51. The Hospitals - Hairdryer Peace (2008)

The Hospitals started in 2002 as a overdriven noisy punk band from Oregon, releasing a few records on labels like In the Red. Following a move to San Francisco, drummer/vocalist Adam Stonehouse took the reigns and produced this masterwork of scuzzy, acid drenched surf noise. By pushing the music into a deconstructed mosaic of garage pop, he created a modern day Trout Mask, Twin Infinitives, Dragnet or White Light White Heat. Like those records, the first few listens can be confusing, nauseous and hellish, but eventually the penny drops that it is cool and clever and every sound contained within is designed, hard won, and meant to be there.
Needless to say, your tolerance of this record depends upon an embrace of Lynchian disorientation and a love of blistering noise.

S'funny that with the popularity of noise acts across the mid 00's, a scene that is derided for sounding all the same. i.e. a tuneless wall of noise/drone, you still always kinda knew where these acts were at deep down. For instance MV & EE are country rock, Religious Knives are goth, Wolf Eyes are Detroit rock, Sightings are glam rock. The longer they continue the closer they seem to get to their spiritual homes. Following this  dubious logic then, The Hospitals are west coast psychedelia. And fittingly what may appear to be fragments of song structure distorted within and without with, production murk, cassette hiss, and a bad trip vibe, can leave you feeling exhilarated and sunny. I have heard this record many times, and there are still parts where I have no idea what's going on, but that just makes me wanna go back for more so maybe I can UNDERSTAND.

Hairdryer Peace is like a wild party going out of control, like someones spiked the punch with strong acid, there's someone freaking out, Adam sings ' I feel queer' from behind a locked door. Some people have started to fight, there's seems to be loads of people you've never met, you realize you're among a group acting crazy, but are unable to do anything about it. A riff builds into a wave of noise before a Paint it Black bass line allows us to breathe, only to repeat the same theme again. Getting out of Bed is the flipside of The Beatles - I'm only sleeping, whereas Lennon wants to be left alone to his daydreams, Stonehouse is literally unable to raise his head from the floor, 'I'm stressing out, I can't control, the patterns on the tiled floor, is someone I know?'. An LA pop classic destined never to be heard on radio. Here it is accompanied by some footage of people shopping.



Animals act natural is another great riff and anxiety tune (It's all been so hard for me), until bass feedback rips the shit from the tune and we are led into BPPN, Royal Trux territory, bongos.
One of the last lines you are able to actually make out on this record is, 'I feel dizzy, I feel stoked', kind of sums it up really.

52. Geto Boys - The Foundation (2005)

For some reason my vinyl copy of The Foundation seems to be called War & Peace, although it seems to be officially called The Foundation, so there you go.
For those who don't know Geto Boys are a seminal Texas bred hip hop crew, widely considered to be the first exponents of what became known as the dirty south style of deep, funky and hardcore hip hop. In the early days of the the late 80's they were admired by artists like Tupac, Jay-Z, Notorious BIG, Outkast, and whole swathes of southern rappers who continue to use producer J. Prince to add some deep laidback southern soul bounce to their grooves. They also began Rap-A-Lot records, the label that now releases stuff by the likes of Trae, Z-Ro and chopped and screwed versions of Texas ghetto faves.
Geto Boys also have in Scarface your favorite rappers favorite rapper, who has an ability to rap both fast and slow at the same time, whilst lyrically he can be heartfelt, violent, intelligent & vulnerable, often in the space of one verse, like all the best deep soul vocalists. The other members are Willie D (pimp persona, argumentative, controversial, political) and Bushwick Bill (unhinged, melancholy, issues with women). As a team they come across as three competing individuals and personalities, not afraid to explore inner demons, crime, misogyny, violence in a way that seems real to who they are, where they are, quite often there may be three opposing view on a single track, quite often they seem unreasonable or offensive, you probably won't agree with the things they say. However they are never less than honest, and have an underlying passion to reveal hypocrisy in politics and life around them, an attempt to reflect the black ghetto experience in Texas, using the blackest deadpan humor, deliberately designed to alienate those who don't understand and got left behind with the classic Mind Playing Tricks On Me. If NWA were The Temptations, in your face, upbeat, exitable; then Geto Boys are James Carr at the dark end of the street, obsession, torture, paranoia.




