No Cabaret! is one of the catchiest emo-funk numbers from the album written about the ridiculous cabaret laws in NYC.
No Cabaret! is one of the catchiest emo-funk numbers from the album written about the ridiculous cabaret laws in NYC.
VHS or Beta – Night On Fire
Label: Astralwerks
Whilst listening to this album I couldn’t help but daydream, getting lost in a mesmerizing 80’s film montage sequence in my head. I think perhaps I’ve found my new fountain of youth and it is not a beauty cream or injection, it’s a band. I assure you, the more you listen to this album, the younger you will feel, satisfaction guaranteed. (Note to Self: rent out Say Anything, Some Kind of Wonderful and Pretty in Pink to complete 1980’s fantasy gratification).
Formed in Louisville Kentucky in 1997, Night on Fire is VHS or Beta’s first full-length major label debut. These guys somehow have found a way to sound completely pure and timeless regardless of how obvious their influences are. And those bands are in no particular order, Daft Punk, The Cure, Echo and The Bunnymen, Sonic Youth, Radio 4, Interpol, Van Halen and of course Duran Duran. Or at least on this album they are.
Title track Night On Fire opens the CD with that dancey boom-boom that we’ve all gotten to know and love from US bands over the last 3 years. My first thought (on hearing the vocals) was I didn’t know men could still sing like this? There was a time and a place when they did, it was called the nineteen eighties; and it was filled with young, misunderstood boys, who dressed funny, had shaggy hair, looked down all the time and sung with a playful pre-pubescent charm about simple things, like love. Well, I’m happy to hear they’re back, or never left.
You Got Me is perhaps the most perfect 80’s anthem and is very clear about its Duran Duran homage-paying dues. The song is cheer-leaderishly upbeat, a guitar driven and keyboard induced blush-a-thon. The same is true for The Melting Moon, which rejoices in very happy chorus, I think I just did the ‘Snoopy Dance’, yes, I did.
No Cabaret! is one of the catchiest emo-funk numbers from the album written about the ridiculous cabaret laws in NYC. Basically this law states that you can’t dance in a bar unless it’s a dance club with a cabaret license (which costs mucho $$$). Bartenders actually had to escort drunks outside to dance, saying, "you can dance, but you can’t dance in here." It was like Footloose (Geez, if you haven’t seen that movie, shame on you, it’s a classic… add it to the required viewing). Ok, I can’t stress the 80’s thing any further. It’s not just a sounds, VHS or Beta have also lyrically plugged themselves into the (now very fashionable) emotional 80’s vibe.
No Cabaret is followed up with Forever, Forever, Baby, Forever All Night Long. This song is sure to be a ring tone, after the success of a hypothetical video plot that might include a cast of sexy librarians by day and fun youthful party girls by night that get into trouble and have the time of their lives. This track could easily become the next boom-boom alternative club hit for sure.
This CD arrived to me with singer Zeke Buck’s lyric sheet for Alive, which is the next track up. Mr. Foster had retrieved it from the band after seeing them live last month at Het Paard van Troje in den Haag. Somehow, it feels like it is a Hari Krishna song. It makes me happy to be alive. "Sing it Loud, loud, loud, loud, loud. Sing and Shout, sing and Shout". Dynamize just simply rocks and it sounds like Van Halen. It really rocks and needs a montage of high schooler training for American football or something to visually go along with it. Oh hell… I’ll just jump around and play air guitar for fun…. Yeah! Oh Yeah!
Absolutely brilliant, stylish melodic catchy guitar riffs fill every song memorably in a different ways. Night on Fire includes instrumentals and well-lyricified danceable emo-new wave-funk songs. I highly recommend picking up this album for fun it will make you wiggle and maybe join a cult.
Words: Zoe Goettehrer.