Jonathan Richman is one busy man. Between being Conan O’Brien’s favorite musician, entertaining the masses (quite well) and hanging out in the nation’s finest hotels, Richman needs a breather.

But before he puts away his sailor garb, the musically-inclined people of Ames will be treated to his rambling gypsy/kiddie nonsense/rock and roll.

Richman is the former leader of the rock quartet Modern Lovers, one of the pioneering new wave/pre-punk bands of the 70s. He is touring in support of his first major-label disc Surrender to Jonathan, on Vapor Records, Neil Young’s label.

Calling from a lonely pay phone just outside of Columbia, Missouri, Richman said that he prefers live performance to recording. “In general, I like to watch other people live and I also like to play live,” Richman said.

And live performance he does in massive excess. Richman has been touring for the past 15 years. In the past few years, he averaged 130-140 shows annually. In that time, he has never vacationed longer than two months.

“Way back when I started out I read that one of the members of Jefferson Airplane preferred recording in studios to live shows. I wondered ‘why he would prefer such a thing?'”

Richman is a former cohort to such music gods as the Velvet Underground’s John Cale and Runaways producer Kim Fowley who collaboratively produced some of Richman’s work.

He ran the virtual gamut of music-induced activities. From having “I’m a Little Airplane” played on Sesame Street to a song of his used in the movie Repo Man, Richman has made the scene.

His next musical goal resembles work done by legends Dean Martin and Jerry Lee Lewis. “I’d love to play some 600-seat theatres if there were any left.” He said that about 15 years ago they all started dying out because no one ever went to the shows.

He has daydreams of playing a 600-seat theatre in a city like Chicago for three weeks straight bringing in the crowds.

Richman is renowned for his quirky and often multi-lingual songs. Besides English, he sings in Spanish, French and Italian. His favorite countries to play in are Spain, Greece and Japan.

Richman said that while singing in a different language is not unusual overseas, it obviously is here in the states. When making the switch from English to another language, Richman said he notices a different effect takes place on him. “Hell, they call it the romance language.”

“He is a musician’s musician,” said Dave Newton, music director for the Maintenance Shop. “His songs have been covered by everyone from the likes of the Sex Pistols to Joan Jett.”

Newton said that some of his friends saw Richman play in Iowa City recently. “They said it was the coolest thing they had ever seen.”

Richman does give a warning to those who like it loud. “My show will be 120th the volume of any other act. Any one of your readers who expects anything at all loud should just not come to the show.”

Other than that, expect to hear some witty-make-ya-wanna-groove songs such as “Dancing in the Lesbian Bar,” and “Egyptian Reggae.” Jonathan Richman will play tonight at the M-Shop at 9 p.m. Tickets are $4 for students and $6 general admission.