Fruits from Tokyo, mussels from Brussels

[imomus]

A couple of things today, I just wanted to congratulate those oshare Harajuku hiking types at Tokyo Bopper for making the December issue of FRUiTS magazine. Yama-Sama is on page 15 and Osyama on page 19.



And I wanted to give you a chance to hear one of my two Brussels concerts last week. The overall sound level is a bit low, the vocals a bit dry, and the last song gets chopped off before the end. But here's Patrick Thinsy's recording of...

Momus Live at the Compilotheque, Brussels, October 22nd 2007 (stereo mp3 file, 61 MB, 61 mins)

The Artist Overwhelmed
Zanzibar
Count Ossie in China
Nervous Heartbeat
Thatness and Thereness
Beowulf (I Am Deformed)
Pygmalism
The Lady of Shalott
Pierrot Lunaire
David Hamilton
What Are You Wearing?
Giapponese a Roma
Mika Akutsu
I Refuse To Die
I Am A Kitten
Tinnitus
The End of History (fragment)

Comments

[akabe.livejournal.com]

i better wear those scarpa (http://www.scarpa.net)s tommorrow when i go to harajuku.
it was actually me who initiated the trend last winter but it got a bit tough during the hot humid summer. anyway pretty soon they'll be as flat as a graniph tshirt so i better get some wear while still possible.

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

Booo, you played all my favourite songs at the Brussels gig. Play nearer to me, damn you.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

You're in Holland, right?

The next shows are in Vienna (November 28th) and possibly Gothenburg a week or so before. Keep an eye on the LastFM Momus events page (http://www.last.fm/music/Momus/+events).

[(Anonymous)]

And what about Lisboa?

[electricwitch.livejournal.com]

Gothenburg I might be able to make. If it´s not at night and I can catch a train back. Or my friend will drive me. But it depends on what time etc.

Zanzibar

[(Anonymous)]

I cannot aggree more!

I love Zanzibar song!

Unfortunately I was unable to buy Ocky Milky in a sad country such as Portugal!

Pedro Félix

Re: Zanzibar

[akabe.livejournal.com]

it's my absolute favourite too !

it should have been the last smash hit in the history of the pop chart (like an ashes to ashes or an rem number).
why isn't it ?

[(Anonymous)]

C'mon Momus, you're not seriously suggesting that making the pages of FRUiTS magazine constitutes an achievement, are you?

Especially when their photographers pretty much stick to a small area of Tokyo between Omotesando and Meiji-Jingu and you happen to work in a shoe store right between those two places, meaning you go there everyday with the agenda of appearing hip. Surely NOT being featured in FRUiTS would be more of an achievement.

I wonder who here has ever made a serious attempt to get spotted...

http://westfearneon.com/2007/10/21/overdressed-and-over-here-basic-maths-explains-why-harajukus-foreign-cos-tourists-arent-cool/

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I agree with that article (http://westfearneon.com/2007/10/21/overdressed-and-over-here-basic-maths-explains-why-harajukus-foreign-cos-tourists-arent-cool/) that, however peaked and recycled the FRUiTS / Tune thing is, most sartorially-interested people in most other locations globally are still a long way behind and that "what we really need is for culturally conservative nations like, well, all of them, to adopt Japan-level attitudes as to how people should look on their days off work; to allow freedom of choice in fashion and not throw verbal paint and feathers at those who don’t want to have the way they look decided for them by corporate chains on the one hand and small-minded, hateful locals on the other. Then everyone can enjoy a piece of Harajuku at home without the need to take long-haul flights and the whole world can be the freedom-of-choice, non-judgmental one promulgated by FRUiTS."

And yes, foreign fashion tourists aren't cool. And yes, it's still an achievement to appear in FRUiTS. I remember how chuffed I felt to be shot for Street magazine (http://imomus.livejournal.com/213438.html) here in Berlin -- and for the photo to actually appear (http://imomus.livejournal.com/225202.html)!

