― anthony, Sunday, 20 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
Nick would not be the very first person to use his intelligence and hipness as a security blanket; the namedropping and cosmopolitan exhibitionism that's bugging you is just a natural reaction to being treated badly by the parochial eedjits who rule the UK media, and they hunt in packs. As far as they are concerned, if there's a last laugh to be had, I hope he'll have it someday.
― suzy, Sunday, 20 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
Sorry, did I drift from the topic? ...I can understand how you're feeling--it may very well be that part of psychological development where you grow older and rebel against your parental figures or mentors. Freud is a wonderful fabulist, so don't feel you have to follow any established methods of modern "maturity." My guess is Momus is having such a good time in Japan that he's like any of us when we visit a foreign country (for me, that includes Canada): We see everything that's wrong with where we normally live all that much more clearly (this before we break down, start seeing the faults at hand, and long for home--not that this would happen with M.). Besides that, we know what they say about prophets in their own country. (One of my favorite parts of the Bible is where that clever fellow Jesus goes back to Nazareth and is derided even by his own family and neighbors.) Of course, I could be all wet. Soaking. Maybe Mr. Nick could send you an autographed demo CD-R just as a token of appreciation; you deserve it! Sorry to go on so long...
--Another rube from the boonies
― X. Y. Zedd, Sunday, 20 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― cockney red, Sunday, 20 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― Momus, Sunday, 20 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― , Sunday, 20 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― Michael Daddino, Sunday, 20 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― Ally, Sunday, 20 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― DG, Sunday, 20 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― Sterling Clover, Sunday, 20 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 20 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― ethan, Sunday, 20 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
I should have been here earlier. Damn that London Transport.
― Taylor Parkes, Sunday, 20 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
And, I'll side with Ally about that "going above 14th street" business. Personally, I like the smallness and snuggliness of lower Manhattan, but the people could mostly catch on fire and I wouldn't be too upset. Of course, NYC, in general, is full of pose/eurs, so it's easy enough to ignore them anywhere. But, some of the nicest parts of the city, restaurants and getaways, can be found in those big, scary numbers, too. It's also not as filthy, which is nice, too.
Anthony, if you want to live someplace better than the boonies why not just do so? MOmus tells us what he is doing in life becasue unlike most ego-strangled "music geniuses" he wants to share his life with his fans, albiet electronically. I mean realy, someone give s you such valuable insights, music and references, and you thank him with hostility? DO you really crave his love, as a father figure or something? I say, have admired cohorts, but worship no man. Just listen to his songs and enjoy his cool website .
― Mike Hanley, Sunday, 20 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― To clarify, Sunday, 20 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― suzy, Monday, 21 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― Momus, Monday, 21 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― fred solinger, Monday, 21 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― proton, Monday, 21 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
http://www.screamadelica.co.uk/justlikehoney.htm
― Nick, Monday, 21 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― El Bruto, Monday, 21 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― ethan, Monday, 21 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― doompatrol23@hotmail.com, Monday, 21 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― Mike Hanley, Monday, 21 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― tired proton, Monday, 21 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― geordie racer, Monday, 21 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/8890/
― proton, scourge of mankind, Monday, 21 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
well i thrashed lauren laverne at pool intha egypt one drizzly sunday night, she looked aghast.
this talksoftheadphone sh'ite iz well 3key, your words come out sounding like a demonic-deanna-durbin
cheers to tha wrongfooted googliers - fishin' moi ?
I stopped enjoying Momus LPs a while ago, but that's my personal taste. How can he be anything but a good thing? I shouldn't say any more, because almost every time I ever met him I was extremely drunk and probably antagonistic or, at best, a bore. Also, I'm terribly jealous of anyone whose life corresponds even remotely with what they'd like their life to be, which isn't normally a problem in these sorts of places.
― Taylor Parkes, Monday, 21 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
I don't think I ever properly answered the main question this thread posed -- seems to me he's just talking about things as they happen, and he has the chance to go to a lot of spots I don't have the chance to and reflect on the results. It makes for a good experience. And I was listening to him for moons before starting to chat with him every so often, and now he's here. Way cool, mang.
I think I was totally foolish to hero-worship Momus the way I did. But then the same applies to a lot of people I've looked up to. I work hard and concentrate on the work these days, not like back then.
― Robin Carmody, Monday, 21 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
: - )
I used to have sex to Momus.
Just popped in my head that insult and had to use it!
answer: no.
― doompatrol23@hotmail.com, Tuesday, 22 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― suzy, Tuesday, 22 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
I like being insulted as well (is that a hint??? weell...no.....maybe....)
Ummm...believe it was "tender pervert" "the angels are voyeur"...on cassette, nonetheeless!!!!!!
Not cassingle but CASSETTE. Purchased in a help the aged. Sounded like if Felt had written porn for seniors.
― DOOMPATROL23@HOTMAIL.COM, Tuesday, 22 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
This week's NME has half a page of phone sex adverts. Real ones. Is that what you meant, Nick? One of them says "MANDY - 30 SECS 'TIL U SMILE." Presumably a Labour campaign line for the Hartlepool area?
