If it’s true that the music industry can be messy, Marah -- “the best rock band you’ve never heard,” as the press oft describes them -- is living proof. The Philly-bred, brothers-led band with a scruffy, soulful, salt-of-the-earth sound has been climbing and then slipping down the ladder to international success since the late ‘90s. Along the way, they’ve acquired devoted fans in high places, like Bruce Springsteen (who recorded a song with them on their 2002 album Float Away With The Friday Night Gods), Steve Earle (who signed them to his Artemis Records in 2000), horror writer Stephen King, and Nick “High Fidelity” Hornby, who wrote a gushing Op-Ed piece on them in the NY Times two years back. But still, Marah has yet to make it big. That is, beyond South Philly, the blue-collar Italian suburb where brothers Serge and Dave Bielanko are considered the best thing since Sinatra. 

Here, Serge and Dave discuss what they think are the best things about their old stomping grounds of South Philly. Take it all with a grain of salt from the Soft Pretzel Factory:  

Anthony’s Italian Coffee House
We have one certain table we always sit at, and we sit for hours, drinking coffee, pontificating…We’ve finished a lot of songs there. It’s a good place to finish songs. And, it’s in the Italian market, one of the coolest open-air markets on the East Coast. There’s a lot of soul there. 

South Philly Taproom
They host our after-parties when we play shows in Philly. It’s close to where we rehearse, and they have a bunch of Marah on the jukebox.  It’s a really cool place with amazing food. They put it in a neighborhood that has no business having a nice bar and restaurant. The area’s really rundown, but it’s cool. It’s a secret part of town – you’re not gonna see any tourists going there.

Wawa
It’s like 7-11, but cooler. It’s a 24-hour grocery store with a sandwich thing. They have them in D.C. too – but it must be a Philly business because they stretch within a 100-mile radius of the city.

Suit Corner
It’s incredible. Seriously. You can buy a suit there for like $99 -- and it comes with a big hat. And they have alligator shoes too. The suits are all bright blue and orange – like a florescent orange that would be good for deer hunting. There have been times when we’ve gone for nice dinners and have all bought suits there. It’s really tacky, but funny. It’s the last of those stylish nightclubbing shops. Eventually, it’ll be gone.

Soft Pretzel Factory
It’s sort of a new phenomenon, but every night after all the clubs have closed, all the punk-rock kids congregate there, and buy pretzels for 10 cents. They open really early in the morning -- at 4am, the pretzels are just coming out of the oven. It’s something I’ve never indulged in. But if you’re punk-rock or into soft pretzels, you should check it out.

Pier 70
We’re adding a place that doesn’t exist anymore. We used to go catfishing at night here, but they closed it down and won’t let anyone go there anymore because of the nightclub there that collapsed. We wrote a song about it, Cat Fisherman. It was a really cool place.

Go There:

Check out Marah, marah.com; and get their latest album 20,000 Streets Under the Sky, $17, amazon.com

Anthony’s Italian Coffee House, 903 S. 9th Street, (215) 627-2586; anastasiocoffee.com

South Philly Taproom, 1509 Mifflin St., (215) 271-7787; southphiladelphiataproom.com

WAWA, wawa.com

Suit Corner, 300 Market St., (215) 922-4639

Soft Pretzel Factory, 7366 Frankford Avenue; softpretzelfactory.com