Paul K and the Weathermen

Love is a Gas (Alias)
by Katy Shea

If Nick Cave found his happy place and went to Vegas for the weekend, won some cash, listened to a little lounge and stopped on the way for a quick little lobotomy, it might sound something like Paul K’s Love is a Gas. The songs on this CD have a ’70s/’80s rock/blues sensibility, complete with straightforward guitar solos and predictable melody lines… but there is something attractive about it all despite my urge to hate it (I would never drag Mr. Cave into a comparison that was entirely unfavorable). The vibe is very Jim Carroll, or Tom Waits on a day of extreme levity and anti-depressants, where the attitude is discernable, but everything is somehow terribly wrong and commonplace. Like maybe all of the aforementioned got into a nutty jam session that couldn’t help but be interesting despite the fact that Leonard Cohen couldn’t make it and they wrote all the songs that day on bar napkins as a joke. Weird, but interesting.