'GO FOLK YOURSELF' London

Last night, May 15th - live from the University of London Union, supporting Jesse Malin, let's hear it for the stripped down acoustic Marah sound of Dave Bielanko and Christine Smith...

Can't Take It With You

Round Eye Blues
After the short Marah set, Christine did a quick 'costume change' offstage and then reappeared to accompany Jesse for the main event. A great show - even the big lug security guy at the side of the stage was getting into it and clapping along.


Jesse played a lot of his crowd pleasing favourites like Brooklyn, Solitaire, Wendy and Broken Radio, and he also performed some choice covers - including Harry Nilsson's Everybody's Talkin', Neil Young's Helpless and Lou Reed's Walk On The Wild Side (with Dave B joining in on acoustic). Oh and yes, I almost forgot, there was a cracking version of the Lords of the New Church's Russian Roulette with special guest Brian James (The Damned, LOTNC) on guitar! A really enjoyable night.

Update: I wasn't going to post this video as I accidently set the resolution so low that Jesse ended up being the size of an ant (stay away from alcohol kids)! But hold steady, it's not too bad...

You Can Make Him Like You (The Hold Steady)

p.s. Thanks to Dave for reducing the T-shirts to a fiver - very handy for some additional warmth whilst walking home at a chilly 1AM (now that the week of British Summer is over).


marah-usa.com
jessemalin.com

Passin' Through This Wilderness...

From Dingwalls in Camden on Monday night, here are a couple of clips of Marah in action. As always (due to a punishing European tour schedule) the band seemed knackered before they'd even started, but after a slow start the show started to cook nicely. The songs that were played from the new Angels Of Destruction! album came over well, especially Can't Take It With You and the storming Wilderness.

Marah - East
As you can see, my little camera's autofocus was struggling a bit with the Dingwalls lighting but the result isn't too bad.

The band really kicked ass towards the end, finishing up with (if I can remember correctly) Point Breeze, Wilderness, The Closer and (that old standard) New York, New York.

Marah - Wilderness
With some cool drunken dancing going on in front of me, I ran out of space on my memory card! - so the funky end jam and Christine Smith's ace keyboard solo finale weren't captured. Doh! Gonna need a bigger card.

www.marah-usa.com
www.myspace.com/marahusa

Reborn again... and again

Like a Phoenix from the ashes of their self-destruction, Marah are back in the UK next week. Dave, Serge and Christine (love those boots!) are joined by a new drummer and new bass player, performing gigs in London (Dingwalls, March 31st), Newcastle (Cluny, April 1st) and Nottingham (Rock City Basement, April 2nd).

I'll be going along to the London show, so expect a few of my trademark blurry photos to appear on this blog soon after.

www.marah-usa.com
www.myspace.com/marahusa

Angels Of Destruction?

Rumors are that since making this TV appearance last week to promote their newly released album and tour, Marah may have exploded or imploded!

Marah - Angels Of Destruction!

Have the Angels of Destruction got them beat?
Official Marah webpage

Angels of Islington

From just a few hours ago, Marah @ The Carling Academy, Islington, London... careful with that microphone stand guys!

Walt Whitman Bridge (end excerpt)

New album Angels of Destruction! out on January 8th.
Listen to it now in a high quality stream and pre-order here.

Update: Guardian review

www.marah-usa.com

Bedford Light Of Day

A few snaps from last night. A very good night out, well worth the drive through the sleet to get to Bedford. The venue seemed pretty much packed. All the performers were great. Highlights for me were Willie Nile covering the Ramones' 'I Wanna Be Sedated' and Marah's 'The Dishwasher's Dream'. Badly Drawn Boy (Damon Gough) covered 'Thunder Road' and Joe D'Urso did a nice version of 'The River'. Serge (who incidentally plays a mean kazoo) told a very funny shaggy dog story about having dinner with Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa and Nils Lofgren, and talking about BDB with Bruce... I won't go into the detail as it might spoil the joke for others should Marah ever appear on stage with Damon again.

