Life Is A Problem

Marah’s Dave Bielanko goes without brother Serge on 2010’s Life Is A Problem. Longtime band member Christine Smith helps fill the void with some fantastic harmonies, production and writing efforts that bring things into the proper balance. Marah have always been an Americana street band with an eye on punk and a heart on Springsteen. Like Jesse Malin, who also conjures up a post-Replacements world where the battered and beaten sing to those lost on the way, Bielanko conjures up the rock ‘n’ roll spirit on tunes such as “High Water,” where his tattered voice kicks one in the guts, the title track, where things chug with an inevitability, and on “Within The Spirit Sagging,” where he and Smith do their best country harmonizing. Recorded in an old farmhouse in Pennsylvania, the album has a raw quality that keeps the songs honest and gives the instruments a beautiful rusty glow. “Together Not Together” buckles with the weight of living. “Bright Morning Stars” kicks up the tempo for a celebration that doesn’t sound quite sober. The bonus track, “Colfax Avenue,” blisters with a raucous live sound. The harmonica veers off the road and the band chases it.