredible deal: I’ve created a limited edition, 22-track version of the album that I will be selling in the form of a homemade CDR. This will allow me to keep costs low and offer House of Awesome enthusiasts a chance to own every version of these songs that I currently have in my possession! Specifically, the CDR will include the entire original album, as well as the Rock n’ Roll Redux EP and five exclusive live tracks! Most of the live tracks come from my legendary full-band performance at Wrockstock ‘08 — the one that was threatened by tornado warnings, and the one that many fellow wizard rock bands cited as their inspiration for assembling full bands at major events. There is also a live track from a house party in Providence RI, during which my cousin Erin chews me out for being a “manwhore” and using Wizard Rock Heart Throb as a means of gaining sympathy from adoring female fans. Winky face! Warning: that live track contains explicit language due to my cousin’s potty mouth! Finally, I will be hand-decorating each of these CDRs with goofy doodles and bedazzling them with stickers, just like in the old days!

If this all sounds good to you, feel free to bop on over to my online store and get yourself a copy before they sell out! It’s only $12 plus shipping for 22 tracks of awesomeness!

Love,

Matt

Hey folks!

I’ve been booking my summer tour since November, and I’m happy to say that it’s been going extremely well! I have a crazy schedule planned for June, July, AND August — specifically, I’ll be going on THREE separate tours, all with unique lineups! The first tour is the most ambitious tour I’ve ever planned: a six-band, rolling wizard rock festival that includes several veterans of the wizard rock scene: The Whomping Willows (that’s me!), Lauren Fairweather, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Tonks and the Aurors, Snidget, and I Speak Tree. This is a first-class lineup and we are committed to offering you a festival-like atmosphere and show quality for FREE or VERY CHEAP. All shows will cost no more than $10, and most will be free!

In order to pull off this crazy plan, we need your help! We’ll be traveling in a large tour van and our expenses will be two to three times what they are for a normal tour. As you’re probably aware, the economy is in rough shape and many public libraries have lost their funding for programming like ours. As a result, we’re not getting the usual level of support from our venues to cover expenses (in fact, we’re getting about 25% of what we normally get, which is bad considering our expenses have tripled!). SO, with that in mind, we have launched an amazing Kickstarter campaign for this tour. Check it out HERE. We’re offering some incredible rewards that you simply will not find anywhere else!

I’ll be following up that insane tour with two more traditional trips in July and August. You can check out my complete summer tour schedule HERE.

Please note: Even if you don’t live where we’re playing in June and can’t make one of those shows, your donation will help us have the security to continue touring into the future. We believe so strongly in the wizard rock community, and that’s why we haven’t totally moved on to other pursuits. We want to keep rocking the library and promoting literacy and other charities, but we can’t do that without the dedication and support of our wonderful fans. If you want to keep the wizard rock dream alive, please consider donating to our Kickstarter! :D

Love,
Matt 

Brand new music video for From Ginny To Luna! Pass it around! :D