From L to R: Badly Drawn Boy (Damon Gough), Joe D'Urso, Willie Nile and Marah (Christine Smith, Dave & Serge Bielanko)

Damon, Joe, Dave & Serge

BDB

Marah (acoustic trio version)

Twist and Shout finale

The Dishwasher's Dream (excerpt)
Marah (featuring Serge and his pint of Fosters)
Two pairs of tickets were raffled for the upcoming Springsteen O2 concert. Well done to all the performers, everyone else involved in setting up the show and to the audience for helping out such a great cause. www.lightofday.org

I'm Just Around The Corner To The Light Of Day

Stockholm, Rotterdam, Barcelona, Rome and now Bedford! This Sunday the Light Of Day Europe tour makes its final stop in the UK.

Badly Drawn Boy, Willie Nile, Marah (acoustic) and Joe D'Urso will all be strapping on their guitars and performing to raise awareness of the fight against Parkinson's Disease.

Sunday November 18, 7.30pm start
The Harpur Suite
Harpur Street
Bedford, MK40 1LE

Tickets: £20.00 in advance and are available from www.entshed.com. See www.lightofday.org for more info.

Hang On To Your Hats!

It's November already! The clocks have gone back, and the gloomy days and long cold nights of winter are nearly upon us. Wait a minute... it's not time to hibernate yet. There's something alight in the darkness. A loud life-affirming noise is heading towards us from across the ocean. Throw away those anti-depressants*, and get yourself ready for Marah's imminent UK Tour.

Photo by Hanna Toresson
“Marah blow the roof off with their barely contained energy. It’s street music, soul music, music to walk off a skyscraper to…you’re left with your hair standing on end, shaken up, exhilarated, that hole in your heart temporarily fixed, which is all you can ask of great rock ‘n’ roll. And God knows, this is great rock ‘n’ roll.”
Uncut Magazine

That sounds about right. See you at the Islington Academy, London on November 28th. For more band news visit www.marah-usa.com

(* always consult your Doctor first!)

Can't Take It With You

Listen to the title track of Marah's excellent new EP Can't Take It With You here.

Available now from YepRoc
www.marah-usa.com

Feeling a little slo' at the mo'

Whilst I recover from an overnight flight and unpack my stinky clothes (love that sweet aroma of sun cream, insect repellant and sweat) here's a new video for an old Slo-Mo song. Strong language, so take care...

Cuidado - SLO-MO

Better late than never

You can never have enough Marah...

Marah - Sooner or Later
Rockpalast, Bonn, 18th October 2006
www.marah-usa.com

'Bleeding out of small cuts in my skin'

Marah - The Demon of White Sadness
Rockpalast, Bonn - 18th October 2006
Official Marah homepage www.marah-usa.com

Seasonal Singsong

One of the things I like about Christmas time in the UK is that when you go shopping you still get the old classic Christmas hits blasting out as you browse; The Ronettes, Darlene Love, Slade, Greg Lake, Paul McCartney & Wings, Jona Lewie, Shakin' Stevens and Gary Glitter. They all bring back memories of Christmas past and Christmas presents. However, whilst recently spending a few days shopping in Philly and New York I felt like puking. Good grief, the songs played in the states these days are soooo sugary; Awful Christmas soul ballad pap with added Hall and Oates. Too much turkey already!

What could save the USA from this new seasonal banality? Marah's Xmas Extravaganza that's what. On Saturday 10th December at the TLA, Philadelphia, Adam & Dave's Bloodline, Matt Mays & El Torpedo, Slo-Mo w/Mic Wrecka, The Shalitas and Marah all came together to deck the halls with some sonic tinsel.

I'd done my back in the previous day trying to lift my luggage off the floor without bending at my knees - Call the Health and Safety police! Anyway, on Saturday I walked for miles up and down the streets of Philadelphia. By the evening, with a bad back and sore feet, I was bruised and battered and I couldn't tell what I felt. When I went into the TLA at about 8:45pm there must have been just five people in there! Nursing a beer, I spotted another frequent Marah groupie from the UK (the one who is not Wally) and then a few more people came in from the cold to catch the start of Adam & Dave's set. Mat Mays & El Torpedo followed and were great. Mays came across as a kind of an amalgamation of a 70's Springsteen and early Wilco, i.e. Bruce Tweedy. The band were very polished and the perhaps the best I've ever seen from Nova Scotia.

