Marah Can’t Hardly Wait
My man Zach from Milwaukee has delivered yet again with a great live Marah video (see his previous offering). Recorded live at the Abbey Pub in Chicago, IL on February 17th of this year, here is Marah performing a Replacements song, “Can’t Hardly Wait”. Thanks Zach.
Gotta love the cigarettes and F bombs. Take it away….
Update: Check out this Dutch blog for some more video clips of Marah (04/22/06 Utrecht, The Netherlands)
- buy Marah music
Marah and Steve Earle play the TLA
One of the best concert weeks of my life was seeing Steve Earle play the West Hollywood House of Blues in the summer of 2000 with Marah as their opening act. A week later, I saw Marah at the small, sweat soaked Long Wongs in Tempe, AZ. Marah was hitting the road behind their great album ‘Kids in Philly’, which was released on Steve’s label, E Squared.
Thanks to Steve Earle, I became a big Marah fan, and remain so today (just saw them as they came through Phoenix in January).In October of 1999, it was Marah’s coming out of sorts, as they joined Steve at a benefit for the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, playing the Theater of the Living Arts in Philadelphia, PA.
Marah w/ Steve Earle
Theatre of Living Arts, Philadelphia PA
October 16th, 1999Intro by Steve Earle / Christian Street/ Head On
Catfisherman
Where The Dark Horses Go
Sleepwalk > Reservation Girl
My Heart Is The Bums On The Street
Point Breeze
The History Of Where Someone Has Been Killed
Faraway You
I Feel Alright*
Transcendental Blues*
State Trooper* [a couple of skips near the beginning.. sorry!]
West Nashville Boogie*
Ohio*
(* w/ Steve Earle)Bonus: Marah:
Livin on the Road(mp3)- buy Marah music
- buy Steve Earle music
Marah Live Video
Thanks to Zack from the great city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, we have video from Marah’s performance at Mad Planet in Milwaukee last week. Here they are singing “Barstool Boys” from their fantabulous 2000 release, ‘Kids in Philly’. Dave and Serge Bielanko are in vintage rock star form, and as a bonus, you get some quality Serge stage banter.Click here to see the video.- Buy Marah music.
- Check out their tour info.
See Marah Live
“It’s mind-boggling that here-today-gone-tomorrow bands with half as much talent have gone platinum, yet Marah’s crackers-for-dinner, starving-musician tale is still waiting for its happy ending. Radio success or not, the sold-out Iota crowd clearly knew what was up when the show was announced, and folks were being turned away at the door early in the evening. The lucky fans who arrived in time got everything they wanted and more: nearly two hours of sweaty, honest, heartfelt rock ‘n’ roll.” – Washington Times review of last week’s show in Arlington, VA.
I am gearing up for this
Monday’sduh – Tuesday Marah show at the Rhythm Room here in Phoenix. I haven’t seen them live since the summer of 2000, when they played the now paved-over Long Wong’s in Tempe. It was one of the finest, most exhilarating live performances I have ever witnessed. Dave and Serge Bielanko are something to see. Bare bones, spirited, genuine guys, they pour their heart and soul into their shows.They just started out on a tour, so check out the dates below, and if they’re coming to your town, do yourself a HUGE favor, and go see them. If the Phoenix show is any indication ($9!), tickets are ridiculously cheap.
Here are a few tunes from the 2000 Tempe show…
Marah:
Faraway You(mp3)Sleepwalk (Santo & Johnny Cover) / Reservation Girl(mp3)Can’t Hardly Wait (Replacements cover)(mp3)
Live from Long Wongs, Tempe, AZ August 12, 2000- Check out their CD’s, including their latest, ‘If You Didn’t Laugh, You’d Cry’, on Amazon.
- Marah’s Official Site
- Factoid: Marah’s fans include Stephen King, Nick Hornby, and Bruce Springsteen. Bruce brought Dave & Serge on stage for an E Street Band encore, where they joined in on “Raise Your Hand”.
Tour Dates
Wed 01/18/06 Houston, TX Continental Club
Fri 01/20/06 Austin, TX Continental Club
Sat 01/21/06 Dallas, TX Sons Of Herman Hall
Tue 01/24/06 Phoenix, AZ Rhythm Room
Wed 01/25/06 San Diego, CA The Casbah
Thu 01/26/06 L.A. Echo
Sat 01/28/06 San Francisco Cafe Du Nord
Tue 01/31/06 Eugene, OR John Henry’s
Wed 02/01/06 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom
Thu 02/02/06 Seattle, WA Crocodile Cafe
Fri 02/03/06 Vancouver, BC Richard’s On Richards
Sat 02/04/06 Bellingham, WA Night Light Lounge
Wed 02/08/06 Minneapolis 400 Bar
Thu 02/09/06 Milwaukee, WI Mad Planet
Fri 02/10/06 Lansing, MI Temple Club
Wed 02/15/06 Indianapolis Birdy’s
Thu 02/16/06 Lafayette, IN Lafayette Brewing Company
Fri 02/17/06 Chicago, IL Abbey Pub
Fri 03/17/06 Austin, TX Antone’sMerry Christmas from IckMusic
From the Arizona desert to the far corners of the world, Merry Christmas from IckMusic!
