Forrest Armstrong's Blog, page 4

i dunno either, but i like it too

I get to share stuff from two of my favorite contemporary writers in one day? I know nothing about this video except that it was based on something Steve Aylett wrote, and that man is amazing. Start with Slaughtermatic if you want to explore more – poetic as anybody but ghetto as shit. Lots of guns and futuristic bomb-devices, with robbery and jokes. But this – I dunno what this is. Something pretty colorful and exhilerating.

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Lost in Cat Brain Land

Cameron Pierce – who really might be my favorite artist of the written word going today, and who I lived with for nearly a year in Portland – just released his third book, Lost in Cat Brain Land. It is also the first of those books to be a story collection, and this kid owns in shorter forms just as much as in his novels. The only difference is he stomps your brain under his sneakers multiple times rapidly, instead of one long drive into mush. This is a gem. I love the tagline, "Sad stories f...

What the Shit

Okay, I don't LOVE Nikki Minaj. Let's clear the air. Just an observation. I tried remixing some of her songs and the search for good acapellas actually made me like her less – but I swear if someone can put a fire beat under her verse from "Roger That," they'll have some great shit on their hands.

Not trying to back down from my words – she's still the most refreshing thing we got on the radio. But I prefer the basement music.

I've been in the studio with Jdubeats – remember him? So when kids a...

I Support Nicki Minaj

Controversy. Everybody hates me for saying it, but I'm down with Nicki Minaj. Not everything she does, but the voice and flow she's got when she's just straight up rapping, I really like.

Here's the first song I heard from her, on Hot 97 Boston, and the second I heard her voice I was stunned:

It's violently different from the rest of radio rap. Some people ask what she did that Lil Kim and Foxy Brown didn't already do. The answer seems simple to me: rap well. She's not just flaunting the fact t...

Computer Death

Yo everybody, sorry for my lack of words on this page lately… my computer died recently and it's put me way out of the loop. I never get to just cruise the net anymore. It's made people probably think I'm rude in correspondance and it definitely set me back with the beats (though now I've got all my gear set up in a new studio). It made finishing When You Can't Afford Weed, Smoke This quite difficult. We live in a universe that's formed a mirror extension of itself through the internet and...

Pt. 2: 7 Poems 8 Beats

Signed and limited to 100 copies, this EP is the companion piece to When You Can't Afford Weed, Smoke This. It has some of the same Gas Monk original beats on it, but also comes with unreleased beats and remixes and a collection of Forrest Armstrong poetry. The real deal for Gas-Forrest-Monk-Armstrong-heads.

Track List:

1) Late Night Smokes
2) She Must Always Feel Like This
3) Goodbye Portland
4) This Shoulda Been Born in France
5) No Quarter
6) One For Zane
7) I Took My Dream to the Hills (Vomitus S...

Pt. 1: When You Can't Afford Weed, Smoke This

TWO NEW MIXTAPES TODAY!

A hip hop turntablism-without-turntables mix. It draws together strange sounds and beats from sources ranging from Dilla to Coltrane to DJ Cam, is punctured with a handful of original Gas Monk bullets, and goes for an hour without stopping.  A fun fact: this was mostly made in Denmark.

It's broken up into 6 tracks for convenience, though meant to be thought of as one. Anyway, here's what's on each:

(Every song's been tampered with – degree of resemblance to original...

You'll See…

I woke up in front of a school in West Roxbury yesterday, in a car (my new car – a '97 Crown Vic that's now my best friend) with a flat tire. All the kids were driving in bumping reggaeton and I said to myself "No more party & bullshit until I get these mixtapes out." So,

Thursday, May 28th

will be the day I release my new stuff, in both forms – the free mix When You Can't Afford Weed, Smoke This and the limited edition, 7 Poems 8 Beats, which includes more unreleased tracks and a batch...

Eckhard Gerdes Drops a New Novel

Psychedelia at its best. & not the lo-fi soft flower bullshit of the past, but real, colorful, oh-my-God-I-dropped-a-few-tabs-too-many psychedelia, poured out of Eckhard's brain and into your drinking glass. It's a real treat to see this hit the world.

It's released by Crossing Chaos Enigmatic Ink, who also released my own novel Asphalt Flowerhead and Jase Daniels' The Grubby End. Learn some more about this incredible book (& incredible writer) here.

7 Poems 8 Beats

One more piece of Jase Daniels art to show you before I drop this whole package:

I love this English fellow.

My computer is practically gone (I can still squeek out some internet time with it – it's being very kind right now and working long enough to let me put up a couple blog posts!) so I've relocated operations on the mixtape from my laptop laboratory to my father's basement studio – where I've been working since I was 14. Now there's very little left to do but put the final hours behind...