If you enjoy great rock and roll, Marah plays at Schuba's tomorrow (2/17) at 9 p.m. The Chicago Reader preview has more details: "The scruffy, swaggering brothers have set themselves the task of surveying the frontier between rural myth and urban reality …."

The blind guys were slow getting in the front cab, and the drivers behind began to honk to give the hesitant seeing-eye dog some encouragement. Two paws in and two paws out, the golden retriever wasn't sure about taking a ride with Philadelphia's medallioned finest. You see, the dog hadn't been there a few minutes earlier when the taxi line's hustler was trying to work one of the guys. The hustler had been pitching the line under his breath, half-mutter like an outlawed scalper: "You need a cab? Yellow taxi, right over there, other side of the street, you see it?" The businessman in front of us made the good point that, no, one couldn't see the cab from where we were, and the hustler wound around the line, ending up standing next to the first blind guy who wasn't even in line at all. The hustler says to the guy, red-tipped cane and all, "You see the cab over there?"

Fortunautely, the dog, the other blind guy and a sighted friend of theirs showed up soon, and they were trying to persuade the dog when we got directed to a cab in back of the other lane. My brother Rob took our bags and headed back to campus; I'd call it brotherly love but Philadelphia is now "the city that loves you back." Consider the sisters appeased. Part way into his junior year, Rob was a quick walk away in a U. Penn high-rise. He had met us there at the 30th Street Station, Philadelphia's limestone paperweight on the west side and currently sponsored by iPod. The concourse had Apple's aqua banners draped down over the walls, covering most of the way up and down from the 100-foot ceiling. Who needs ornate when you've got dancing shadows and cash? Poor Richard wouldn't have done it, but you bet Ben Franklin would've.

To be continued Monday….

Added 11/3/03: … or someday. It's Monday now and things aren't working out with what I want to say here. I'm having trouble stringing together thoughts of more than a sentence, here or in my head. I'm realizing I don't have much to say to anyone, and they don't have much to say to me. The information candy seems to be running the asylum right now — ain't that seasonal — and that's no good. I'll get around to whatever I was trying to say here eventually.

A South Philly Halloween Night to Remember. All aboard for night train!

If they say that you're stayin' / You're probably on your way in or out / As you move up the ladder / It really doesn't matter somehow / Cause the need for a brand new face / Ain't never been a matter of taste / That's why there's no satisfaction / In the comin' attractions, these days.

So don't cry to your lover / Underneath the covers at night. / It's the same situation / Only re-sensationalized.

Download/lyrics here.

The Bielankos are back at it. Following last year's erosion, the brothers of Marah have left their label and are starting from scratch. New demos are available online.

A while back I ripped the samples from Marah's new album. I think those comments were overly harsh, so I should expand what I heard yesterday, when Marah began streaming the whole album on the Web.

So, just to put them over there, here are some of the thoughts I e-mailed to a friend last night. (Why is this post of interest to any non-Marah fans? No clue. But if you know them, send me your thoughts on the new album.)

The album is simply overproduced. There's barely a moment of silence or sparse instrumentation on the record. Some great songs get lost in the mixes, as astounding as some of these mixes may be. Sometimes the balls to the wall approach to the mixing board pays off big; sometimes Smashmouth pops too quickly to mind.

Marah's definitely aiming for a more pop-sound; I think they could have stuck close to their rock roots and still accomplished this goal. While some of the openings and mid-tros in the songs are amazingly creatively, some of the guts are pure Smashmouth, which to me is laziness at the mixing board. You just bring the guitar levels all the way up, whether the guitars are interesting or not. The unfortunate result: No stand-out, stick-in-your-head riffs. There's the basis of some good ones, but they get lost in the blander guitars.

There aren't many standout songs. The highlights for me: "Float Away" is a killer opening song and an obvious single. Plus it's been in my head all day. Crying on an Airplane is also terrific. Slow, airy, well-written. More stuff from the album should be like this.

I guess I've listened three times all the way through so far, trying to figure out what the brothers are trying to do here. It's obvious they're trying to go rock-pop and win big on MTV, but, knowing how deep they are, you gotta ask: Why? We know they can comprehend the darkness on the edge of town and write about it. I mean, these are the guys who wrote Round Eye Blues.

The only reason I can guess for the tremendous shift is that they're trying to go out into the street, rope up a bunch of people, and then eventually bring them back in with some rock and roll. Knowing what we know, this album seems like a ploy for the masses. Then, on the next record, they can hit a middle ground — an upscale rock and roll sound that both appreciates silence and has a wide audience.

Maybe that's just me being hopeful. But I think the "Bielankos have gone pop" explanation is just too easy, especially with Adams, Yorn, the Strokes, et cetera catching on.

So how many stars? I'd say two out of four. It has some terrific moments, but they come too few and far between. It definitely seems like a good driving album and has a party sound (albeit a '90s party sound). I don't know how much I'll play it inside. This is not an album that encourages one to listen to the lyrics.

I think it has more possibilities live, when they simply don't have the manpower to do the Smashmouth sound. The lyrics do seem strong, and I think the Bielankos would get bored with bland guitar sound on stage.

All in all, hopefully Marah has gone as close to pop as they want to go.

Congratulations, Marah, you got what you wanted. You said you'd get out of the Philly/Jersey shore circuit and get to play across the pond. You said you'd ditch the banjoes and all the instruments that made you interesting, that made you the "Last Rock and Roll Band." (The title was self-proclaimed, but listeners agreed with you.)

Now, the latest news about you is that you have done exactly what you said you'd do. I've listened to a couple snippets of the new album, which made their way onto the Web today. You've smoothed out your voices, you've turned up those guitars and you sure did use that mixing board. You've made a record that's going to sell and sell and sell. I'll buy one the day it comes out, for the little bit of you that's left in it.

Update two months later: A more fair take.