Momus

Momus – the Scottish trickster-poet whose biography is titled Famous For 15 People and has spent 40 years doing it entirely his way. In the Season 3 premiere, Sean and Rene revisit the artist who first bonded them – the fan letter, the El Mocambo eye patch, the Creation Records years, a Japanese number one, and why his most provocative song could have been a Pet Shop Boys hit.

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Spotify Songs Playlist

Transcript

Rene: Welcome to Earshifter. He's Sean Capstick.

Sean: And he's Rene Rouleau. And Rene, what are we doing here? 

Rene: Well, Sean, we are in the beginning of our third season. Time flies. Yeah. Yeah. And like always, we do this because we are passionate about music and about specific bands that maybe were overlooked, or if you like said band, well, you're gonna learn a whole bunch of stuff about them 

Sean: Yep.

And, you know, I think it's pretty good that we're up to our third season, you know? And so I wanna celebrate our long relationship, as well as, you know, the fact that our podcast is a thing now, right? And so I wanna talk about an artist who is celebrating his 40th [00:01:00] anniversary of making music under his stage name.

We talked about one of his controversies in a previous episode but I think he needs one of his own. He is named after the Greek god of mockery and satire, that his namesake is a character from Kafka, and I think it's a pretty good name for a singer who, over his long career, unflatteringly describes desire, commits blasphemy, tells stories of murder and adultery, misplaced pieces of hair, and mistakes of the human condition.

But really what I think it's so important is he was the first band that I think you and I shared the fandom together. 

Rene: I think so, too. Like, I remember this artist vividly. Um, I mean, we're, I'm sure we're gonna get into it, Sean, that we saw him together. Yeah. But I, I remember, like, this was a big connection for us, and we were both just major fans.

Sean: Yeah. So we're talking about [00:02:00] Momus listeners, and we're talking about 1986, so, 40 years ago. How time flies. 

Rene: Hard to believe we were 18. 

Sean: Yeah, I know. We found this band young. Yeah, yeah. We was really young. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. Uh, it was in the Bible children's Bible- Oh, no ... Bible stories. Oh, no. That's how we found it.

Rene: Okay. 

Sean: So let's talk about the person before we talk about the character that he's become. So the prehistory. So Nicholas Currie is his name. He was an intellectual professor's son whose father studied language acquisition, and Nicholas grew up between Scotland, where he was born, Greece, and Canada.

He was in Montreal in the '70s. 

Rene: Oh, I didn't know that. 

Sean: Yeah. 

Rene: Oh, very cool. 

Sean: I think that's where he found his love for Leonard Cohen. He is very much the product of a public school education in the UK that, his father was traveling, and he went to a boarding school. He went on to university. He studied Brecht, [00:03:00] philosophy, and literature at the University of Aberdeen.

Rene: That shows 100%. 

Sean: Yes. That literature, yes. Listeners, it's very intellectual. But he dropped out. He dropped out briefly to form his first band, called The Happy Family, this was in 1981, with ex-members of Josef K, one of Scotland's, key post-punk bands. Did you ever, do you remember them? 

Rene: No. Do you? 

Sean: So no, but they were mixed up with that whole Orange Juice, Aztec Camera scene- Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah

in Scotland at the time. Love 

Rene: those. 

Sean: Like, that, that was a good scene, right? Oh, I like that scene, man. Like, I, I thought Orange Juice was pretty cool. Very cool. Yeah. 

Rene: Very hooky. Yeah. 

Sean: Yeah. And then, what was his Robbie, Roddy Frame? Roddy Frame. Yeah, yeah- Yeah ... with Aztec Camera ... Aztec Camera.

Yeah, they- Love that ... just a great- Yep ... great time. So he was there. He, g- Nicholas was there, and he wanted to be part of that uh, scene, so he formed his band, and Happy Family, their second album, which was on 4AD Records, so, you know, he showed [00:04:00] some promise. We've talked about 4AD in the past, listeners, great label, was called The Man on Your Street, in 1982.

It's a Brechtian concept album- 

Rene: Wow ... 

Sean: about dictatorship, political violence. And I did give it a quick listen for this. I think it's a good thing our story didn't begin there, right? Okay, fair enough. So I'm glad- Yeah ... you didn't find it when we were six. 

Rene: Okay. Yeah. '

Sean: Cause I think it could have ended quickly.

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: And then his first EP as Momus, we didn't listen to. It wasn't on our radar. It's, you know, it's not on, on, on my streaming service. It was called The Beast with Three Backs. 

Rene: Okay. 

Sean: And again, I think it was good that we found him with his next EP. So let's talk about our Momus. There was- Can we, 

Rene: can we play something too?

Sean: Two EPs- I'm excited ... and a record, right? Okay. So, let's talk about, there was an EP number one, which was three Jacques Brel [00:05:00] covers, right? 

Rene: Yep. 

Sean: Jacques Brel being that he was Belgian, but French singer, very popular. Three songs about murder, death, and executioners, and then record number one, which is Old Testament Bible stories reimagined.

