imomus | Manorchestra plays Italy

Manorchestra plays Italy

Reports of the demise of my music career, in the form of yesterday's Wired News piece Star blogger, minor musician, have been greatly exaggerated. Today I fly to Italy for a two-date mini-tour. These will be my first Italian concerts ever, amazingly enough. The first one, this Friday in Venice, is already sold out. Here's how Italian music magazine L'Enoteca reports it (the translation idiosyncracies are all my own):

"Momus. Enough with words, already. He's someone of whom [rock critic?] Celentano never would ask "Is it slow or is it rock?" because Momus is the Pentagram and the Logos. Mister quotation, mister general culture, mister curiosity, mister 360° photography, mister folktronica, mister open book. Momus returns to Venice (he was here at the end of September for Teach Me and an inspection of the campus of Cittadellarte, the very famous Piedmontese Foundation which is still at the suckling stage). On Friday 4th November, this time, he will exhibit his live show for the first time in Italy. The location will be the evocative Teatro delle Fondamenta 9, in front of Saint Michele, facing the open lagoon and Murano. A gale of fresh air is anticipated: it's best to wrap up well, but when we have to confront nature, don't feel sorry for us. Nick Currie, the manorchestra, will also be taking his cultured, coltish loungeries to Turin for Rettilario (a festival with a cooling program: think Matt "Record of the Year" Elliott), on Thursday 8th November: here are the details to post up on your blog, if you like (even if brothers Enzo and Suzuki listen to soul). For once, tough shit, Bologna and Rome (said with sympathy, naturally)!

"The small doll-Momus is the work of Ruben Y Michi, two optimal Madrid designers, absolutely pop: gobble up their website with your eyes, if only for the illustrations of the equipment they use to do their job...

"Thanks to Filippo for introducing me to Momusworld, and to Davide, who's flattened himself organizing the event: it deserves its sold out sign (in fact, two) and more. See you in the osteria beforehand!"

Friday 4 November 2005, 9.00pm
Teatro Fondamenta Nuove
Risonanze
Cannaregio 5013, Venezia
Info 041 5224498
info@teatrofondamentanuove.it
Buy ticket online

Tuesday 8 November 2005, 10.30pm
Café Procope
Rettilario inside
Via Juvarra 15, Torino
Info 011 54 06 75
info@masjuvarra.it
Tickets sold at Teatro Juvarra, Via Juvarra 15, Monday to Saturday, 3.00pm – 7.00pm.

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Dearest Momus,

Please charm [South-]Eastern United States with a concert at least once in your lifetime. I make deliriously good flan that I could perhaps entrance you with.

Cloudberries,

- Jesus.

I have played places like Georgia and South Carolina, last in 2002 on the American Patchwork Tour (http://imomus.com/ampatchtour.html).

But Louisiana, Momus, we need you here!

Nonsense. His presence is far more needed in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Louisiana is starving for momus, as he's never even played here. And by what measurement are you judging "who needs Momus" more?

Apparently, your scale is faulty.

Please, London again (we don't need Momus, we want him).

Oh! you played in Florida, thrice! I hope this means there will be more chances for you to come soon. I'll wait for you then.

I disagree with your Wired article. Although you probably know better because it's about yourself, I think that your blogging fame antecedes your musician fame-- I get the impression that you're pretty well established in the artistic world, even though you're a bit esoteric and "marginal"... the reason you don't have a huge fanbase, at least in America, is because your records aren't widely available here. You can pretty much only get them online, in select record stores, or used. Anyway, your records require a bit of an acquired or natural taste for the avant-garde and unprocessed, for the quirky and intellectual, for kitsch and highbrow.

However, your blogging success may be a success in its own right, because your thoughts are more accessible in written form and online where they're free and widely available. Also, the level of interaction that readers can get by commenting on your commentary is an added attraction. I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this, but I felt the impulse to comment.

It's interesting that you find his thoughts more accessible as prose than music, given music's ability to popularize and concretize certain sentiments (cf. anti-war songs in the Vietnam era, nationalistic songs during the Iraq war). Do you find music itself to be a lacking medium for intellectual discourse? Its formal constraints certainly hinder it in some ways from being as cogent as the written word, but the performative aspect of it adds a dimension that the written word perhaps can't achieve.

I think the problem with Momus' music being inaccessible is the opposite-- too much intellectual discourse and too little emotional pull... at least for my tastes.

However, I like some of his songs purely on an instinctive, emotional basis for their appealing poppy nature... all the songs on 20 vodka jellies, for instance.

You're never coming back to America, are you.

I remember it so well -- aged 20 years 11 months, standing outside the doors of the Holocene in Portland and being told very apologetically that I wasn't going to get to see you in your last tour before you abandoned our shores for good. All because the demon liquor might've enticed me to dance on tables or remove my shirt, as I lacked the extra month's experience necessary to deal with the temptation. I swear you drag horrible ironies around with you in a small leather bag.

Perhaps you could do a show in Shanghai in mid-January? I'll be there then, and that would be just ludicrous enough to tip the scales back to something approaching decency.

