Billy Moon

“Don’t be stupid and think pizza cake is a good idea. It’s not. Two things you love combine into one thing you were sorry you asked for.” Wise words from the twitter account of Hamilton (Canada) garage rock band Billy Moon. Being obsessed with American home grown rock I’ve cranked this one up to the max. Sound-wise they’re a stone’s throw away from big names such as Parquet Courts, Darlia and yet capturing the old skool essence of the Nashville scene which is a big yes in my book, and one which’ll convert you too.

Billy Moon sounds like the cool guy down the street who has a drum kit in his garage and rehearses when he gets home from college to the awe and wonder of the local kids. The adolescent rock n roll sound is definitely fitting for someone called Billy Moon, but it’s actually a masquerade for Graham Caldwell; a 22-year old who’s first CD was a boy band sampler (which could have been disaster for the future of music). Happy to see he’s come a long way since then, finding inspiration in the likes of Beck, The Black Keys and Born Ruffians. Billy Moon’s first releases came last April with a lot of hard work put into touring local turf since and generating the much needed early buzz in their career. Following a gap in music writing, spring 2014 saw EP #3 Young Adult introduced to our ears and deliver Billy Moon the first tentative steps to stages outside of their native states capital Toronto.

Here’s a guy that’s done the whole adolescent going through that teenage phase of hating everyone and been in multiple bands which inevitably split up when the appeal of power chords grows thin. But this artist shows the profound song writing ability and lyrical prowess of someone with a career in music ahead of them; and not one where the day job still gets in the way either. Potentially following in the footsteps of quirky yet incredibly talented characters of the alt/guitar world like Jeff Buckley or the articulate Matt Healy of The 1975 let’s hope Caldwell’s desire to make music isn’t overshadowed by the whole ‘growing up’ process. This is worth sticking with!

PS – A man who has Keanu Reeves as their twitter profile pic has class…right? - Unrecorded

With songs about porn, some childish cover art and an unfortunate choice of name, the odds of Billy Moon would appear, on the face it, to be limited to a teenage audience. Which just shows how wrong you can be because the recently-graduated Mr. Moon has an understanding of great hooks and respects the forefathers of punk and garage.

So ‘Young Adult.’ ostensibly stands up for old school rock values yet there’s an exciting edge to this band which makes them stand out from the opposition. It’s in the chugging rhythms and riffs which propel blustering opener ‘Kalashnikov’ and it’s also in Moon’s own sneering vocals. Wherever you look, the intensity and power is there for all to see. A punkier ‘Bad Kids’ may doff its cap to The Beastie Boys’ ‘(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)’ but pushes all the right distortion buttons and never seems to come up for air, whilst a similarly breathless ‘King Of The Sun’ resembles a more youthful version of The Walkmen. Meanwhile, ‘Video Girls’ may have a dubious theme but the underlying message (fuelled by a mixture of addiction and self-loathing) is an interesting one and the song itself is as infectious and hooky as you can hope for. Rather worryingly, the last track ‘The Days Are Just Packed’ may threaten to turn into J. Geils Band’s ‘Centrefold’ at certain points but thankfully veers away (and brutally so) just in time.

With a similar-named and equally retro-themed New Zealander courting publicity right now, Billy Moon may consider themselves victims of unfortunate timing in one respect. Yet on the flipside of the coin, their own aggressive, back to basics approach pays thrilling dividends and will serve a need for those with a taste for something more raw and visceral. - Leonard's Lair

“Stop listening to bad music, and listen to ShittyRocknRoll”. That is the Billy Moon mantra. Short, sweet and superbly simple. Nine words that, upon listening to their latest EP, clearly represent all that this Ontario, Canada-based duo are. There is, it must be said, nothing particularly groundbreaking about what Billy Moon do. They don’t chart a new blueprint for the future of music and they don’t seem to contain any influences beyond 1979. What they do however, is create visceral yet melodic, and utterly enthralling ShittyRocknRoll. Starting with needle-jumping drums and concrete slabs of garage guitar before Moon’s half chanted, half hollered vocal sucks you in, ‘Bad Kids’ acts as a lightening bolt through the heart of laptop-fiddling dream-pop duos and reminds you just how exciting punky, youthful energy can be when paired with its most natural friend: the distorted guitar. And ‘Bad Kids’ wasn’t even the single. - When The Gramaphone Rings