Hospital Ships - Lonely Twin

Hospital Ships – Lonely Twin
Graveface, 2011
Acquired: Love Garden, New, 2011
Price: $10

Oh man, I love that I live in a town where I get to see Hospital Ships on a pretty much weekly basis. At least bi-monthly, and furthermore, monthly if I’m too broke to go to the Replay or the Jackpot and blow hard-earned on cheap beer. Lonely Twin is a grand step-up from their debut, Oh, Ramona, but only in that it’s more concise and has a definite flow that creates this intimate portrait of Jordan Geiger balancing vulnerability with a goddamned finely tuned sense of songcraftsmanship that makes him come off like a total badass (even through his warbly Daniel Johnston-esque falsetto). Lonely Twin feels like a product of Lawrence, despite being recorded at five different studios in the Bible Belt. The video for the monster jam “Galaxies” features a tour of winter Lawrence that would make even the most steadfast of “I’ll never be a goddamned townie” Lawrencians nostalgic for their own town (the part where he buys coffee from Adam Lott at LPT made me go “OH MAN YES I HAVE TOTALLY DONE THIS I IDENTIFY WITH THIS SO MUCH YES!” It was a good feeling. Good because lately Lawrence has been feeling a bit noose-esque and my desire to leave leave leave for greener, colder, not-Lawrence pastures has been growing and growing. But listening to this album, I feel pretty OK about Lawrence. I realize that despite the politics of Kansas (which, as you no doubt know or suspect, are totally, irreparably fucked and getting worse every day), it’s flawed to look at Lawrence through that lens all the time. Mostly because Lawrence has some really awesome shit that other places don’t. It’s got some excellent people too, and it has some really damn fine bands via the wonderfully incestuous music scene that’s been developing over the last four years or so. Anyway, I wrote a proper review for this over at the Pitch that’s about the music and stuff. Mostly though, there’s something about the sound of this record that sounds like where I want to live, or where I live right now, or wherever. And, my copy of the vinyl was strawberry lemonade colored, which makes me thirsty every time I look at it.