[(Anonymous)]

I only bookmarked this blog for the first time about a year ago (before that I had been living without internet access in a small fishing town on the Inland Sea of Japan) so I was completely unaware of your impressive 'Street Cred'. Thanks for filling me in. I understand your frustration at being photographed in typical summer tourist garb and not your usual urban poet disguise. Such is life.

[(Anonymous)]

I always thought the Harajuku phenomenon had less to do with fashion freedom and more to do with having ~10 million people in one city and a central gathering place for the fashion interested.

[kumakouji.livejournal.com]

My favourite part of that entry was this universal truthism:



Another one right here:



Coolness is a complicated game, but as a general rule, if you can live by the charts above, you will always be cool.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

If someone collected all these diagrams together we could throw away our copies of The Affected Provincial's Companion!

[(Anonymous)]

aaah.. thank you for the concert!

eDwin :)

countertenor-ing

[petit-paradis.livejournal.com]

I was at the vestiaire gig where my friend asked your autograph after the show...it is pretty indecipherable hahaha or should i say "conceptual"?

the place was so small and the crowd was very graphic designer-ish and a beautiful tall japanese
BOY (though it took me a while to find out, he was très androgynous) wallflowering in the background which distracted me from your concert only too often ;-) but a great gig!

and your counter-tenoring was da bomb!

here is the card

http://klare-lijn.blogspot.com/2007/10/momus-autographed-my-card.html

btw, I loved the white trousers you wearing then.


erik
rotterdam
the netherlands

Re: countertenor-ing

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Gosh, I didn't realize it was you, Erik!

The signature is upside down in the photo, it's just a girly "MOMUS" in which the letters all become hearts.

I love the way you've turned Shiseido into a verb! Here's a lovely example of someone Shiseido-ing (http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=xLmJ_SmvKiU).

DROPsnaps

[petit-paradis.livejournal.com]

plus the people from tokyoboppers are pretty all over the place at the moment, they also regurlarly make the 'pages' of that other great streetwear web-guide DROP!

http://www.dropsnap.jp/pc/snap.php

I love shima


erik
the netherlands

[microworlds.livejournal.com]

OH MY GOD PYGMALISM

IF SHAFTESBURY AVENUE WAS PLAYED AS WELL I MIGHT HAVE EXPLODED

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

Nice of you to share the concert with us.

One thing you may want to consider is putting out a statement as to what people can and cannot do as far as recording your performances. Some musicians, such as Robyn Hitchcock, Mogwai, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, The Butthole Surfers, Edie Brickell, and, as you might suspect, The Grateful Dead, have released statements allowing their fans to record their concerts and share them online under some conditions.

As a result, you get fans creating considerable collections (http://www.archive.org/browse.php?collection=etree&field=%2Fmetadata%2Fcreator) on archive.org, which, hopefully, will be made available for a long, long, long time... incorporated as a part of the digital media collection (http://www.bibalex.org/ISIS/ProjectDetails.aspx?Status=ongoing&id=9) at the Biblotheca Alexandrina (http://www.bibalex.org).

Archive.org is also an interesting free hosting possibility for musicians who want to share content freely with their fans, but who do not want to pay for the hosting and bandwidth costs associated with it.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I have today written to my lawyer to instruct him to draw up a document stating that recordings of my live shows may be made on condition that the recordist masturbates at least once to them.

[butterflyrobert.livejournal.com]

I knew there was a reason that you included cute girls with this post!

[insomnia.livejournal.com]

"I have today written to my lawyer to instruct him to draw up a document stating that recordings of my live shows may be made on condition that the recordist masturbates at least once to them."

Streaming audio.

Thank you!

[(Anonymous)]

This is great, thank you!

[robotmummies.livejournal.com]

i love to listen to what are you wearing when i wake up in the morning

[stanleylieber.livejournal.com]

thank you!