Outlandish!

[imomus]

The true eccentric never believes herself to be so; all she sees is that other people seem increasingly bland, and have a tendency to brand her in increasingly exaggerated, lurid ways. The same day I was berating the world for wearing jeans, the London Evening Standard's free commuter paper London Lite ran a review of my Thursday night show at the Spitz which, while essentially positive, painted a rather frightening picture of a person way out on the margins of society, flirting with madness.



For reviewer Joe Muggs, my performance was "tiring, even uncomfortably close to insane". "Scotsman-turned-world-citizen Nick Currie - aka Momus - took the stage in pyjamalike suit, ludicrous Beatle-wig and his trademark eyepatch, with only a laptop for accompaniment," Muggs wrote, mentioning my "mind-boggling" blog and "unashamed wonkiness". The headline to the piece ran "Mad Momus is an inspiration".

"You do look pretty close to madness!" commented my mother, who famously refuses to walk down the street with me these days, afraid that people may throw a straitjacket around her. "Glad they are saying some good things though."

At the Tate Gallery last night the "uncomfortably close to insane" line was running through my head as I lay face down on a table in the august and imposing Room 9 of Tate Britain, filled with heroic Victorian military and naval scenes, early Turners, and a screen showing scenes from "Funky Forest". My hands, bound at the wrists by invisible ropes, twitched violently as I simulated being anally raped by an invisible medieval knight. In my mind it was perfectly clear that I was playing The Lady of Shalott, and that exactly such scenes could well appear in any one of the paintings hanging on the walls nearby. Early Momus songs were inspired by exactly the kind of perversity I'd see in paintings at the Tate and the National Gallery.

Apparently when No Bra played this same room, the sudden appearance of Suzanne's breasts almost made the organizers halt the performance -- again despite the fact that many of the paintings and sculptures nearby featured scenes of bare-breasted women. The Tate also requested the artists performing to "please decline from using any pornographic or violent video footage within their performence". I immediately cancelled plans to show images of The Rape of the Sabine Women and Judith with the Head of Holofernes, or make any reference to The Bible or, indeed, the new Stephen Fry comedy series, the trailer for which features a parrot shouting "Fuck me! Fuck me! Come on my tits!"

A great range of normal human behaviour veers "uncomfortably close to insanity"; even the most eccentric or extreme art doesn't show the half of it. Still, I'm grateful to the Tate (in the shape of funky culturepreneurs Adrian Shaw and Dexter Bentley) for letting me perform under the paintings. You can also hear me today live in session on Hello Goodbye, Dexter's show on Resonance FM, between noon and 1.30pm UK time. The webstream is here. I promise not to sing any rude words or be at all mind-bogglingly mad in the interview.

Comments

evening standard are renowned for their insight into things cultural

[(Anonymous)]

as far as im concerned the show on thursday was uncomfortably close to fantastic, wigs'n'tits'n'all :)

[jermynsavile.livejournal.com]

The QI advert has been around for a while now, and in true viral fashion seems to have developed a life of it's own on YouTube etc. It's a great advertisement - in fact it's a great and illuminating piece of social comedy too.

[charleshatcher.livejournal.com]

[ishinagami.livejournal.com]

Its those eccentric things thats what i like about you Momus. You'd be boring without them or worse like every other artist which would completely destroy what makes your music appealing to me.

Best of luck, keep being insane.

The Wonkiness Of Momus

[(Anonymous)]

The London Lite review when read in full is actually quite complimentary, it's better to see you be applauded for supposed eccentricity (however misappropriated) than to see you being perceived as a rebellious-in-a-conformist-way pop/rock icon. Eccentricity by dint of it's leitmotif of being true to oneself is healthier mental behaviour than conformity with it's central tenet of suppression of expression in favour of bland acceptance. Tell your Mum to hold back on the straitjacket bearers until you don those Levi 501s!
Thomas S.

