Moonlight Desires
At the Movies

Today we go to the movies, because that is where the Canadian band Moonlight Desires have been, at the movies. They have found for songs from Karate Kid II, Dirty Dancing, The Goonies, and Breakfast Club, and formed a small EP with these songs. The band itself has its origin in a television show called Sons of Butcher that was created by brothers Trevor and Jay Ziebarth, in that frame they did some comedy rock recordings and toured across Canada. During those tours they played rocked up versions of classic eighties hit songs and according to Trevor Ziebarth the audience loved those tracks. That led to the creation of Moonlight Desires who plays eighties cover songs in rocked up versions, they have two albums before this EP. And looking at the cover I would say that they do it with a sense of humour, something that you really need if you are to do what these guys do.

It is a good guess that you have heard the songs on this album before, Skeletoon did a cover of the song from The Goonies last year so at least that one you couldn’t have missed. But if you are the normal rock fan age you saw these movies in the eighties and they are probably somewhere left in the mind, the original spirit of the songs are still there but they are rocked up with powerful riffing, rocking vocals and a party rock spirit. It sounds as though a lot of care has gotten into creating these versions of the songs. I should point out though, that there is nothing really special when it comes to the style and production, it is the quality of the songs that would make it fly or not. Another thing I notice is the short playing time, they could have added like ten minutes to make a little more exciting release, it feels like you are getting a little bit too little here.

I like this one, but for some reason I also prefer movies from this era rather than the stuff that comes out today and that might have something to do with it. The songs are all very good, they make glorious and happy covers of strong original songs. Sure, there is always the argument that creating covers isn’t really artistic, and that is a valid argument here as this EP doesn’t really offer anything but nostalgia. Nostalgia that I like, but nostalgia nevertheless. But I think that this is the way to go if you want to be nostalgic, take something from the era you like and turn it into something more your own and not just emulate the period with the same songs with different lyrics like so many do these days. In comparison with the likes of Bonafide, Bullet, Sabaton, etc. it is a lot easier to cheer for these guys – at least they do their own thing even though it isn’t particularly original.

The opening Glory of Love along with The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough are my favourit tracks on this little EP that is really enjoyable. Kind of like a rocked-out time machine back to a glorified decade that never was as good as it is remembered. With all that written; the conclusion is to check out this EP.

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