VHS or Beta

VHS or Beta originated in Louisville, Kentucky, during 1997 after bassist Mark Palgy joined guitarists Zeke Buck and Craig Pfunder, all of whom had recently finished high school. An early phase exploring noise punk gave way to the arrival of drummer Mark Guidry and a full pivot toward house music, soul, and disco. Keyboards, vocoder, samples, and electronic drums shaped the resulting style, which soon packed venues with hundreds of dancers. The band’s initial release was the vinyl-only EP ON & ON. After appearing at the 2000 South by Southwest festival and fielding offers from labels, they put out Le Funk on their own ON! Records imprint in June 2002. That summer they toured with I Am the World Trade Center; Chea Beckley was added to live lineups to handle vocoder, samples, and keyboards. By the time their Astralwerks debut Night on Fire appeared in 2004, the sound leaned more toward dance-punk than Daft Punk. Over the following years the group worked in seclusion at Echo Mountain Studio in Asheville, North Carolina, developing new material with producer Brandon Mason. Zeke Buck exited in 2006, shortly before Bring on the Comets surfaced in 2007. After that album, Craig Pfunder and Mark Palgy relocated to New York City without Mark Guidry. The remaining pair continued as a duo and recruited drummer Jim Orso for the 2011 follow-up Diamonds & Death.