Cut Copy

Photograph: Ben Saunders

Studio B; May 13, 2008

Though its debut album, Bright Like Neon Love, came out way back in 2004—only one year after the Rapture’s Echoes, so this Johnny didn’t come so lately—Cut Copy hasn’t really had the kind of breakout success enjoyed by peers like LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip. The Australian outfit is well respected by indie-dance aficionados, but isn’t a big name outside vintage-headband circles. That could change with the release of Cut Copy’s sophomore disc, In Ghost Colours, which hit American stores (and hard drives) last month. Produced by Tim Goldsworthy of the DFA, it’s a much more tuneful effort than its predecessor, with full-on songs boasting memorable choruses in addition to flashy edits. Onstage, Cut Copy presents itself as a rock band these days, an idea that’s not terribly hard to buy.Florida’s Black Kids haven’t even released an album yet (they just signed with Columbia; Partie Traumatic is due in July), but thanks to their timing, they’re already threatening to leave behind the indie-rock insiders who launched them to instant semistardom. Predictably, the Kids’ scrappy soul-punk jams don’t quite live up to the band’s outsize reputation. (And their ghastly cover of Sophie B. Hawkins’s “Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover” is a perfect example of a good idea gone terribly wrong.) But, hey, they’re young and they jump around onstage like they’re having a good time. You could do worse, right? (Cut Copy also plays Bowery Ballroom May 14, 2008.)