Given the number of TV series that have used VHS Collection's music, it's amazing that they have not yet appeared on the Netflix series Sex Education. They occupy the same ambiguous retro-futuristic space: somewhere between the Eighties and an imagined 21st Century, shot like a John Hughes movie. Formed by school friends Conor Cook, James Bohannon, and Nils Vanderlip, the name was inspired by weekends away, where the only entertainment came in the form of antiquated video cassettes.
Their debut album, the appropriately titled Retrofuturism (2018) was the most consistent synth-pop album not released in the Eighties since the Limousine's Hush. A satisfying twelve tracks, most of which sound like hit singles from a parallel universe: nothing overstays its welcome. VHS's default setting it would seem is the radio edit.
While the Limousine's were a product of the Bay Area music scene, VHS Collection are steeped in New York rock history: the Lower East Side and clubs synonymous with the city's punk heritage, selling out the Mercury Lounge for a series of headline shows in 2015. Since then they have gone to play multiple festivals including Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits and Firefly.
According to the band their latest single The Dark is about hiding out when the outside world is falling apart: "It was written on Friday, March 13th, 2020, just as we were entering lockdowns. We set out to write a song that felt cinematic and ominous, inspired by the movie 'Drive.' We never intended to write about current events, but the lyrics indicate what was floating around our heads that day: 'We can watch from your bedroom window, We can watch all night, When the dark comes to take control, We can be the light'."
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