Caught the Moaners from North Carolina at the Continental and Detroit’s the Paybacks at the Ale House. Dang. Both sets cranked out new, fucked-up takes on slurpy gutter blues in ways that reflect their home bases. The Moaners are all Flannery O’Conner with lots of pounding and slide electric and the Paybacks are straight up MC5 … not MC-505, but 5. Period.
You might say they both have the White Stripes in common: The PBs appear on a Jack Black Detroit comp and the Ms are jus’ guitar and drummys. Whut? A bit of a stretch, yes, but I am morning blogging. Go look at the pics.
This article appears in March 16 • 2007.