The Foundation was a return of sorts after an extended period of solo joints. Scarface had a very successful run of records throughout the 00's. This one is made up of a handful of posse cuts Declaration of War, When It Gets Gangsta, 1, 2 the 3, What?, Real Nigga Shit, that all essentially plough a deep vein of barrelhouse moog and piano funk whilst containing OTT threats of violence to pretender rappers, gangsters and just about everybody, the body count on these tracks could rival all four series of The Wire, and reminds  of how Geto Boys are not straight up reality rappers, but also originators of horrorcore, larger than life, hyperreal.



So that's 50% of the album. One of the highlights is Yes Yes Y'all a bar room banger and lead single which Bushwick kills with the best verse on the album rapped in tandem with Scarface over the phone, he just don't give a fuck. Obviously I totally disagree with the misogyny and homophobia, but there's something about Bill.

Well this is Chuck Dawg (will you ever love another bitch?) 
Fuck nah! (What's your position on a snitch homey?) 
Fuck laws! (They say the Beatles was the biggest) 
Nigga fuck Paul, and the rest of y'all! 
I'm the little motherfucker with the big dick swingin 
Nuts still hangin, got hoes singin the blues 
Geto Boys in this bitch still bangin 
And ain't shit changin (uh-uh) ain't shit changin 
Don't like faggots, hate politicians 
Can't stand snitches, know the Feds listen 
So I, send the whole world a fuck you note 
Schumaker's got a desk job, fuck you hoe! (Aww nah!) 




We Boogie presents the three MC's different accounts of a night in that favorite hang out of southern rappers, the strip club. Scarface remains sober, with no interest in the girls, he's strictly a family man doing business, making money. Willie D likes to pimp, and plays a intimidating game, always ready to stomp any motherfucker looking at his wild turkey sideways, and the predictably more unpredictable Bill is out of control in the backstage area, utterly pissed and stoned, about to have intercourse in public with a woman he describes as a snake concealing drugs.



  I Tried is a rap ballad about loss and regret, where Face mourns his friends wife's death, Bill contemplates suicide, considers anonymity, and deliberates on the challenges of being a dwarf, along with looking back at the time he shot his own eye out (immortalized on the cover of We Can't Be Stopped). Willie D attempts a eulogy to his mother and still manages to contain the lines, Faster than a crackhead can pawn yo' shit, Willie D'll put a foot in you bitch. On this track Bill hints upon his new born again christian status, later expanded upon on Leanin' On Ya.


The album ends on a trio of solo efforts, two of which are album highlights and the other is Bill's frankly obsessive, murderous and insane Dirty Bitch. Face's G-Code is aimed at police snitches, detailing the criminal code, which most likely keeps horrible murderers and rapists free, but is espoused by the likes of Scarface in a, we will deal with our own problems, don't trust the racist police kind of way. You won't agree, but can't argue with the ferocity and flow in which Face gives his lessons. Anyway who am I to say what it is like to be  a black man from the Texan ghetto, how would you feel?






Willie D's solo shot Nothin to Show gives out some old OG advice about saving money, and is as mature a statement you could expect from these elder statesmen of hip hop, he even suggests a life insurance policy.

Fuck the fame, I want the dough 'cause when times get drasticYou can't take a fuckin' ego to the bank and cash itI'm not impressed with your big house and expensive whipIf you can't pay cash, you can't afford the shit

The modern day Geto Boys remain an important hip hop act, with important things to say about their corner of the world, it's up to you whether to listen. I recommend Willie D's Twitter page to keep up with Geto Boy news.