"The Payola Reserve, fused their simple but strong sixties rock sound with just enough other influences to defy apt labeling. Their enthusiastic mix of soul, country, and folk into their vintage rock sound create not only songs, but a musical microcosm of the event as a whole - it was a complete musical experience that is uniquely at home on the Senator's stage."
-Radar Redux Baltimore
"They don't make bands like the Payola Reserve anymore. Their sound is decidedly vintage, best described as Tom Waits by way of Walt Whitman. They see themselves not so much as a band, but as part of a growing cultural movement within Baltimore. They want to do more than play shows; they want to create something people can relate to."
-MetroMix Baltimore
"Say some fairly successful British Invasion band of the mid ‘60s decided to expand upon their infectious melodies and head-shaking rhythms to create a new direction in rock and roll. And say, for the sake of this hypothetical, that this new direction became what we know as the alternative country movement; had this happened, the aural result might sound something like The Payola Reserve. The Baltimore quartet combine the folksy charms and arrangements of country rockers with an early British rock aesthetic. Truth be told, the unsigned band does so with such success that they should be snatched up by a label any day now. A great intersection of past and present sounds, 200 Years is an engaging record that displays a band with a bright future."
-Pop Matters
"If you dig rootsy, retro, Southern garage rock with a vocalist who sounds like a sexier Elvis Costello, you’ll love the Payola Reserve’s
latest, 200 Years. While they pay homage to their influences—you’ll hear traces of Kinks and Wilco—the group puts a unique stamp on tried-and-true storytelling songs"
-Performing Songwriter
"The Payola Reserve make Country Rock infused with a strong Pop sense and an almost R&B-ish swagger, like The Stones excursions into rootsy American forms of music."
-Cincinnati City Beat
"The Baltimore four-piece mines influences from rock, pop, country and R&B and fuses them into lush concoctions of melody and noise that throw you on the ground, pin your arms back, and scream 'LISTEN TO ME!'"
-The President Wears Prada
"Forget placing a label on this group. Too many styles, too many different subreferences, too many influences to narrow down. Let's just start with this: these guys can play. The music contained here encompasses southern blues, Appalachian folk, country, soul, pop, and good old American rock and roll. Did you get all of that? The Payola Reserve does whatever they darn well please. And in you don't like one song, the odds are fairly good you'll like the next."
-Phantom Tollbooth
"The Payola Reserve manages to create a very vintage sound. This band could easily have been one of the guests to appear on The Last Waltz. Each song is a rich combination of excellent songwriting ability, complex melodies and solid rhythms."
-Anti-Music
"Not even Baltimore has been rendered safe from the sweeping arms of this Tom Waits inspired, Elvis Costello saturated Americana that evokes Neil Young’s “Harvest,” and the Payola Reserve proudly bare their scars on “200 Years.” While their sound looks back, the thematic elements of the music explore today’s current situation: “They say they’re getting ready for the rapture, I picture local weather men enraged,” Ben Pranger croons on “Around That Long.” Overall, “200 Years” deserves some real estate on the shelves where you keep your records – just push one of those Wilco albums over a little more."
-On Tap Magazine
"...ahead of its time in the worst way: Stand out songs and obvious singles like "Jugband Joan" would be refreshing to hear on top 40 radio, while the album cuts are quality enough to keep anyone who buys the record from being let down. When the band breaks from traditional sounds and structures, they show what makes their hipster-darling contemporaries so popular with young folks. This album could be their trojan horse."
-Playback STL
"The lively nature of the band as captured on this studio recording will likely be impressive in a live content. Pick up “200 Years”, and ride on the waves of their vibrant rock before they break it big."
-Neufutur Magazine
"Payola Reserve channels AM psychedelic Americana with dynamic instrumentation. They get lots of college radio play, their instruments smell of rich mahogany, and we love the whole album."
-Butter Team
"With full creative control of this project, having written recorded and produced it themselves, 200 Years possesses an atmosphere that can only be fashioned when you know there are no outside influences at work. From the social commentaries that carry over from the debut, and commence immediately on the first track, to the varying nature of their musical style, The Payola Reserve possess a singular sound that, though widely accessible, is still unique."
-Music-Critic.ca
"The band has their own unique sound but if you had to compare them to someone else I would say that their music is a mixture of Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan meets Neil Young. In the 13-tracks found on 200 years [they] mix everything from folk and bluegrass music to pop and rock putting their own blend of experimentation on them."
-Indie Music Stop
"They are interpreters of 1960’s pop rock, not imitators; they borrow from the same source material as the Fab Four, but they use it in different ways, retooling the core components of post-1950's pop rock to achieve a sound that is retro-minded without necessarily being derivative. The Payola Reserve’s sophomore album, 200 Years, is full of bluesy, skiffle-ish twang courtesy of harmonica and both slide and acoustic guitar. There are 1950’s crooner vocals, group harmonies, Melodica and Rhodes accents, and head-bobbing beats of the snare-centric variety with a bubbly four-string boost for good measure. Lyrically, 200 Years runs the gamut from waxing poetic on religion and daily life to dying-town escapism and critiques of habit-indulging behavioural patterns."
-Beatbots
"The feel you get transports you back to when bands traveled from festival to festival, jamming in between sets, and just living as musicians."