[(Anonymous)]

Apparently when No Bra played this same room, the sudden appearance of Suzanne's breasts almost made the organizers halt the performance

Overhead:

"This appears to be getting out of hand. We could have our 2008 funding compromised. And the repercussions if the press get hold of this...shall I pull the show, sir?"

"Hmmm....no...no...let her continue..."

[(Anonymous)]

A case of 'Carry On Up The Tate' then.
Thomas S.

[qscrisp.livejournal.com]

I don't think you're mad. I don't know if that's at all reassuring coming from me.

I did take some photos at the Tate gig, too, but they were, without exception, very blurry. I might upload them, anyway.

Nice version of The Rape of Lucretia I just heard there on the radio.

[beketaten.livejournal.com]

Hah. People don't have the slightest bit of imagination when it comes to other people doing things they might not necessarily have thought of--it's like "Oops...Here comes the crazy train. I'd better call it crazy just so other people can hear me saying so."
~*~*~*~
Whilst I do realize that the true eccentric doesn't do things mearly to be strange, but rather out of a true sense of calling, I do understand why other people can call people like us clickOpera-ers (for lack of a better noun) "eccentric" or "nuts" etc. But like the true "eccentric" I am, I dismiss such accusations.
w00t w00t.

And for the record, I think simulated anal rape and things like parrots saying "fuck me! come on my tits!" are perfectly in keeping with and sane in light of today's social scene.

Kudos, Mo-Man.

[(Anonymous)]

Talking shite as usual, but then that's "perfectly in keeping with and sane in light of today's social scene".
mixu62

[(Anonymous)]

Funny this, coming from a modern art museum whose artists on display (in some cases) resemble No Bra, in that they hang their reputations not on the beauty of their work, but on its simple shocking and transgressive presentation.

[qscrisp.livejournal.com]

Here's one from the Tate Britain gig:



Here's the album:

http://my.opera.com/quentinscrisp/albums/show.dml?id=184621

Sorry it's so blurry. I blame the camera.

[(Anonymous)]

your just too crazy for me momus.

get over yourself

[beketaten.livejournal.com]

Who says he's self-obsessed?
There are so many things wrong with what you just attempted (and failed) to imply that I'm quite sure further comment will be wasted on your knee-jerk, self-righteous catcalls of "craziness".

In discussions such as these, you = fail. Clearly. Get over YOURSELF and the "cleverness" of the brevity of a comment like this.

[eptified.livejournal.com]

I don't think madness was the right word for it.. "dementia" might be closer. (A combover? Really?) But it's wonderful to see people who are wrapped up in normative values colliding with you and coming away asking questions.

Did you hear the 'band' that opened the show? You could expend some of the bile you inflict on harmless denims on far more deserving targets, y'know. Charlatanry..

Ah well. Are you planning to post the remix of Summerholiday1999? Cause that was bitchin' poignant.

Eyepatch & Lyrics

[(Anonymous)]

The most interesting thing for me was the you were reading your own lyrics off your iBook. This shows that you don't know your own work very well... and for those watching carefully, it showed that your had moved aside your eyepatch a little to be able to see the lyrics better. As I imagined - the eyepatch is just an affectation and you can see perfectly well.

Re: Eyepatch & Lyrics

[(Anonymous)]

Mark Smith does that - comes onstage with a carrier full of lyrics, and can spend most of the song looking for the right one - and he's a genius.

I always enjoy your dancing and miming. I especially liked the mime for 7th Wife at the ICA, when you pretended to play a keyboard: but now I see you with a huge silver cloak. Which shows that the mime was effective.

[charleshatcher.livejournal.com]

I'm uncomfortable with this idea that there is an authenticity to eccentricity. It's so v. rockist, and like everything rockist, it's really just rather silly.

[lord-whimsy.livejournal.com]

I much prefer being a deeply sincere phony.

