Cut Copy

Cut Copy’s ‘Early’ Nod For AMP

The Australian Music Prize (AMP) shortlist isn’t supposed to be released until next week, but to drum up publicity for the announcement – at the St Kilda Festival in Melbourne on February 8 – organisers have revealed that Cut Copy are one of the nominated acts.

Cut Copy will play a DJ set on the main stage of the festival following the announcement of the nine shortlisted acts. The band, who are nominated for their acclaimed 2008 album In Ghost Colours, are in the running for a cash prize of $30,000 courtesy of Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA). A further $15,000 goes to the recipient of The Red Bull Award in recognition of outstanding potential. Whatever that means.

Past winners of The AMP, now in its fourth year, are the Drones, Augie March and the Mess Hall.

Cut Copy

In the Australian music scene Cut Copy has gone from pioneers to elder statesman with just three EPs and two LPs, spanning a miniscule seven years. The vessel for this stellar feat has been their innovative brand of rock and dance or as it’s often labelled electro-crossover. When Cut Copy broke on JJJ back in 2001 with their debut single Rendezvous they stuck out like a sore thumb. At the time no one else in this country was taking the sensibilities of dance and its technology and applying it to more traditional song structures – not dancey enough for the rave heads and too faggy for the rock-dogs, Cut Copy had a hard road ahead of them turning a scene that was still salivating over Limp Bizkit. Yet through sheer musicality and directions in groove Cut Copy became a festival staple and had crowds from the Big Day Out to Meredith shimmying like they were extras off the set of Xanadu – sans the roller-skates.

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