Marah :: Life Is A Problem

Marah—one of the more sincere, rowdy and exciting roots-rock bands of the past 15 or so years—released their 10th album last month, Life Is A Problem. Usually comprised of brothers Serge and Dave Beilanko, it's the younger Dave alone that leads the band's ragged old-time, Replacements-esque charge here. And as always, he proves to be up to the task, producing perhaps the band's best effort since 2005's If You Didn't Laugh, You'd Cry.

Marah - "Within The Spirit Sagging" (from Life Is A Problem)

10 Most Underappreciated Songs of the Decade

1.) Josh Ritter - "Thin Blue Flame" (from The Animal Years)

Nearly 10 minutes in length, Ritter's masterpiece is a "Stairway to Heaven"-caliber achievement with Jimmy Page's guitar licks exchanged for 700-plus words of poetry. Traversing a war-torn world and a host of Shakespearean, Biblical, and science-oriented images, Ritter finds solace in a ray of hope: "So I stopped looking for royal cities in the air / Only a full house gonna have a prayer."

2.) The Walkmen - "Everyone Who Pretended To Like Me is Gone" (from Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone)

With Hamiltoin Leithauser's Thom Yorke-like howls and the thick reverberations of pounding drums, organ and guitars, the Walkmen lay their claim on the world of popular music with their first post-Jonathan Fire*Eater album: mature, esoteric, and unpredictable.

3.) M. Ward - "Vincent O'Brien" (from Transfiguration Of Vincent)

It's hard to choose from M. Ward's catalogue: there's not one false step. However, this slow rollicking build-up of muted guitars, drums, and a riffing piano is one of the artist's most immediately convincing, due largely to its poetic simplicity: "He only sings when he's sad / And he's sad all the time / So he sings the whole night through / Yeah, he sings in the daytime too."

4.) Marah - "Round Eye Blues" (from Kids in Philly)

A pre-9/11 war song that escapes for moments into the imagery of a hard working James Brown and Little Richard and the rhythm of "Proud Mary" and "Sittin' On The Dock of the Bay." The Bielanko brothers have never sounded so soulful and harnessed their love of Springsteen so sincerely.

5.) Peter & The Wolf - "Safe Travels" (from Lightness)
Set by a chorus of sighing voices and the light-hearted up-stroke of an acoustic guitar, the song's tone is an otherworldly one—simultaneously eery and soothing. With the addition of Red Hunter's calm near-spoken word voice, it's also impossible to forget.

6.) Exploding Hearts - "Sleeping Aides and Razorblades" (from Guitar Romantic)
Power-pop makes its triumphant and convincing return with the debut from this tragically short-lived Portland quartet. Here, the band delivers one of the all-time great break-up songs: "Well, I felt so bad when I heard that song / You know it's been such a long long time / It's a little offbeat and it ain't in tune / You know, it's just like this heart of mine."

7.) Tangiers - "I Wanna Go Out" (from Never Bring You Pleasure)

From the furiously fast thumping of drums to the tightly delivered power chords and slurred vocals, everything about this Tangiers song screams "release!" Whether you're carving down a wave or a concrete mountain, speeding down the coast or hurriedly throwing back a few, this is the song you'll want playing.

8.) El Ten Eleven - "My Only Swerving" (from El Ten Eleven)

For an entirely instrumental duo, Los Angeles's El Ten Eleven is remarkably expressive. Never more so than this cinematic blend of tremolo-infused riffs, popping double-bass notes, synthesized arpeggios, and orchestrated crash of cymbals.

9.) The Fruit Bats - "When You Love Somebody" (from Mouthfuls)

With the constant thud of a bass drum and smile-inducing hand claps (think The Beatles' "Two of Us"), this organ-built 60s-tinged pop song is treachorously addictive and often prone to repeated listening. If there's one reason to start listening to the Fruits Bats, it's this.

10.) Martha Wainwright - "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole" (from Martha Wainwright)
This song may be directed towards Wainwright's neglectful father—folk singer Loudon Wainwright III— but this passionate stranglehold has the strength to kick more than one ass. And ass-kicking has never sounded so righteous and brutally poetic: "I will not pretend / I will not put on a smile / I will not say I'm all right for you / When all I wanted was to be good / To do everything in truth."

Live: Marah at Iota

Review via Washingtonian:

Marah ended its acoustic tour Friday night with a sold-out show at Iota. It was a small setting for a band that has been routinely heralded by novelist Nick Hornby, performed onstage with Bruce Springsteen, and released almost ten albums. But for a night of intimate drunkenness and sloppy rock and roll, it was just the right fit.

The four-piece band came on around 10 and kicked off a 2½-hour set that was anything but acoustic. Led by singer/guitarist Dave Bielanko, who looked like his usual disheveled self dressed in a mechanic’s jumpsuit and his requisite mad-bomber hat, the band performed about 25 songs ranging from restrained ballads (“Formula, Cola, Dollar Draft”) to foot-stomping barn burners (“My Heart Is the Bums on the Streets”).

The high-energy and chain-smoking Bielanko may be the hardest-working man in rock and roll. When he wasn’t dripping sweat over his furiously picked electric banjo or taking celebratory shots of Patrón tequila with his bandmates, he was entertaining the audience with stories about searching for country ham and procuring a goat. Even when Bielanko was busy tuning his guitar, he insisted that keyboardist Christine Smith entertain the audience, which she did with a couple of covers including the theme from Rocky.

Missing was founding member Serge Bielanko, who’s spending time with his newborn daughter, but his absence wasn’t nearly as detrimental as it could’ve been. The steady and occasionally virtuosic play of bassist Johnny Pisano, drummer Martin Lynds, and keyboardist Smith left room for the remaining Bielanko brother to win over the audience with his freewheeling charisma on songs such as “Round-Eye Blues,” “Walt Whitman Bridge,” and the Skip James cover and ode to President Obama, “He’s a Mighty Good Leader.” But that was all in the first three-quarters of the show.

Two hours in, it was hard to tell who was more intoxicated: Bielanko, who fell backward onto his guitars, or members of the audience who were incessantly yelling unintelligible and nonsensical one-liners. But it didn’t matter. We’d already heard plenty.

Take a taste:

Marah - "Walt Whitman Bridge" (mp3)

Buy: Amazon, Emusic, iTunes