Wait, nearly nobody has anything to say about the Momus interview?

Ned: I found it absolutely fascinating. The only reason I didn't go into more detail was that I feared I might sound naive and childlike in my arguments, except to say that the puritan socialist in me sympathises greatly with his thoughts about intelligent people wasting their minds.

I wonder what Momus would like intelligent people to listen to, other than Momus of course. He didn't go into specifics regarding that.

Some great questions, Ned.

Give us time, man! There's a lot of shit in there.

I like Nicole's question.

Can't speak for Nick, but I suspect he'd recommend anything that fitted into his broad-based definition of "unpop".

Momus, do you approve of dancing?

I think it is the best Momus interview I've ever read. There is alot to absorb, but off the top. I would say your questions de-mystified the concept of unpop for me. Your questions on elegance drew the brilliant response re: Miles Davis and a democratic elegance. The hentai/mosaic hook into the cute formalism thought expanded that realm, I think you did a fine job young man!

Can I confess that I actually couldn't read it? It's rare that I can get through one of his posts, a whole interview with him was just intolerable. Sorry. Don't hate me. :-S

Maybe you'll prefer my holiday postcard from Thailand, Kate:

http://www.demon.co.uk/momus/thought240601.html

Then again, probably not. I manage to drag Jean-Luc Godard and the Monoculture into it.

Nick

Nicholas, you are so self-congratulatory about your interests sometimes. This is a recent phenomenon. When exactly did you turn into such a raving twunt?

Twunt?

Mostly, the man makes sense.

I agree, and enjoyed Ned's piece too! it just cheapens Nick's interests/passions if he suggests in a faintly damning way that someone who doesn't like how he sometimes conveys his insights will not appreciate those of Godard (currently enjoying a revival in the form of a big NFT season). As if!

Can't speak for Nick, but I suspect he'd recommend anything that fitted into his broad-based definition of "unpop".

I find the concept of unpop rather nebulous. It would be interesting to find out what Momus considers the best examples of unpop, it might give me a better idea of exactly what he's getting at.

Nicole, unpop is a pretty easy concept really. It's music made to appeal/communicate to those who follow what we'd maybe call 'unpopular' culture: the subversive, the 'other', the bohemian, the elitist, the queer, the impulses yet to be completely co-opted or accepted by the mainstream. All of these elements do enjoy large audiences and some of these elements do, over time, join the mainstream.

Today I was at a friend's house who is a practicing psychic, she had this ethnic new age collection of music. One was very beautiful and lyrical, but completely and irritatingly predictible, combinations of celtic, east indian, american indian, goulash. I was thinking this "ethnic collection on CD" craze is the pop packaging of the musical new age, coming soon to an elevator or dental office near you!. What would be unpop would to have an Lp of the actual celtic flute pieces, or a Ravi Shankar LP. Maybe unpop is more curatorial. It's harder to get, to find, to make. Pop is at every gas station mini-mart. IMO unpop is a collection of used to be pop songs, found sounds, remembered influences, I think this was touched in Ned's interview. It is strange to me that AFM is so quiet of late and some of us regulars are posting here on ILM. Oh well as long as Ned's willing...

Suzy wrote: It just cheapens Nick's interests/passions if he suggests in a faintly damning way that someone who doesn't like how he sometimes conveys his insights will not appreciate those of Godard.

Actually, I think disliking Momus interviews would be highly correlated with disliking Godard interviews (remember we're not talking about my records or his films here, but the kind of things said about them in interviews). I don't think that's a big, or belittling, presumption to make. Kate, if you're still around, can you clarify? Do you find Godard intolerable too?

Can we interview Motorhead next?

Actually, that's not as antithetical as you think it is. Lemmy's son, Paul Inder, takes the guitar solo on one of my early records, 'Murderers, the Hope of Women'.

Momus: Center of Universe. Discuss. ;-)

I've actually got one new POP: ART in the works and about three or four people lined up to ask for future ones. As to who they all are -- well, that would be telling. ;-)

Such a tease. You should tell the people to build anticipation, etc. etc. etc.

