Forrest Armstrong's Blog, page 11

Studio um um

yes. Going into the studio with Mike Daily tonight. Very excited; I haven't been in a studio since I was back in Boston, recording "I Dream in Different Blacks." I basically grew up in a studio – I've been producing music, as in running recording sessions, even longer than I've been writing. So this is gonna be real fun.

We've been talking about putting together an album for May. So… wait for it…

Early Sampling

Yo, this is something my man JDUBEATS wrote. A little while back we started doing some writings on hip hop culture, and this came from that – about the use of sampling before and outside of hip hop. I wanted to share it. Definitely check his beats, too. 

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I found out about this guy through one of my most favorite bands CAN. His name is Karlheinz Stockhausen and his music is pretty out there. He was one of the pioneers of electronic music and made really crazy compositions of samples from...

to feel like you swallowed too many clouds

all you gotta do is listen to this. Quasimoto (aka Madlib) – "Boom Music"

Lovecraft

I just read Lovecraft for the first time tonight. Mind blowing. The textures, images, atmospheres… everything was so big, breathtaking. Even the language, which I know gets a very mixed response. I can definitely understand why; sometimes it's so dense and sterile that you really just have to grit your teeth and trudge through it. But then there's lines that just stun you. Even just him describing the limestone cliffs in "The Rats in the Walls" – which is before any of the crazy shit starts...

Curt, my man

Yo, check  out my boy Curt Daley gettin' curtains in the latest Jenkins' Log. I can't believe this kid.

Folded Into Your Midwestern Thunderstorm

Kristen Orser, one of the freshest and most colorful poets going today, just released a new chapbook from Greying Ghost Press, Folded Into Your Midwestern Thunderstorm. She's got a way of doing surrealism and broken language like I've never heard before. Definitely look into this here.

"The midwest can be a lonely space to crawl. Heaps of junctions and front roads bordering corn but nobody else is on the road this afternoon. Folded Into Your Midwestern Thunderstorm is a thunder-slap meant for...

Top 10 Abstract Albums

This list's made of many flavors. I'm positive that no matter who you ask, the albums that they most value as "abstract" will be different. All valuable, but definitely different. What I'm giving here is a list of ten albums that've always gotten me into that dislocated headspace, the kind I like to create in my own art. They've influenced me as deeply as any book has. I'm sure some of them will get you into the same headspace.

I'd also really love to know what everyone else uses to get into...

Jeff Burk done did it again

I just think this is a really cool article he  wrote yesterday, "Punk Rock Marketing and Magic."

Punk rock is to  Jeff what hip hop is to me.

It begins like:

Penny Rimbaud was the founder, drummer, and lyricist for the seminal anarcho band Crass .  Inspirational to thousands of youth the world over, Crass broke new ground in what could musically be considered punk and how a punk band could present itself.

Penny was fascinated with how major corporations presented themselves and drilled their...

why explain

Copyediting Cody

I'm in the process of copyediting Cody Goodfellow's next Swallowdown Press book, Perfect Union. God damn it's great. Cody's a little bit too much of a genius for me to be comfortable. I wish I could show you the incredible cover art that Alan Clark did for it but I think it's still a secret. Not really my place to unveil that. What I can say, though, is that it's absolutely amazing (the book – also the cover art) and that it should be droppin' in the vicinity of Valentine's Day.

To those who...