With his battered, bruised and blood-lacquered laptop nestled under his arm, Jason Forrest was coaxed into our studio with the promise of free pizza. From our extensive experiences, this works every time on laptop artists. It’s child’s play, really. Last night’s episode of “My Name Is Earl,” brought me back to that day. Seeing Randy duped by a plastic container of Oscar Mayer bologna, tossed from the window mobile home, was the perfect inspiration for writing about that day, when Forrest (by way of his new home in Berlin) stopped by between shows in Iowa City and Des Moines. It was kind of a detour for him, so we had to sweeten the pot with as many slices of a Mississippi (something like “the works”) as he could handle. It turned out that the number was only one and a half, but that pie went down smooth. He refused to take any for the road, to give to his buddies Duran Duran Duran, so we were stuck with the leftovers and, luckily, seven (a new Daytrotter record!!) tracks for our marvelous readers. Do you get confused by what a laptop artist does during a live show? Same here. We found out that, funnily enough, the thought process is very involved, kind of like performing long division in your mind, and we were unable to carry on any semblance of a conversation as the session was being recorded. It was the same as it would have been were Joanna Newsom to come into the studio. We wouldn’t be able to talk to her about stained glass windows or the Colbert Report – or whatever else was hot-button that day – while she was plucking away on “Sadie,” just as we couldn’t do that as Forrest kicked ass through (and make no mistake, he was rocking as this was happening) “War Photographer.” He is a rock and roller in the toughest and most tender parts of his heart, striving to paste together sounds that are going to feel like you just got punched in the eye, hit by a car and then backed over to finish you off, just the way you felt when you listened to your all-time favorite record for the first time. His songs are often more powerful than that one record that you cherish because he does it with thousands of those very same records, pulling them apart until they are just the single strands of material and then building them back up as some kind of recycled mayhem that is wondrous and altogether unparalleled. – Sean Moeller

Song numero uno
The Walls Of The City Shake (Jason Forrest) [3.31MB] [3081 downloads]


– original version from “Shamelessly Exciting”
“This song I made almost two years ago now, and every time I hear it I still get all excited and pumped up! I think one thing people have forgotten is that ‘people in general’ really still love massive, screaming guitar solos. Works every time on me at least!”

Song numero dos
Storming Blues Rock (Jason Forrest) [4.86MB] [3464 downloads]


– original version from “Shamelessly Exciting”
“Another rocker, when we recorded this in the studio, I improved with the ending, and I really like how it sounded. Just proves that every time you go to perform live, some mystery can still remain… I wrote this song because I had been listening to lots of blues-rock, and thought it was about time someone tried to introduce it into electronic music!”

Song numero tres
My 36 Favorite Punk Songs (Jason Forrest) [2.29MB] [3301 downloads]


– original version from “Shamelessly Exciting”
“Yes, it’s exactly that! I’ve said it a few times before, but the biggest part of getting this song to work was getting it away form being just a simple novelty song. Surprisingly enough, I found that people actually knew the melody at the live shows.”

Song numero quatro
War Photographer (Jason Forrest) [3.64MB] [2920 downloads]


– original version from “Shamelessly Exciting”
“Another blues-rocker at heart, this song is many people’s favorite due to the astonishingly great video by Joel Trussell. Go take a look for it! ( www.cockrockdisco.com/DS-bio/bio-main.html) Odds are you’ll really like it! Joel rules!”

Song numero cinco
Jut Jut/Lazer Wahnsin (Jason Forrest) [4.48MB] [2690 downloads]


– unreleased and spanking new
“This is a new pair of songs that were written in an attempt to make my own version of the B-side of ‘ Abbey Road.’ What does that mean? Well, the B-side of ‘Abbey Road’ is made up of 10 songs that are all short, but are nested in each other so that they seamlessly jump from one to the next. But what’s important to note here is that each song on that side is totally unique, with its own logic, its own pop hooks, and its own identity. That’s what I started out to do, but it’s really, really difficult. I have a third one in the series, but that’s it so far… so this one is a real exclusive! Wahnsinn basically means ‘insane’ in German, but people use it like we use the word ‘awesome.’”

Song numero seis
I Lost My Heart To A Blonde Redhead Trooper (Jason Forrest) [6.83MB] [5967 downloads]


– rare track mo fos
“This one is from my first CD, which was released in Japan called, “To All Methods Which Calculate Power,” on Omeko Records. But I always liked this one, and went back and re-did some bits of it for my live set, so this one is also really very special to be recorded too! The end bit was just straight recording of a lovely Thursday afternoon while my wife and I strolled down the sidewalks of the West Village in NYC.”

Song numero siete
Song For My Grandmother (Jason Forrest) [3.70MB] [2907 downloads]


– rare and virtually impossible to find
“This one was released on a 12-inch by Brooklyn Beats, but not soooo many people know it. My grandmother died when I was making it, so I dedicated it to her; Lorna Forrest. Anyway, I was interested in how so many 70s bands used player pianos in their songs, so I made this one as a collection of tiny bits of a few of these songs. It also has some samples from Conlon Nancarrow, a composer who used the player piano to explore its super-human capabilities. Brilliant man!”