Loved the interview with Momus; don't know if that was really conveyed in my earlier writing, but I thought it brought up a lot topics that you never really see talked about in the mainstream press (except possibly the Wire?).

One thing that got me was where he was saying that (wondering whether?) intelligent people only listen to "pop" as some sort of maschocism. But I really don't think that's the case. I mean, maybe I'm just not one of the "intelligent" people he's talking about, but this morning I heard "I'm Like a Bird" on the radio, and well, it just made me *smile*. Obviously I don't even like it enough to remember the name of the woman who recorded it (nelly f... something?), but hey.

And this reminds me of something a friend was saying to me. I was playing him some Momus - can't remember which album, maybe Folktronic. He didn't like it because he said he's (Momus) intellectualising to the point that the music become completely devoid of any emotional resonance. And that's sort of the feeling I got reading that interview. I *love* Momus' music, but I really can't read that interview. It's like he's trying to turn pop music into science, and it's just... plaahh... I don't know whether it's relevant that the guy I was playing Momus to is an art historian or not. Maybe someone from a scientific background (which I suppose I am) would like it more.

I was actually making more fun of Ned than I was of Momus, but here we go, I shall respond to the questions that have been asked and the points raised.

First, without trying to be insulting- I respect Nick as a person and a member of this community, even if I might not care for Momus as an artist- I find the interview, as I often find your posts, difficult to read, for many reasons. For a start, we have vastly different tastes in, and expectations from music. For a second, and this is slightly more personal, so please do not take offense, but I often get the feeling that you are using your intellect and your education to obscure issues with a host of terminology, rather than clarify them.

I might even agree with some of the things that you are saying, but the way that they are presented (sweeping generalisations, gender stereotypes, conceptual name-dropping) turns me off. But that is personal style, De Gustibus, etc. and I'm not going to criticise anyone's right to express their opinions in the way they see fit unless, unless they're doompatrol/TY/whatever he's calling himself this month.

With regard to Godard, I find it intensely strange and almost off-topic that you would bring him into this thread. It's almost rather like me saying "Oh, you don't like Spacemen 3, well, I bet you don't like Apricot jelly, either!"

I have often described myself as being "film deaf" the same way some people describe themselves as being "tone deaf" if they don't have an understanding of or passion for music. I have never read an interview with Godard, because I've never had any interest in his craft. I've never read an interview with Darcey Bussel or David Beckham or ::insert name of some Hollywood blockbuster director I've never heard of here::, either, because I have as little interest in ballet or football as I have in cinema.

So the entire "I bet you wouldn't agree with Godard, either" is a nonsensical non-sequitur to me.

Thoroughly chastised, I will attempt to read the interview now, as I did actually enjoy the Postcard from Thailand, so there you go.

Thanks, Kate, for the answer. Ned's interview was a bit like taking an exam. I did try to answer in a way that was thought-provoking and consistent, but in the end it's like a lot of stuff on this board: fascinating hair-splitting, medieval theology.

People might be surprised to know that my last couple of albums were largely written as an excuse to do silly folk dances on stage.

But Nicole, this way I can build Mystery and Intrigue. ;-)

I will say that the next POP: ART person will again be -- surprise! -- from the UK. However, my next candidates being lined up are American folk who work in vastly different areas of music...and I will always welcome suggestions, especially if said people 1) have a brain and 2) are easy to reach online.

I kind of have a feeling I know who one is anyway, since the person in question mentioned talking to you. So nyah nyah nyah.

People might be surprised to know that my last couple of albums were largely written as an excuse to do silly folk dances on stage.

I really do hope that is true.

I'm quite tickled by the idea of Momus working out all his theories after he's made his records just so's he can pretend sword fight or whatever he's doing onstage nowadays.

Folk dances aren't silly! They were the ancient people's way of dealing with the need to flop about hungrily!

I did not care for Nick's sweeping generalization of american culture. I think with the wide brush the he paints with you could say that the UK is an even greater monoculture than the US. The US is too big to be monocultural.

Now for the Corporate American Culture industries, that is a different story...

mt