Its the end of the year 2000, I get 'Uncut Magazine' which is pretty poor as a magazine, but they always have a great cd on the cover with tracks from new releases and reissues

A few times I've heard songs from these cd's, thought they were great and bought the original album - only to find that the one song is the best on the album and totally unrepresentative of their sound

There's a band from Philadelphia called Marah I've never heard of on it and the song 'Round Eye Blues' sticks in my head like a knife

I buy the album and I'm not disappointed (There's three out there now, buy them all). This is the true essence of rock 'n roll, literate, expressive, emotional music. This is an observant band singing about reality. This is my new favourite band.

I get to see them by pure good luck when I happen to be in Philadelphia where they've been hit by the same sort of luck the Ramones got. Just when their new album is coming out (Complete with backing vocals by Bruce Springsteen - think what you want about him, but I last heard him sing backing vocals on the Dictators Bloodbrothers album, he's a fan of Suicide, and apparently he wrote Hungry Heart after seeing the Ramones so he's eternally cool in my book) the Drummer gets sick.

Unperturbed, they two real life brothers - singing David and strumming Serge Bielanko play the gig with some friends helping out, mostly acoustic, and it's a revelation

A few months later and I see them play in Edinburgh and its a revelation of a different sort, the audience is small, but they guitars are in the amps and they play with so much energy and passion people are pulling the posters off the walls on the way out, complete strangers are huddled together in the streets talking about the gig.

This is the last Rock 'n Roll band.

I get a few cd's of them playing live (Thanks again Joe, Anna) and a Ramones cover pops up every now and then. Sonically, usually they are nothing like the Ramones, but they bring something of their own to the songs and they sing them like they love them

So I thought, fuck it, I'll drop them a line and see if they mind me putting some mp3's up on the site, maybe they'd like to say a few words

And this is what Serge Ramone said

In the summer of my 17th year I went to see Aerosmith at the Philadelphia Spectrum. Guns'n'Roses were opening. It was, to say the least, an event for me. Out in the parking lot before the show, my younger brother and I drank beer and smoked pot with our older friends. WALK THIS WAY oozed out of a thousand different car stereos. I recall mullets on many men's heads. And tattoos of Bart Simpson and the Rolling Stones tongue on their calfs and arms. To me: this was the world of rock'n'roll and I was quite excited to be in it. Later, on the way home that night, I felt as if I might wanna remain rock'n'roll forever if I could. Tie some bandanas around a mic stand, grow my hair all long, try blue crystal meth. It seemed a good life to live.

The next night, my brother and I went with a friend to Trenton City Gardens in New Jersey. We were to see a band I'd heard of, but didn't really know much about. They were called The Ramones. Again, we smoked good pot and drank some warm cans of beer, the windows down in the car as we sat in the parking lot and watched the steady river of punks, rockers, and skinheads worm their way into the club. It was a scary place to be....more dangerous than the Aerosmith parking lot. There was an air of possibility....as in the possibility of having a vampire bite into my neck or a skinhead whip my face to a pulp with a chain. But, we were a little high, so went in. As I waited in the line with all the people I heard a voice from behind me and people were struggling to shift themselves to let somebody through. "Excooze me," It was a big city voice. "Excooze me, pweese." I managed to turn my body to the left, get out of the way, and begin to turn around when I was met with the mad rushing waft of hot pizza. And a giant insect. A sort of lanky preying mantis/ housefly with filthy black armour skin was coming up behind me, and was taller than nearly any man I had ever seen in person. AND, he was balancing a tower of no less than 9 white pizza boxes in his arms. I looked at him in fascinated terror. "EXCOOZE ME, PWEEZE," he said again, without any force or impatience. I was so stoned I did not know if this was actually happening or not, but something told me it was and that this guy, this huge insect, was a somebody......he just appeared too tall, too cool not to be. Anyway, people gawked at him and he passed.

I got into the club and later after the Dickies played a frantic set, the lights faded to black once again and out walked four guys in leather jackets and blue jeans. They positioned themselves under the red and blue and yellow lights over the lip of the stage. It was then, a split second before I witnessed what none of us will ever be lucky enough to witness again, it was then that I noticed that the skyscraper insect man who had gently guided 9 pizzas through a crowd of punks and freaks at the door.......was in fact.......the one they called Joey . We all roared. We all were excited. None of us felt too safe, but all of us was giddy as hell when bugman went to the mic and the shout went out

"1-2-3-4!!!!"

That night on the way home I decided that Aerosmith and Guns'n'Roses could just fuck off. I had found my rock'n'roll life. In Trenton of all places.

Thanks guys.....seriously.

Serge Bielanko. Marah.