Rene: Yep. 

Sean: So listeners, this is what we were listening to and loving. So Rene, you pick your favorite song from those first two EPs or Circus Maximus. 

Rene: Oh, it would p- it would probably be, um, uh, the Jacques Brel, uh, Don't Leave. Is that right? 

Sean: Don't Leave? Yeah, okay. 

Rene: Yeah. It's a little downer, though. Can we open with, like, something fun?

Sean: Well, how about the, uh, Jacques Brel cover that was originally called Jackie, that Nicholas Currie turned into Nicky? 'Cause that's a pretty upbeat number. Okay. 

Rene: All right. 

Sean: Okay. Let's listen to that. So let's 

Rene: hear that. Yes, let's go.[00:06:00] 

clip: Suppose one day in Bromley, Kent I live my nightmare and I'm sent to sing for blonde suburban women. Before the wives of double glazers I'd be Julio Iglesias doing the greats in Argentinian. Suppose they bury Manilow me screaming, "Show me you're a man," with legs as mottled as salami. Ladies, I'm doing the best I can.

This is how Casanova's fun becomes a lesson in virility set to a bossa nova drum and sung to tarts decked out like Christmas trees. Then in my dressing room I'd see this elephant as pink as me drinking and singing gloomily about the time they called me, yeah, the time they called me, about the time they called me Nicky.

If I could be him[00:07:00] 

It's grand for now. If I could be me. If I could only be cute, cute, cute. Absolutely banal 

Rene: Okay, so yeah, that is Momus, people. And you know, this song in particular has, has like feelings, a little bit of feelings of Morrissey when he went solo, like just a little bit when he gets into the chorus, I kinda felt like there was a bit of a Morrissey inflection in his voice at times.

Sean: And this would've been The Smiths were a thing. I don't think Morrissey had, uh- No ... wrecked The Smiths at this time. 

Rene: No, he's a precursor to Mor- Yeah ... maybe he influenced Morrissey's singing style. 

Sean: I think the, the intellectual-ness, yes, the, the arrangements, yeah. I... He, he was a big influence on the guy from Pulp, Jarvis 

Rene: Cocker.

Yes, yes, I 

Sean: saw that. Yeah. Uh, a big influence on the, you know, that, that later Brit scene. But yeah, I mean, this was... Like if you listen to Jacques Brel, which I kinda tried, I, I don't speak French so it's hard, but like the song is the same. He's changed [00:08:00] the words for his own name and made it into, he talks about Cliff Richard and, uh, you know, Barry Manilow-y.

It's, it's hilarious. But yeah, the song that you said was sad, the, the- Don't 

Rene: Leave ... 

Sean: Don't Leave, right? That is really sad. So that's a, a Jacques Brel song. It had been covered as Don't Go in the '60s by some Irish singer who McKenna or something. Okay. So he must have grown up hearing the, both the French and the- Oh, I see

English version. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But he changes it into Don't Go to Don't Leave. Yeah. Which I think is yeah, and, and makes it more like- different than the, the, the other English version that I just checked out briefly. Okay. And different than, do you remember in the Joker 2 where Joaquin Phoenix is, been finally betrayed by a Harlequin, that she's [00:09:00] like, it's clear that she is not going back, and he sings this song- 

Rene: No way

Sean: into her answering machine. 

Rene: That's awesome. 

Sean: And that's all I could think of is, oh, he's singing a Momus song, but I know it's, it's- It's Jacques Brel- Yeah, yeah, yeah ... probably, right? 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: And- But he sings it in English, and he sings it more like the Momus style. So yeah, so little bit of trivia. 

Rene: Yeah, and real quick, like back then, again, no internet, but I was introduced to Jacques Brel through Momus- Hmm

because I liked that song so much. I was like, "I gotta find out who this Jacques Brel dude is," and, uh, I kind of like explored that for a little bit. 

Sean: Yeah, and then the other song was See a Friend in Tears. Yes. Right? Which is- Yes. 

Rene: Yeah. I remember that. Oh my God, that's crazy. 

Sean: And so yeah, this was, I mean, these are different...

These were not what we were listening to. I mean- No ... we would've been listening to The Cure and The Smiths- That's right ... and, uh, uh, and then this came out. So let's talk about the Circus Maximus, the album, [00:10:00] right? I wanna get to the, the songs about murder, death, and executions, but do you know what day it is today, Rene?

Rene: No, I don't. 

Sean: It is the Nativity of St. John the Baptist. 

Rene: Okay, great. 

Sean: And do you remember on the album- St. John the Baptist ... when I was John the Baptist? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. When I was ahead of Jesus Christ. It's, you know, so I think I don't wanna play that song unless you want to play that.

No, no. But, um- I'm good. I'm good ... i, you know, I wanna play the song about St. Sebastian, and when I was in Rome last year, I was l- finding effigies of St. Sebastian everywhere. I cycled by his crypt. He was there, you know, in the square of St. Paul, the, the arrows going through his narrow chest. So, uh, let's hear that one off Circus Maximus.

