Paul K & The Weathermen - Love Is A Gas (1997)
Seems like I had this album on my wishlist forever, or since the end of 1997 when Scott Schinder, who was the rock music editor of Pulse! magazine at the time, named it one of his favorites of the year. Normally this wouldn't mean all that much to me, but the stellar company that this album was nestled amongst made me take notice...Bob Dylan, Belle & Sebastian, Yo La Tengo, Elliot Smith, Beth Orton and other favorites of mine. But, as is often the case with many of the albums I want, this one wasn't stocked in any of the stores I frequented at the time in my pre-internet world. I did run across the previous
Garden of Forking Paths in the used CD store one time and grabbed it, and it is a good album, but it never struck me as quite the opus that
Love Is a Gas was made out to be. Some excellent songs though, and his band is tight, tight, tight, with a great bluesy, soulful rock sound.
So skip forward a few years and I'm looking for something else on gemm.com and needed to fill up my shopping cart so took the opportunity to look for a couple other items on my wishlist (you know how hard it is to order just one CD!) and found they had a copy of
Love Is a Gas for $5.95, so bought it, received it, and it looked brand new, although not sealed. But what a great album it is! Every song seems like a winner. For those not familiar with the sound, it's a little reminiscent of another guy that uses only a "K" for his last name on record, Tonio K. And his sound also has ties to Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground, who's Moe Tucker produced and played some drums (along with Wilco's Glenn Kotche) and PK dedicates it to David Ruffin [Temptations] and Sterling Morrison [Velvet Underground], and comparisons have been drawn to Merle Haggard and especially Townes Van Zandt by others, and there's some of the Replacements, and also some of his musical brother, Greg Dulli from the Afghan Whigs. But K's songwriting and voice and guitar playing are still the big attractions. This is really a beautiful album of finely crafted songs with lots of guitars - highly recommended. I think it's still readily availble on the used market and for pretty cheap new in both CD and vinyl at the
Alias Records site. I should have looked for it a lot sooner - almost sure to be a favorite well into the future.
Here's what the above referenced critic Scott Schinder wrote in 1997 ...
[size=xx-small]Criminally under-exposed cult figure Paul Kopasz writes seething, noirishly literate songs that underline his punk roots while demonstrating his innate grasp of more traditional musical idioms. This, his eighth album (produced by ex-Velvet Undergrounder Maureen Tucker), is perhaps his most eloquent effort yet, surveying emotional, moral, and cultural wreckage with an astringent intensity that marks K. as one of his generation's most compelling songwriting voices. - Scott Schinder, Entertainment Weekly (February 7, 1997)[/size]
