Marah made their last record Float Away With the Friday Night Gods, in Europe with a big-name producer on the record company dime. 20,000 Streets Under the Sky, the Philly foursome's fourth LP, was paid for and recorded by Marah themselves back in the City of Brotherly Love. "This record was made by poor people, driving around with no gas, no money, and an engineer who was living in the studio," says Marah frontman Dave Bielanko.

Bielanko sees the new album, due June 29th, as a return to the sounds of 2000's Kids in Philly. He says the new set is as natural a reaction to Friday Night Gods as that record was to Philly.

"We were nothing but a product of our situation," he says. "Kids in Philly was lauded by critics and we started to be stigmatized as a Steve Earle band [the record was released on his E-Squared label] and we got afraid, panicked and acted irrational. Our fans are militantly into what they think we should do and they feel every move we make. People want what they want out of you because they're passionate but it's easy to piss them off. From our end of the equation it made perfect sense to go and make this overblown rock reaction."

Marah's latest amalgam of soul, doo wop and rock began with the song "Feather Boa," an empathetic ode to a destitute transvestite. "'Feather Boa,' albeit abrasive, is really about seeing yourself in the next guy," Bielanko says. "[It's] very much a reaction to the feeling of walking down the street when any moment someone could put you out of business. [Bielanko's brother, guitarist] Serge played it for me on his cell phone. I heard it and thought it was the perfect song. It was like, 'Here's what we're going to do for this album.'"

The brothers Bielanko recently created their own PHIdelity Records label and will reissue the group's 1998 debut Let's Cut the Crap and Hook Up Later on Tonight, with six bonus tracks later this year.

Marah tour dates:

6/2: Brooklyn, NY, Southpaw
6/3: Hoboken, NJ, Maxwell's
6/5: Cambridge, MA, TT The Bear's
6/7: Pittsburgh, Club Cafe
6/9: Indianapolis, Birdy's
6/12: Chicago, Schubas