If you�re a frequent IckMusic visitor, you�ll like this one, trust me.
Marah: City of Dreams (mp3) � from If You Didn’t Laugh, You’d Cry
Listen to my Banjo (The Woes & Marah)
So I download a helluva lot of music from MP3 Blogland. So much so that sometimes I don’t actually hear the tunes until months later when I’m kickin’ back listening to my mp3 collection on shuffle. It was recently that I came across a tune by The Woes that was posted on Bars & Guitars back in the spring. The tune is “That’s All, Good Night,” and it features a banjo, an accordion, harmonica, bass, and gravelly voiced singer Osei Essed. The banjo and the chord changes reminded me of another tune by Philly’s Marah: a song called “Phantom Eyes”, from their amazing late 90’s debut, ‘Let’s Cut the Crap and Hook Up Later on Tonight’.
So I put ’em together for your listening pleasure. Compare, contrast and comment.
I call it… Black Phantom!
00:00 – 04:06 :: The Woes – “That’s All, Good Night” – from a 7 song EP entitles ‘Coalmine’ – apparently not to be found for sale, but check out their My Space site, where they have a few additional tunes you can stream.
04:07 – 06:35 :: Marah – “Phantom Eyes” – from ‘Let’s Cut the Crap and Hook Up Later on Tonight’ [Buy]2021 update… that mp3 is long gone, but here are the tunes. 16 years later, still worth a listen!
New Marah Tune
I’ve posted about Marah a few times before: here here and here. I will always follow these guys because they pretty much carried me through the summer of 2000. Their album ‘Kids in Philly’ was always in the background, and I saw them in Tempe at the sweltering Long Wongs, and a week earlier opening for Steve Earle at the House of Blues in West Hollywood.
So their new album, ‘If You Didn’t Laugh, You’d Cry’ comes out on October 18th on Yep Roc Records. Here’s a sneak peek at the album. This comes from the Phill Jupitus Breakfast Show on BBC 6 Music. The audio is from the 64kbbs stream of the show. Really a cool show. You can check out the playlists on the web site, and listen to the last week’s worth of shows.
Marah: Demon of White Sadness
- Check them out on Amazon.
A Song about War – Marah’s Round Eye Blues
OK, so I keep coming back to Marah. Yeah, well, I love ’em… their second album, ‘Kids in Philly’, includes a poignant, powerful, and very well-written tune from the perspective of a Vietnam veteran. The song is “Round Eye Blues”, and it’s full of intense imagery and musical references of the day:
The chorus:
“Take the hits boys take the hits
don’t smoke your bible and lose your wits
’cause the sky is filled with shrapnel,
& your eyes are filled with tears.
Hold your breath boys hold your breath,
finger your trigger and welcome death
’cause the choppers’ filled with your gutshot friends
& your hearts are filled with fear.”From the opening cadence of the drums to the outro to the tune of the Ronette’s “Be My Baby”, this song’ll grab you by the shirt collar and take you on a journey…
Marah – Round Eye Blues
Photo of Marah @ Long Wongs, Tempe, AZ – August 2000, 280 degrees F
The Amazing Bielanko Brothers – Marah
I first discovered Marah through a Steve Earle interview I read where he mentioned that “Let’s Cut the Crap and Hook Up Later Tonight”, their 1998 debut album, was one of his favorite albums of the year. He went on to sign them to his label, and they released 2000’s ‘Kids in Philly’. They are a fresh, no BS, bare bones rock n’ roll band, full of such innovative and imaginative lyrics, and on top of that, they rock out with a banjo. Dave and Serge Bielanko of Philadelphia are the masterminds behind Marah. They released ‘20,000 Streets under the Sky’ last year, another great release.
If you EVER get the chance to see these guys live, please do. I saw them twice in 2000: once opening for Steve Earle at House of Blues in Hollywood, and a few days later in a small sweat-soaked bar (Long Wong’s) in my then hometown of Tempe, AZ. It was about 200 friggin’ degrees in there, and I was drinking Hefe Weizen like it was lemonade, sitting 5 feet from the band. Certainly one of the most incredible live show experiences of my life. Some kind soul recorded the show and shared it with me so I can always go back and listen to my “WOOO!”s. They have a large following in Europe and tour extensively there, so keep your eyes open overseas as well. You won’t be disappointed.
So this is my favorite song from their debut. Listen, enjoy, and check out more of their music…
Listen: Marah – “Formula, Cola, Dollar Draft”
Buy: ‘Let’s Cut the Crap and Hook Up Later Tonight’ on Amazon
Site: Marah-USA.comPhoto credit: Pete – taken at Long Wong’s in Tempe, AZ (8-12-2000)
I’ll be your sure thing…
Here’s a 2-minute pop masterpiece by a band out of south Philadelphia who call themselves Marah. They caught my attention a few years ago when they released Kids in Philly, an album chock full of powerful lyrics and imagery, and bare bones rock n roll. They sort of went off the deep end with their next release (Float Away with the Friday Night Gods), but holy $#%@#, they are back this year with 20,000 Streets Under the Sky, one of my favorite albums of 2004 (Yeah, I’m 34 years old, and I will call them albums for the rest of my life!).
