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April 14 - 21, 2000

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*** Marah

KIDS IN PHILLY

(E-Squared/Artemis)

One night two years ago in Nashville eight people came to see Marah play in the basement of a pizza joint, and only four of them had the capacity to sign the young band from Philadelphia to their label. The clever, self-produced debut that Marah were selling from the stage, Let's Cut the Crap and Hook Up Later On Tonight, barely resembled the chaos they manifested live, songs tumbling over loud guitars, blunt banjo chords, steel-guitar phrases sprawling beneath the mess. But nobody left early.

Kids in Philly, their second release (still self-produced, on Steve Earle's E-Squared label), marries that beautiful mess to sharply drawn songs, casually shifting among the varied textures of the band's South Philly neighborhood. Hardly country, but certainly gifted songwriters, brothers David and Serge Bielanko lead a quartet-plus whose frame of reference is East Coast: Springsteen, Mummers, Houserockers, etc. Because both brothers have become compelling performers and Marah owe a debt to classic rock, they'll be compared to the Black Crowes. But there is less artifice here (a lot less), and Kids in Philly is not an homage to the past but a knowing adaptation of some of its best parts. And because they're still kids (well, mid 20s), Marah's best parts rock with rare and unbridled joy.

--Grant Alden
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