Rene: Which is Lucky Like St. 

Sean: Sebastian. Lucky Like St. Sebastian. Yeah, let's hear it. 

clip: So there's a man loved a woman too [00:11:00] much to give up hope. When he saw she wouldn't touch him with a barge pole. He spent his whole life in the inferno. He composed in 34 cantos

Dante, though I'm into such romantic speculation. I'm your hypocrite and reader in the same situation. I'm your double. Oh me, I'm your brother in pain. But allegory, if you listen, there's a difference between your Beatrice and my Paula. She's anonymous and now a waitress. It's comic, but not divine. The tragedy is no one's dying.

Should I be so lucky like Saint Sebastian and going out with a bind? Just hear me whimpering with joy as Mr. Death receives this blue-eyed boy

When Duranta sees the art of God, it makes no odds. There's just one thing the martyr wants [00:12:00] to say. He says, "Tell me, Mrs. Lincoln Do you enjoy the play?

Sean: Okay, so if you listen to the lyrics, and the lyrics are very upfront, he is not I don't know what he... He has said he is not a Christian. I don't know if he's got faith. 

Rene: I th- I read he, I th- maybe I misread, but I thought he was an atheist, actually. Ah. 

Sean: So he's got some intellectual curiosity about this, and he certainly has read the Bible because he takes the story of, the founder, Paul where, that cathedral was that I- [00:13:00] we visited in Rome, and, uh, you know, he wanted to make his exit as a martyr, but he wasn't lucky like those Christians, like Saint Sebastian, and he had to, you know, spend his life and write important chapters in the Bible.

So it's an interesting you-can't-get-what-you-want type song. 

And he takes positions that exaggerate things to make a point, and we'll go over this, I think, as we go through his other musical songs Okay ... because he's writing from a point of view of maximalism, like of, of making his characters one-dimensional in terms of what he's talking about to make the point, 'cause he, the, again, he's- we'll get into the controversies.

But, you know, I think that song's just such a pretty song. 

Rene: Yeah. Yeah. And again, let's- And- Uh, what does Momus mean again? 

Sean: The trickster. 

Rene: Yeah. Or mockery, 

Sean: right? Mockery. Yes. Yeah. So [00:14:00] again, you mentioned this was, it, before the internet, before we knew what the things were, so what's your creation story for Momus?

What, uh, how do you r- recall hearing about Momus? 

Rene: Okay. So truth be told, I actually think it was one of our early days, and I, I, I thought about it a lot, and I think you actually brought his album to me one day, standing at our doorways, not letting each other into our houses. And and then I was just immediately turned on to this.

And but I think, and I could be wrong, Sean, but I think I bought The Poison Boyfriend then, and I shared that with you, and that's why I got confused and thought I introduced them. But I think it was you. 

Sean: Okay. So let's, before we get to the second- ... album, so we gotta hear that, that other EP. So my creation story, what I recall, and again, this is a long time ago, so it's my memory, so it's my truth.

Rene: And we were eight. 

Sean: And we were eight, yes, so- We 

Rene: were not eight, people, but yes ... 

Sean: I [00:15:00] hear Murderers: The Hope of Women, that EP, on the Waterloo radio station. They had for a short bit of time, Waterloo did... Do you remember on the, the, uh, Spirit of Radio station in Toronto, they did an import show.

Ivor Hamilton would play- Yes ... imports. Yes. Yes. And again, this was before the internet. This is when, you couldn't hear new music easily, and so, and the imports were always, 'cause we were in awe of the UK, and the Japanese imports were, you know, always special because they had bonus tracks that you couldn't get on the domestic releases, so- Yeah, and 

Rene: expensive, and we 

Sean: couldn't af- And expensive

couldn't 

Rene: afford them. 

Sean: Yeah. So they- would bring the records in from the local record store, Dr. Disc, play them, and then put them back on the record stores to sell. So I think I remember waking up the next day, riding my motors- motorcycle down to the store, and then buying that EP. 

Rene: Okay. 

Sean: And that was a lot of money.

Like, you know, we'd written University. I bought three songs for more than what I could buy a [00:16:00] record for, and yeah. So that's what I remember. 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: So should we hear not Murders the Hope of Women, but... Do you wanna hear the, the... Again, we'll keep it... we'll get more happy folks, but do you wanna hear maybe Eleven Executioners or What Will Death Be Like?

Rene: Oh, What Will Death Be Like, please. Okay. Yes, let's do that. 

clip: Death will be unlike the Helen we clone. Mr. Sartre informs us there's just other people. Death will be unlike the traveling salesman who woke up one morning transformed to a beetle. Death will be unlike 2001, the room at the end of the ride. Death will be unlike the Rothschilds Bronson let loose on the Lower East Side.

Death will be unlike the house of the shades, the dark Cerberus guarded by Hades his master. And death will be unlike that lesson on infallibility, the Chernobyl disaster. And death will be unlike the empty [00:17:00] career of attempts, vacillations gone permanent. Death will be unlike the unlucky omens the clairvoyant reads in the meaningless firmament, in the meaningless firmament.

