VHS OR BETA
Bring On The Comets

Release Date: August 28, 2007

“Early on, I asked myself ‘Do I want to make records for one group of people, or do I
want to write songs for the world?’” That was the question that haunted Craig Pfunder,
guitarist, vocalist and primary songwriter for VHS OR BETA, during the creation of the
band’s new album, Bring On The Comets, set for release on August 28, 2007. One
listen to the ambitious, yet almost defiantly catchy, material on Comets… proves once
and for all that, in this case, the world won. Then again, with each successive release
VHS OR BETA can always be depended on to break stylistic boundaries. With Bring On
The Comets, however, the group Blender heralded as one of rock’s “Best New Bands”
and Rolling Stone named an “Artist to Watch” makes its boldest moves yet. “Through
the course of being a band we’ve experimented with a lot of different sounds,” Pfunder
explains. “But this record is about making a statement as far as us freeing ourselves any
musical history we’ve had in our past.”

Formed in 1997 in the indie-rock hotbed that is Louisville, Kentucky (home to indie
legends like Squirrel Bait to Slint), VHS OR BETA—today a trio comprising core
members Pfunder, bassist Mark Palgy and drummer Mark Guidry—initially began via
an obsession with the indie noise-rock of the late-‘90s era. “Skin Graft records, West
Coast noise, the Northeast thing with bands like Arab On Radar, the Chicago thing with
U.S. Maple, Japanese noisecore like Melt Banana, and of course Sonic Youth,” Craig
notes, listing their nascent influences. Soon enough, the band, always on the lookout for
vital sounds, began mutating its sonics towards an electronic/organic groove hybrid.
“The reviews then called us ‘Kraftwerk meets Gang of Four,’” he laughs. “I mean, every
band sounds like that now.” VHS OR BETA’s breakthrough 2002 release, the Le Funk
e.p., proved equally ahead of its time—Daft Punk-style French disco-house channeled
via a hungry live-instrument attack. Meanwhile, their acclaimed next effort, the 2004
album Night On Fire, vividly infused club rhythms with ‘80s-style hookcraft a la
Depeche Mode and Echo and the Bunnymen before anyone had ever heard of The
Killers. “We’re always either a few years ahead of the curve for the trends, or too late,”
Pfunder jokes.

With Bring On The Comets, however, VHS OR BETA proves right on time: instead of
being pinned to a specific genre or era, it captures instead a populist sensibility all its
own. “We’ve really focused on songwriting—on creating pop songs in a time when pop
has been watered down,” Pfunder says. “I wanted to write a record with huge catch and
melody, but also something more. It’s the most profound statement we’ve done as a
band.” Recorded along with up-and-coming producer Brandon Mason (renowned for
producing and/or engineering acts spanning Secret Machines to David Bowie), Comets…
provides heartfelt anthems sans arena fromage, driven by rhythms supple enough for a
dancefloor yet driving enough for a rock club. Comets… is, not coincidentally, the first
time drummer Guidry primarily played a standard, acoustic drum set in lieu of electronic
percussion. As well, VHS OR BETA’s famously taut instrumental interplay proved even
more explosive after the band completed numerous tours supporting the likes of the
Faint, the Scissor Sisters, Doves, the Bravery and Duran Duran, as well as triumphant
festival dates spanning Lollapalooza to Reading to Belgium’s Pukkelpop.

The next-level results on Comets… demonstrate VHS OR BETA’s new aspirations in both
sonics and lyrics. The first single, “Can’t Believe A Single Word,” is a storming pianodriven
mini-epic, with Pfunder’s soaring, dramatic vocals swelling to a chorus that’s
alternately fist-pumping and melancholic. “One of the more exciting freedoms I
experienced with this album was writing the vocals along with the music, as opposed to
writing the music first and doing vocals later which was the way Night On Fire was
written” Pfunder says. “I really admire singers that use different parts of their voice to
tell different stories, and that's what I've tried to do here. I got to use so many aspects
of my voice, which was inspiring to the whole creative process.” “Can’t Believe…” is just
the beginning of VHS OR BETA’s new pop thrills: “Love in my Pocket” stuns with
Beatlesque hooks, unexpected key changes and chunky guitar riffs that scream for Pete
Townsend-style windmills. “Fall Down Lightly,” meanwhile, vitally captures every
element of VHS OR BETA’s revamped new sound: here, discordant punk-funk mutates
into a classic filter-disco groove, giving way to a startlingly catchy chorus describing a
relationship’s tumble into l’amour fou. Those aren’t the only surprises on Bring On The
Comets, however: the album’s darker shadings reveal themselves on the apocalyptic
title track and on “Burn It All Down,” a slice of danceable fury that suggests New
Order remixing the Clash’s “London Calling.” “Burn It All Down”’s potentially
controversial lyrics—“We’ll burn the flags, burn the house, burn the churches—burn it all
down!” chants the song’s infectious, angry chorus—reveal VHS OR BETA at their most
pointed. “I asked the band early on does this scare you? But this is music—it’s about
expression,” Pfunder explains. “It’s just a small personal statement about what is going
on in the world. Defiance, loss of love and life—those are just themes percolating
constantly all around us today. I mean, if we all went down in a hail of comets, that
could be a beautiful thing in a weird way.” Adding to Bring On The Comets’ beauty are
the subtle yet crucial guest contributions of Jim James, Carl Broemel, and keyboardist
Bo Koster, all members of Louisville’s acclaimed My Morning Jacket. James provides
sublime vocal backup on “She Says,” while Broemel adds his signature haunting pedal
steel to “The Stars Where We Came From” and Koster spreads his piano virtuosity
over a number of tracks. “My Morning Jacket are one of the best bands out there right
now, and collaborating with them turned into its own magical thing,” Pfunder says.

And while surprises like this abound on Comets…, VHS OR BETA still haven’t forgotten
their DJ-driven beginnings—a twelve-inch of “Burn It All Down” will be released in
advance of the album with an array of underground club mixes; still, with a revitalized,
expanded attack, the band found a new life spinning outside the disco ball they couldn’t
ignore. “I didn’t want to be a band that just had a dance-club hit, and this album proves
that that’s not the case,” Pfunder says. “Our love of and background in dance music is
so strong, but here we switched gears and let the band be the band. We haven’t
abandoned our roots—we’ve just opened our minds to new things. There’s a fine line
between trendy and timeless: I wanted to write a record that people would dance to, but
also crosses generations.”

For more information on VHS OR BETA please contact Katie Deatrick (212) 886-
7575 or Katie@astralwerks.com