That said, it's very amusing to see where people now draw the lines in these homogenized times. In the words of Mr. Thompson, "It never got weird enough for me".

Makes one wonder how a young Bowie would be received today. Would he be seen as mad? Eccentric? Threatening? A calculating poseur? Inauthentic?

That wig is possibly the most "punk" gesture I've ever seen Nick adopt. Keep the freak flag flying, Nick, you wonderful poseur--people need a little shaking up.

RESONANCE FM = JOHNY BROWN!!!!!!!!!

[ex-mimic736.livejournal.com]

JOHNY BROWN FROM THE BAND OF HOLY JOY HAS A SHOW ON RESONANCE FM THATS WHERE I FIRST HEARD OF IT!!!!!!

I WONDER WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF THE BAND OF THE HOLY JOY WHEN YOU WERE A YOUNG THUG COMING UP IN THE HOOD

23.00 Mining For Gold Johny Brown
there is a soundscape involved and guests with words and instruments and stuff and....

ideas actions memories dreams and what have you

sometimes it occurs in other manifestations like live gig or play or drama but mostly it is radio...

Re: RESONANCE FM = JOHNY BROWN!!!!!!!!!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I was mates with Johny back in the 80s, we recorded in the same studios sometimes, and he was at all the squat parties. Yesterday I met David Coulter, another ex-Holy Joy person. He's now working with Tom Waits and Damon Albarn.

[mongoltrophies.livejournal.com]

i'd been wondering about this text message i received on my phone: "ah! he's taken to wearing wigs." now i don't have to remember to ask for an explanation.

"please decline from using any pornographic or violent video footage within their performence"

[themorgan.livejournal.com]

And meanwhile te same people most likely think that war is okay. I can't think of anything more vulgar. Art mirrors life and if they can't deal with it, maybe they should just off themselves.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

Hahahaha I knew that was going to happen! Good old Tate Britain!

[(Anonymous)]

Few questions:

Why do you put your own smug delusions of "originality" before the feelings of your own mother?

Why do all these naive college kids worship your affected "insanity"?

Why do you pretend your wig is art when you're clearly just a baldy bastard?

mixu62

[imomus.livejournal.com]

mixu62 = Oxford Science Park.

[(Anonymous)]

In fairness, looking at a picture of someone punching someone else in the face is a rather different experience than watching someone punch someone else in the flesh. I'm rather glad, for a personal example, that I can go to the movies and watch half eaten people gouge each others' eyes out without having to worry about my own eyes. If the patrons of the Tate have a rather more Victorian sensibility, what exactly is that an occasion for?

[(Anonymous)]

I forgot to sign my comment, as usual --clay t, professional dilettante

p.s. I quite enjoyed your post on relational aesthetics. More like that please. I haven't read the Bourriaud volume yet, but my working suspicion, informed by your post, is that as it cascaded through the ranks, it was reinterpreted through a lens of vulgar communalism, and lost its strong flavor of something that takes relationships between subject-objects seriously, which is what I hope it is or was. In other words, less semiotic, more humanist, less observational/experimental, more normative. But these are all guesses, art/criticism is not at all my forté.

Note the similarities in the covers between Relational Aesthetics (http://www.amazon.com/Relational-Aesthetics-Nicolas-Bourriaud/dp/2840660601) and Reassembling the social (http://www.amazon.com/Reassembling-Social-Introduction-Actor-Network-Theory-Management/dp/0199256047/sr=1-1/qid=1168123967/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-6400728-4125759?ie=UTF8&s=books). Having read the latter really realy carefully that's also informing my intuition. Also I think tofu is fucking gross. Wow, am I off topic.

[nicepimmelkarl.livejournal.com]

LONDONED AGAIN !! i like this lady (18)

[nicepimmelkarl.livejournal.com]

slap it round that nipple, boy....good boy..good boy..nice one.

melvyn bragg likes this one.

