Momus (musician)
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Momus
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| Born |
Nicholas Currie
(1960-02-11) 11 February 1960
Paisley, Scotland
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| Residence | Berlin, Germany |
| Other names | Momus |
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| Years active | 1980–present |
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| Website | imomus |
Nicholas "Nick" Currie (born 11 February 1960), more popularly known under the artist name Momus (after the Greek god of mockery), is a Scottish songwriter, author, blogger, and former journalist for Wired.
For over thirty years he has been releasing albums on labels in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan. In his lyrics and his other writing he makes seemingly random use of decontextualized pieces of continental (mostly French) philosophy, and has built up a personal world he says is "dominated by values like diversity, orientalism, and a respect for otherness."[1]
Career
Musical
His album Don't Stop The Night included the single "The Hairstyle of the Devil" which peaked at No. 94 in the UK Singles Charts in May 1989, and was a local hit, coming in at #32 on a year-end list, at San Francisco's KITS Live 105 radio station.[2]
As author and other activities
Momus said in 1991 that "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen people", which has evolved into a meme, "On the web, everyone will be famous to fifteen people".[3] The quip parodies Andy Warhol's famous prediction that, "In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes".
The Fotolog.Book with texts by Momus on photoblogging was published in April 2006 by British publishers Thames & Hudson.
Momus has published several books. The Book of Jokes and The Book of Scotlands have received positive reviews in the LA Times and the Guardian. The Book of Scotlands (Sternberg Press) was shortlisted for the Scottish Arts Council's First Book prize. He published The Book of Japans in 2011, also on Sternberg Press, and UnAmerica in 2014 (Penny-Ante Editions).
Personal life
In the last two decades, Momus has lived in London, Paris, Tokyo, New York and Berlin. He made Osaka his home from 2010 to 2018, and currently resides in Berlin. He is an atheist.[4]
In December 1997, he contracted acanthamoeba keratitis in his right eye due to a contact lens mishap sustained whilst on holiday in Greece, causing loss of vision on that side.[5][6] Although his sight subsequently improved following surgery,[7] he has suffered lingering effects from the infection since, causing him to often be photographed in an eyepatch, very dark glasses, or squinting.
His cousin is musician Justin Currie, the lead singer and songwriter of Del Amitri.
Discography
Studio albums
| Album name | Release year |
|---|---|
| Circus Maximus | 1986 |
| The Poison Boyfriend | 1987 |
| Tender Pervert | 1988 |
| Don’t Stop The Night | 1989 |
| Hippopotamomus | 1991 |
| The Ultraconformist (Live Whilst Out of Fashion) | 1992 |
| Voyager | |
| Timelord | 1993 |
| Slender Sherbert | 1995 |
| The Philosophy of Momus | |
| Ping Pong | 1997 |
| The Little Red Songbook | 1998 |
| Stars Forever | 1999 |
| Folktronic | 2001 |
| Oskar Tennis Champion | 2003 |
| Summerisle, a collaboration with Anne Laplantine | 2004 |
| Otto Spooky | 2005 |
| Ocky Milk | 2006 |
| Joemus, a collaboration with Joe Howe | 2008 |
| Hypnoprism | 2010 |
| Thunderclown, a collaboration with John Henriksson | 2011 |
| Bibliotek | 2012 |
| In Samoa | 2012 |
| Sunbutler, a collaboration with Joe Howe | 2012 |
| MOMUSMCCLYMONT, a collaboration with David McClymont | 2013 |
| Bambi | 2013 |
| MOMUSMCCLYMONT II", a collaboration with David McClymont | 2014 |
| Turpsycore | 2015 |
| Glyptothek | 2015 |
| Scobberlotchers | 2016 |
| Pillycock | 2017 |
| Pantaloon | 2018 |
Compilations
| Album name | Release year |
|---|---|
| Monsters of Love | 1990 |
| Learning to Be Human | 1994 |
| Twenty Vodka Jellies | 1996 |
| Forbidden Software Timemachine | 2003 |
| Pubic Intellectual: An Anthology 1986-2016 (3 CD Box set) | 2016 |
Singles and EPs
| Album name | Release year |
|---|---|
| The Beast With 3 Backs | 1985 |
| Murderers, The Hope of Women | 1986 |
| Nicky | 1986 |
| The Hairstyle of the Devil UK #94 | 1989 |
| Spacewalk | 1992 |
| The Sadness of Things | 1995 |
| The Thunderclown | 2011 |
References
- ^ "Pubic Intellectual - An Anthology". Rough Trade. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
- ^ http://www.rocklists.com/kits-1989.html
- ^ Momus (1991). "POP STARS? NEIN DANKE! In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen people..." Grimsby Fishmarket. Retrieved 7 October 2008.
- ^ Thompson, Stephen (6 September 2000). "Is there a God?". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 4 September 2009.
- ^ Gerry Visco (13 October 2007). "Momus Revisited". New York Press. Archived from the original on 22 October 2008. Retrieved 29 May 2008.
- ^ Momus (April 1998). "Story of an Eye". Retrieved 29 May 2008.
- ^ http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Momus.aspx
External links
- Click Opera (Momus's LiveJournal blog)
- Whitney Biennial 2006: Day For Night
- A MySpace page falsely claiming to be Momus's, and his Wired article explaining it
- Interview (2003)
- Interview (04/2003)
- Interview (2002)
- Interview (1998)
- An interview with Momus on The Marketplace of Ideas
- An interview with Momus about The Book of Japans on The Marketplace of Ideas
- Ocky Milk Review at Pitchfork Media
- LA Times Book Review
- Guardian Book Review
- Review of The Book of Jokes, by David Woodard
- Listening
- UbuWeb: Momus and Anne Laplantine featuring the song Summerisle Horspiel
Copyright
- This page is based on the Wikipedia article Momus (musician); it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.