Oh

Rene: Yeah, so this song first of all, it's seven minutes long. Secondly, he never repeats a lyric, so he just keeps talking about what death will be unlike, and he never really talks about what death will be like because we don't freaking know- Yep ... and that's kind of his point. So he kinda makes a mockery, a la Momus of, what [00:18:00] people say death will be like or, or, or literary allusions to what death will be like and goes on for seven minutes on it, and then at the very end he says, "Death will be like," but he doesn't tell you.

Sean: Yep. And I think, that song, the seven minutes, the, the, the constant narrative driving, listening to it again, 'cause it's been close but not that close, do you know the Bright Eyes song on Cassadaga, "That's Why I'm Staying Here, Everybody Belongs Somewhere"? And he goes into, leave the the crazy man in his asylum, leave the something here, and, and again, it's very, to this, the end point where he doesn't stop as suddenly, but it's "Just leave me alone," right?

As opposed to the thing. So I think that, that reminds me of that song- Yeah, yeah ... the, the- Yeah ... letter, again, the influence of Momus. 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: So- Do you remember the fan letter that we wrote to Momus? What? 

Rene: No. What are you talk- 

Sean: You don't remember the fan letter? What are you 

Rene: talking [00:19:00] about? 

Sean: Okay, this is my memory.

So- 

Rene: We wrote it together? 

Sean: Yes. You demonstrated your early copywriting prowess. I don't remember what it was other than you made something about, we go to the, the s- the area in l- in the letter M to look for n- your new music, when's it coming out. Okay. And but I remember staying up all night that night, that perfect summer night, and swimming in your backyard neighbor's pool- 

Rene: Oh, yeah, that one

Yeah ... 

Sean: and writing the letter. He never got back to us. 

Rene: Yeah. Yeah. Well, maybe he couldn't read my handwriting. Who knows? I didn't think- I 

Sean: was pretty drunk ... I didn't think that. Yeah, and your handwriting's not that great to begin with, so. No, and I was drunk. And you didn't proofread it before you- Oh ... you sent the say-sie out to them?

Did we 

Rene: actually send it? I don't know if we actually 

Sean: sent it. I, well, you you had the letter. I didn't leave with the letter. Okay. You said you were gonna send it. 

Rene: All right. Well, maybe I lied. I don't know. I don't know. I don't remember this at all, but of course we were drunk- 

Sean: Yeah ... 

Rene: at eight years old.

Sean: So [00:20:00] I, I, I reached out to Momus. He says, "Let it go." 

Rene: Right. 

Sean: Okay, so let's move on to that Poison Boyfriend. Yeah. Um, that, uh, the Creation years. So this was on EL Records, that was, again, an influential independent band, and then Creation, we talked about that with the My Bloody Valentine episode. 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: Were even more influential and, and on the cutting edge.

So yeah, The Poison Boyfriend and Tender Pervert, those were the next two albums in line. So yeah, you, I, I'm, you might have brought Poison Boyfriend for sure. 

Rene: Okay. And yeah And love that album too. So love those, those two albums immensely, and it was so much fun re-listening to them. It was great.

Sean: So yeah, the, the- we could play so many songs: The Homosexual, The Gatecrasher, Flame into Being. That's all from Poison Boyfriend. The Tender Pervert that again, blasphemous. You know, you're getting the idea in terms of the trickster, where he writes about [00:21:00] the idea that God is titillated by the way humans find new ways of killing each other, and that the angels are voyeurs.

But the song of the, that couplet, they're, they're, again, they're great. And Momus says that he doesn't like the Poison Boyfriend because he really wanted to be popular at that point. The Poison Boyfriend- Hmm ... was a pop album. It was... I thought it was well produced. It could have had hits on it.

Rene: Yep. Like, and hey, guess what? That's what Gearshifter is all about. 

Sean: And so, you know, it was a hit to us. 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: So, my favorite, do you remember The Bishonen on that album? 

Rene: I actually don't, but I know it was on your playlist that you shared with me before the episode, yeah. 

Sean: So The Bishonen is an androgynously beautiful young man, Japanese term, whose elegant fragility and emotional depth makes him the aesthetic ideal of, this, this Japanese icon.

So Momus [00:22:00] has a song about being raised to be a Bishonen and an assassin. And he fails his uncle who takes him in to become this assassin and, then just becomes a banker and gets married. And uh, it's just... And it, and he sings it in such a straight, beautiful way about the fantasies of killing and, and dying young.

So let's hear a little bit of that. 

Rene: Okay, let's hear it. 

Speaker 5: Surprised at 28 to find myself so late. Changing from a boy into a man

I'm starting to feel guilty that nobody has killed me early as my stepfather had planned

I found myself a girl and stopped roaming the world. My [00:23:00] retainer's gone to be a mercenary. Now I work in a merchant bank. I'm well liked by the senior ranks. Though behind my back, the juniors call me Fairy.

