Paul K.

"Songs About Girls"

Farnsley Recordings

By Geordie Pleathur
(SugarBuzz Nation)

SugarBuzz Magazine

"You are someone else...I am still right here..." (-Trent Reznor)

"What people really value is acquiring crap. Oprah's show purports to be a lot about spirituality. If it was, then wouldn't she tell her worshiping flock to sit down and stop losing your shit over material stuff? As for me, I don't really know what spirituality means, but I know if you're weeping over a sweater then you don't either." (-Bill Maher)

"When I'm no longer poor, I'll come back for you..." (-Spencer P. Jones)

"We're a better people as a result of knowing what took place in Iraq and Afghanistan. And we're not in just two wars. We're fighting six wars! Why isn't this said every night on the news? Our military's performing actions in Pakistan, it's performing actions in Yemen, in the Horn of Africa, and in Colombia." (– Michael Moore on The Rachel Maddow Show)

"A week ago I was arrested along with 130 others taking a stand against these criminal wars at the White House gates. As veterans we have learned first hand the vicious truths of the U.S. war drive and have pledged to resist. We stand with our Muslim and Arab sisters and brothers who are under attack. Will you stand with us on March 19 when we take the next steps?" (-Mike Prysner)

“Segregation is the adultery of an illicit intercourse between injustice and immorality.” (-Martin Luther King, Jr.)

"With the announcement of indefinite detention as a policy, rather than a possibility, the United States will cross a threshold that, as torture did, takes us back to the past, a past before the introduction of trials, when guilt and innocence were decided by signs from the heavens and an appeal to God, rather than to legal processes conducted by men." ( - Karen Greenberg)

"The FCC's decision was totally predictable. Just as Obama guaranteed that the banks would rob the U.S. Treasury blind, when he brought Bill Clinton's old Wall Street gang into the White House, so Obama signed the death warrant for Internet Neutrality when he appointed Julius Genachowski as FCC chairman. Genachowski was the top communications advisor to the Clinton White House and an architect of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. That infamous legislation led directly to the greatest corporate consolidation of radio and television stations in American history. Julius Genachowski is one of the reasons that today's radio and TV landscape is such a wasteland of corporate sameness. Now, he is positioned to do the same thing to the Internet, courtesy of Barack Obama, the guy who never made a promise he wasn't prepared to break." (-Glen Ford)

"If Washington took its heel off the Arab people and ended its embrace of the dictators, that could help secularists and democrats win hearts and minds against extreme Islamists. Democracy is a great idea. Too bad it plays almost no role in U.S. foreign policy." (– Jeff Cohen)

IT'S UP TO YOU, NOT TO HEED THE CALL-UP....

Only four percent of the entire big-media's infotainment-oriented "news" coverage ever focuses on the six American imperialist wars of occupation. Four percent. The major issues of our lives are only debated on the for-profit air-waves by high-paid corporate shills and flunkies, coached by public relations wonks and war propagandists, for the express purpose of manufacturing more false consensus, on behalf of the tight-knit bunch o' share-holders and war profiteers, the usual globalist oligarchs, who own the mass-media, outright. The sinister elites who control the media are the same guys who profit most from the shameful, bogus wars, and who fucked everybody over by deregulating Wall Street. The regulation agencies charged with protecting the public interest, and the public health, are all staffed by Monsanto and big pharma, and evil insurance company appointees. The bad guys have captured the regulatory agencies. Aspartame in our soft drinks. GMO's in our fruits and vegetables. TSA agents in your loved one's under garments. NSA agents in your phone conversations and rifling through your sock drawers. Chem-Trails cris-cross the skies. Obama never met a campaign promise he wouldn't break. TV and radio are outmoded forms of media. They never report the truth. Cancel your cable bill. Seriously. Do it. It does us all far more harm, than good. The corporate-media is absolutely obsolete. It's all lies. You won't ever, ever see truth-tellers in the mass-media, UNLESS they're being slandered and mischaracterized as terrorists, or paranoid crazies, by the jail building, war profiteering plutocracy. The big-media is still amazingly effective at deceiving the lumpen, triple bacon melt MSG gobbling herd, though. Many of the same people who protested Ronald Reagan's secret wars, and bullshit trickle-down, voodoo economics, are sadly, now cheerleading for these same dispicable shell-games, and human rights violations, under Obama. Where is U2? Where are all those macho, loudmouthed, hardcore bands who hated Reagan? Sucking up to warmonger, Obama. It's depressing. Some gay Americans are so baffled, and brainwashed by the big-media, they seemingly believe they are engaged in a struggle for the "right" to kill and die, as cannon fodder, in criminal, imperialist occupations. What a sham. That's not a "right". Killing is evil. Dying for empire is dumb. Duh.