Slo-Mo was up next with just a short 3 song set, ably assisted by Mic Wrecka and bongo playing Sergei from Eastern Europe... Cuidado!

By the time The Shalitas came on the place was filling up nicely. What can I say about The Shalitas? Well if you didn't like their songs you could at least buy their Thongs at the merchandise stall instead.

The Marah boys came on stage at about 11:45pm. Enhanced with a four piece horn section, they played a stonking set that lasted a couple of hours. The old favourites like Christian Street, Freedom Park and My Heart Is The Bums On The Street where sprinkled with Christmas tunes from last year's A Christmas Kind Of Town album.



Despite having some back pain and not enough alcohol (both of which meant I couldn't dance) I really enjoyed the show. It was a fun night with everyone going home feeling good and full of Christmas cheer. A perfect antidote to Hall and Oates disease.

www.marah-usa.com

A Night Of Phidelity

I've just made it home to Blighty after a week in New York City. Last Saturday night Musty MC and I took the L train across to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. We sampled a few happy hour Stellas in a nice bar on Bedford Avenue and then went along to the NorthSix music venue. Marah headlined and were fantastic as usual. What made the gig really great though was the strong support from PHIdelity Records label mates Christine Smith, Adam & Dave's Bloodline, The Shalitas and Slo-Mo. Here are a few photos from the night. They are a bit blurry - which is appropriate as that's how I felt when the show finished sometime after 2AM.

---

Today marks 5 years since the events of 9/11 2001


My City Of Ruins - Bruce Springsteen(America: A Tribute To Heroes)

Brooklyn Bound

Musty MC and I will going along to ogle Slo-Mo and The Shalitas respectively. What else? Oh yes, Marah will be playing as well! Here's the brilliant Soul (mp3).

Marah Homepage

P-P-P-Pick Up A Podcast

A small piece of the Nick Hornby and Marah show (see earlier April 08 post) is now available as a 'Podcast' from Penguin books. Download it in MP3 or other formats from here

Satan Is A Big Fat Liar

So says the message on the cap that Nick Hornby (Arsenal) is wearing.

He picked it up on a trip though the American bible belt. I've never been tempted to read any of his books but on Thursday night at Dingwalls in Camden, London, he came across as a witty 'normal' bloke who you wouldn't mind sharing a few beers with in a local bar.

Billed as 'A night of Words and Music with Nick Hornby and Marah', Phil Jupitus (West Ham) introduced the proceedings. Hornby then read through entertaining short essays about his love of music.

He started with a story about Rory Gallagher and then went on to talk about prog rock, going to a Bob Marley concert, the rise of punk and how hard it was trying to be into the rock scene whilst being a privileged Cambridge student on a grant.


Hornby's tales were interspersed with Marah playing songs to illustrate the words - a version of The Clash's 'Lost in the supermarket' accompanied the punk era. In his last essay Nick spoke about his current favourite band and how they have inspired him...

Cue Marah and their blistering set. Wow! They are always good but at Dingwalls they blew everyone away. Cracking versions of 'Demon of White Sadness' and 'Reservation Girl' were my highlights. Serge, Dave, Kirk, Adam and Dave take a bow.

I'd say half the audience were there to see Hornby and get a few books signed. At the end of the show they knew that they had seen something special. As an aesthetic aside, it was good to see some nice looking girls in the crowd, they helped counteract the guy (formally known as 'wally') who looks like Dr Ziodberg!

Bob Mills (Leyton Orient) and David Baddeil (Chelsea) were seen lurking in the dark.

[Thanks to MustyMC for the comment - yes check out Amanda Coplans' excellent photos of the gig]

Visit Marah-usa.com
Read about the 10 songs Nick Hornby can't live without at Rocksbackpages

Hornby vs Marah

Famous Celebrity Gooner, author Nick Hornby will be joining Marah again, this time it's at Dingwalls, Camden, London on April 6th. Should be a great gig. The boys are touring their latest album, If You Didn’t Laugh, You’d Cry, from which comes Demon Of White Sadness [Download mp3]

Click here to read the piece Nick wrote about his love for the band.

www.marah-usa.com

Now Playing...

