August Darnell

Among the many entertainment archetypes that singer-composer August Darnell cites as sources for his mythical Kid Creole persona--along with the Cab Calloways and Sinatras and Elvises--are the big-band leaders of the '40s. "I sort of liken myself to the modern-day Glenn Miller or Tommy Dorsey," he has said. "Those guys went through some changes to keep their bands alive until the prehistoric beast had to die."

Among the many entertainment archetypes that singer-composer August Darnell cites as sources for his mythical Kid Creole persona--along with the Cab Calloways and Sinatras and Elvises--are the big-band leaders of the '40s. "I sort of liken myself to the modern-day Glenn Miller or Tommy Dorsey," he has said. "Those guys went through some changes to keep their bands alive until the prehistoric beast had to die."

Can Prince actually write a song without the S word in the title? He's given his latest tune, "The Sex of It," to August Darnell for the upcoming Kid Creole & the Coconuts album, titled "Private Waters in the Great Divide." . . . Guns N' Roses mainstays Slash and Duff were in the studio with Iggy Pop recently, where the guys played on several tracks for Pop's upcoming album. . . .

Audiences will find no rage in the uplifting stew of pop, soul, calypso and swing of Kid Creole & the Coconuts. No bad vibes in the Afro-Caribbean riffing of such songs as "Annie, I'm Not Your Daddy." Leave that stuff for the '90s pop world. At the Viper Room on Friday, Creole (a.k.a.

Virtually any performance by a pop-music act fits somewhere in the context of a career arc -- a new band trying to find an audience, a flowering favorite hitting its stride and packing them in, a still-vital veteran trying to keep the fire burning, a period-bound hitmaker resigned to nostalgic ritual. And there comes a time for some when the fight's been fought and the battle lost, when even going through the motions isn't an option.

Compact disc fans still spend almost as much money on old--or "catalogue"--albums as new product, so it's no wonder that record companies keep searching their vaults for new ways to tempt the CD buyer. The good news is that most of the old (generally pre-1984) releases are introduced in CD as part of the labels' budget lines, meaning the albums retail for between $8.99 and $12.99 as opposed to the $14.99 to $15.99 price charged for front-line CDs. Here's are some recent "catalogue" CD releases.

August Darnell must be the Woodrow Wilson of pop. Wilson instigated the League of Nations after World War I in hopes of drawing a fractured world closer together. The big problem was that he couldn't persuade his own country to join it. Darnell has been working on his own league of musical nations since 1980, under the guise of his raffish, stylish stage character, Kid Creole.

August Darnell (a.k.a. Kid Creole) has lots to offer: style, wit, a band that's large, hot and precise, a sense of show biz tradition, and a trio of sexy blond chorines called the Coconuts. Besides all that, he even weaves subtle threads of social consciousness into his repertoire's generally light fabric.

August Darnell can easily reel off the influences on Kid Creole--his dapper "alter ego" who leads the defiantly uncategorizable big band Kid Creole & the Coconuts. There's Cab Calloway, for the overall image. Frank Sinatra for vocal phrasing and romantic attitude. Elvis Presley for dance moves and hero worship. James Brown for live performance. Calypso singer the Mighty Sparrow for witty lyrics.

Roll over, Gilbert & Sullivan; Kid Creole is taking on "The Mikado." August Darnell--who in his semimythical role of Kid Creole led listeners through a dizzying, tropical dance-music brew and winding storylines in the first four Kid Creole & the Coconuts albums--is finally taking the step that's been implied in all his undertakings, from the disco-swing of Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band in the late '70s through the new "In Praise of Older Women and Other Crimes" album.

Daryl Hall and John Oates, the Hugo Boss-clad kingpins of Reagan-era pop, seemed destined for the casino-circuit dotage most pop stars eventually face -- their new music largely ignored, their fan base fading to nothingness. But then, around 2005, something strange happened. A real H&O revival began. This reassessment of the most commercially successful duo in pop history hits a peak Tuesday, when H&O receives the Icon award during BMI's 56th annual Pop Awards, joining the likes of Paul Simon, Van Morrison and the Bee Gees.