Kid Creole & the Coconuts: C o' D, S 'n' D

They're such a wonderful thing, baby!

swap out one of the Cherchez La Femmes with Caroline Was a Dropout

They were fun live when I saw 'em in DC way back when ('81 I think)...

Watched Downtown 81 again recently and Kid is in that .

Excellent list – I would def. add Schweinerei which, as noted upthread, is a fave (I also apparently posted some legacy shit from another topic from my Zing app, apologies).

I’m having a hard time believing my revival of this thread was only six weeks ago. Feels like six months.

I forgot to mention that the Downtown 81 soundtrack has some reemarkable KC rarities: haven't found these performances of "K-Pasa-Bop" (with Coati Mundi) and "Mr. Softee" (also Coati Mundi's own "Palabras Con Ritmo") anywhere else, though it's been a while since I checked. May have been recorded just for this movie, as xgau says the excellent (live?) DNA tracks were. I like most of the rest better than he does, though yeah some I could live without, but overall quite the lively time trip. Oh, and who the hell is Pablo Calogero? Another KC associate? His "Tangita" is even more furnace room Downtown Latin rock etc.

oooh

Yeah, and his site has two reviews; here's the more informative and relatively less neg:
DOWNTOWN 81
Recall

3 Stars

New York post-punk compilation unearths treasures along with garbage

With its Deborah Harry intro and Rammellzee envoi, this soundtrack to a quasi-documentary starring the late painter Jean-Michel Basquiat makes as if to encompass all the NYC music of its title's post-punk moment. Unfortunately, that moment was oft full of shit, as Walter Steding, Lydia Lunch, Japan's Plastics and a Basquiat band called Gray demonstrate. But sometimes it was anything but, and here you will hear not just all you need of Liquid Liquid, Suicide and graffitist Rammellzee (the indelible rap one-off "Beat Bop"), but--improbably--specially recorded versions that top the hard-to-find originals. The secretly funky avant-noise trio DNA sound more muscular on this "Blonde Redhead" and "Detached" than on the 2004 CD believed to contain all their recorded works. And the two numbers by August Darnell's suavely articulate Kid Creole and the Coconuts rock and/or disco harder than anything in their catalog.

Rolling Stone, Dec. 13, 2007 Do not agree re Liquid Liquid or several others, but duh do re rare KC and related (ditto DNA).

Total mood lifter, this guy and his Coconuts.

^this

hey coconuts!

Not to be overlooked
https://i.discogs.com/zf9f2X2-hAgNa2tE37vVbfa5dCE7bT3fXr34NofROS4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:501/w:498/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE1Mzgw/NzMtMTI5NzExODk4/MC5qcGVn.jpeg

these LPs can be had for like $5 still, some of the most fun for your money there is

Since it's Prince's birthday today, everyone should listen to this song that he wrote for Kid Creole and The Coconuts. A totally amazing, hilarious composition that never saw the light of day. One of those things that Prince never intended for himself but put !00% into the demo. He loved August apparently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0T5PuF7foY

I guess August wasn't into it and only included it on the album on the insistence of the label. The Kid version not as good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8XC15JlgIY

the hell?

https://t2conline.com/unexpected-unanticipated-unparalleded-nothin-left-but-the-rest-a-new-album-from-kid-creole-and-the-coconuts/

Anybody heard this? I noticed that Spotify has finally gotten the recent remasters/deluxe versions.

oho--several KC etc. tracks stashed here on label page: https://soundcloud.com/2c2cmusic
Also--not strictly nec., but it's an opp:

We are very excited to announce this newly remastered release!
Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band is releasing the first single from the remastered third studio album!
R.S.V.P., recorded and originally released in 1979, hails from the 'James Monroe H.S. presents Dr Buzzard's Original Savannah Band Goes to Washington' album.
The single was written by Stony Browder Jr. and August Darnell. Lead vocals by the inimitable and unique songstress Cory Daye and band leader Stony Browder Jr.
The album was originally released on Elektra Records in 1979.
2C2C is proud to present this single ahead of the newly remastered album set for release later this year.
We're giving all our subscribers EXCLUSIVE EARLY ACCESS to the HD DOWNLOAD of R.S.V.P. ahead of its release on Feb 14.
Click the link below to instantly download the single from 2C2C Music for just $1.29!
The single is being released on all Digital Service Providers (Spotify, Amazon Music, iTunes etc) in the U.S. only but here you can download the single from anywhere in the world!
https://www.2c2cmusic.com/buy-music/dr-buzzards-original-savannah-bands-rsvp

Ah...Thanks

over the past few years he's released just an absolute ton of stuff from his archives under the title "Once Upon a Cassette" -- they're up under the name "August Darnell," not Kid Creole, and they span his entire career -- there's at least 12 volumes of them, you can buy them from his webstore but they're also on the streaming services. Over the years I've come to think of him as one of the best ever, his catalog is amazing, he was great from the minute his feet touched the ground -- albums I've been revisiting for almost twenty years continue to delight, the first four are really the main menu but there's just so much. for real if you ever loved this guy look up those once upon a cassette comps. 2nd song on the first one, "cry baby cry," is minimal funk at such a high level -- kid creole rules imo just rules

duly noted, thanks for the tip. when I started picking up the LPs I was also amazed at the quality of that 80s run

Killer tip. Thank you!

Yeah, this looks great, thanks!

Been listening all morning.

I have had “My Male Curiosity” in my head since this thread was revived.

we're having a moment in my drive-the-kids-to-school CD player with Fresh Fruit -- this is sort of technically his first album, since the actual debut, Off the Coast of Me, was intended as a demo. (It's still great though imo.) The opening track, "Going Places"...like, this is the best, best music to me, the absolute best, just shockingly fresh and wonderful, so much character it's like a feast, and that chorus...like...you can never have set foot in NY in your entire life, and when he sings "Believe me, I know / when you leave New York, you go / nowhere" you'd still be like "You're right, Kid Creole, you're right."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIPfRdZmxl0

and then three songs later you get a ballad this wonderful, this rich, this dense? this thing that sounds like a Rufus Wainwright ballad from 1982?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzsMmC7N0t8

like I'm not young any more but when he sings "If I choose to live my life / loving you / it's my right to" I am so young.

Wow -- that vinyl edition sounds thick.

Bill Caprenter’s exceptional AMG review:

Musical gumbo of esoteric lilting, jazzy, laid-back disco, an acquired taste.

Nice work, Bill Carpenter.

the strut compilation is one of my favorite compilations ever:

https://www.discogs.com/release/1730975-Kid-Creole-Going-Places-The-August-Darnell-Years-1974-1983

Almost kind of a Chic thing happening on the unrelenting unappreciated greatness front (prolly not by now really but like as of uh, 10? + years ago) both in the rhythm section and the arrangements. Like the consistent airtight snap of the piano/rhythm guitar/background vox parts alone, just unimpeachable and fully singular

This is not to elude the songwriting which goes w/o saying imo

-elide

looks like addy is starting a patreon account.

https://www.patreon.com/kidcreoleandthecoconutsarchives?fbclid=IwAR2K2QR7rfnU4lsUlRg3k-hrL6DJcnrHNAOS4SW47pDkYGT7kKp64MwLndQ