We live in an age where every musical idea has references to the past. Previously the underground was the place for innovation, but now even that is a bed for a fever of nostalgia. There seems to be no cure to this malaise, just a constant grabbing of our past musical heritage, mixing it up a little and putting it out to sell again. There's no such thing as a new idea - just regurgitating others creative ideas.
So against this background let’s introduce Willy Moon. He’s an odd one. Odd in the sense of being different from everything that’s around at the moment, but not being in any way avant-garde. He’s very much something new from the past. He’s certainly not underground, but he’s not mainstream either. At this stage we greet him as a passing curiosity with some interesting stolen ideas.
Willy Moon’s reference points are from the library of retro-rock - Bo Didley, Eddie Cochran and Link Wray spring to mind. With his stripped-back beat-laden song I Wanna Be Your Man the closest contemporary cousin is probably The Agitator. He also has the same slick teddy boy hair and penchant for looking smart as the Brighton rock n stomp man – although this visual quality could also have been appropriated from Rick Astley or Hurts, He only follows two people on Twitter – Kanye West and Big Boi. Right now only 30 people follow him.
I Wanna Be Your Man, which surfaced online recently, has according to our investigations actually been present on his now deleted Myspace for almost two years. His Bandcamp is still around though. It clocks in at less than two minutes. The black and white video for the song has some slightly mad spotlight puppet styled dancing. It’s as retro as you can possibly imagine, the twist being that there's some more modern beats. It's just a little crazy. Form your own opinion below.
Willy Moon - I Wanna Be Your Man by Willy Moon
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