Oh, everyone's gone.
Yours, a sophisticated dandy warhol.
― Dickon Edwards, Wednesday, 23 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― Dave M., Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― Mike Hanley, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
Ahem. The phone sex stuff the lowest ebb in the NME yet, surely?
― Robin Carmody, Thursday, 24 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)
― John Robinson, Monday, 12 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― Mike Hanle y, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)
http://www.geocities.com/sscwon/momusliv.html
― Todd, Wednesday, 26 December 2001 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)
― N. (nickdastoor), Saturday, 30 August 2003 21:27 (twenty-two years ago)
― mei (mei), Saturday, 30 August 2003 23:10 (twenty-two years ago)
― Momus (Momus), Sunday, 19 October 2003 23:23 (twenty-one years ago)
― the surface noise (electricsound), Sunday, 19 October 2003 23:25 (twenty-one years ago)
― adaml (adaml), Sunday, 19 October 2003 23:51 (twenty-one years ago)
― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 13:56 (twenty years ago)
― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 7 January 2005 16:21 (twenty years ago)
― Atnevon (Atnevon), Friday, 7 January 2005 23:17 (twenty years ago)
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 8 January 2005 12:40 (twenty years ago)
― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 8 January 2005 14:10 (twenty years ago)
― Pashmina (Pashmina), Saturday, 8 January 2005 14:20 (twenty years ago)
Not at all! These artifacts have historical value.
― Atnevon (Atnevon), Sunday, 9 January 2005 05:47 (twenty years ago)
― Triple Ho, Sunday, 9 January 2005 05:53 (twenty years ago)
― Triple Ho, Sunday, 9 January 2005 06:00 (twenty years ago)
― chaki in charge (chaki), Sunday, 9 January 2005 06:17 (twenty years ago)
― Ken L (Ken L), Sunday, 9 January 2005 06:30 (twenty years ago)
or whatever it is/|\,momus, when he's onis really untouchable, now isn't he
― hephaestus, Sunday, 9 January 2005 08:04 (twenty years ago)
― Paula Bradley, Thursday, 10 March 2005 06:18 (twenty years ago)
-- Pashmina (vietgrov...), January 8th, 2005.
Come, Pashmina, with your deleting sword, your hour is again at hand. This is anti-semitic and publishes people's phone numbers. Get it off my thread!
― Momus (Momus), Thursday, 10 March 2005 07:39 (twenty years ago)
― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Saturday, 26 March 2005 04:07 (twenty years ago)
― Citizens' Rights committee, Sunday, 27 March 2005 11:50 (twenty years ago)
― frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Sunday, 27 March 2005 13:22 (twenty years ago)
― zappi (joni), Sunday, 27 March 2005 13:33 (twenty years ago)
― Momus (Momus), Sunday, 27 March 2005 14:27 (twenty years ago)
― Janne Karlsson, Sunday, 27 March 2005 20:19 (twenty years ago)
― bonus material, Sunday, 27 March 2005 20:47 (twenty years ago)
― keith m (keithmcl), Sunday, 27 March 2005 23:02 (twenty years ago)
― Alkurt X. KÁRÁSJOHKA, Thursday, 2 March 2006 06:38 (nineteen years ago)
― crestor, Monday, 3 April 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)
― john clarkson, Monday, 3 April 2006 20:40 (nineteen years ago)
― valium, Monday, 3 April 2006 21:48 (nineteen years ago)
― StanM (StanM), Monday, 3 April 2006 22:02 (nineteen years ago)
― StanM (StanM), Monday, 3 April 2006 22:44 (nineteen years ago)
― Momus (Momus), Tuesday, 4 April 2006 00:01 (nineteen years ago)
― lf (lfam), Thursday, 27 April 2006 22:29 (nineteen years ago)
― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 27 April 2006 22:41 (nineteen years ago)
-- lf (lfamula...), April 27th, 2006.
whose budding career? momus, barney, or cirgenski?
― that's so taylrr (ken taylrr), Thursday, 27 April 2006 22:46 (nineteen years ago)
― lf (lfam), Thursday, 27 April 2006 22:54 (nineteen years ago)
― lf (lfam), Thursday, 27 April 2006 23:14 (nineteen years ago)
― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 28 April 2006 08:32 (nineteen years ago)
― lf (lfam), Friday, 28 April 2006 14:14 (nineteen years ago)
― Chris Bergen (Cee Bee), Friday, 28 April 2006 14:57 (nineteen years ago)
― Eppy (Eppy), Friday, 28 April 2006 15:08 (nineteen years ago)
― Momus (Momus), Friday, 28 April 2006 16:03 (nineteen years ago)
― Momus (Momus), Friday, 28 April 2006 16:05 (nineteen years ago)
― Confounded (Confounded), Friday, 28 April 2006 16:08 (nineteen years ago)
― Momus (Momus), Friday, 28 April 2006 16:14 (nineteen years ago)
― lf (lfam), Friday, 28 April 2006 16:59 (nineteen years ago)
― Confounded (Confounded), Friday, 28 April 2006 17:20 (nineteen years ago)
― Confounded (Confounded), Friday, 28 April 2006 17:22 (nineteen years ago)
― Onimo (GerryNemo), Friday, 28 April 2006 17:24 (nineteen years ago)
Anybody coming out to see him at the Pub tonight with me?
