Shark Tape celebrate new album 'Marathon' at MilkBoy Philly

Stephen Lorek, lead singer of Philadelphia rock trio Shark Tape, is holding the band's debut album, Marathon, in his hands.

Finally.

"From this point on, I'm making a record every year," says the songwriter, bassist, and Fishtown resident. "No more lulls."

As Lorek sings on the fourth song of the propulsive, eminently catchy Marathon, it's been a "Long Time Coming." The band, which also includes guitarist Niles Weiss and drummer Dylan Mulcahy, celebrates the release of Marathon at MilkBoy Philly on Saturday.

Shark Tape began when Lorek, 27, was growing up in Bethesda, Md. He says he went straight from playing with Legos to writing songs with his cousin on a 4-track recorder when he was 11. He played in garage-rock and reggae bands with Mulcahy in high school. While on a Grateful Dead jam jag at St. Joseph's University - where he met Weiss - a friendship with the son of Phil Lesh led to a summer job as one of the opening acts on the Dead bassist's Phil Lesh & Friends tour.

That brush with rock stardom was brief, however. Back at St. Joe's, he heard the Replacements' song "Alex Chilton," which pulled him back from psychedelia to post-punk and power-pop rock. "Niles called me up and said, 'You have to hear this song,' " Lorek remembers. "From there, I got into the Clash, the Pixies, Sonic Youth, Beat Happening."

After college, Lorek studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute. That didn't lead to dramatic work, but it taught him how to apply method acting to channel emotion while playing music. A band called Bojibian, which also featured Weiss and Mulcahy, came and went. And an early Shark Tape gig in a Manayunk backyard in 2012 was going so poorly, as far as Lorek was concerned, that it might have turned out to be the band's last.

But one guy in the audience was paying attention. That turned out to be WXPN DJ and Shark Tape superfan Dan Reed. Soon "Eyes on You" was in rotation on the adult-alternative station.

But it hasn't been a quick and easy route from there to Marathon, Lorek says. He teaches guitar and drives a Lincoln town car for a chauffeur service, often transporting Sixers around town. "They're really tall, wear headphones, and they want to go to McDonald's a lot," he says. "And they tip really well." After various delays, the trio recorded the tight, sharp-edged Marathon with War on Drugs associate Jeff Zeigler in January. Then Weiss flew off to France to open a cafe with his girlfriend, and the band got set to break up.

Long story short, Weiss is now back in Philadelphia, and Shark Tape is back in business. This summer, they played a series of gigs backing up former Rave-Ups leader Jimmer Podrasky, and they hope to record an album with the Pittsburgh native, whom they'll back up at the Grape Room in Manayunk on Dec. 5. And they're ready to go full steam ahead with Marathon.

"I don't know if I'll know what these songs are about for a really long time," he says, looking down at the disc. "Just at a glance, I see a lot of 'runs': 'Marathon,' 'River Runs Deep,' 'Runway.' Man wants to gain control of his environment. I don't think anyone in this band has ever felt like that in his life. Truly had a grounded situation. It's about the frustration of trying to get there.

"I really hope this is the next chapter for us," Lorek goes on. "Because we are in it. There's no turning back now. From now on, I want to make a record every year. We've learned one thing: No matter what happens in your life, don't ever stop making records, don't stop showing up to rehearsal. Play music: That's it!"