Fly leaf as fig leaf

[imomus]

September is the big American month for our big American books. When I say "our", I mean Tao Lin, Nick Cave and myself, and when I say "books" I mean novels. Cave's sophomore effort The Death of Bunny Munro comes out in the US on the 1st, and on the 15th Tao Lin publishes Shoplifting From American Apparel. The same day, my debut The Book of Jokes comes out.



This morning I received finished copies of The Book of Jokes. My first impression was that they are made of paper, which is odd, because the book was put together on a computer screen, two years ago. Paper doesn't shine as brightly as a computer screen, you have to get used to that. There's a faint scent of paper and ink, of course. The back cover mentions Rabelais, Martial and Boccaccio as my peers and references, which is odd but nice. They're a sexy bunch, and so are Cave and Lin.



Without even bothering to dress, I snapped a couple of pictures of myself proudly holding my novel. I held it like a fig leaf, covering my genitals, because for me culture does that; it covers our genitals, blurs our primal instincts, softens our shove.

So now I have to think about promotion. I'm not nearly as inventive a self-promoter as Tao Lin, who's currently selling his stuff on eBay (including this nice moleskin journal) in a bid to draw attention to a novel about shoplifting he financed innovatively by selling shares (he raised $12,000 by selling six 10% shares at $2000 each).

Nick Cave, meanwhile, is issuing a 7-CD / DVD set of himself reading the whole of his new book. I actually was supposed to shrinkwrap a CD of some sort with the French edition of my novel, but talked the publishers out of it, because I wanted the book to stand on its own as a book, not as a side project from a musician.

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Nick Cave has already done a bunch of readings from Bunny Munro, and run excerpts in Vice magazine. Oh, wait, I've also done readings from The Book of Jokes! It's just that they happened so long ago it seems like another era, another life. Two years ago I read this one:

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And one year ago I performed an artier reading at Tranzit/Display Gallery in Prague:

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On September 17th I'll do a performance reading a bit like the Tranzit/Display one at Staalplaat Working Space in Berlin, too. Still deciding whether to wear clothes or not.

Comments

[vikinggreeneyes.livejournal.com]

such command of the language does make these so wonderful

[(Anonymous)]

I read an extract of Cave's novel and didn't think much of it. But having just watched that youtube of him reciting it, I'd say it much works better as performance than on the page (even if Cave doesn't know how to pronounce skeletal or orgiastic).

[(Anonymous)]

(Great: I criticise Cave's pronunciation after having written "much works better.)

[(Anonymous)]

Judging by the number of times you've namechecked Nick Cave on this blog, you obviously have a thing for him. Which is strange, because he's sort of at the antipodes of what you're about. God knows what he'd make of you, but I can guess.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

he's sort of at the antipodes of what you're about

You mean he's the Australia to my Europe?

We have a weird parallel history. He started on 4AD Records, so did I. He had an album called Tender Prey, I had one called Tender Pervert. Our names are pretty similar too. We've both lived in Berlin, and are both regularly accused of being "guided by what dangles between our legs". Cave was coaxed into novel-writing by editor Simon Pettifar of Black Spring Press, who also published my lyrics collection Lusts of a Moron at around the same time. And now Nick and I have novels out the same month.

I noticed Nick's literary talents early -- when I heard Peel playing The Friend-Catcher from the Boys Next Door album, in fact. I rushed out and bought the album, and, later, everything by The Birthday Party, and saw them live, and so on. The letter accompanying the first demo we sent to 4AD said "We'd love to be on the same label as The Birthday Party". And we were!

As for Nick Cave's solo career... hmm. I like Your Funeral, My Trial. I liked the Grinderman project. Sometimes he sounds too boring, too adult, too Christian, as if he's trying too hard to fit the Cash / Cohen "classic great songwriting" mold. Plodding piano ballads and so on. His lyrics are still pretty great, though. I didn't read the first novel, it seemed too much like a gush of goth. He's hot and horny, though, and I like that.

A Major News Outlet is preparing a feature comparing Nick's novel with mine and one other published recently by a musician, but I can't say more than that until it's published. These publications don't like you to jump the gun.

[(Anonymous)]

At the same time, he has a lifelong fascination with extreme violence, his theme is an extreme form of masculinity, he's not terribly interested in experimentalism, he's literary rather than arty, he's always been fascinated with America, he seems quite misanthropic...

I guess you both foreground the lyrics, both fetishistic, both accused of misogyny.

[(Anonymous)]

Now now, Momus, he's far from being hot and horny, though of course he tries. I know you can see that! His first novel was a sordid mess of adolescent fantasy. Such a disappointment. You can do better to say the least!
And you make me teary with fondness for you when you mention him alongside Cohen and Cash, those would-be, 'to the heart of the thing!' rhymsters.
When was the last time you listened to a Birthday Party album? Please. They were dispensed with long ago and his best work, Your funeral, My Trial, is what might be quoted if one is called upon to recommend an album.
I should be very dejected if you were to insist that you and Cave are comparable.
I also note that one cannot see your head in the pictures. Still shy are we after our haircut?