― forksclovetofu, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 23:32 (seventeen years ago)
― Dom Passantino, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 23:33 (seventeen years ago)
I've listened to "Murderers, the Hope of Women" 40+ times this week.
― Tape Store, Wednesday, 10 October 2007 23:38 (seventeen years ago)
Nick fucks children
Slander much?
― rockapads, Thursday, 11 October 2007 00:05 (seventeen years ago)
its not slander
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Thursday, 11 October 2007 00:53 (seventeen years ago)
Petra Cortright: MOMUS IS SO GAY Petra Cortright: where is he playing so i can go boo at him Petra Cortright: MOMUS YUR LIVEJOURNAL SUXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Petra Cortright: YOUR POSTS SUXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx
― Catsupppppppppppppp dude 茄蕃, Thursday, 11 October 2007 00:54 (seventeen years ago)
Jon, I see you skipped out.
― forksclovetofu, Saturday, 13 October 2007 20:32 (seventeen years ago)
Momus on the bbc radio 6 at this moment, it is a nice song called I Was A Maoist Intellectual
― Slumpman, Sunday, 8 February 2009 19:02 (sixteen years ago)
^ That was a great song. Can't remember which album it was (Hippopotamomus? Hmm, no ... fuck it) but yeh, that whole period when Momus actually wrote great songs was a joy.
― Special topics: Disco, The Common Market (grimly fiendish), Sunday, 8 February 2009 19:18 (sixteen years ago)
http://ndobos.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/bat-signal.jpeg
― Henry Frog (Frogman Henry), Sunday, 8 February 2009 19:22 (sixteen years ago)
Can't remember which album it was (Hippopotamomus? Hmm, no ... fuck it)
Tender Pervert. Still great, now free.
― I Was A Taoist Intellectual (sic), Monday, 9 February 2009 10:53 (sixteen years ago)
Oh, superb. I've not heard that for years. Good excuse to reacquaint myself. Thank you.
― Special topics: Disco, The Common Market (grimly fiendish), Monday, 9 February 2009 10:59 (sixteen years ago)
Ha! Bishonen "could well be the peak of my songwriting career". No "could well" about it, Nicky Boy.
― Special topics: Disco, The Common Market (grimly fiendish), Monday, 9 February 2009 11:00 (sixteen years ago)
casting an eye over the juno release list a couple of weeks ago and found that he's got a song on the new dial 12"!
― resident advice whore (haitch), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 23:52 (sixteen years ago)
Momus - 5/26/09 Highline ballroom NYC
― Dewey B., Thursday, 30 April 2009 04:22 (sixteen years ago)
There's a vinyl copy of The Tender Pervert in the window of one of the charity shops along Cowley Road, Oxford.
I was surprised to see it in the window.
― djh, Tuesday, 8 March 2011 19:09 (fourteen years ago)
Strangely, the Tender Pervert is still on display in the same shop window.
You'd have thought either a) someone would have bought it or b) they'd have put something else in its place by now.
― djh, Monday, 18 July 2011 21:21 (fourteen years ago)
this is the only momus song i've ever heard.
― you've got male (jim in glasgow), Monday, 18 July 2011 21:31 (fourteen years ago)
has this guy grown up yet?
― by another name (amateurist), Monday, 18 July 2011 22:13 (fourteen years ago)
I only got about 20 posts in, but it made me miss Tonic! Saw a few great shows there before I actually moved to NYC: Stars of the Lid, etc. I was up here for CMJ once and saw the tail-end of a Momus gig somewhere downtown. It was only three weeks after 9/11 and the city felt indescribably strange, Anthrax scares screaming out from hotel elevator television broadcasts, seemingly nobody roaming the streets at night. Momus did some songs and then went back to his booth where a few very tiny Japanese women stroked him pensively. I'll never forget it.
― Clarke B., Wednesday, 20 July 2011 00:30 (fourteen years ago)
=)
I think Otto Spooky and Ocky Milk are my favorite Momus albums. I really love that masterful DIY cabaret concrete thing he has going on them. They are quite deeply psychedelic and experimental, especially considering he's long been a teetotaler. Some of the most bizarre, melodic, lyrical, catchy, and endearing music I have heard from any modern artist.
The first time I heard "The Artist Overwhelmed" I was spellbound, and had to replay it over and over again. It was a total mind-blinder.