If you're satisfied with reality-show whores, Jack White, Kanye, and Lady Gaga, keep watching TV, and reading those over-priced corporate magazines, like "Spin", and "Rolling Stone"...but if you're STARVING for some wholesome, nutritional, good old fashioned, SOUL MUSIC, you've come to the right underground-media source, cos right now, I'm gonna wax on about some romantic, gutsy, stuff o' real greatness, here. I know of this guy whose political songs are as good as Paul Weller, Billy Bragg, Neil Young, and John Lennon's best stuff. His story telling is as unflinching, and remarkably poetic as anybody you can name. He writes about the real America, the one that's never shown on television. The woman at the traffic light, with the two toddlers, in Santa caps, begging for money on Christmas eve. The hundreds of men walking the streets in the cold. Fragmented families, whose lives are ruined, after getting mixed-up in the preposterously classist and corrupt "just us" system. The guy who parks his wheel-chair in the front of the old theater, and tries to cat-nap in his filthy sleeping bag, by day, so he can endeavor to stay awake, and hopefully, protect himself, at night. The thousands of foreclosures a day. The constant evictions. The non-stop lay-offs. The abused women who are revictimized by the courts, who seize their children, if they call the police for domestic violence emergencies. The dark ages drug-laws, thriving private-prison enterprises, the "tough on crime" judges, who always love to throw the book at non-violent drug offenders, and environmental activists. The broken homes and divorces, and boarded up buildings, and whole cities full of children being neglected, because two minimum wage jobs, just aren't enough to pay the rent. Entire neighborhoods on probation, with cops prowling around the clock, looking to catch some sorry soul, on his way home from the bar. It's brutal. WHITE COLLAR CRIMINALS get a free pass. License to steal, license to kill, license to deal, license to counterfeit. Like Willie Nelson sings in his Christmas song they won't play on the Clear-Channel occupied air-waves, "Whatever Happened To Peace On Earth"? If you're anything like me, probably the last supposedly, "popular" song, that was even a blip on your radar, was either, Cee-Low Green's "Fuck You", or all the way back to the "Rehab" glory day of Amy Winehouse and Duffy, when everyone was over-excited, just to hear some real instruments, for a change. Everything on the radio's sounded like stale Missy Elliot, and/or NKOTB, for so long, now, it's GOT to be part of a strategy to keep the people nodding out in some irksome and fatiguing, lifeless, Prozac drool. I mean, EVERY GENRE, from post-nu metal to crap-hop, it all sounds like you know-Phil Collins, or Matchbox 20, or Taylor Swift. Soporific detergent commercials. It's just fucking insufferable. Right. So what can ya do? Well, if you like outlaw-country, and Motor City Punk, start reading an on-line mag called, "THE I-94 BAR", and they can help you stay hip to all the cranked up, raunchy, rock'n'soul from Australia, like Spencer P. Jones, and Tex Perkins. Jack Rabid's quarterly fanzine, "The Big Takeover" is available at some chain bookstores, and is by far, the best American music-magazine, still in print. "Punk Globe" can be perused on-line, and features contributions by such stalwart punk icons as Ginger Coyote, and Jayne County, and if it's REAL SONGS you miss hearing, then, I urge you to do, whatever it is you gotta do, to familiarize yourself with the epic works of America's Greatest Unknown Songwriter, the one and only, PAUL K.

This cat is a folk hero, to those who know his work, because he is truly, "for the people, and by the people". Imagine a humane and compassionate, modern day, Robin Hood. Paul K is equal parts William S. Burroughs, Ralph Nader, Keith Richards, Cornel West, Sonny Barger, and Leonard Cohen...and the White Panther Party, too. A real songwriter, a champion of the underdog, a true badass, who lives by his own codes, outside of the ho-hum, commercialized formulas, and unmerciful hypocrisies of the murderous, sprawling, big-box Babylon. From the hobo jungles of Appalachia, to the urban squats of eighties Manhattan, and Mad Max industrial wastelands of Detroit, Paul K has travelled "the Other America", giving hope to the weary, and providing comfort to the downtrodden, like some post-punk Woody Guthrie, since the late seventies. Paul K's songs will doubtlessly, outlive all of us, but my prayer is that he might be discovered, in his own time. Remember how they lied to us, back in school, that "true talent outs", the good guys always win in the end of the film, that the cream rises to the top? Well, there is no "Creem" to celebrate our exceptional talents, and true stars, anymore. I guess it was ten, or twelve years ago, when I first started assuming it was "only a matter of time", before some big-shot Hollywood type, like Johnny Depp, or Winona Ryder, or Drew Barrymore eventually discovered one of Paul K.'s songs, and used it in a major movie. That's how Elliot Smith, and Mike Scott from the Waterboys finally got their mainstream attention. All those jock dorks, and data entry operators who go to nail salons, are only wise to the majesty of "This Is The Sea", because of that syrupy "Good Will Hunting" flick. If Lester Bangs was still alive, he'd probably be able to describe Paul K's music without resorting to constantly comparing him to Chet Baker, or Emmit Rhodes, or Tom Waits, or Shane MacGowan, and he could maybe have shamed some hip-huffing suit into signing K to a major label contract, by now, but unfortunately, he's as dead as our dreams of freedom, the rock'n'roll record industry, the American music press, and any lingering notions you may have harbored about living in a democracy. Meanwhile, PK continues producing these dangerously alive, and wide awake tunes, conveying both hard truths and gentle, forgiving sentiment. His "C"-material is roughly equivalent to Ryan Bingham And The Dead Horses, Wilco, or Coldplay, or Ryan Adams' HITS. He pretty much effortlessly scotches all of his contemporaries. His latest side, "Songs About Girls" is pretty ace, upon first listening. Fresh as a daisy pop and soul baring, tormented, torch songs, inspired by the various women in his life. Perhaps one day, Americans will recognize, and honor, it's finest artists, real writers, charismatic entertainers, war-crimes whistle-blowers, and actual journalists, again, but that day is not today.