How can I placate the ugly reprobate who brought me up according to a fantasy? 

Sean: So baroque pop song, beautiful, like, lyrics that are a little bit difficult, and then he releases Don't Stop the Night, I think is the, or Hairstyle of the Devil, where- Nice ... it is like a Pet Shop Boy record. Yes. 

Rene: Yeah.

And isn't Don't Stop the Night the most played song? 

Sean: I think it's Hairstyle of the Devil- Oh, it is. You might be right ... is the most played song. Yeah. Yeah. Where... And what is the Hairstyle of the Devil? A stray pubic hair in your partner's bed. 

Rene: [00:24:00] Oh, okay. Nice. 

Sean: That's the lyric. Okay. That's what he sings about.

All 

Rene: right. 

Sean: He sings about the complete history of sexual jealousy and, and again taking extreme points. You know, that could've been a hit, that Pet Shop Boy record, right? 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: We will play that. We talked about again, with the Hippopotamus album that was written to celebrate Serge Gainsbourg, the French songwriter who was married to Brigitte Bardot, who, again, went, like Momus, kept producing records for his entire life, and his...

The records that he produced in the, you know, into the early '80s at, at this time, like, he was producing at New Wave Records, and he had been a, a classical singer that, that was, like, topping the charts 20 years ago from this. So again, Serge Gainsbourg's a, an, an interesting person to take inspiration from.

Again, very controversial. He smoked five packs of [00:25:00] Gitanes. Is that the French cigarettes? Oh, Gitanes. Yeah, 

Rene: I smoked 

Sean: Gitanes- 

Rene: And- ... in France. Yeah ... 

Sean: and, was frequently drunk on national TV. Yeah, and this, the Michelin Man controversy. So that's the creation years. He left to go to Japan. So Rene, when were you in Japan?

Rene: I think it was '95 to '97. 

Sean: Okay. Yeah. So you were there with Momus. So do you remember the Shuba- Shibuyakei scene? So- Oh, Shibuya. Shibuya. Yeah. Kei, K-E-I. Okay. Yeah. So 

Rene: Shibuya's a, 

Sean: a, a-

an area I remember going to- Train, train 

Rene: station ... 

Sean: yeah, the, uh, yeah, the big train station in- And an 

Rene: area, yeah. The famous one with the crosswalk. Yeah. 

Sean: And that's where Godzilla head is, by the hotel. 

Rene: I thought Godzilla was by Sh- uh, Shinjuku, actually. 

Sean: Oh, okay. Yes. Yeah. Okay, so yeah. Okay, so this is the big train station.

Yeah. So there was a scene in the '90s. You were there. Do you remember [00:26:00] it? It was cosmopolitan, a pastiche of all of these different types of aesthetics, uh, you know- The indie pop, s- '60s pop, bossa nova- Yeah ... lounge. 

Rene: Actually, I do, I do remember that, yeah. I remember a lot of the Japanese kids were, like, dressed like that.

Sean: Yeah. 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: Uh, y- he, Momus, arrives in Japan in '95, and there's a band that's popular in this scene called The Poison Girlfriend. 

Rene: Okay. 

Sean: So, and she's like, "Oh yeah, I named it after this album called The Poison Boyfriend." 

Rene: Whoa. That's wild. 

Sean: And he's like, "That's me." And so they write a song together, and that does pretty well, but there's this, uh, other woman, Kammy Kari, and I a- apologize to our Japanese listeners.

Yeah. And Momus wrote and produced [00:27:00] her number one hit in Japan. So it was like Top of the Pops- 

Rene: Whoa ... 

Sean: in Japan. He's credited on, if you go to, uh, uh, the thing. So w- as well as our, as well as our Momus besties playlist. L- Well, I'll put on a a, a songs influenced by and i- that influenced Momus. So some of those original Jacques Brel songs.

Yep. 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: So I'll put on this Kammy Ka- Kari song. It's a, it's, it's a pop song. It's okay, you know, it's a nice pop song. I'd- if it was in the background somewhere I would not be offended. But it was number one, it was licensed to MAGA things. So all of a sudden M- Momus has a stream of income.

He's got royalty rights. That's kind of an interesting turn in- to his life. 

Rene: Yeah, in Japan of all places. In 

Sean: Japan. 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: Yeah, 

Rene: that's pretty cool. 

Sean: I- yeah, I can't wait to go back to Japan again. 

Rene: Yeah, me too. 

Sean: Okay, so he leaves Japan, comes back, and goes to Cherry Red. So Cherry Red is the band that [00:28:00] Red Loree Yellow Loree was on.

And to quote the episode around The Mountain Goats and Severed Flesh about "Jean Loves Jezebel." So Cherry Red was a real record label, listeners. Okay. He didn't, uh, uh... John Darnielle did not make it up. Momus was on it. And they just kind of distributed records, like independent records. They weren't the whole...