It's true that I've come back to America as a visual artist in the last year or two rather than a music artist. I still have a tour agency in the US, Kork, and they're still keen to set up tours. It's just that I feel a bit bored by driving thousands of miles around the country, playing the Bottom of the Hill in SF for the umpteenth time. And I'm sure audiences are a bit bored too. It's much more interesting for me to come and do a project in an art gallery. At the moment, anyway. Shanghai would definitely interest me, though. I'm also looking at playing shows in Australia next year, possibly. You know, there's got to be something a bit fresh and interesting about it, or why bother?

I feel kind of stupid that I hadn't looked at it that way. Being a touring musician without the all-green M&M treatment can't be very exciting after the first few go-rounds, particularly with a fanbase as geographically diffuse as yours. (Although what a thing -- you are literally world famous. What's that like?)

I hear that the live music scene in Shanghai is currently stagnant even by Chinese standards. You could be a one-man renaissance.

you are literally world famous. What's that like?

It's remarkably similar to the sensation you must be feeling right now to know that someone in, say, New Zealand may well be reading your words and looking at your (very fetching) picture!

someone in, say, New Zealandsomeone in, say, New Zealand

Hey! That's me... how did you know??
Anyway, remember that we are near Australia, when you are on tour...

Oh, Nick, so(oooo) glad for being quoted here... the pleasure (and not the privilege) is mine, I hope to fill both theatres, see you in Venice quite soon! Thanks again! (I am still "red" in my face for it...) -enrico/enver

Thank you for the report, Enrico, very flourishingly written! (But didn't we make some mistakes, me and Google translation?)

well, you and your google translation were almost right. see you on friday, then :)

fio

ok, now: that's peculiar. i've been trying to comment here for ages and there was always something wrong in my ip. and then today i write the most insignificant comment, i think "well, let's see if it works" and it finally worked. damn it. i wish i had said something more interesting / like, for instance, the fact that celentano is everything but a music critic. or that bologna and rome are named in l'enoteca's post because it's kind of strange that you aren't gonna play in neither one nor the other of these cities: in late spring - early summer there were rumours about a possible gig here in bologna, and that wouldn't be strange [i mean, everyone plays here]. it turned out we were wrong. but in a way it doesn't matter, since venice is pretty good and not too far from here.

now, this seems a more coherent comment - and i wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't get published.

fio

Good luck in Italy. Got any good "concept" for the concerts?

What happens when the readership of Momus eclipses the album sales? Do you start collecting fans who ceaselessly like to talk -- or more likely, write -- about music, and who think that your work is brilliant, intellectual, and "far better than it sounds"?

...and is that necessarily a bad thing?!

Do you have to go on tour, or couldn't you just have them set up a monitor and a big graphics display, while you just "blog it in"?

The idea of "blogging it in" reminds me of

womanonfire's Wirefire (http://www.entropy8zuper.org/wirefire/) project, which involved an online "live" graphical/musical performance (http://www.entropy8zuper.org/wirefire/WFreview.Davila.3.23.02.html), was quite ahead of its time. It still is, I guess. You can still see the random, not-quite-live version of WireFire here (http://entropy8zuper.org/wirefire/movies/client2.swf), btw.

hi there, mr.momus.

this is somewhat irrelevant i guess, but is there any chance you'd come back to finland someday for whatever purpose imaginable?
i know you've visited helsinki (quite?) a few times in the past, even fairly recently, but i've somehow managed to miss the venues (probably due to my being too young and/or too incognizant,i just turned 20).
anyway, it would be awful great if you did.
also, it's deplorable that your musical output is so difficult to come by, at least for someone with no credit card and a bit awkward relationship with computers as for now...
surprisingly enough though, i did find tender pervert and voyager while rummaging through the recordshelf in a nearby library :)
god, i'm babbling. but i really feel the need to babble some, sorry.
there's this really rather stupid little thing that's been bothering me ever since i became conscious of your existence; namely, is it possible i've seen you appearing (in person) in this late finnish tv-show called "jyrki", somewhere around mid-90s? perhaps with some girl/woman? i've vague memories...

oh and then, this blog is just phenomenal, informative, inspirational and so on and so on. i rarely comment on anything because my english is quite inchoate and i'm not that intelligent either. still i'm hooked on your writing (which as someone stated above is truly more accessible than your recordings). hope you don't think it completely insane, but i consider you one of my most important mentors ever.
so what i'm trying to say is simply thank you,

thespian lesbian or "just" katriina.

so, Fio (you'll meet her on Friday) is right: your translation -syndicated with google;)- is almost perfect; Celentano (Adriano, the first name) is a well known Italian singer of the 60s, still alive and kicking, who "owns" a tv show on Thursday night, which mixes music and politics, making too many rumours for his 'speeches' against Behr-loo-skow-neeh.

