VHS or Beta, Walter Meego, The Hourly Radio

Louisville, Kentucky's resident disco-punks VHS or Beta are back with a new guitarist Mike McGill (former member Zeke Buck now plays in noise-gazers People Noise) and a sparkling new album, Bring on the Comets. If the group's Daft Punk-meets-Duran Duran 2004 breakthrough Night on Fire jolted the post-punk underground out of complacency, consider the August-released Comets a big, glossy push for commercial stardom. Scorching guitar solos, arena-sized drums, multi-layered keyboards and sweeping lyrical gestures ("We'll burn the flags, burn the house, burn the churches, burn it all down!") all scream arena-rock excess.