-HeroHill
"What I find most compelling about Payola Reserve is that their albums conceptually invoke an era. 200 Years is a record that compels references to other artists, because the album is a virtual history lesson in rock and roll. The album inoffensively and deftly moves from knee-slapping bluegrass ("Jugband Joan") to harmonica-infused ballad ("200 Years") and country twang ("Lost Wind Craze"). The Payola Reserve has a lot of potential for experimenting with their unique influences. They have a sound all their own, comparisons and name-checks aside, and on 200 Years that sound is starting to steal the spotlight."
-Any Given Tuesday
"The new CD “200 Years” symbolizes major growth for Payola Reserve. This is a mature, heady LP that draws vivid pictures with rich lyrics and mind-altering flashback sounds. Songs like “Grade A Television” bring us back to a much more contented and uncomplicated time in music. FamousIndieMinute gives “200 Years” four out of four stars! We love this CD because it goes with any mood or any driving destination effortlessly. We can’t wait for more LP’s to come."
-Famous Indie Minute
"Pranger's voice twanged into the hearts of the audience as he shared the mike with his harmonica, adding hums where lyrics couldn't go. Jamming guitars and slowish drum beats made this the perfect music for a car ride through the desert. The combination of his voice with the bluesy rock melodies were a nice rewind to the days where soulful music superceded hip, hot radio edits. These guys kept reminding me of someone I love to hear, but I couldn't put my finger on it until they closed their set with a Neil Young cover."
-MobileBeat(lg) @ Billboard.com
"But while [kept private] merely hinted at classic rock roots, the Payola Reserve, a local group of longhairs in boot-cut jeans, was refreshing in just how thoroughly and convincingly retro it was, as if the most recent album in the band’s collection is Marquee Moon." -
Baltimore City Paper
"If a band is truly a representation of its influences, the Payola Reserve has chosen wisely. These guys are not just copycats, they expand the music of their idols and create something new that cannot be labeled. Is it "rock folk"? "Loud Americana?" It doesn't matter what we call it – it just deserves a shot to be heard."
-The Phantom Tollbooth
"Elvis Costello circa 'Goodbye Cruel World' with Tom Waits singing? The alt-country Kinks of 'Muswell Hillbillies' hinting at 'Celluloid Heroes' to come? Neil Young Americana with Jeff Tweedy moderninity? If this is one long apology, then they shouldn't be so hard on themselves. It's everybody else who should prostrate themselves and beg forgiveness."
-The Big Takeover
"Dig It: Jeff Tweedy makes a quilt with Elvis Costello and David Bowie and has enough material left over for a Kinks pillow." (BB)
-Cincinnati City Beat
"Their earthy pop manages to both shine and brood on a past they never lived. "Seasick on Shore Leave" is a gem even worthy of Elvis (Costello) in its biting wordplay. Songwriters Al Pacheco and Ben Pranger ride smart and aware through a pop landscape filled with ghosts and guides."
-Music Emissions
"As steeped in Americana as pecan divinity from Stuckey's. Like Zykos covering Dylan or Josh Ritter. Indie, but not indie."
-Hybrid Magazine
"This is social commentary through plenty of literature references and allusions, disturbing ballads and melodies that persistently infuse the air like a stick of incense burning in a 5'x5' compartment. Pranger sings with an almost preacher-like tone, like some devious, handsome priest trying to charm his way past your common sense except with promises of dissatisfaction rather than salvation."
-Rag Magazine
"The Payola Reserve stands on the shoulders of giants; theres no doubt about that. What they dont do is mimic these beloved giants for the purpose of riding their leftover momentum toward undeserved success. They walk the path that has been paved by musical pioneers before them in a way thats different from how anyone else walks it."
-Redefine Magazine
"Somehow and magically The Payola Reserve comes with a pop sound that doesn't hoodwink you with formulaic catchiness, but earns your affection with its well-crafted rowdiness and jaunty style."
-Amie St. Music
"Payola's urgent-sounding rock is mindfully straight-ahead—music meant to evoke a simpler time."
-Urbanite Magazine
"Fans of Wilco, Elvis Costello, and Spoon might just have found their new favorite band with The Payola Reserve."
-Decoy Magazine
"The alt-country flavor of The Flying Burrito Brothers melded with the pop sensibility of Matthew Sweet with a bit of early Bowie thrown in as well. This disc has a lot of class in my humble opinion and that's something that's sorely missing from most of todays music."
-Ear Candy Magazine
"One Long Apology is a solid collection of solid rock, and in these apocalyptic times, theres no reason anybody should feel bad about that."
-30music.com
"Dylan Spoon-ing with Costello"
-Palebear.com
Certainly one of the more impressive albums I have had the chance of placing in my player this year."
-Copper Press
"They have a heady mix of garage sensibilities and crafted songs that is almost criminal."
-Aiding & Abetting
"I don't know exactly what the Payola Reserve feels deserves their apologies. It's certainly not their lack of talent because that's on display with nu-Dylan might. There's an oldies vibe here that's artful and casts your mind back to the glory days of American rock-n-roll. Good stuff!"
-Smother Magazine
"Really impressive music to listen to, definitely not anything anyone else is putting out at the moment. Its something everyone and anyone can listen to and enjoy."
-Infused Zine
