Philadelphia rock act Marah will hit the road Wednesday (March 10) to road test material from its forthcoming album, "20,000 Streets Under the Sky," due June 29. Produced by frontman Dave Bielanko with assistance from his brother Serge, the follow up to 2002's "Float Away With the Friday Night Gods" will be released through Yep Roc Records and bear the band's own PHIdelity imprint.
"I'm really, really proud of this record," Bielanko tells Billboard.com. "It's very pure. And now that we're in the back end of it, we've got such a momentum. We're really amped up. We've upped the sonic quality that [2000's] 'Kids in Philly' maybe lacked. But we wanted the same sort of approach. You know, us, in our place, chasing our vision."
"I didn't want any outside influence at all," says Bielanko. "We knew that we wanted to chase the production that I love, which is the Ramones, Phil Spector, Motown and the Clash. People who have seen us put this thing together think we're nuts. Walk in and I'm laying on my belly playing xylophone. But it works for us."
Mostly recorded on a primitive, eight-track machine in the band's rehearsal space with multi-instrumentalist Kirk "The Barber" Henderson, Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster and lap steel player Mike "Slo-Mo" Brenner, the album will feature cuts such as "Freedom Park" and "Sure Thing."
But the disc is still a work-in-progress. "We're still working on it," Bielanko chuckles. "Yep Roc is calling everyday for this thing, so we've got to hand it over soon. We just did one song last week in Eric Ambel's studio called 'Pigeon Heart' which came up late in the game. It's our banjo song. Now we're considering it to be the leadoff track."
"There's some of the most Spector-ish rock and roll production we've ever done," Bielanko explains. "But some of it is some of the most stripped-down narrative stuff. There are a lot of characters and stories on this record." Named for a series of 1930s Patrick Hamilton novellas, the Marah principal says "20,000 Streets Under the Sky" is "all about the underbelly of street life."
Regarding PHIdelity, Bielanko says, "We wanted to have our own imprint. It's a feeling of part ownership and integrity that we felt we needed because we do so much of our music in house. That was the one thing that we took away when we left Artemis."
Bielanko calls that exit "the right thing for us to do. It's weird. I would have felt that by leaving the label there would be bad blood, but it was never like that with them. We just sensed it wasn't working and asked to be released and they were nice enough to let it happen. I respect [label head] Danny Goldberg very much and they gave it a go, but being with Artemis just didn't work for Marah."
In related news, Marah will also reissue an expanded and remastered version of its out-of-print debut, "Let's Cut the Crap and Hook Up Later on Tonight," later this year via PHIdelity/Yep Roc. The disc will include six bonus tracks and new artwork.
"I'm really, really proud of this record," Bielanko tells Billboard.com. "It's very pure. And now that we're in the back end of it, we've got such a momentum. We're really amped up. We've upped the sonic quality that [2000's] 'Kids in Philly' maybe lacked. But we wanted the same sort of approach. You know, us, in our place, chasing our vision."
"I didn't want any outside influence at all," says Bielanko. "We knew that we wanted to chase the production that I love, which is the Ramones, Phil Spector, Motown and the Clash. People who have seen us put this thing together think we're nuts. Walk in and I'm laying on my belly playing xylophone. But it works for us."
Mostly recorded on a primitive, eight-track machine in the band's rehearsal space with multi-instrumentalist Kirk "The Barber" Henderson, Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster and lap steel player Mike "Slo-Mo" Brenner, the album will feature cuts such as "Freedom Park" and "Sure Thing."
But the disc is still a work-in-progress. "We're still working on it," Bielanko chuckles. "Yep Roc is calling everyday for this thing, so we've got to hand it over soon. We just did one song last week in Eric Ambel's studio called 'Pigeon Heart' which came up late in the game. It's our banjo song. Now we're considering it to be the leadoff track."
"There's some of the most Spector-ish rock and roll production we've ever done," Bielanko explains. "But some of it is some of the most stripped-down narrative stuff. There are a lot of characters and stories on this record." Named for a series of 1930s Patrick Hamilton novellas, the Marah principal says "20,000 Streets Under the Sky" is "all about the underbelly of street life."
Regarding PHIdelity, Bielanko says, "We wanted to have our own imprint. It's a feeling of part ownership and integrity that we felt we needed because we do so much of our music in house. That was the one thing that we took away when we left Artemis."
Bielanko calls that exit "the right thing for us to do. It's weird. I would have felt that by leaving the label there would be bad blood, but it was never like that with them. We just sensed it wasn't working and asked to be released and they were nice enough to let it happen. I respect [label head] Danny Goldberg very much and they gave it a go, but being with Artemis just didn't work for Marah."
In related news, Marah will also reissue an expanded and remastered version of its out-of-print debut, "Let's Cut the Crap and Hook Up Later on Tonight," later this year via PHIdelity/Yep Roc. The disc will include six bonus tracks and new artwork.
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