by: Leslie Palma
Their name is perhaps a bit misleading.
The average area resident hearing the name 10,000 Maniacs might conjure up images of straitjacket-wrapped figures causing bedlam in a dimly lit hospital ward somewhere. Pay money to see them? Never.
But those who have learned not to judge a book by its cover or a band by its name might be pleasantly surprised to find six well-educated, articulate, concerned young people who all live with their parents and write and perform songs about subjects that matter to them.
They chose the name 10,000 Maniacs because they thought it would attract attention. They were right. Besides performing often in Jamestown, they also play in the Buffalo-Rochester area. For a band, the first important step is to play out of town.
The Maniacs, off stage, are known as Dennis Drew, organ; Natalie Merchant, vocals; John Lombardo, guitar, bass, vocals; Norman Buck, lead guitar; Steven Gustafson, bass, guitar, vocals; and Robert Wachter, drums. They came together almost a year ago and have recently released their first recording, a five-song extended play disc called Human Conflict Number Five.
Jim Foti, the drummer on the album, has since left the band.
If a classification must be applied, the Maniacs would fall into the nebulous category of the new wave-reggae band, but guitarist Lombardo resists that label and said he prefers to call their music "an alternative."
When asked why they chose to break away from more traditional genres, the Maniacs offered varying responses. Buck said he "never liked rock" and was "very easily bored' with most music.
"It's new", Drew offered. "It's like finding a new toy to play with. I like the new stuff mostly because it's new, not because I didn't like the old stuff."
Lombardo, the more outspoken Maniac, is not as kind to rock and roll. He describes the lyrics of most rock and roll songs as "insipid" and added "if I had to play AC/DC and Loverboy (two popular rock bands), I would quit. I would sell my instrument. Our music is an alternative. Our influences aren't the normal groups."
No, their influences are not the usual ones. Lombardo said the Maniacs had "thousands of influences." Like the Psychedelic Furs, the Gang of Four, the Specials and the Selectors. They are careful, when performing material by other bands, to choose "obscure" bands and songs.
Drew and Buck were adamant in their belief that all that is new is not punk.
"In punk it's chic to be ugly," Buck said. "Punk is ugly music for ugly people."
The Maniacs album, while it does not preach, is filled with observations of life, things they see as unjust, absurd and hurtful. The song Tension, is described by Ms. Merchant, who wrote the lyrics, as "vaguely about social security and the predicament of the elderly, trapped within society and within their own bodies."
It is filled with moving images of an old person's pain and loneliness: "Local posts they list your friend/In order/of disappearance/Lawn scattered tins feed birds/ The portion baked for absent guests." The vocals are clear and poignant.
Anthem For Doomed Youth, written entirely by Lombardo, is a song that begs for an end to violence and war. "Don't tell me we're not prepared/ I've seen today's marine/ He's 18 and he's eager/And he can be quite mean," and "I think It's wrong to conscript our youth/ Against their wiIl/ When plenty of our citizenry/ Really like to kill."
"Everyone in our band is genuinely concerned with the human condition," Lombardo said. "There's a whole generation of young people who don't care about larger things." The Maniacs hope through their music to make that generation care.
Band members are proud of their album and they should be. Although it was recorded by students at Fredonia State College who were almost as green as the band members, it sounds, as Lombardo said his father described it, "like a real album."
The Maniacs said they knew nothing about recording. After trucking all their equipment to the studio, they discovered they didn't need most of it. Amplification wasn't necessary since all the sounds are electronically mixed and they didn't need the monitors because they didn't get to hear themselves until after they finished the track.
"It wasn't a very natural situation at first," Lombardo said. Gustafson said the experience was "surreal."
While the Maniacs will spend most of this month "hustling the album" - it will be available in several locations Jamestown, Buffalo and Rochester - they will continue perform and will also return to the studio to record with Gina Tampio, one of the students who made the tape from which the album was pressed.
While aiming for a "minimalist approach", the band hopes, they will be able to achieve a fuller sound on their next album. Lombardo said they would like to add more complexity to the songs.
The Maniacs hope bigger things are in their future Gustafson said, "We haven't written our best song yet. Our next album will be even better."
"Someone out there from a record company, not a big one but an independent, they've got to pick it up," Lombardo said. "They sign groups every day."
"We want to prove to ourselves and anyone who's interested that we write good songs, we can perform and that there people who are interested in our music," Drew said. "I think it's a good record. Now our next step is to go and do it again."
For a group described by one bind member as "Swedish kids from Jamestown," this reporter has nothing but good wishes.