The Paybacks

Knock Loud (Get Hip)
by Scott Hefflon

They may not be much to look at, but these Detroit bad boys gots the rock’n’roll grit and pedigree (The Henchmen, Rocket 455, Ten High) to attract a portion of the neo-garage scene and put Get Hip on the map as a cool-ass source of great rock’n’roll, like Gearhead and Bad Afro and anyone who imports bands from Sweden (cuz even those of us who can’t point to it on a map know that’s where all the good rock has come from for the last few years). The Paybacks are less, ya know, dandy than Cheap Trick, but they have the pop hooks and street-struttin’ snarl to even it out. This is their debut (a track on a Detroit comp by Sympathy for the Record Industry [the label that found The White Stripes, for those of you needing to be spoonfed]), but the single “Black Girl,” “Don’t Lay It On Me,” and a couple others will have you singing along at shows, spilling your drink on your neighbor, but they won’t notice cuz they’ll be singing along, spilling their drink on you. As the bio closes “Rock’n’roll is fun again.”
(Columbus & Preble Aves. Pittsburgh, PA 15233)