This is a song from him, for instance:
http://www.webalice.it/enverblog/Adriano%20Celentano%20-%20La%20terza%20guerra%20mondiale.MP3

enrico

making too many rumours for his 'speeches' against Behr-loo-skow-neeh

+++ Still, the grotesque, Berlusconi-led, right wing masquerade is trying to disguise the positions he expresses during his show as illiberal radical leftist critique while the old fashioned singer delivers to his loving audience anti-Zapatero and anti – civil rights for the gay couples messages. A charming, ambiguous, all Italian pop phenomenon.

francesco

From your blog I was driven to your music, and I like it a lot, but I dont listen to it everyday. I think that is a very powerful and strange thing this day to day relationship of reading. It's like following your steps. I think you are very much a "teacher", I dont know how is it "live", but from what happened in FUN and Italy, I imagine it went great. It's strange to be a "blog's fan", but I imagine I am something like that. It tried to do a guide to momus (http://www.monadas.net/momus/) to show my friends why I read this blog so often, but is very difficult to keep it actual.

I'm spreading the news about the concert in Turin.

The truth is that I'm not only a soul-lover (I happen to like all kinds of "different" music, from Bad Brains to Hal Wilner :-) ) and I'm a fan of yours since I was 20. Vinyl stuff :-)

The real Momus authority here in Turin is the journalist known as Bizarre, who you surely know.

Your article on Wired also procured you a new livejournal friend to add to your already overflowing list.

*Deep breath*

I'm simply going to get flamed for saying this because I always do whenever I add anything on this board, but I see your Blog simply as a complex and work-intensive way of marketing yourself. And before I start getting called a moronic thingummy or a cynical whatnot, that's not a criticism, for even though I don't agree with much you put up here (or indeed the way you put it up sometimes) you're making it work for you, without seemingly compromising much AND giving a lot to your minions at the same time.

But all that aside, what I want to know is, what brings you the most satisfaction? your writing, or your music? and to what length are either done for neccesity rather than art or personal exploration?

Cheers.

Rob.

I'm simply going to get flamed for saying this because I always do whenever I add anything on this board, but I see your Blog simply as a complex and work-intensive way of marketing yourself. And before I start getting called a moronic thingummy or a cynical whatnot, that's not a criticism

"When you give something to a man, or do something for him, the first time he will kiss your hands, second time he takes his hat off, third time he bows, fourth time he fawns, fifth time he nods, sixth time he insults you, and the seventh time he sues you for not giving him enough."

- G.I. Gurdjieff

That's the most eloquent poke in the eye I've ever received. Nicely done.

( PS forgot to say the doll is the best thing I've seen in ages)

Rob

I prefer your music to commentary. It's denser, more careful, more well-thought out, all those neo-classical qualities you admire. Your prose is tainted by the romanticism you abhor, especially when listing your enemies. Still and all, it's often thought-provoking, and better than just about anything I'll read in the local broadsheets or alt-newsweeklies.

I was reading an article Dweight Garner about James Agee the conversationalist, writer, poet. It made me think of your article in wired, because I learned that Agee was too preoccupied writing articles for magazines, just to make a living, rather than writing the work he was really interested in. Of course, similar circumstances occurred to endless authors, including Herman Melville... (I can't think of any others off the top of my head).
It would be a great loss if you didn't write your journal, but your music is what has brought me and many others (i'm sure) to read this journal in the first place, so if you should need to take time to create more music, how could anyone who loves your music be upset if you didn't write in this blog. So don't feel obliged will be here looking for you when you get back.
I agree with others, that the reason you don't sell enough records is that they are just not available in most places. I have met people who consider you one of the greatest pop musicians ever, one of them you know in person, but I don't know if I should publicize his name, so the hint is he wears a mini skirt.

and Berlin..?

Dear Momus

Uurgh... grammar... and I got the blog reply colour wrong! Apologies...

Ohio loves you.... I'd wish you'd come here... my friend and I (I from Akron, he from Columbus but residing in Chicago at the moment) would love to see you

dude,

i've been reading and loving your blog daily for months now... but i think the toy momus on your flier is flat out brilliant!!!

nice :-).

Sanjay.

Toronto, Canada.

But in the end all those cute icons, and the look at me poses, and the first year cultural studies commentary ( not to mention the bunch of sado-sycophants who comment) can't hide the fact that slipabotalocus was your last good LP....
spoondead

I`ve just read the article on Blogging. Sales of (less than) 5000 don`t sound very good if you`re making records, but if you`re writing books, that`s still not bad -- which is, of course, an indication of the sad state of literature.

I am surprised you don`t sell more albums. (I don`t think of you as being that minor, somehow.) But I wish I could sell that many books. People are always surprised when they learn how small the print runs of books often are.

Well, that`s my rather non-descript comment.

By the way, I`m having a good time in Japan at the moment. I hope that I`ll get some time to do a little blogging of my own so I can write it all down, but perhaps I won`t.

Hello

Looks good! Very useful, good stuff. Good resources here. Thanks much!

G'night

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Manorchestra plays Italy

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who needs Momus

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gasp!

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blog and music

I like soul but also Momus! :-)

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Overworked Writers

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The best of British?

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you do iz besz