I've replaced the Singingfool Jukebox with something simpler - see sidebar.
The current playlist includes KEXP Radio session tracks from Sondre Lerche, Marah and Ben Lee.

[Not tested in anything other than IE - so if it doesn't work... tough titties!]

Another Year Over - Part 1

As December draws to a snowy close, TV and Newspapers reflect back on the highlights and lowlights of the last 12 months. I'm just sticking to my personal highlights and peccadilloes. Lowlights? There are too many to rant about. Ranting is for other bloggers.

As I'm writing this I'm finding that my choices may be skewed towards the latter months of this year due to an aging brain. Well, memory permitting, here are my some of my favourite things that helped recharge my batteries in 2005...

Music

Albums

Cold Roses - Ryan Adams & The Cardinals

My #1 pick of the year. This double CD was the first of three new albums that Ryan released in 2005. I prefer it to Jacksonville City Nights and 29. His standard of songwriting and performance on Cold Roses is above anything I've heard for a long time.

and in no particular order...

Demon Days - Gorillaz
Damon Albarn's cartoon pals smart indie/trip-hop/dance fusion.
If You'd Didn't Laugh, You'd Cry - Marah
Yet another strong album from the best band nobody knows.
As Is Now - Paul Weller
Nice to see the Modfather wake up and produce something with a bit of life.
EP - The Fiery Furnaces
Art pop at it's best.
Born To Run 30th Anniversary Edition - Bruce Springsteen
A great re-issue of possibly the best album of all time.
From Croydon To Cuba - Kirsty MacColl
A great 3CD anthology/monument to Kirsty's songwriting and beautiful voice.

Songs

I Predict A Riot - The Kaiser Chiefs
The most infectious, makes you want to leap about, song of the year.
Reno - Bruce Springsteen
The song 'banned' by Starbucks. A moving, graphic tale of a man's visit to a prostitute whilst he thinks about his lost love. Stunning.
Hey Man (Now You're Really Living) - Eels
One of those songs you can't get out of your head. From E's good but sprawling Blinking Lights and Other Revelations album.
Tin Sings Bones - Bill Nelson
A great catchy pop tune with super noodly guitar work. From the limited edition (sold out) album Orpheus In Ultraland.

Gigs


Bruce Springsteen @ Philadelphia and Atlantic City
I was lucky enough to see Bruce play 7 times on this solo tour. Were these best of those shows? Maybe not, but to hear extreme rarities Used Cars, Drive All Night, Santa Ana and Thundercrack played was, for me at any rate, a thrilling experience.
Wilco @ Hammersmith Apollo
Jeff Tweedy and the troops proved to me that their last two albums are better than I thought they were.
The Saw Doctors @ Shepherds Bush Empire
Joyus, life-affirming entertainment.
Chas and Dave @ The 100 Club
As good as I hoped they would be. It's great they are now getting the recognition they deserve.
The Wedding Present @ The Forum
I really enjoyed this, probably more than old Weddoes fans who wanted to hear more of their older material.
Marah @ The Barfly
An 'acoustic' show with just Dave, Serge and Kirk. Whilst still a loud and rocking performance, not having drums and an extra guitarist in the mix highlighted the musical and lyrical subtleties of their songs.
The Breeders @ Blackheath Halls
Reformed to celebrate an anniversary of 4AD records, they really seemed to enjoy themselves. A great focused show and much better than the last time I saw them when it seemed like they were on another planet.

Sport


England Cricket Team - Ashes Cricket victory over Australia
A titanic battle. We finally beat the Aussies! Nuff said.
Wigan Athletic - English Football Premiership
Newly promoted this year, their attitude and performance has been a breath of fresh air to a Chelski dominated league.
Tottenham Hostpur - English Football Premiership
Amazingly Spurs are still 4th as I type, despite playing worse than last year! IF they can get Ledley King fit again soon then they have got a good chance of qualifying for Europe.