Hello, it is me, Joe Muggs

[suburban-disco.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you found the review generally complementary - it was certainly meant to be. The headline, of course, was the subs', not mine, and the whole text was heavily cut from what was orginally filed. Here is what I wrote in full:

POP
Momus, Spitz E1
3/5

Upon walking in to the Spitz, it was hard to believe that this wasn’t a filming of some Chris Morris satire of the art world. Onstage were two young men in thick-rimmed specs, sitting on opposite sides of a café table loaded with cups, glasses and a steaming pot of tea. A loud soundtrack of street noise and snatches of music was playing. One of the duo – BoyleAndShaw, according to the posters – was hammering percussively at an amplified typewriter on his lap, and occasionally passing paper to his thickly-bearded colleague, who was murmuring, ranting and occasionally chanting, monk-like into another microphone. After some twenty minutes of this, they stood up and the crowd applauded wildly.

Unsurprisingly, this crowd were a bohemian bunch. In the break, as cool ambient/classical drones played, it was possible to overhear earnest conversations about Chinese Confucianism, Barcelona techno venues and Jay Joplin’s White Cube gallery all at once. Everyone made a point of looking cool, unruffled and unembarrassed as next support act Suzanne Oberbeck, aka No Bra appeared, living up to her stage name – clad in nothing but neon pink micro-miniskirt, stockings and blonde toothbrush moustache. Unruffled they may have been, but that didn’t stop them eagerly (if coolly) taking pictures and post-ironically commenting on her breasts. Amazingly, though, No Bra’s ultra-deadpan delivery of grimy urban tales and parodies of trendies and scenesters, over brooding electro beats – think a depressive Peaches – quickly transcended gimmickry or titillation.

Scotsman-turned-world-citizen Nick Currie – Momus – is a veteran of such boho scenes. From the early 80s on, he has plied clever, quirky and hyper-literate electronic pop to a cult audience without ever making waves in the wider music scenes, except in Japan where he now lives. His poppiest songs often resemble the Pet Shop Boys, but in almost every way he represents the opposite of their populist, disco-driven ambition and Englishness.

Taking the stage in pyjama-like suit, ludicrous Beatle-wig and his trademark eyepatch, with only a laptop for accompaniment, Currie began with a couple of PSBs-like wistful pop songs, but rapidly diverted into stranger electronic sounds and more abstracted lines. He zipped through medieval folk, kitsch exotica samples, trip-hop beats, electronica songs about Beowulf, nonsensical lyrics translated by Google from Japanese, and a shockingly sexy Curtis Mayfield falsetto on ‘Born To Be Adored By Women’. Currie, as anyone who has read his mind-boggling blog – imomus.livejournal.com – has a restless intelligence. At times, this made his performance tiring, even uncomfortably close to insane, but each time he appeared to be too far off on a tangent, he would always return to the melodic hooks he writes so well. It’s easy to mock the eccentric and arty-farty, but such unashamed wonkiness can provide invention to be treasured.

I would add that

[suburban-disco.livejournal.com]

I never said that "tiring" or "uncomfortable" were bad things.

This is not a paper with a particularly 'Evening Standard' agenda - after all, it is thrust into people's hands for free so is read by an entire cross section, not a self-selecting audience. It is essentially populist, hence, I think, the fact that they didn't use my descriptions of the support acts (the usual phrase commissioning editors use is "I don't think thats on our readers' radar"), and hence also the fact that I didn't go into any kind of analysis of what eccentricity might mean beyond my final sentence.

Had I had more space, I would have made it clear which particular bits of the performance were more uncomfortable / compelling etc. As it is I had to give a quick overall impression to a readership the majority of whom would never have heard of Momus, let alone seen a performance. I hope the description I did give will be enough to intrigue the more curious amongst them.

Re: I would add that

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Oh! I've only read these last comments two years later!

I must say, the original uncut review reads a lot better. It's much more measured and detailed. Bah, subs!