Kid Creole and the Coconuts thread

A link to this thread is posted in the previous entry. I'll summarize the highlights:

It seems as though people in this thread are mostly concerned with finding Kid Creole's music. The first posting is from someone who is seeking guidance on what kid creole albums he should buy:
"I've had "Stool Pigeon" in my head for going on three days now (intermittantly interrupted by that new Madonna and the theme from "Green Acres"). Is there a superior comp? An essential LP? And what song was it Michael Jackson sang on?-- James Blount (James Blount), Friday, 4 October 2002 01:02 (5 years ago)"



it seems like this user has a small amount of exposure to the music, but is not an expert. There is a quest for more material present in this post and others.

The next poster says that they've never owned an album by the band, but thinks they are awesome because of what he (or she) saw of them in the film Downtown 81. Other posters refer to downloading their music and finding it in bargain bins. Many express a desire for a good compilation of their work.

Other posters comment on how they have been sampled by De La Soul and the Avalanches.


At one point, a link is posted to a site for the show Oh What a NIght, which stars Kid Creole.
http://www.ohwhatanight.com/

Many users seem depressed about the show, since it is a disco Juke Box musical. This leads to a debate as to whether or not the show is different "meta-contentwise" from what Kid Creole has always been doing.

Posting a link for reference

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=9590


this is just a reference point for now. i'll post on this soon

Field notes/ Lizzy Mercier Descloux

The following are observations regarding a ilx thread from around the time of Lizzy's death.

here is a link to the thread for those who are curious
http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=41&threadid=11788

Around the time of Lizzy Mercier Descloux's death, there were a whole slew of reissues on ZE records of her discography. AMG also released a greatest hits compilation around this time.

Many of the comments center around debates over which Lizzy album is best. Many people seem to like Mambo Nassau a lot, and another album called Fire.

There also seems to be a group of commenters who listened to her albums and tried to like them, but couldn't. These people don't give too much background in terms of which other artists they listen to, or whether they are fans of other ZE records artists, but this is interesting to me. What makes someone try to like something? Does it have to do with criticism, or cultural cache? how do the two interrelate? Many of the commenters who expressed dislike of what they had heard so far from her were still eager to hear more.

At one point someone cited her as having recorded a version of the song "La Poupee qui fait non", which was pointed out by a later poster as having been by Cristina. This mistake is humorous, but understandable since both Lizzy and Cristina were dance music performers with french heritage to some degree, who were married to (seperate) ZE founders, and put out albums on ZE.

One poster refers to her as his favorite of the "white-people-who-make-records-about-Africa" genre, which points to questions of cultural appropriation in her music.

Another user says he "Def. could see this being more known in the current NYC electroclash/nowave/disco/fashionbullshit climate,". This is a pretty cynical analysis, but it raises the question of the relevance of this music to a more contemporary music culture. This is an issues that could be looked at regarding nearly all artists who released records on ZE.

It seems as though there is still an active number of Lizzy MD fans out there. information about a memorial service for her was posted

High Society

It seems as though many of the artists connected to ZE records felt ( or still feel) a connection to high society. This seperates many of them from their punk rock peers who were making music at the same time. While the idea of an in-crowd is something that is a big part of punk, as well as many other subcultures, the ZE records network seems to be made up of people who have a strong connection to the bourgeois intellectual class.


The following is the text from the wedding announcement of Cristina (Monet-Palaci) and Michael Zilkha:

"

Mrs. Robert E. Simon Jr. of New York and Glen Head, L.I. and Dr. Jacques Palaci of Paris have announced engagement of their daughter, Cristina Monet-Palaci, to Michael Zilkha, son of hte Lady Lever of London and Manchester, England, and Selim K. Zilkha of New York.

The wedding is planned for next spring.

The future bride is a lyricist and singer. She attended Harvard University. Her mother, Dorothy Monet, is a film writer and the author of "Squandering," which was published in 1972 by Holt Rinehart & Winston. Her father is a psychoanalyst in Paris. Her stepfather is founder and developer of Reston, Va., and former president of the Carnegie Hall Corporation.

Mr. Zilkha, president of Ze Records in New York, is an alumnus of Oxford University. His father is founder and former chairman of Mothercare, a retail chain of children's and mothers' apparel in England. His stepfather is Lord Lever."

While this text fails to mention that Cristina dropped out of Harvard, it lets us know that she comes from a familial background that involves people deeply imbeded in cultural criticism and psychoanalysis. Cristina's music reflects these intellectual traditions, but places them into the context of popular music production. Through her stepfather, she has a connection to industry, as well as architecture and design.

Zilkha has a strong connection to industry himself. He is the the son of an entrepreneur, and the stepson of Lord Lever, which connects him to industry and British nobility.

The backgrounds that Cristina and Zilkha come from indicate a strong connection to the elite intellectual and bourgeois classes. Zilkha is using the business skills that he got from his experience with family business and from his education to play a curatorial role. Cristina used her music as an outlet to address and criticize the capitalist society that she found herself immersed in.

The relationship to capitalism is key. Like many of their peers, Cristina and Zilkha did not disavow capitalism. Their approach to it was to criticize it from within.

External sources thus far...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ze_Records

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_Creole_And_The_Coconuts

http://www.kidcreole.com/

http://www.zerecords.com/
http://www.lydia-lunch.org/


also, the film Downtown 81 , which stars Jean-Michel Basquiat, is a good artifiact because it features performances by Kid Creole and the Coconuts and James White and the Blacks.

My topic: ZE records, and the New York Underground in the late 70s and early 80s

ZE records was a label started by Michel Esteban and Michael Zilkha in 1978. Both were foreigners, who moved to New York City. They founded their label the year after punk "broke", although most of the artists on ZE would not have necessarily identified themselves as part of that movement. These artists include Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Was (Not Was), Cristina, Lydia Lunch, Mars, James Chance, and many others. The music recorded varied in form; at times you got postmodern takes on Disco music, and at other times you got guitar heavy, distortion drenched music that was arguably more punk rock itself. Even if it didn't fit into these two categories, the music usually took on a very compelling form. Many of the musicians were also very involved in the contemporary art scene at the time. Jean Michel-Basquiat and Vincent Gallo were in a band together (Grayling), that played shows with many of the bands under the ZE records umbrella.

I'm interested in this particular subculture and era because it combined the anti-establishment mentality of punk rock, with the excessive exuberance and multi-cultural inclusiveness of disco. In fact, I'd say that traces of punk, disco, and hip-hop were all present in this subculture to varying degrees. What was happening in New York's underground at that time is in my opinion similar to a lot of trends we see in music these days, although on a more underground scale.

In any event, here are some videos so you can get a flavor.


Kid Creole and the Coconuts



James Chance and The Contortions


Teenage Jesus and the Jerks



Alan Vega