If I am remembering correctly, they, they had some artist development, but it was mostly like, "We wanna make sure that you get the right distribution to all of those channels." So he goes on in '95 and releases, again, another half dozen albums. I won't go through them 'cause they're a lot. I just wanna make, two points from this Cherry Red years.

One, kids, take your contacts out every night. 

Rene: Why, Sean? Tell us why 

Sean: Because it was in this period that he lost an eye and he starts to wear the eye patch. So if you start if you see any pictures of Momus like that aren't from that Circus Maximus time he's got an eye patch on, and it was [00:29:00] because he didn't take his contacts out.

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: Cautionary tale. 

Rene: Yep. Did he have an eye patch when we saw him? I know we're getting ahead a little bit, but- 

Sean: Yes ... 

Rene: yeah, he did, right? Yeah, I thought so. Yeah. 

Sean: Yeah. 'Cause it was, it, he lost his eye in the late '90s. 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: And so, uh, let's take another example of controversy that he gets into. So he releases an album of analog baroque.

So he's playing Wendy Carlos type Switched-on Bach, but using analog. I guess maybe the, the Switched-on Bach was analog as well, but it was kinda that same, type of songwriting. So again, very different from that guitar orchestrated synth. He goes totally, this analog synthesizer, and he releases an album called The Little Red Songbook.

And on The Little Red Songbook, he gets into a little bit of trouble. So, he releases his next album called Stars Forever, and so this is what, to quote Momus on the [00:30:00] controversy, "Stars Forever was the only way Momus," again, talking about himself in third person "and Le Grand Magistry," that was the, the, the record label, Cherry Red, "could think of to pay some hefty legal bills run up by a spot of gladiatorial skirmishing in the law courts of New York in 19 '98.

The cause of the trouble? An unauthorized, now-deleted tribute song on his last album," The Little Red Songbook. And so- He had to somehow raise this money to pay this defamation charge, right? 

Rene: Is, was this over the Michelin song or no? 

Sean: No, this is, this is, this... The Michelin song- 

Rene: Is 

Sean: later ... he is earlier. He- Oh, earlier.

Sorry ... this is, Michelin song is, he's already not learned about this. This is his second time. And so Stars Forever he released in 1999. He appealed for sitters and patrons, and he says within two weeks 30 people had pledged to send $1,000 to have a Momus song written about [00:31:00] them. And so this was patronage pop.

What the source of the controversy is I've talked about Wendy Carlos filed a $22 million defamation lawsuit against Momus over the track Walter from that Little Red Songbook. The song referenced Carlos' pre-transition identity as Walter and her synthesizer work, which Carlos says was a libel, right? And a derogatory manner.

Because, maybe because in the song Momus wondered if Wendy or Walter could time travel, would they get it on with each other. 

Rene: Okay. So sorry. Am, am I understanding this right? So Wendy became Walter and Walter became Wendy? 

Sean: So Walter Carlos released Switched On Bach soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange.

Rene: Oh, cool. 

Sean: You know- Yeah ... huge r- like, you remember that, that eerie like- Oh, yeah. 100% ... you know, like early synthesizer- Great 

Rene: movie ... 

Sean: uh- Great movie ... very, [00:32:00] very disturbing movie. Disturbing, great 

Rene: movie. 

Sean: Yeah. So Walter transitioned to be Wendy Carlos- Okay ... uh, later, right? Okay. Gotcha. And continued to release- 

Rene: In real life

Sean: in real life, yes. Okay. 

Rene: Very good. Clear. Thank you. 

Sean: And Momus wondered in song what would happen if they time traveled and got together. Yeah, yeah. So, Wendy settled for the $300,000 that he raised from that Stars Forever album. 

Rene: Wow. 

Sean: Yeah. Holy moly. And now that's deleted. I don't even wanna find it anywhere.

I'm sure you could find it in the dark web, but- Yeah, yeah, yeah ... we, we won't look at that- No ... for, for... Because I like that. Switched On Bach was pretty cool. 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: So you know, that was what he was- You know, wondering. Again, trickster. So the independent years. We'll move on from 2000 to current, right? So this is when we saw him in concert.

We saw him, and I love Setlist.fm, the internet. [00:33:00] We saw him on October 29th, 2001 at the El Mocambo. 

Rene: Okay. 

Sean: So he was touring that Stars Forever album. That was- Okay. Yeah ... like, kinda like he just released that. 

And so what do you remember of that? 

Rene: I remember we were to the right of the stage, kinda seeing him on a not straight on.

I remember seeing him, like, on the side sorta thing. But that's about it. 

Sean: Okay. So you've got a visual, not a memory. No. Not a, not a, not an acoustic memory. And he had the eye patch. You've got a visual, yeah. But that's about 

Rene: it, yeah. And 

Sean: the eye patch. And we were on his eye patch side. Maybe that's why he was so- 

Rene: And he had an organ or something, I think.

Sean: Yeah. Yeah, he was, he was playing this little synthesizer- Yeah ... and he was playing these weird little, uh- Yeah ... songs. And then at the end, I do remember he took out his guitar and he said, "Let's smash out a few old Bomba songs," and he played some of the songs from- 

Rene: That we 

Sean: love ... what we, what we love. Yeah.