― Telephoneface (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, 20 July 2011 01:03 (fourteen years ago)
Has anyone heard his new stuff? I haven't listened to anything since Joemus. I thought that was a slight letdown but had some very very high points. I still think he's one of my favorite contemporary musicians, especially his post-2k phase. There is some otherworldly beautiful music on the 'Oskar Trilogy' albums. A lot of those songs really sound like parts of dreams I've had. "Sempreverde", "Bantam Boys", and "The Artist Overwhelmed" (all from Otty Spooky) really feel like they only exist in a sublime, distorted dreamworld.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 9 March 2012 01:15 (thirteen years ago)
My last Momus experience was seeing him (and, I think, you) on the American Patchwork tour. I was a fan of Circus Maximus, Don't Stop the Night and Timelord. I would like to catch up with his newer stuff but I'm not sure where to start. For what it's worth, I loved your set! And also for what it's worth, I found Momus to be quite approachable, friendly, and accomodating, despite his being ticked off that the venue was too cheap to give him a beer.
― epistantophus, Friday, 9 March 2012 01:51 (thirteen years ago)
Cool, where was that? It's a bit surreal, that summer. It was 10 years ago! Thanks, Super Madrigal Brothers feels like one of my past lives now!
He was working on Oskar Tennis Champion at the time. It has that amazing song "Is It Because I'm a Pirate?" where he portrays a pirate trying in vain to hit on a waitress. He played that live during that tour, along with the beautiful "Little Schubert". That album also has a chiptune medley that I made at the end of it.
Otto Spooky is my favorite, mostly because of the variety of instrumentation. He was heavily influenced by Berlin-era Bowie for those two albums and the next one, Ocky Milk, and they are all deeply psychedelic, bizarre pop and music-hall songs with electronic cut-up acoustic and world instruments alongside retro synths. Some really bizarre experiments in sound and lyrics.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 9 March 2012 02:02 (thirteen years ago)
Atlanta (I think it was the EARL?). Fun show. Fake swordfights, kitten impressions, the whole deal. I'll check out those albums, thanks for the recommendations!
― epistantophus, Friday, 9 March 2012 02:24 (thirteen years ago)
Hah, I remember that show, whoever was running it was being a ass about the booze and calling us faggots and stuff. Probably why he's never been back to Atlanta.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Friday, 9 March 2012 02:27 (thirteen years ago)
Ugh. Well, in spite of it all, Momus was quite nice to me! And I have also not been back to Atlanta.
― epistantophus, Friday, 9 March 2012 02:32 (thirteen years ago)
anyone got to the oto thing?
― Crackle Box, Friday, 9 March 2012 14:08 (thirteen years ago)
I've actually come around to Joemus quite a bit in the past year or so, after initially being slightly disappointed. Don't think it's at all a drop in quality from the Oskar -> Ocky trilogy (honestly I'd probably pick Ocky as the weak link of the four-album span). Unfortunately that kind of energy is totally missing from the two most recent albums, though there are some nice moments here and there. The Thunderclown really should've been left as an EP.
― Vaguely Threatening CAPTCHAs, Saturday, 10 March 2012 09:31 (thirteen years ago)
I remember really liking the ending of Joemus, with "The Man You'll Never Be" and "The Vaudevillian".
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, 10 March 2012 14:50 (thirteen years ago)
He's been posting great new stuff on Youtube for the past few days:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkKh0dOi_Fc&feature=bf_prev&list=PL8F26123A7F7BED5C&lf=autoplay
― America's Mobile, Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:16 (thirteen years ago)
pretty good!
― og (admrl), Thursday, 5 April 2012 17:20 (thirteen years ago)
Catching up on his Hearspool radio series: http://mrstsk.tumblr.com/post/59591346688
I'm listening to the first one, which overlays surreal, soft-spoken monologues with field recordings, ambient classical and pop music. Most latterly is a deconstruction of Wire's '40 Versions'. It's all rather delightful - one part Stanshall, one part Blue Jam (without Morris' wacky excesses), two parts God knows what. It was recorded for Basic FM but has most of the hallmarks of a good Resonance FM show
― halber mensch halber keks (imago), Sunday, 13 April 2014 10:51 (eleven years ago)
Hey i was going to buy Momus's book and then i looked on Amazon and saw he has a few!
The Book of Jokeshttp://www.amazon.com/The-Book-Jokes-British-Literature/dp/1564785610/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1403564848&sr=8-4&keywords=momus
The Book of Scotlandshttp://www.amazon.com/Solution-11-167-The-Book-Scotlands/dp/1933128550/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1403564848&sr=8-6&keywords=momus
UnAmericanhttp://www.amazon.com/UnAmerica-Success-Failure-Series-Momus/dp/0985508590/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403564848&sr=8-1&keywords=momus
Has anyone here read these? Which one should i get first...
― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Monday, 23 June 2014 23:11 (eleven years ago)
also the book of japans. I gave the book of scotlands to a friend, idk how good it is.
