In the pit of the legendary Troubadour in West Hollywood, a mass of trendy, glam-rock 20-somethings bounce and twist their hips to an unmistakable four-on-the-floor dance beat, their hands thrown in the dank air. The gig is packed.

Onstage the band’s frontman, 31-year-old Craig Pfunder, stands in front of the mic with his pointy-toed boots planted firmly on the ground. Strikingly slender, he rocks methodically to the beat as he grips the guitar, his shaggy layered hair shielding his eyes from view. With a smooth, powerful voice and commanding stage presence, Pfunder owns the room.

 

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Four hours before the show starts, Pfunder is relaxing on a leather couch in the Troubadour’s bar as his band, the genre-defying VHS or Beta (made up of Pfunder, bassist Mark Palgy and drummer Mark Guidry, as well as pianist Chea Buckley and guitarist Mike McGill who tour with them), prepares for sound check. Clad in ripped skinny jeans and a tight, black T, the singer/guitarist is leveling about the new direction heard on the rock/dance/post-punk band’s upcoming album “Bring on the Comets.”

“I just wanted to write a pop record,” he says unapologetically about the album inspired by a wistfulness for pop music during his childhood and a desire to write music people would actually listen to and live with — music that wasn’t exclusive to, say, kids that frequent dance clubs.

“I think at a point you have to decide — am I making this just for me or am I making this with the idea that other people are going to listen to it as well?” says Pfunder.

“But I don’t think I was trying to consciously be like, ‘Let’s write a record so that 8 million people buy it and we can have a private jet!’”

Pfunder’s parents, who adopted him from Seoul as a toddler, didn’t expect their son to make a career out of music. His mother, a teacher, and father, a corporate executive, thought that music was just another hobby. But by the sixth grade, Pfunder knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.

“They didn’t understand why I wanted to live in a sh-thole apartment and make music,” says Pfunder. Ultimately, however, it was his parents who taught him that, no matter what the setbacks, it was essential that he believe in himself.

So the budding rock musician, who grew up in Georgia, Maryland and Oregon, made the mid-sized city of Louisville, Ky., with its bourgeoning indie rock scene, his home. Starting out as just another band formed in the shadow of local indie greats like Slint and Rodan, the then-foursome grew frustrated by what Pfunder called Louisville’s “uptight” and “scenester-ish” music scene.

“When we used to go to shows, it wasn’t cool to dance,” explains VHS or Beta’s bassist Mark Palgy, 30. “You just stand around. It felt like there was an elite crowd and if you didn’t understand what was going on then you didn’t understand music.”