Yeah. Yes. So the other song he was, was hearing, and just to give [00:34:00] people a a, an idea of what he was doing he released an album called Folktronic, which was made-up folk music set to that little synthesizer. So let's hear Appalachia, which is, again, a source of great folk music in the US, from that one.

Just hear a little bit, 

Rene: Rade. 

clip: All right, let's just hear a little bit. When I look into your eyes of Appalachian blue, I spend my-

Say, I'd sail into your deep blue sea[00:35:00] 

from the avalancheway. Woo!

Sean: Okay, again, so to quote Momus, he's decided to combine analog electronics with folk songs. Hideously pompous baroque keyboard licks of '80s synth pop climb into bed with vaguely transitional ballads. Again, he made it all up. Jigs and sea shanties, mock prog rock epics full of tempo and key changes collide with neo-vaudeville numbers on the subject of the penis.

There's a song called The Penis. We won't play that one. 

Rene: All right. 

Sean: All right. Yeah. So that's, again, that's what he decided to do in the- Turn of the last century. [00:36:00] 

Rene: Yeah. And I will say, like, honestly, he cranks out sometimes two albums a year- 

Sean: Yeah ... 

Rene: to this day. 

Sean: Yeah. 

Rene: Impressive. And sometimes, Sean, and maybe not this, the song we just heard, but sometimes, man, you can correct me if I'm wrong, I get Sparks feels sometimes from some of his later stuff.

Sean: Oh, I think that, yeah, I mean, it's, it's synthesized. It's, it's baroque. It's- Tongue in cheek sometimes ... tongue in cheek. Oh, he's, he's... Yeah. So yeah, so I mean, let's talk about, you know, what, what he's done this century, right? So under his, his real name, Nicholas Currie, he's produced a series of novels and prose works, again, independent presses that speculative fic- fiction, like what would happen if Japan did this, satire, and he did a personal memoir using- If I get it right, it's pastiche.

It's for, like 100 celebrities talking in their time about Momus. [00:37:00] Again, I'm sure it's a difficult but satisfying read, right? Yeah. But i- again, he's he has a web page. So- 

Rene: Like one page ? 

Sean: It's one page. Okay. It is not optimized for anything but a jumbotron. So, you know, you go to it, and it is just...

You, you've gotta use your th- cursor to, to move around the web page. Wild. And he's got, like, links to videos. He produces a whole bunch of videos on YouTube and releases them. He does spoken word. He s- he releases his Tumblr videos. They're all on there. And as you say, he's got an album a year since, since about 2003.

Um, and on that there's a, a... If it's on his YouTube or on the page somewhere, he's got a really nice 40th anniversary montage where he takes all the album covers over those 40 years and kinda makes them meld from one to the other, and you can see [00:38:00] that there was some continuity, right? Hmm. There's a lot of them have his face on it, and so it melds into all of the albums.

Okay. It's kind of a neat little four-minute video to watch. Oh, very cool. I'd highly recommend it. 

Rene: Okay. 

Sean: He releases music and art to his patrons via a m- a membership site on the internet. Wow. So he's got it, you know- When was that? ... behind a paywall. Like is- He's, he's been doing that for, I don't know, the patron site, it's, I don't know, it seemed to be going for a number of years.

You can see what it is. You can't see what they are. Yeah. But, like, yeah, he's got lots of posts over many years. 

Rene: That's cool. 

Sean: And, he's embracing change, but he's been a constant, right? Like I, I, you know, I think that there's nothing, that's remarkable to do that. So- I 

Rene: agree. I totally agree.

Sean: So again, let's just hear "Quantum Strangeness" from his latest, but I'm sure it's soon to be superseded 'cause the web page already says the next album's coming out that you can order on Bandcamp. Crazy. The Actor is on the streaming [00:39:00] service. So let's hear "Quantum Strangeness," and the video for this is, harkens back to his whole androgynous image from the beginning where he's and a little bit furry as well, right?

But it's just- A little bit 

Rene: furry? Sorry, what do you mean by that ? 

Sean: You know, the furry type. Oh , okay. So yeah, it's just, again, a slice of whatever Momus wants to do at the time. So- His 

Rene: little world. 

Sean: Yeah. Yeah. So let's hear "Quantum Strangeness." All 

Rene: right. 

Speaker 6: Friends who left this strange world before

You believed in physics so you knew

The distinct

Past, present, and future is us[00:40:00] 

Rene: Okay, so basically that's his last album, and it's basically lounge music, but of course, being Momus, he has to, kinda fuck with it a bit. So he's got this part that just [00:41:00] goes I love that. Yep. Yep. That's so good. 

Sean: And that's what he's doing, right? So there's, there's his 40th, 40 years of making music, and God bless him.

Yeah. So. 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: So Rene, is he our most under-listened album? What's his streaming stats? 

Rene: His streaming stats are 14,000 monthly listeners. That's one four. Maybe Change... I think Change of Heart had more than that, right? 