― ogmor, Monday, 23 June 2014 23:16 (eleven years ago)
http://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/pubic-intellectual-an-anthology-1986-2016/
― djh, Monday, 11 July 2016 19:39 (nine years ago)
pubic instead of public
― Pat Umunna Glass (DJ Mencap), Monday, 11 July 2016 20:39 (nine years ago)
good tracklist. looks like almost half of Voyager is there which is A Very Good Thing in my book. i like this quote from a few years back; "it perplexes me slightly when people say that Voyager is my peak. But it's understandable -- I think the anonymity of the record allows it to fit other people's lives, and the era, whereas the quirkiness of my current work maybe doesn't.. "
― piscesx, Tuesday, 12 July 2016 10:30 (nine years ago)
i wonder how Cherry Red have been able to release old Creation tracks? i guess all that's been Sorted Out now. the albums were out of print for years which is i guess why he decided to put them all up online for free in 2008. it'd be nice to have deluxe editions of those 80s/90s albums.
― piscesx, Tuesday, 12 July 2016 10:34 (nine years ago)
always fascinated by anthology/best-of/selected works records curated by the artist themselves, always some big surprises regarding what they put in, and what they leave out. can't believe his picks from stars forever! totally forgot about "life of the fields" though, beautiful song.
― it's sort of a layered stunt (sheesh), Wednesday, 13 July 2016 04:44 (nine years ago)
Any thoughts on disc 3?
(That's the point where I stop recognising track titles).
― djh, Wednesday, 13 July 2016 21:59 (nine years ago)
very familiar w the first half of disc 3. mostly the stuff from the NYC psych folk prog phase. "Going for a Walk With a Line" is brilliant. i also quite like "Nervous Heartbeat" which has a lovely and heart-tugging strings sample. "Frilly Military" is fun too, i think he wrote that for Kahimi Karie a long time ago and this version has a nice slightness going for it. "The Vaudevillian" is incredible, one of those songs that made me stop in my tracks when i first heard it. love the mix of humor & pathos. wonderful finale (also could've gone w "The Artists Overwhelmed")
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 14 July 2016 11:01 (nine years ago)
oh wherefor art thoa
― Violet Jax (Violet Jynx), Thursday, 25 May 2017 14:26 (eight years ago)
yum
https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/momus-create-i-procreate-3cd-remastered-expanded-edition/
― piscesx, Friday, 24 November 2017 21:34 (seven years ago)
Thought this revival would be about Momus competition coming back to help us with our Japanese.
― Modern Zounds in Undiscovered Country (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 24 November 2017 21:41 (seven years ago)
Plot twistMomus doesn’t speak japanese
― i n f i n i t y (∞), Saturday, 25 November 2017 00:28 (seven years ago)
No compute
― Modern Zounds in Undiscovered Country (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 November 2017 14:52 (seven years ago)
i sympathize with or relate to his reasons/excuses for not learning japanese
― XxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxXxxxx (dylannn), Saturday, 25 November 2017 20:36 (seven years ago)
Do you guys seriously think that Momus never learned Japanese?
― Modern Zounds in Undiscovered Country (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 25 November 2017 21:04 (seven years ago)
did he even learn english
― mark s, Saturday, 25 November 2017 21:05 (seven years ago)
i'm sure he has to at least some extent. but i sympathize with what he says about japan being a nice place to live and not speaking japanese being a way of protecting/isolating yourself from the conformity of japanese society.
― XxxxxxxXxxxxxxxxXxxxx (dylannn), Saturday, 25 November 2017 21:11 (seven years ago)
I would bet money Momus speaks almost no Japanese
― she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Saturday, 25 November 2017 21:45 (seven years ago)
Who does he talk to then? He lives there.
― treeship 2, Saturday, 25 November 2017 21:59 (seven years ago)
He can’t even gossip.
― treeship 2, Saturday, 25 November 2017 22:00 (seven years ago)
Momus knows Japanese. he's written lyrics in Japanese and has sung in Japanese. plus i've seen him practice with my own eyes. he was practicing when i was on tour with him in 2002. i was in a chiptune band of his creation called Super Madrigal Bros. it was the American Patchwork tour and we drove all over America playing shows with 2-3 other acts. he was dating a Japanese woman (also his tour manager) at the time and she was helping him with his kanji. it was the first time either of them had been to the US outside of New York or LA, and they were amazed by all the land and space. whenever we passed a farm with cows she would point out the window saying "Nick! Nick!" i have great memories of that tour, it was a lot of fun and brilliant music, and our hosts were very kind Tour Mom & Dad.
i wonder what he's up to these days. i see him on youtube he has a series of videos continuing his old blogging style about art and culture and stuff. this is good news on the new compilation! i've only heard one of those albums but it was a very cool, moody, weird folk record. hope he is well and happy.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 30 November 2017 01:36 (seven years ago)
i remember seeing you guys play in austin. and momus complaining on his blog about texas being "huge, hot and empty".
― new noise, Thursday, 30 November 2017 01:54 (seven years ago)
woah. that was at Emo's. did they have a drop down movie screen that projected old cartoon before the bands played? i feel like that might have been at that show...
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 30 November 2017 03:13 (seven years ago)
that's not something i remember ever seeing at emo's.
