| Hillbilly house >> Louisville, Kentucky’s VHS or Beta rise from the post-rock ashes to shake some asses
“We’re not setting out to emulate French house producers or acts,” explains guitarist Craig Pfunder in a slow Kentucky drawl. “We’re trying to bring something to the table that’s kind of our own.” The difference is obvious. While the studios of most big-name dance music producers look something akin to the bridge of the Enterprise, with their assorted samplers, sequencers, gizmos and whatsits, VHS or Beta’s studio is made up of three things—guitars, drums and a bass. But don’t be fooled by their conventional rock tools, these guys make dance music, and they do it well. Close your eyes and listen to their debut album Le Funk and you would swear you were in the middle of legendary Parisian house club Respect, sweating it up with Dimitri From Paris. In fact, the title itself is a straight-up shout-out to “all these French guys half a world away that influenced these four guys in Kentucky.” Infectiously funky disco guitar riffs loop and build to a frenzy as the bass and drums pump out a funky, four-on-the-floor groove that you can’t help but shake your ass to. It’s no wonder they’ve opened up for everyone from future-lyricist Kool Keith to minimal techno guru Richie Hawtin to indie rock demigods the Sea + Cake.
It’s obvious by now that there is a lot more going on in Kentucky than derbies and fried chicken. Aside from the fact that cheeseburgers were supposedly invented there, Kentucky has had quite a musical history. From the two Louisville sisters who penned “Happy Birthday to You” back in 1893 to the well-known country stars like Bill Monroe and Loretta Lynn (and who can forget Billy Ray Cyrus, although we’ve all tried), it’s pretty fair to say that, darn tootin’, ’tucky folk love their music. A little less known perhaps, is the Bluegrass State’s recent place at the forefront of indie rock. In the early ’90s, before alternative rock was swallowed up by MTV and “underground” bands like Royal Trux began to appear in Calvin Klein commercials, seminal Louisville bands like Squirrel Bait, Rodan and Slint were churning out some of the most innovative rock this side of the Mississippi. “We were all really influenced by that because, as far as guitars go, it was just a different approach to sounds and textures,” explains Pfunder. “We really got into these bands because they did their damnest to make their guitars not sound like guitars.” Rewind to several years ago and you’d find Pfunder and his bandmates playing dissonant post-punk deep in the fertile grounds of the Louisville art-rock scene. Crowds were good, and so were they. Then, all of a sudden, it came crashing down. “We kinda looked around our city at what was goin’ on and we realized that we didn’t really like going to shows where people just sit around, nod their heads, cross their arms and give the occasional too-cool-for-you look. So one day in band practice we honestly looked at ourselves and said, ‘Fuck it! Let’s start a dance band!’”
The decision to keep their instruments was an easy one. The real difficulty lay in deciding exactly what kind of dance music to make. “The four-on-the-floor beat was kinda scary to us. At the time, we didn’t realize the difference between trance and French house yet.” Then, one day, an album by a mysterious duo known as Daft Punk blew their collective minds. “When that record hit, we were like, ‘Wow!’ Finally we found a form of four-on-the-floor beats that was really cool. We realized that we didn’t have to perform cheesy diva-esque trance. We could do this and still feel good about it.” Although
the band’s 180-degree shift in musical style made many of their
old fans want to puke on their ultra-rare, one-sided, original-mint
Pavement 7-inches, VHS or Beta kept it real over the last couple of
years the best way they knew how—by rockin’ the house. “Our
shows grew from 60 people to 600. We kept doing what we were doing ’cause
it was just so great to look out into the crowd for once and see people
having a good time. That’s the reason why we started playing dance
music in the first place. And that’s what keeps us getting up
in the morning, driving to the next city and playin’ the next
show.” : With guests at Casa del Popolo on Saturday, July 20, 9pm, $8 >> Music Listings |
Paris
is burning. Not a raging-inferno-melting-the-Eiffel-tower-setting-poodles-ablaze-type
burning, but a slow, sticky, molasses-in-July, Kentucky-type heat. Y’all
can thank VHS or Beta for that. This group of four Louisville lads have
put a fresh twist on the funky French house sound and are about to give
Daft Punk and Bob Sinclar a run for their Euro.