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VHS or Beta return to rock – Metro US

VHS or Beta return to rock

Piper Ferguson

VHS or Beta and My! Gay! Husband! open for Moving Units at Richard’s On Richards on Nov. 28.

Most bands tweak their sound between albums. VHS or Beta revolutionize it.

Their debut, Le Funk, borrowed heavily from first-wave Daft-Punk style French house. Night On Fire shifted to Britain in the 80s, via the Cure and Duran Duran, re-envisioning the band as rhythm-focused dance-punks. For Bring On The Comets, the group changed yet again.

After years of experimenting with electronic sounds, bassist Marc Palgy said the group, who formed as Sonic Youth-style noise punks, figured straight-up songs and vocals sometimes make a group memorable.

“When people listen to a song with vocals, the voice is the first thing they hear,” he said. “So we thought why not write a straight up rock album … If you continue to do the same things over and over again, you get cornered.”

That said, the group still loves house: Palgy and singer-guitarist Craig Pfunder spent much of 2006 DJing electro-house while writing songs. Dual roles as musicians and DJs influenced the group’s approach to the writing.

“When we started out, we used to write songs as long tracks rather than as finished songs,” said Palgy. “We would play our live show like one long continuous set, like a DJ set. (But on the new album) we decided to write shorter songs, with more of a rock structure.”

Rather than the grimy punch of second-wave French house (as heard in Justice), they sound slickly produced and detail-oriented, with guitar riffs and up-front vocals. Palgy said that while a DJ is anonymous, with the focus on the music and getting the audience to go off, a band is more about on-stage presence and universality.

“We started writing songs we hoped would be memorable,” he said. “This time we wanted to stick to rock — to songs you can listen to when you’re hanging out or driving, not necessarily when you’re in a nightclub.”

rob.mcmahon@metronews.ca