― new noise, Thursday, 30 November 2017 03:25 (seven years ago)
Adam! Had no idea you were a Super Madrigal Bro! (Apologies for the brand new unfamiliar dn I've been mostly lurking for the past decade though I do post now and again when I work up the gumption)
Anyways I made a new account mostly just to tell you that I'm a great fan, and that I desperately tried to see both you and Momus on that tour you mentioned when it came thru Portland, even went so far as to enlist the prettiest girl I knew to try and beg the doorman to let us in but we weren't anywhere near old enough to be there and he wasn't having it, oh well.
Anyways would love to hear anymore memories you have of that tour, or being on AmPatch (you say the band was of his creation?)
― Florin Cuchares, Saturday, 2 December 2017 08:15 (seven years ago)
cool nice to meet you Florin! im curious how you heard about us. i know they did flyers and ads in the local alt weeklys every where we went.
it was probably the greatest summer of my life. travelling around the US playing a show just about every night every day for a month. Momus had been doing this a long time so he was an old pro by this time, and a lot of places we had stayed were friends of his from previous tours, other artists, musicians, etc. it was mostly sleeping on the floor of a punk house type situation, which is one i have always been fine with. towards the end of the tour we splurged on a few hotel rooms. lol i think we all snuck into two rooms, this eccentric Scottish guy w an eyepatch, his Japanese business manager, and 8 or so freaky teenage art schoolers. on that tour it was Momus, the Gongs, Phillip, and the Supermads:, me and John Fashion Flesh. Fashion Flesh just released an LP by the way (https://www.discogs.com/Fashion-Flesh-Withdrawn/release/10946402) it is amazing kind of in the vein of Severed Heads or Throbbing Gristle, early industrial/synth-pop, instrumental, minimalist, w trippy glitchy stuff and home made synths. amazing stuff!
https://i.imgur.com/2TiUwyTl.jpghanging out on a breezy porch one morning after a show
the band itself and the album name was Momus's idea. i was doing chiptune music (this was 1998/1999) and had recorded an album of Christmas music. my main idea was to get this CD to Bjork cos i thought for some reason she would love it or something. i sent it in to Momus (i had previously sent a few other things in) and he wrote me back an email a few months later basically saying "Here's this idea for a band, you would work with this other guy who lives in another state, we need an album by x so we can do a summer tour with my whole label." i was 21, had just dropped out of college, and was living in a 2 bedroom room punk rock apartment with 5 other people and 3 dogs. i was like fuck yes, i'm going to do this, goodbye to my dogshit apartment. i went to the library to use the internet to look for MIDI files and would find songs to do, then do them in Fruity Loops. unfortunately i did not use samples from actual consoles, i was using emulators to isolate channels and make samples from that. NESticle was one emulator I used the most to get samples. i had a lot of tricks i used all the time, like the Gameboy startup sound for bass (this is something Momus used in his song "Walter Carlos" so I ripped it off him) and having it do an octave leap rather than having a break or stopping the note, this gave the songs little glitchy blips at the end of the lines (around this time i was introduced to Roxy Music and the octave leaps in "Virginia Plain" were a big influence). after arranging a song and saving a .WAV i would burn a CDr and mail it to John, who would remix the tracks in his own unique way (often with custom gear, twisting my clockwork creations, like your body stepping outside of yourself and now seeing things in the Astral World. it was like a shadow album living alongside the regular one), and mail another disc back to me. we had them back and forth on the albums and i think it's the best way to get both versions of the material. i think he had gotten a little bit of a budget for 2 records and a tour and it was a really wonderful experience and i will be forever grateful for the invitation. to be able to perform w so many amazing artists and musicians was incredible.
i've always been a huge fan of Momus (imo some of his best work is for real Bowie-level talented but just not as lucky or commercially palatable) and the Gongs and Phiiliip. Phiiliip has done some really cool stuff since then, an album called "Divided by Lightning" that had an accompanying art show and accompanying music video DVD (i love the song that mixes in Boyz II Men's "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye..." over a trance beat and footage of NY club kids in the 80s). i wrote to him on Facebook years ago and he was taking a sound class with one of the guys in Animal Collective and he was learning how to mix properly and stuff. his music started getting less lofi but still very psychedelic, very much like if Beck hadn't decided to start sucking and went back to what he was doing in the early 90s but with Ableton. i heard he had fallen ill and had to move in with his family but that was a while ago, so i'm not sure what's up with him now. i did find a soundcloud page of his recently (Wirekid) that had all these really intense, really crazy and amazing remixes that were like live mashups with new lyrics, melodies, and raps. like he had Buddy Holly's "Everyday" glockenspeil going over a death metal blast beat. or the "Goonies R Good Enough" synth arpeggio over skittering drum n bass. but they are all original songs??? it's really amazing stuff, some of the most unique music i have ever heard in my life. there is one song he did recently that was "Sparkle Off the Clock" and i think it was a take on Justin Beiber (not sure) but it had a really catchy melody and the arrangement was a really nice, crunchy 8-bit thing, complete w video game noises, and at one point he starts mixing in Mr. Miyagi and he's taking about catching the fly and making these swish sounds. yeah this shit is dope.