[imomus.livejournal.com]

No, it's just that if you had the head in view, all Bambi-eyed, you'd get people jerking off to the shots. There are some sick fucks out there on the internet.

[(Anonymous)]

Momus I want to have your babies - then eat them!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

You see what I mean?

[(Anonymous)]

You're a busy man, I know, but have you ever considered a post about Sparks? Or have I missed it? Why do I think of you and the Mael brothers as kindred spirits?

Owen.

[(Anonymous)]

"A Major News Outlet is preparing a feature comparing Nick's novel with mine and one other..."

Billy Joel's new novel, "Three-judge Sprawl"?

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Owen! Assuming you're the same Owen.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I once dated a girl who adored Sparks, and I adored her, and she's gone, so it hurts me to think about them now. I sort of have no opinion about their music. A deaf spot of sorts. I can tell it's clever and funny and so on, but it just does nothing for me. Really not sure why. I even met them, and made uneducated conversation about This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us, which was the only song I knew. They were nice in person.

Out of Your Brilliant Mind

[(Anonymous)]

I was wondering what you make of the works by these less "indie" UK male songwriter contemps. Oh yes and I am one of them!

Martin Fry
Ali Campbell
Roland Orzabal
Nik Kershaw
Nick Heyward
Jim Irvin (Furniture)
Colin Vearncombe (Black)

[(Anonymous)]

Interesting. Thank you.

Re: Out of Your Brilliant Mind

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Ha, I like these games, especially if you're really one of them!

Martin Fry
Hmm. Seems like a nice man, but I don't like the ironic-heroic tone of his breakthrough material, that sort of quoted Ferry-sob, the gold suit, the MONEYLUSTBEAUTYSTAB 80s glitz of it all. I know he probably hated Thatcher, but it all feels (and felt) a bit Thatcherite.

Ali Campbell
Awful, awful, awful. If I hear Red Red Wine one more time, blood will spill. (Hope you're not him!)

Roland Orzabal
Tears For Fears were pretty good. I love the bit in Mad World when there's a sort of gamelan interlude. I also like that Roland was seeking to conduct a sort of public self-psychoanalysis through his songwriting. Their Beatles pastiche Seeds of Love is one of the better ones, up there with ELO's Mr Blue Sky.

Nik Kershaw
He was the white Stevie Wonder before Jamiroquai, wasn't he? There's a bit of a Ford Escort feeling to his work. Clearly talented, but not my cuppa.

Nick Heyward
When my band signed to 4AD, we were split between being The Birthday Party and being Haircut 100. I actually used to get mistaken for Nick Heyward a lot on buses and boats. There was a certain amount of resentment from the Postcard people I hung out with about Nick H and Lloyd Cole making more commercial versions of their sound, but, you know, it happens (it still happens, with Franz Ferdinand and Bricolage (http://www.myspace.com/bricolagetheband) and so on).

Jim Irvin (Furniture)
This is you, isn't it? Didn't Furniture have a hit with Driving Away From Home? Wasn't there a member of XTC involved? At one point it seemed like they could have been the British Talking Heads. I quite liked them. Oh, no, fuck, that's It's Immaterial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uwtzINMDCQ)! Okay, this is Furniture:

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It is you, isn't it? This is the first time I've heard it! The YouTube vid is glitchy!

Colin Vearncombe (Black)
I probably would've liked to have a hit like Wonderful Life (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqJ4N6Z7l00) at the time, but now it sounds horrible, cocktail-bar slick, insurance-ad glib. It's almost as annoying as Red, Red Wine.

[(Anonymous)]

Nick Cave is a posing bore you are not nearly as awful, stop putting yourself down. You forget to mention Nick has always tried so very hard to be Tom waits with pitiful results it has to be said.

[(Anonymous)]

Well said. But even Tom waits has been leaving me cold since 1982.

Owen.

Re: Out of Your Brilliant Mind

[(Anonymous)]

How intuitive, it is me!

I like your frank opinions, thank you. I saw your Cherry Red interview after tuning into the Survival Records story. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVQXDNPAjJo

[tropigalia.livejournal.com]

you are just trying to make momus_lolz explode, aren't you

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I fucking ADORE Dory Previn! She was actually a huge influence on early Momus, but one that never, never gets spoken about. I have all her albums. My favourite song by her is Doppelganger:

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Now, if people can't hear Momus in that, they're DEAF!

Re: Out of Your Brilliant Mind

[(Anonymous)]

The clue was in the subject line.

[(Anonymous)]

I hear Momus, Morrissey and Jarvis. Thats just the British contingent, I could go on and on and on....

[kineticfactory.livejournal.com]

Nick Cave is the Old Testament Yahweh of post-punk, all smouldering wrath.