Speaker 6: I, 

Sean: yeah, I, I, certainly after, uh, they released that great 

Speaker 6: album last year. Yeah. 

Sean: Yeah, In the Wreckage, like- 

Rene: Yeah, yeah.

And that was our very first episode. Yeah. So, uh, yeah, this might be the lowest monthly listener artist that we've ever covered. 

Sean: I don't know if that reflects... I, it certainly doesn't reflect his popularity, because I would imagine that, that a lot of his listeners don't go from a conventional streaming service.

Speaker 6: Oh, 

Rene: maybe. 

Sean: They're probably on Bandcamp. They're probably directly, providing him with a little bit more income than the streaming service would, right? So I think that that's [00:42:00] not. Ab- certainly his Patreon page has people who are, not paying for all streaming, they're paying for him.

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: And I think it's hard when he's so independent that there's no way that the streaming service algorithm would pick up on these, some of his, the songs have, yeah, 1,000 listens, but then, some of them have a significant- Like those older songs. I, I guess there are people out there like us who- Yeah

have those songs in, in fond memory. So yeah, I think it's not really fair to gauge him by those streaming monthly listens. 

Rene: Yeah, fair enough. But regardless, I would say it's fair that we're covering him because he is definitely a Nearshifter band in the sense that he deserves way more than, than what he's got in terms of accolades, in terms of people knowing him especially those, sorry Momus, but f- especially those first two albums, 'cause they were special to us.

Sean: Three. First three. [00:43:00] Especially three. Yeah, three. First four, five, like, you know, like, uh- Yeah ... again, and, and just be- being more open. That's what Momus says, "Be more open today." 

Rene: Yeah, and that's what this podcast is all about- 

Sean: Yeah ... just being open. He says, "Do it for yourselves, boys." So yeah, he is an Nearshifter band.

He, in, in addition to his own, memoir, he has a biography written about him, and the title for the biography, Famous For 15 People. 

Rene: Oh, yes. Yes. Right, and didn't that become a meme or something? I think I read about this, yeah. Y- 

Sean: you know, yeah, it was written by John Robertson, and I think it sums up, our mission statement, right?

That it's not fair that he's just famous for 15 people, right? And it's a nice turn of phrase. 

Rene: Yeah. 

Sean: I don't think he's got a day job, right? He's moved from Japan to, uh, you know, into Germany and different areas, right? So, you know- He no longer needs to be popular. That burning desire that, that again, he's posted, interviews with the NME in, [00:44:00] back in the, in the early '80s where he's like, "Yeah," you know, like, "Why am I not popular?"

Mm. And so he's, he's passed that, right? So I think that's, is, he's moved on to something more. He's done it his way by singing and writing, right? Whatever he wants to. And, yeah, okay, we'll go back to you with Sparks, right? Unlike Sparks, he doesn't have to wonder when he gets to sing My Way-

'cause he's singing about it the, all the time, right? Right. Right. He doesn't have to wait for heaven or hell. 

Rene: Right. 

Sean: And then mostly I think it's because he mattered to us when we were young, right? 

Rene: Yeah. And- 

Sean: And 

Rene: like you said, one of the, one of the pivotal ones that we genuinely kinda almost discovered together and had I've I apparently wrote a fan letter.

Sean: You have no recollection of that? No recollection at all. Yeah. Oh, I'm pretty sure I didn't dream that. I'm pretty sure that we, that we did it together. 

Rene: All right. 

Sean: Um, yeah. And it brings me joy, even if I'm not listening to his new records, that [00:45:00] knowing that he's still rocking away, right?

That makes me happy. 

Rene: Right. And Momus, if you're listening, hey, send us that fan letter back. I'd love to see what it 

clip: said. 

Sean: See if you can read your own writing- Yeah ... after all these years. Drunk writing. Yeah. 

Rene: Yeah, exactly. 

Sean: Okay, Momus, yeah. And keep rocking. Yeah. Okay, Rene, what are we gonna hear next? 

Rene: Okay, so next we're gonna talk about a band where guess what, Sean?

The lead singer went away for a while, much like Neutral Milk Hotel much like a Syd Barrett from Pink Floyd. Mm-hmm. Um, so I do have definitely some sort of weird gravitation towards these kinda artists. So, uh, they are based in England, and, uh, they are still continuing, but I would say they're actually two bands in one.

Sean: Okay. Well, I can't wait for the next episode, and I'm so glad, Rene, we're doing this. Season three's gonna be great. 

Rene: Yeah. Yep. All right, until next time. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Earshifter. Tune in next time where we'll cover another band that [00:46:00] deserves more. You can find Earshifter on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

Friend us or listen to our playlist on Spotify, and visit earshifter.com for more information. A special thanks go to our logo designer, Stuart Thursby, and our intro/outro music by Joe Novak. You can find him as byebyebadman, one word, on SoundCloud, and a big shout-out to Joe for being our awesome sound engineer/editor.

Until next time.