Living in a post-Royal Wedding world is hard. Where can commoners experience the pomp, the circumstance, the glamour, the funny hats, if not in the Kate Middleton-bearing pages of OK! and Us Weekly? Yea, verily a cloud is descending upon the Anglophone world, one without debates on the importance of wedding dress designers and royal spray tans. Fans of crazy outfits and ridiculous names face a bleak future indeed.
Enter Kid Creole, a.k.a. August Darnell, the closest thing America currently has to a swingin’, non-murderous Jazz Age kingpin. The genre-bending, self-proclaimed offspring of all things tropical has announced that he and The Coconuts will return after a 10-year hiatus with a new studio album (and presumably newer, brighter zoot suits). I Wake Up Screaming comes out September 13 via Strut Records and will be preceded by the release of the single “I Do Believe” in July. The single will feature mixes by Brennan Green, Faze Action, 40 Thieves, and Emperor Machine. As usual, the album promises the Kid’s suave blend of film noir style and smooth tropical vibes, but this time, there’s something different: collaborations with Andy Butler of Hercules and Love Affair.
The addition of Butler seems like a natural step for the fedora-sporting Kid Creole, whose last studio album came out in 1997. Originally formed in 1980, Kid Creole and The Coconuts were part of NYC’s fascinating and funky “mutant disco” scene. Darnell was also a member of Studio 54 favorites Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band. He produced releases by a multitude of ZE Records artists like Cristina and Don Armando’s Seventh Avenue Rumba Band, who are now cult favorites.
• Kid Creole and The Coconuts: http://kidcreole.com
• Strut: http://www.strut-records.com
