CUT COPY: Partying like it’s 1989
Text/Photos by Andrew Parks
Now that Black Kids have been through a hype/backlash cycle without ever releasing an actual record, self-titled–consider us BK oblivious until tonight–can safely say everything you’ve heard lately is true. Namely the impossible to deny fact that they sound like, well, kids: inexperienced and sloppy, yet determined to entertain, with nothing but skeletons of songs peeking out from the post-punk/dance-rock din. One thing we don’t get is the Cure connection: the only thing s/t heard in Reggie Youngblood’s voice was a bit of Bloc Party at times.
As for Cut Copy, we love their LPs (including the recently released In Ghost Colours) and they put on one hell of a dance-or-die show. But there’s simply no escaping the trouble many of their tracks have in a live setting. While singles like “Saturdays” and “Lights & Music” tantalize and thump one’s temples like the underground club anthems they aspire to be, other Cut Copy classics (the laser-guided melancholia of “Future,” especially) lose some of their edge onstage. Maybe it’s the lack of studio pyrotechnics or simply Studio B’s soundsystem. Either way, the band’s almost there in terms of truly crossing over, ala the almighty LCD Soundsystem. We’ll be watching them closely in the meantime.
Photos after the jump …
BLACK KIDS
