Just Push Play: VHS or Beta go from disco to rock and back again

By the end of 2002, things were looking good for VHS or Beta. The American electronic band from Louisville, Kentucky were garnering some glowing reviews for their debut Le Funk, where fans and critics alike were impressed with the group’s Francophile-inspired, disco house grooves. They were already being mentioned in the same breath as new wave legends Duran Duran and electronica gurus Daft Punk.

Alas, it was to be premature. VHS or Beta made the choice to walk the formulaic path taken by new bands that achieve a smidgen of commercial success, and successive releases saw them stray from their roots and towards pop rock. By the time Bring On The Comets was released in 2007, the band had recorded an album full of digestible electro rock tunes complete with vocals, as opposed to the purely instrumental excesses of Le Funk.

Yet as I talk to the band’s bassist Mark Palgy over the phone one afternoon, he simply shrugs off any suggestion that the band has ditched their origins in pursuit of commercial viability and mainstream success. “I don't know if we sat around and decided on it,” he replies when asked why the band decided on such a sound. “I think it just sort of happened. It's the direction we thought was necessary; it's where we wanted to go.”

VHS or Beta’s lead vocalist and songwriter Craig Pfunder once stated that Bring On The Comets was written “for the world” instead of “for one group of people”. Indeed, the band have certainly appealed to the Top 40-listening majority, thanks in part to their “organic” collaboration with Southern rock giants My Morning Jacket. And this new direction seems to be a winning one: Bring On The Comets has been their highest-selling album to date.

To say that VHS or Beta sold their disco lovin' souls to the mainstream devil would be a step too far, since the band’s electronic sensibility continues to be the pulse behind the music. Yet Bring On The Comets also introduces some moodier, more serious lyrics. ‘Burn It All Down’ has Pfunder chanting in his dictatorial faux-Brit accent, “We burn the flags/Burn the house/Burn the church/Just burn it all down”. It’s a song about how man-made issues such as religion, politics and intolerance are the root cause of so many problems in the world, and it probably would have caused massive controversy in the religious and politically conservative heartland of President Bush's America if bible-thumping evangelists actually listened to disco rock. “I would never say that we were anti-American. I think it was more a statement on the world as a whole rather than just one set of people,” says Palgy about ‘Burn It All Down’. “I think people understood that we weren't trying to incite any hatred or anything, so it was fine.”

If imitation is the highest form of flattery then Duran Duran, Depeche Mode and Daft Punk should all consider themselves truly flattered by VHS or Beta. Critics have accused them of being new wave knockoffs and engaging in forced 80s idolatry–although in an era where retro is key and revival seems to be in vogue, it's a wonder that any musician can claim total originality. Palgy, for one, remains reluctant to disclose his musical influences, yet when I suggest Daft Punk, he immediately sings their praises. “They're fantastic,” he gushes. “They've been a favourite of ours for a long time. They have a way of giving honesty to music. I think it's really beautiful that those guys sort of hibernate for a couple of years, then put out a release and it blows everyone's mind. Then they disappear for a while, come back and remind everybody that they're amazing. It's kind of an amazing story to have.”

VHS or Beta's story is pretty cool too, and it begins and ends with fun, and a desire to entertain the crowd. “The bottom line is that when people see us live, we want them to have a good time,” says Palgy. He remains impartial to fans at their gigs who make like statues and stand in the corner. “You never know what has happened to that person on that day. They could have just found out that someone in their family is sick or something.”

“I try to do a job, and at the end of the day, I need to be having fun too,” continues Palgy. “I need to first and foremost be having a good time up there. If the whole room isn't moving, then that's a different story! But if it's just one or two people every once in a while, then it doesn't bother me.”

With songs that effervesce with energy and charisma, VHS or Beta might have trouble keeping people off the dance floor. The future certainly looks a shade of 80s neon bright for them. “We're still writing songs [for the new album], so we haven't begun recording anything yet,” says Palgy. “All that stuff is just about to happen. Right after we're done with the show in Malaysia (they performed at the Heineken Green Room party at Orange Dance Club last Saturday), we're gonna be getting very busy with actually recording our album when we get back home.”

A new album is always good news, and Palgy promises a more electronic sound that will see the band prove that they are very much a product of the 80s. With that in mind, I just had to find out what he thought was the best thing to emerge from the 80s. “Let me think here,” he pauses before continuing, “I don't know what year Scarlett Johansson was born, but...”

WORDS RACHEL PHOTO COMPASS COMMUNICATIONS
www.vhsorbeta.com

*Taken from Junk's April 2009 issue