HAVING A HARD TIME DRAWING A STRAIGHT LINE....

Paul K. is such a talented and brave and honest songwriter, it's impossible to really chart his "progress"-many of his songs really require repeated listening to ferment properly-they grow WITH you. "Generous Offer" reminds me of some old seventies southern rock song, I can't quite pin-point right yet, due to all these wasted brain cells, but it's typical of PK's best works. A little bit o' soul, heroic guitar playing, smart lyrics. Others are just immediately undeniable, and could hardly be improved upon--not even with a million dollar Daniel Lanois production budget. One day, PAUL K will be revered as one of the greats, alongside Jim Carroll, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, or Patti Smith. For now, he's just another tall, leather clad guy, that low I.Q., rent-a-cops like to hassle, in bus stations. His new song, "Haunt" is probably my favorite PK song since, "You Did Not Have To Leave Me In Tears." I mean, it is easily, as good as anything from Lou Reed's masterful "New York City/Songs For Drella/Magic And Loss" era. "Haunt" is an autobiographical nightmare. Intense. "Evelyn's Song" could be for a kid, it's so sweet, but it could be a love song, too, a lovely little homemade valentine, with a xylophone and woodblock. "Livin' Off My Gal" is charming, sweet, funny, and reminds me of summa his other songs, he always throws these really funny lines in, amidst all this tortured confession, and desperately bleak scenarioes, and home-spun, Norman Rockwell studies of the wet-eyed, wrinkling, trembling human beings you meet in dive bars, at bus stations, in pay-by-the-week motels, and on behaviour wards. "Imperial Statues" is a bummer, like Townes Van Zandt's gloomier works. His lyrics are as ceaselessly eloquent as vintage Bob Dylan. Most of these stories are too true to be good. He's troublingly forthcoming about the odds, and all...he knows most of us are just doomed and irredeemable, too hurt to try again, beyond salvation, yet, he almost always, leaves a crack of light, in every song. The sunbeam that shoots unapologetically, straight through the tear in the aluminum foil, over the bedroom windows. I deeply value him for that.

Everybody else is bullshitting nowadays, the art-school flatulent trust fund dullards, the reheated disco tramps, the kid stars... Fast food belching, Wal-Mart shoppers, actually ASPIRING to becoming snitches, brutes, thugs, predator-lenders, professional liars, hedge fund billionaires, reality show clown-hookers...Remember when the Clash asked, "D'ya really wanna be a cop?" Or like Iggy once said, "Just a phoney on the take"??

Paul K is exceptional. The raw deal. The Last True Outlaw Singer. People should have a chance to hear his music. His songs are like those photographs by Jamel Shabazz. They vividly and fearlessly document his times.

AMERICA'S BEST UNSIGNED SONGWRITER:

paulksongs.squarespace.com/images/paul/
http://vimeo.com/19458674
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=52999166061

REAL ROCK'N'ROLL:

i94bar.com
bigtakeover.com
punkglobe.com
sonsofthedolls.blogspot.com/

STATE OF THE UNION:

standtogethernow.org
www.commondreams.org/view/2011/01/31-1
www.codepink4peace.org/
www.organicconsumers.org/
www.rethinkafghanistan.com
www.commondreams.org
www.democracynow.org
dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/
www.firejohnyoo.org
www.dontscan.us
www.propublica.org/blog/item/egypt-u.s.-rendition-program-and-the-italian-job
www.worldcantwait.net
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x537929
www.democratunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x537695
www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/22/bill-maher-christmas-message_n_800216.html
www.bradblog.com/?p=8230
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x66306
www.democratunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x537956
www.collateralmurder.com/
www.slate.com/id/2278621/?GT1=38001
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x68682

CENSORED NEWS:

pdamerica.org/articles/news/2010-12-23-03-48-10-news.php
www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/social_security_in_perspective_part_iii.php?page=all
www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-flynt/why-i-am-donating-50000-t_b_798159.html
www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUtFF9R6808&feature=player_embedded
www.commondreams.org/view/2010/12/14-10
www.commondreams.org/view/2010/12/18-2
www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/16/white-house-antiwar-protesters-arrest_n_797899.html
WAR_on_We_The_People The_Gulf_Oil_Attack
www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/legal-expert-espionage-act-makes-felons-all/
www.dontscan.us

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