On this date in 1960, musician and writer Nick Currie, now better known as Momus, was born in Paisley, Scotland. Momus is frequently called the most underrated man in pop music. He has released dozens of albums over his 30-plus years as an active musician. One of Momus’ well-known albums, “Stars Forever” (1999), is a 30-song album he created by writing an original song about each of 30 people who had given him a commission.
He has written three books: The Book of Jokes: A Novel by Momus (2009), Solution 11-167: The Book of Scotlands (2010), which presents 156 Scotlands in parallel worlds, and Solution 214-238: The Book of Japans (2011), which has a similar concept.
Momus has also written commentary on culture for Wired magazine and many other news and entertainment sources. In 1991 he reworded Andy Warhol’s famous 15 minutes of fame quote into, “In the future everyone will be famous for 15 people.” In 1997 he contracted acanthamoeba keratitis in his right eye due to a contact lens mishap. Although his sight improved after surgery, he has suffered lingering effects from the infection ever since.