anyways for the "Shakestation" record Momus really gave us full freedom to do whatever. he didn't tell us how long to make the album or how many songs or what songs to do or anything. he had an artist who would do the cover, Florian Perret, who did an amazing black and white drawings. personally i wanted something colorful and videogamey and pixelly but i respected the collaborative spirit of the whole thing. tbh i think the "Shakestation" cover would look nice on an LP jacket, the CD is just too small to show those details. anyway i had no idea what a madrigal was so i just started slapping sounds together. i wanted to do via video games and medieval music what Esquivel or The Three Suns had done for jazz and exotica, with weird arrangements, stereo effects, basically kitchy electronic Perry-Kingsley style stuff etc. inspired by the Moog Cookbook and A Clockwork Orange (lol i was listening to this soundtrack yesterday, Wendy Carlos is God). the second album has a whole romantic section where we do more modern stuff like the Carmen opera and the whole direction got more baroque in general. i remember Momus not really being happy about that, lol, us time-jumping like that, and maybe we really should have stuck with the medieval smaller scale stuff. half of the second album is still pretty medieval though. it's funny, since then i have read many books on medieval history and have found it to be something i am really very interested in. at the time i was just trawling through MIDI websites for songs to try to cover i didn't really care about the history. well i think if we ever re-visit it (and we have talked from time to time, u never know) then i will take it more seriously and probably incorporate more of a historical concept to the work.
the tour... wow! Portland was cool, i wish you could have made it! i remember we went to a punk house that had little to no furniture in it. by that time i think we had met up with Rroland, who was really cool. he had written all these songs using only a Roland synth. he was Nick's age, in his 40s, which was cool and kind of funny. there were all of us electronic noise kids and then this middle aged father who owned a vineyard and produced his own wine! and yet that music he made was transformative, you really felt like you were listening through his past lives. he was only with us for a few days out west. i remember that drive up and down the west coast so well, it was so beautiful, it felt like we were at the edge of the world, on the edge of paradise. this was the first time i ever heard Klaus Nomi, and i remember driving along the west coast highways listening to "Rubberband Lazer" and just kind of being dazzled by it all (probably on shrooms!).
https://i.imgur.com/eYgFxfel.jpghere is a photo of me with Cythia Plaster Caster, 2002
the tour was a lot of fun, it was the experience of a lifetime. mostly i really loved the other musicians we were touring with, like we were listening to each other's CDs in the car on the road between shows. i have some great memories of hazy parties, memories of driving across states as the sun rises, etc. the kind of memories you get when you go on road trips with friends. the coolest person i met was Cynthia Plaster Caster who was at our show in Chicago. she had casted Momus and he was in a recent documentary about her. she was a total sweety and just she gave me a big hug and called me a sweetie like the coolest rock n roll aunt ever. i also met Mumbleboy at our NYC kickoff show, but i was so nervous about playing for the first few days, i don't remember what i said. i met Beck's brother at Spaceland and Beck was going to come to the show but didn't and this was a big letdown personally cos i am obsessed with Beck but it was cool cos Phillip had this mix CD with all the Midnight Vultures outtakes and i had never heard that stuff before. still blows my mind. i remember at the second to last show in my hometown of Atlanta the people at the club got real aggressive (i don't remember why, an unpaid bill or something? it seemed unreasonable) and they threw us out, calling us "F*****s", yelling "Get the fuck out of here!" and i felt real embarrassed cos i lived there lol. after the show we stayed with some friends in Dunwoody including Jack Hines of the Black Lips who thought Momus was hilarious and who drove us the next day to the final show in SC. heh after living in 2 cramped cars with 7 other people for a month, it was nice to get into a new car, so i remember how luxurious it felt to be able to spread out and like stick my feet out the window!
i remember going home and bringing a check - we had made a couple hundred dollars which is really impressive now that I've seen a few tours. i was still living with my parents out in the country at this point, so i got home and was completely fried and feeling isolated and getting really depressed and cabin feverish. it was almost like having jetlag or something. it made me want to move to the city, which i ended up doing just a few months later. i've lived here for the past 15 years this winter.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 14 December 2017 02:46 (seven years ago)
Thanks so much for sharing, that was awesome to read. I was at the Lawrence Kansas show and remember really enjoying it.
― erasingclouds, Thursday, 14 December 2017 03:38 (seven years ago)
He's been videos for new stuff every couple of days on youtube. Residents meets ISB vibe in most of it so far. Anyone listening?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHLymyfTAhw
― everything, Monday, 13 August 2018 04:38 (seven years ago)
I have. This is my fave from the new album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5o8VAmEQnM
― daavid, Thursday, 1 November 2018 23:40 (six years ago)
One of the best opening posts in site history
― Trϵϵship, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 21:18 (six years ago)
Is it the one by Anthony? /zing
― TS The Students vs. The Regents (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 June 2019 21:45 (six years ago)
*Loads, scrolls, nods*
― TS The Students vs. The Regents (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 June 2019 21:47 (six years ago)
The first three posts are all great.
