Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998). According to Paul DeGeorge, "We were pretty much writing songs and then recording them on the spot". This statement emphasizes the band's do-it-yourself amateurishness as an essential aspect of the album. Initially, the band recorded their songs without using drums, but at the last minute decided that they wanted to have drums on the album. Thus, they called on their friend Ernie Kim for assistance, and he overdubbed drum parts onto most of the songs. In recording Harry and the Potters, the band aimed to release the album shortly before the fifth book in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2003) was released. According to Paul, "We were in a rush to get that stuff done before the 5th book release" and this instinct supports claims it took only two weekends to record the album. He went on to say "it’s kind of cool because it serves as a document and really captures the moment". Despite the band's purported rush to finish the album, Paul and Joe worked particularly hard on the song "These Days are Dark." When the recording sessions for the album were finished, the band had twenty songs for an album. However, the songs "Diagon Alley" and "The Wrath of Hermione" were left off. The two were later released on the Harry and the Potters compilation album Priori Incantatem (2009). Paul DeGeorge explained that the former was left off because the band felt they had enough short songs on their debut, and the latter was omitted because the DeGeorge brothers found it annoying, although it was played live. Promotion and reception Paul DeGeorge used $1,200 of his own money to finance the pressing of the CDs. The band also started silk-screening about two hundred T-shirts with the help of friends. In order to publicize the release, Harry and the Potters decided to undertake a summer tour performing at libraries through the publicity from the highly anticipated release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. On 21 June 2003 the band played five sets in a span of 24 hours. Critical reception to Harry and the Potters has been, for the most part, positive, with many reviewers praising the bands lo-fi sound and album production. Before the release of the album, Harry and the Potters had already made minor headlines in the