― Luna Schlosser, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 22:30 (six years ago)
Between this and the Miles thread today has been Ye Olde ILX0r Wayback Wednesday.
― TS The Students vs. The Regents (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 19 June 2019 22:44 (six years ago)
I wish anthony still posted. There is a lot of overlap between his interests and mine, it seems
― Trϵϵship, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 22:47 (six years ago)
I’m a fan of momus but if he knew me he’d think i was a rube for sure you know so, preemptively, fuck you momus
― Trϵϵship, Wednesday, 19 June 2019 22:48 (six years ago)
Anthony helped me edit down my mom's obituary so it could fit within the required parameters to be published in the local newspaper. I'll never forget that bit of kindness extended to me.
Just like I won't forget how I used to listen to Momus's podcast episodes (back when he hosted them on his website -- I found his voice soothing, even if I disagreed with his content) and in one of them he rhapsodized about one of my top 100 favorite songs of all time (and the namesake to what was my vehicle at the time), David Sylvian's "Orpheus". Any man who loves DS can't be all that bad.
― Dee the (Summer-Hating) Lurker (deethelurker), Wednesday, 19 June 2019 23:43 (six years ago)
60 today!
― Luna Schlosser, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 22:06 (five years ago)
doompatrol doing robust half-bright sock-work on the thread, i wonder how he is these days
― mark s, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 22:19 (five years ago)
60?!?!?
― El Tomboto, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 22:42 (five years ago)
Good for him. I check in on his tumblr every once in a while and he seems to be doing well and still living by his own rules.
― treeship., Tuesday, 11 February 2020 23:15 (five years ago)
‘Flame Into Being’ is one of the forgotten great songs of the 80s.
I was just listening to Stars Forever today. I think it's my favorite album of his. His old ironic-misogyny stuff really grates, but some of the songs on Stars Forever have the kind of heart I wish he'd put into his poetry more often.
― OneSecondBefore, Tuesday, 11 February 2020 23:16 (five years ago)
Yeah he has a kind of nabokovian disdain for anything sentimental. This attitude seems to be declining—probably for the worse. It’s good to have some mandarins around.
― treeship., Tuesday, 11 February 2020 23:25 (five years ago)
For those not in the habit of visiting the *BBC Scotland website, he's working on a Covid-LP.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52270653
(*I'm not either, someone posted the link on Facebook).
― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.), Sunday, 19 April 2020 09:13 (five years ago)
"At that moment, I was very scared. I really thought - this is it - and started anticipating all the RIP Momus messages people would be posting."
― Hey, let me drunkenly animate yr boats in about 25 to 60 days! (Le Bateau Ivre), Sunday, 19 April 2020 10:10 (five years ago)
... on ILX. They missed that bit out.
― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.), Sunday, 19 April 2020 10:21 (five years ago)
^ Ha! I liked "The Hairstyle of the Devil reached number 94 in the singles chart in 1989."
― djh, Sunday, 19 April 2020 10:45 (five years ago)
too high
― mark s, Sunday, 19 April 2020 11:00 (five years ago)
― Three Hundred Pounds of Almond Joy (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 19 April 2020 12:01 (five years ago)
my man with the hustle
― treeship., Sunday, 19 April 2020 12:12 (five years ago)
“My Corona” lol
― Paul, Sunday, 19 April 2020 13:33 (five years ago)
So there is a book about Momus coming out from Zero Books. I’m reading the blog it’s based on, fifteenpeople.com, and revisiting some of those albums.
Timelord is a great record. Not as snotty and arch, filled with longing and despair, so more my speed than his other records. I like how he draws out the main theme of most sci fi— the fact that so much of our technology is motivated by a desire to overcome time and death. The kind of thing that sounds trite in a messageboard post but the buried longing does come out on songs like Enlightenment, which also deals with more contemporary concerns
― treeship., Saturday, 1 May 2021 14:09 (four years ago)
of course it's fucking zer0
cancel culture can't go far enough
― Left, Saturday, 1 May 2021 14:13 (four years ago)
I’m discovering some personal stuff about him in the blog that isn’t so cool also.
― treeship., Saturday, 1 May 2021 14:14 (four years ago)
Not trying to avoid that reality. I feel like momus is cancelled here already so discussing the music should be ok
― treeship., Saturday, 1 May 2021 14:16 (four years ago)
Ah. Just came here to wonder how the book was?
― djh, Saturday, 27 November 2021 16:49 (three years ago)
I'm unable to watch his series of Open University videos because he has this possibly unconscious click in his speech which really triggers my misophonia.
― Luna Schlosser, Saturday, 27 November 2021 20:07 (three years ago)
Did anyone read the book?
― djh, Sunday, 30 January 2022 19:41 (three years ago)
I wrote it, if that helps?
― thranjax, Saturday, 30 April 2022 13:05 (three years ago)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3KwmdOYPvk
― MaresNest, Tuesday, 6 September 2022 17:28 (three years ago)